World Championship Game 10: Double-edged

11/23/2018 – The tenth game of the 2018 World Championship match in London was a highly tense affair. Fabiano Caruana surprised his opponent in the opening, but in the asymmetrical position that followed Magnus Carlsen seemed to have better chances. The Challenger, however, defended stubbornly and, in the endgame, Carlsen was a little too optimistic, lost a pawn, and nonetheless managed to secure a draw. The game was analysed by current U.S. champion SAM SHANKLAND and by ERWIN L'AMI. | Photos: Nikolai Dunaevsky / World Chess

Women's World Ch: Dramatic final goes to tiebreaks

11/22/2018 – Ju Wenjun managed to come back from her loss in game two of the Women's World Championship final match against Kateryna Lagno and so the title will be decided tomorrow on tiebreaks. The current champion missed some chances in game three but was up to the task the next day in a must-win game, as she built a mating attack with the black pieces. The final day of play in Khanty-Mansiysk coincides with a rest day in London, so there is still plenty of World Championship chess for the coming weekend! | Photos: Official site

Hort stories — Don't worry, be happy!

11/22/2018 – How to recover after a loss? What to do when things do not go your way — in life and in chess? Vlastimil Hort has an answer to this question: "Don't worry, be happy!" And he shares some anecdotes to show how this works in practice.

World Championship Game 9: A missed chance for Magnus

11/22/2018 – After saving a draw in the previous game, Magnus Carlsen recovered by getting a clean advantage with the white pieces for the first time in the 2018 World Championship match. He pushed for a win in a no-risk opposite-coloured bishops position, but a pragmatic Fabiano Caruana found enough resources to salvage the half point. So we have seen nine straight draws and there is almost no room for mistakes now, with only three classical games to go. Star analysis by DAVID NAVARA and ERWIN L'AMI. | Photos: Nikolai Dunaevsky / World Chess

A Disastrous Championship

11/21/2018 – No, the title does not refer to the absolute World Championship in London, but rather a battle of possible future challengers ages 8-12 which took place in Spain from November 4th to 15th. GM DEJAN BOJKOV was there coaching two players in the Girls Under-12 and sent us this personal narrative of the trip. | Pictured: Dilyan Ivanov (parent), Dilyana Ivanova (Bulgaria), Jackuline Ramalingam (parent of Aksithi), Aksithi Eswaran (USA). All photos: Dejan Bojkov

Game of the Week: Winning with the Maroczy Bind

11/21/2018 – Ideas and strategies in Grandmaster games can be quite instructive. IM Merijn van Delft presents games like these every Wednesday at 20:00 CET (19:00 UT, 2 pm EDT). On this week's show: A model game from the Tournament of Peace in Zagreb. The live show is free to watch, and available on-demand for ChessBase Premium account holders. To chat, please visit videos.chessbase.com/live or login via Playchess for Windows.

What if the World Championship match is decided in blitz games?

11/21/2018 – Two years ago, in New York, Magnus Carlsen defended his title by winning the rapid tiebreaker. Traditionalists will shudder at the thought of blitz games deciding the world championship match in London. GM MAXIM DLUGY looks at the players’ chances if that scenario becomes reality and has suggestions for how Fabiano Caruana, despite a whopping rating gap of 172(!) points, might beat the odds.

Women's World Ch: Lagno takes the lead

11/20/2018 – Kateryna Lagno took the lead over World Champion Ju Wenjun in the Women's World Championship final with a win in the second match game today. The score stands at 1½:½ in favour of the Russian, with two games to play. Before Tuesday, Ju had won all five of her matches without losing a single game. | Photos: Official site

The Weekly Show with Lawrence Trent

11/20/2018 – 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. Lawrence is LIVE this week and free for ChessBase Basic account holders for a limited time! (Why not register for FREE in 30 seconds if you don't already have an account?) This week Lawrence looks at the ongoing Women's World Championship final.

A passed pawn is still a pawn

11/20/2018 – A passed pawn on the seventh can be very strong. But sometimes the pawn cannot queen and remains just a pawn.

Endgame Magic

11/20/2018 – On a rest day at the World Championship Karsten Müller fills the gap with his Endgame Magic Show. 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)!

World Championship Game 8: Carlsen in luck

11/20/2018 – For the first time in the match, Fabiano Caruana chose to play the Open Sicilian 3.d4 against Carlsen. The World Champion went for the Sveshnikov variation, which would not have been totally unexpected by the Caruana team and the challenger secured some advantage, both on the board and on the clock. But, as GM WESLEY SO and GM YANNICK PELLETIER explain, after a missed opportunity on his 24th move, Caruana let Carlsen equalise and the game ended drawn. | Photos: Nikolai Dunaevsky / World Chess

Watch the Super-Grandmaster think!

11/20/2018 – Rarely do we get to see the thought process of a player of the very highest caliber. How does a 2765 rated player actually think? When Wesley So, whose highest rating was 2822, was in India for the Tata Steel Chess India 2018, IM Sagar Shah gave him three studies to solve. The catch? Wesley had to work everything out in his mind, without a board. Sagar had a camera rolling while he did this! The video discussion gives us a unique insight into the mind of a world class grandmaster. We invite you to perform a similar experiment on yourself.

