Simon Says — Olympiad Highlights

10/1/2018 – In this Simon Says, Simon takes a look at the most interesting games from the Olympiad so far. Simon is live this week, so tune in at 18:00 CEST (16:00 UT / Noon EDT) for free access to this popular ChessBase show, or try a Basic ChessBase account for on-demand replay. You can register a free 90-day account to watch.

October 2018 FIDE Ratings

10/1/2018 – All eyes are on Batumi and the Chess Olympiad which is sure to radically shake up the top rating lists, but that will only happen in November. October ratings are therefore a bit less useful as a snapshot in time than other monthly updates from FIDE. Nevertheless, we take a brief look at what's new and notable. The main events of the month, driving rating changes were the Russian Championships (Open and Women) and the World Junior Championships (Open and Girls) | Photos: Eteri Kublashvili / Russian Chess Federation

Batumi Olympiad Round 6: Poland, Azerbaijan lead in open and USA, Armenia in the women's

10/1/2018 – Watch Round 7 LIVE! After six rounds we are still trying to find a sole leader in the open section. We now have Poland and Azerbaijan, both the teams on 12.0/12 facing off against each other. The Polish team beat Ukraine, while Azerbaijan were just too strong for Czech Republic. In the women's section, USA maintained its lead but were joined by Armenia who got the better of Russia. In this report you will find analysis of the key encounters and also a lot of videos and excellent pictures.

Chess in a wine cellar

10/1/2018 – Playing a chess tournament in an almost mystical wine cellar. Impossible you say? Not quite: in the wine village of Kaltern in South Tyrol an unusual tournament will be played next month for the third time. Appealing ambience and of course wine tasting included. A brief preview.

Serbian delegate suspended after he "sold his vote to himself"

9/30/2018 – The FIDE Ethics Commission ruled this afternoon that the Serbian Chess Federation President is guilty of selling his vote as a delegate to the FIDE Congress. However, there was "absence of sufficient proof" linking the money to the Dvorkovich campaign. The case was seen as an important prerequisite to the October 3rd election at the General Assembly. Had Dvokovich been found guilty, he could have been suspended from the race, with no time to appeal to the Court of Arbitration and Sport (CAS) in Lausanne, Switzerland. | Pictured: Ethics Commission chair Francois Strydom (left) and member Ion-Serban Dobronauteanu at a hearing on September 28th | Photo: Niklesh Jain

Batumi Olympiad Round 5: Chinese men stunned, USA women are sole leaders

9/30/2018 – We have a sole leader in the women's section of the Batumi Olympiad 2018. Team USA has won all of their five matches and are now on 10.0/10 match points. They are being followed by six teams with a score of 9.0/10. In the open section, Czech Republic were able to create the upset of the round by beating the super strong Chinese team. Poland beat France and USA was unable to get past Israel. Everything related to this exciting round has been covered in this report which is filled with photos, videos, game analysis and much more. | Pictured: Jiri Stocek | Photo: Amruta Mokal

Strong closed tournaments in a tiny Crete town

9/29/2018 – A new round of Fischer and Capablanca Memorial tournaments took place in Anogia, Crete from September 11th to 19th. Grandmaster DANIEL FERNANDEZ was there and has annotated nine games for your enjoyment. | Photo: Tango7174 (CC BY-SA 4.0) via Wikimedia Commons

Check Czech chess II: Prokeš from Prague

9/29/2018 – Our study expert SIEGFRIED HORNECKER continues his look at the legacy of Czech master František Josef Prokop (pictured). Part 1 presented story and studies from the first half of the 20th century for you to enjoy at your leisure. This month he explains the "Prokeš manoeuvre", and presents a whopping eight annotated studies for your edification.

Olympic highlights: a brilliancy in round 4

9/28/2018 – Round four of the Chess Olympiad in Batumi brought a number of interesting games. Particularly amazing was how the Lithuanian grandmaster Sarunas Sulskis creatively outplayed Baadur Jobava by coming up with one incredible sacrifice after the next. | Photo: Sarunas Sulskis by Andreas Kontokanis from Piraeus, Greece, via Wikimedia Commons

Batumi Olympiad Round 4: Poles beat the mighty Russians!

9/28/2018 – The Olympiad in Batumi witnessed its most exciting round as India took on USA. While this was the biggest encounter, the match turned into something pretty one-sided as Fabiano Caruana beat Vishy Anand and took home the match with the score of 2½:1½. The real action was witnessed in the match between Poland and Russia, as the Poles managed to beat the mighty Russian team. The two decisive wins were scored by Jacek Tomczak, who beat Kramnik, and Kamil Dragun, who got the better of Dmitry Jakovenko. A report filled with pictures, videos and GM analysis.

Stepping stones

9/28/2018 – The constellation knight on f5 and queen on h6 completely paralyses Black's position, but with his defensive knight on e6 (and an extra rook, by the way) he still seems to be hanging on. How would you continue White's attack in the diagram position?

