Review: The Accelerated London

10/22/2018 – Are you after a solid opening, but one which leaves room for new exciting ideas, adaptable to the style of the player using it? Many amateurs and professionals alike have included surprise weapons in an opening repertoire to be used from time to time, without the fear of running into a computer-generated novelty. The London System can produce sharp attacks on the kingside (especially if Black is caught unawares) and also great positional fights on the queenside. DAVIDE NASTASIO examines the advice of GM Nigel Davies. | Photo: Andreas Kontokanis CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons

Chess featured on HBO's "Real Sports"

10/22/2018 – HBO's "Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel" explores the grassroots movement to reenergize chess in America when a new edition of the show debuts on Tuesday, October 23rd. Soledad O’Brien (pictured) interviews Saint Louis Chess Club founder and patron, Rex Sinquefield who confesses to being a "passionate addict" who has sunk nearly $50 million dollars into the sport.

Isle of Man: Top players struggle

10/22/2018 – The second round of the Chess.com Isle of Man International Tournament left only eighteen players with a perfect score in a field of 167. It has been difficult for the favourites to beat their nominally weaker opponents in the first days of play, although none of them have actually given up full points. On Day 2, Aronian and Vachier-Lagrave won their games on the top boards, while Anand had another tough game that finished on a good note, as he saved an inferior rook endgame against Robert Hess. | Photos: John Saunders / Official site

Shankland scores first in Hoogeveen

10/22/2018 – The 22nd edition of the traditional "Schaaktoernooi" started over the weekend in the Dutch town of Hoogeveen. 82 players participate in the Open where the top seed is the Egyptian Grandmaster Bassem Amin. But there are also two matches on offer, typically featuring rising stars and veteran players. This year Samuel Shankland (USA) meets Peter Svidler (Russia) and Vladimir Fedoseev (Russia) is pitted against Jorden van Foreest (Netherlands). The tournament director is GM Loek van Wely. | Photos: hoogeveenchess.nl

Chess philanthropist Dato Tan has died

10/21/2018 – It is with sadness that we relay news of the passing of Dato' Tan Chin Nam on Oct 21st 2018 at the age of 92. He was involved in supporting the development of chess in Malaysia as well as in many other countries across Asia. In remembrance of his contributions to chess as well as to many other areas (e.g. the restoration of the famous Queen's Victoria Building (QVB) in Sydney, the development of Mid Valley City (which is still today ranked the 8th largest shopping mall in the world), horse racing, etc, EDWIN LAM (pictured with Dato' in 2008) offers his 2006 article "Grand Maitre de Succes" published in Australian Chess magazine.

Isle of Man: Half-upsets

10/21/2018 – The main section of the Chess.com Isle of Man International Tournament attracted 164 players, with the first round featuring the typical big rating gaps in all boards. However, unlike in other open events, we saw many of the underdogs drawing their higher-rated colleagues. The elite player that got closest to a defeat was Vishy Anand, who managed to recover and defeat his young compatriot Raunak Sadhwani. | Photos: John Saunders / Maria Emelianova / iominternationalchess.com

"If a player is determined to cheat, it will happen"

10/20/2018 – In the United States, there are many weekend tournaments, thanks to the efforts of many independent tournament organizers nationwide. Some of these tournaments provide significant prize money, over USD $12,000, and the chance to play against strong master level players. Georgia-based DAVIDE NASTASIO recently spoke to one such veteran organizer, Walter High, and sent this brief interview along with annotated games from the North Carolina Open.

Garry Kasparov – did he actually exist?

10/20/2018 – A full century after the Doomsday Worm had erased all the world’s electronic records, British scientists discovered, excarvations in the suburbs of Hamburg, Germany, evidence of the existence of a game that was popular in the 20th century, and of the existence of a legendary champion of the game. We have a transcript of a lecture held in Oxford in 2147 by Prof. Eduard Sommer, which we quote in this spoof article by John Nunn. It also contains two remarkable puzzles.

Marcel Duchamp and John Cage "Reunion"

10/19/2018 – Legendary artist and chess player Marcel Duchamp died in France 50 years ago this month. This year also marks the 50th anniversary of his collaboration with composer and music theorist John Cage, in a unique piece played on a hybrid chess board / musical instrument, and called "Reunion". It was avant-garde in its day and still feels novel in digital recreation today. | Pictured: Duchamp and John Cage at the Ryerson Theatre in Toronto, March 5, 1968 | Photo: Eldon Garnet / World Chess Hall of Fame

Hot phase

10/19/2018 – Which side would you favour after 57.R1b7 in the diagram position? Three moves to find for Black and White, then we'll take stock together. Have fun!