Capablanca's 130th anniversary

11/19/2018 – Today, November 19th, José Raúl Capablanca, would have celebrated his 130th birthday. After World War I the Cuban was the world's best player and World Champion from 1921 to 1927. During his career, he played more than 500 tournament games but lost only 36 of them. | Photo: Screenshot from the movie "Chess Fever"

Simon Says — My own games (1)

11/19/2018 – For a change, Simon takes a look at some of his own recent games in this episode, including highlights from the Isle of Man open and 4NCL tournament. Simon is on-demand this week for ChessBase account holders. Don't have an account? You can register a free 90-day account to watch!

World Championship Game 7: Black is fine

11/19/2018 – Another day, another draw. The long-awaited 2018 World Championship has seen the players hold their own with the black pieces, and even get the upper hand — once Caruana and once Carlsen — when having to move second. The seventh game was a Queen's Gambit Declined where Fabiano unleashed the first surprise and ended up getting a rather comfortable half point. DANIEL FERNANDEZ and YANNICK PELLETIER took a closer look at what happened over the board | Photos: Nikolai Dunaevsky / World Chess

Eight egregious elite errors

11/18/2018 – This week, in honour of the Carlsen vs Caruana match, GM JON SPEELMAN examines eight blunders from World Championship history. One of them features Magnus himself! But, dear regular column readers, do continue sending in your own games! Jon can always use more material from readers. If your games are selected for the Agony column, not only will you get free detailed commentary of your games by one of chess’s great authors and instructors, and former world no. 4 player, but you also win a free three-month ChessBase Premium Account!

Carlsen vs Karjakin 2016 revisited

11/18/2018 – With the long-awaited World Championship match between World Champion Magnus Carlsen and his Challenger Fabiano Caruana finally underway, GM LARS BO HANSEN was inspired to revisit some analyses from the previous World Championship match in New York between Carlsen and Sergey Karjakin in November 2016. As most readers will recall, the reigning World Champion survived a scare in the regular games before eventually dominating the rapid playoff. What conclusions can we draw and how might that impact the 2018 contest? | Photo: Albert Silver

Garry Kasparov on Bill Maher

11/17/2018 – On Friday American comedian, talk show host and political agitator had, for the third time at least, former World Champion Garry Kasparov on his show. Kasparov, who lives in quasi-exile in New York, is a ferocious critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin, and in recent years has been equally critical of the US President Donald Trump. You can watch the Real Time with Bill Maher show on HBO, or catch the section with Kasparov on YouTube.

Women's World Ch: Lagno will take on Ju Wenjun in the final

11/17/2018 – The tiebreaks of the semi-final match between Kateryna Lagno and Mariya Muzychuk took place on Saturday in Khanty-Mansiysk. Lagno won both rapid games to take down a visibly exhausted Muzychuk, who came from playing a demanding series of tiebreak games against Zhansaya Abdumalik. The victory for Lagno means she will have a shot at winning her first World Championship in the final — set to take off on Monday — against Ju Wenjun. | Photos: Official site

Moradiabadi's travels in South Carolina

11/17/2018 – Chess is booming in the USA now with the help of the current challenger for the highest honour in chess, Fabiano Caruana, who was born in Miami, grew up in Brooklyn, NY and lives in St. Louis. Currently, he is in a 3-3 tie with the incumbent, World Champion Magnus Carlsen, after a week of intense play. GM ELSHAN MORADIABADI — seen here either practising his 70s disco skills or calling on one of the kids — reports on his recent travels in South Carolina. | Photos: David Grimaud

World Championship Game 6: A Petroff, a marathon, a draw

11/17/2018 – The deadlock is yet to be broken. The sixth game of the World Championship match saw Magnus Carlsen use 1.e4 for the first time and, predictably, Fabiano Caruana responded with the Petroff Defence. What seemed to be a boring position that would unavoidably lead to a draw turned into a real fight when Caruana opened the centre. Carlsen ended up suffering to secure a draw after sacrificing a piece for two pawns. EFSTRATIOS GRIVAS and LAWRENCE TRENT analysed the game. | Photos: Nikolai Dunaevsky / World Chess

Women's World Ch: Ju Wenjun reaches the final

11/16/2018 – Defending champion Ju Wenjun (pictured) qualified for the final at the 2018 Women's World Championship knockout. With a safe draw in the second game of the semi-final, the current World Champion won her mini-match 1½-½ over Alexandra Kosteniuk. In the second match of the semi-final, Kateryna Lagno and Mariya Muzychuk also drew and therefore have to play a tiebreak match Saturday for the remaining spot in the final. | Photos: Official site

Vintage Vishy wins blitz and hearts at Tata Steel Chess in Kolkata

11/16/2018 – The strongest chess event on Indian soil was held from November 9th to the 14th, 2018 with three days of rapid chess and two days of blitz. Hikaru Nakamura had already won the rapid section with a dominating performance. In the blitz event, the American GM was racing ahead on the first day with 6½/9. It seemed as if Nakamura would take home both the titles, but Vishy Anand had other plans. The 48-year-old former World Champion showed his class as he notched up one win after another. By scoring 7½/9 on day two he tied with Nakamura for the top spot. We then had a blitz playoff in which Anand triumphed and won the Tata Steel Chess India Blitz 2018. IM SAGAR SHAH and AMRUTA MOKAL provide pictures, videos, game analysis from Kolkata.