Searching for good governance

9/27/2018 – Less than a week before the FIDE election, the international chess community is focused on who shall govern chess in the next four years. JOHN FOLEY and STEFAN LÖFFLER want to bring the conversation back to the principles, structures and procedures by which chess should be governed. Chess, they suggest, can learn from other sports, and what better way than to bring together international experts on sports governance in a conference "New Governance Standards in Sport: Lessons for Chess" which will take place this Saturday, September 29th, in Batumi during the 43rd Chess Olympiad. Entry is free. | Photo: Frederic Köberl / ChessBase

NEW: ChessBase Magazine 186

9/27/2018 – Firmly established over 2800: Shakhriyar Mamedyarov is Number 3 in the world after a masterful victory in Biel. Read about the Sinquefield Cup and Dortmund too, plus opening training and Simon Williams' video on the Sicilian Wing Gambit.

Batumi Olympiad Round 3: Top seeds sail through!

9/27/2018 – The third round of the Batumi Chess Olympiad 2018 saw no real problems for the top seeds. Almost all of them won their games and it seems as if the real battles between strong teams will begin from the fourth round, the most interesting being India versus USA. In the women's section too, there were some draws, but no loss for the higher seeded team. This report is broken into four parts. The first part gives you the idea of the results of round three, second part are positions and analysis selected by GM Ganguly, third part are photos by Amruta Mokal and fourth is videos by Sagar Shah!

Woodpecker method, part 3: strategy and endgame training

9/27/2018 – One of the best methods to improve your chess is to analyse your own games. ChessBase helps you to create training tasks from your own games which you can then use for your training. With the "Tactical Analysis" this is easy — and quick. Give it a try! | Image: ChessBase
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FIDE election campaign gathers momentum

9/26/2018 – One week from today, FIDE delegates will meet for their General Assembly and elect a new President. (Vote in our reader poll!) With the era of Ilyumzhinov now over, the race has become quite competitive. It remains a three-way contest between Georgios Makropoulos, Nigel Short and Arkady Dvorkovich. The election campaign is in full swing (with gloves off) and we'll be bringing you up to date on the major events of the past weeks as well as late-breaking news, in a series of articles leading up to the big day on October 3rd. Who would you vote for?

Batumi Olympiad Round 2: Improve your chess with the Olympians

9/26/2018 – There was a proposal of marriage before Round 2 at the Olympiad but, of course, it is also a hotbed of high-quality chess. We could produce an entire book with interesting tactical and strategic positions for your improvement., but instead we have given a few positions for you to train and improve your chess. At the same time you get all the updates of the big news of round two, the main one being Uzbek women getting the better of Russia!

The Game of the Week

9/26/2018 – Ideas and strategies in Grandmaster games can be quite instructive. IM Merijn van Delft presents games like these every Wednesday at 20:00 CEST (19:00 UT, 2 pm EDT). On this week's show: Excitement at the Olympiad!

The Power Play Show

9/26/2018 – Wednesday at 19:00 CEST (17:00 UT) Daniel King will go on air on playchess.com. You can watch the episode live for free. All the usual puzzles, games and instruction will be on offer, plus Daniel will be looking at games from the first rounds of the Olympiad. Puzzle and the live video...

Nine Indicators to improve your chess (part 2)

9/26/2018 – In a deeply thought-out and specific proposal, IM JAN PRZEWOZNIK provides a method to train the way we think while playing a chess game. He unveils nine indicators that push us to reflect on our decisions and interprets them in terms of problem-solving cognitive strategies. In Part 1, we presented an introduction and the first three indicators; now we follow with the final six and an explanation of the "Chunking Theory".

India to host its first super tournament in November

9/25/2018 – It's a historic moment for Indian chess. The country will be hosting its first super tournament this November — the Tata Steel Rapid and Blitz. Bigwigs like Aronian, Nakamura, Karjakin, So and Mamedyarov will be seen crossing swords with Anand, Harikrishna, Vidit and others. Prodigies, Nihal Sarin and R Praggnanandhaa will also be seen matching their wits with some of the absolute best in the world. Here's all you need to know about the event.

Cornered

9/25/2018 – Usually, endgames in which a bishop fights against a rook are drawn when no more pawns are left on the board. However, the defender should not go to the corner his bishop covers.

Endgame Magic / Weekly Show special with IM Lawrence Trent

9/25/2018 – Joining Karsten for a look some recent endgames from tournament practice today is English IM Lawrence Trent...and the pair will also look at some recent games in this special Endgame Magic / The Weekly Show combo. This week's show is live at 18:00 CEST (16:00 UT; 12:00 Noon EDT) and FREE to watch on-demand (for a limited time)!

"Oh Capablanca", the song

9/25/2018 – From musician and chess fan Juga, comes a ballad inspired by, and about, chess. "Oh Capablanca" has been making the rounds on social media in recent weeks to high acclaim. Today she has released a new acoustic version in a video recorded at the Marshall Chess Club in New York. Juga appears playing chess with a member of the Marshall and the video includes shots of historic photographs from the club of Capablanca, Marshall, and more. | Photos: Jugamusica.com