European Club Cup: Svidler's Mednyi Vsadnik take gold

10/19/2018 – Any of the top teams could have won it, but Mednyi Vsadnik ended up ahead at the European Club Cup in Porto Carras. Valerenga arrived in the last round as sole leaders but barely one point ahead of the four-team chasing pack — the eventual champions from Saint Petersburg defeated Carlsen's squad and edged AVE Novy Bor on tiebreak criteria to take home the gold medals. In the women's section, Cercle d'Escacs de Monte-Carlo finished first thanks to Anna Muzychuk's win on top board. | Photo: Niki Riga / eurochess2018.com

Sindarov: second youngest GM ever

10/18/2018 – The last half year went well for the young Uzbek Javokhir Sindarov: In June he got his first GM norm in Voronezh, Russia. In September, at the World Junior Championships in Turkey, he scored a second and elevated his Elo rating to 2500. Now, less than a month later, Sindarov has reportedly earned his third and final GM norm, making him the second youngest GM ever, at the age of 12 years, 10 months and 8 days. | Photo: Sagar Shah

Bringing chess to your TV screen

10/18/2018 – A computer is fine but following chess on your TV can be even better. With a HDMI cable that connects your computer with your TV you can watch the Fritz Trainer DVDs on a big screen. However, most modern TVs already come with a browser in which case you don't even need the computer to enjoy chess on your TV. | Drawing: ChessBase
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European Club Cup LIVE

10/18/2018 – Live games and commentary from the 2018 European Chess Club Cup, with GM Ioannis Papaioannou & FM Sotiris Logothetis, October 12th to 19th. All tournament reports and details on teams and players.

Championship problem solutions

10/18/2018 – Some weeks ago the World Chess Problem Solving Championship took place in Ohrid, a beautiful lakeside town in Macedonia. Mathematician and grandmaster JOHN NUNN, 63 years of age, did extremely well, winning the Open section. In his report John provided us with a sample of six problems, which showed us what the participants had to go through. Today he provides the solutions, explained in his unmatched style of unravelling complex chess ideas.

European Club Cup: Magnus and Valerenga lead

10/18/2018 – World Champion Magnus Carlsen kept fans on pins and needles as he appeared to be losing to Ding Liren which would have dropped him to number two in the world behind Fabiano Caruana (at least temporarily). But Carlsen defended hard and salvaged a critical draw that allowed his teammate Nils Grandelius to win the match for the underdog Norwegian squad of Valerenga. They are now in clear first. ALEX YERMOLINSKY shares his outlook. | Photo: Niki Riga / eurochess2018.com

Karpov-Korchnoi: 40 years after

10/17/2018 – Today 40 years ago, on October 17th, 1978, a battle of nerves, which lasted over four months and 32 games, ended in Baguio City, the Philippines. The Soviet defector Viktor Korchnoi fought against the Soviet loyalist World Champion Anatoly Karpov for the chess world's highest title. We take a look at a few more details of the match, with photos and discussion of the new feature documentary "Closing Gambit" with producer Alan Byron. | Photos: Screenbound Pictures

The Game of the Week

10/17/2018 – 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: European Club Cup and Pavel Eljanov against Gerlev Meins.

The Power Play Show

10/17/2018 – 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 Olympiad. Puzzle and the live video...

European Club Cup: Nothing yet settled as four teams lead

10/17/2018 – A day filled with close matches at the top left four teams tied for first at the European Club Cup in Porto Carras. Obiettivo Risarcimento Padova held Alkaloid to a draw — and even could have won — while Valerenga and AVE Novy Bor edged Odlar Yurdu and Beer Sheva Chess Club by the closest margin. Therefore, two exciting rounds await with many top teams yet to play each other. In the women's section, Ugra and SSHOR qualified to the final knockout phase. DANIEL FERNANDEZ annotated six key games of the round. | Photo: Niki Riga / eurochess2018.com

Closing Gambit, a new feature documentary

10/17/2018 – “If you were going to write a movie script, you couldn’t have done it better,” says English GM Daniel King. A new feature documentary, Closing Gambit, is being released to coincide with the fortieth anniversary of the 1978 World Championship and the start of the Carlsen versus Caruana match in November. The film was successfully screened to international buyers at the Cannes Festival earlier this year, and will become widely available on TV and digital platforms later this year.

Vsevolod Rauzer: A fanatical researcher

10/16/2018 – 110 years ago, on October 16th, 1908, the Soviet Master and famous opening theoretician Vsevolod Rauzer was born in Kiev, Ukraine. Rauzer died in 1941 but during his short career, he discovered a number of new ideas in the opening and the endgame. Rauzer was convinced that 1.e4 is better than 1.d4 and wanted to prove that with all his might. | Diagram: The starting position of the Richter-Rauzer Attack

The Weekly Show with Lawrence Trent

10/16/2018 – Tuesdays at 18:00 CEST (5:00 pm UK time, Noon EDT) Lawrence Trent brings you the latest trends, games and combinations from elite chess tournaments. The is streamed live, free for all, and will be available on-demand for ChessBase Premium account holders. This week Lawrence's focus is the ongoing European Club Cup!

Endgame Magic with IM Lawrence Trent

10/16/2018 – English IM Lawrence Trent is back joining Karsten with endgames from Batumi. This week's show is live at 15:00 CEST (13:00 UTC; 9:00 AM EDT) and FREE to watch on-demand (for a limited time)!