Simon Says — The Magic of Tal

7/2/2018 – In this Simon Says, Simon looks at "The Magic of Tal" today. The action is live most Mondays starting at 18:00 CEST (Noon EDT).

Anatoly Karpov wins "Legends" tournament

7/2/2018 – The combined rapid and blitz tournament of the four "chess legends" Anatoly Karpov, Ljubomir Ljubojevic, Eugenio Torre and Anatoly Vaisser in the Catalan seaside resort of Platja d'Aro ended yesterday with Karpov's overall victory. While the ex-world champion had fallen behind Vaisser by half a point after the six Rapid games at the start of the event, he succeeded in reversing the story during the blitz tournament. In the end, Karpov won with a score of 12½ / 18 ahead of Vaisser's 12 / 18. Third, was Ljubojevic with 7½ / 18 and last, Torre with 4 / 18. | Photo: David Llada

Speelman's Agony #79

7/2/2018 – Jonathan annotates Jonathan...Rubeck that is, a math teacher from North London. And by the by — 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!

July 2018 FIDE Ratings

7/1/2018 – June was a busy month for rapid and blitz ratings with some players playing 36 games of the latter. In terms of classical performances, Sam Shankland has earned himself the cover of American Chess Magazine as he has continued his ascent among the 2700 echelons. Wesley So made a big leap in rapid ratings, and Jan-Krzysztof Duda is now the top junior. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

An unexpected leader in Russia's Higher League

7/1/2018 – It is hard to name favourites in such a competitive tournament, but having the 31st seed as sole leader after five rounds can be considered, even in this case, a surprise. The young Muscovite Alexey Sarana is heading the field on 4½/5 at the half-time of the Russian Higher League. The women's section has a clear leader as well — Elena Tomilova also won four and drew one to top the standings. | Photo: Dmitry Kryavkin / Russian Chess Federation

Americans playing for the title: Wilhelm Steinitz

6/30/2018 – For the less historically enlightened, the first official American to become World Champion was the great Bobby Fischer, but the native New Yorker can only claim to be the second as the title of first goes to the father of modern strategy: Wilhelm Steinitz. Read on to find out more on the great champion with annotations by Garry Kasparov. | Photo: Steinitz vs Lasker, 1894, public domain via Wikimedia Commons

Friends in France: Rinck and beer

6/30/2018 – It's rare to be able to smoothly segue from beer to endgame studies, but that's what our Study of the Month columnist SIEGFRIED HORNECKER manages to do in this month's investigation into the life and work of Henri Rinck. Born into a family of brewers, he would come to brew his own endgame studies while living near Barcelona. Here are five favourites. | Photo: HeritageEchecsFra.free.fr

Magnus' Kingdom, confidence and Caruana

6/29/2018 – Magnus Carlsen weighs in on "peak performance" in a video published by Inc.com, and Play Magnus has launched a new app aimed at children five to nine years old called Magnus' Kingdom of Chess. The World Champion will play two tournaments plus the European Club Cup in the run-up to his title bout with Fabiano Caruana.

Commonwealth 2018: A wealth of chess improvement

6/29/2018 – Chess reports are filled with news and updates, but this report from Commonwealth 2018 is different. It is filled with high level of instructional content. IM SAGAR SHAH, says, "To go through this entire report will take two hours of your time. But if you do it carefully, it is bound to teach you a lot about chess." Games, training, video and, to add more flavour to it, you have some world class photography by Amruta Mokal. | Pictured: Standing out from the crowd - GM Deepan Chakkravarthy!

Jerusalem hosts the 4th Japhet Tournament

6/29/2018 – Elite rapid chess and more in the Israeli city of Jerusalem. Nepomniachtchi, Svidler, Ivanchuk, Gelfand, Meier and Anna Muzychuk star in the 4th edition of the Gideon Japhet Memorial, beginning July 1st. | Pictured: The prize giving podium of the third Japhet tournament 2016 | Photo: Ritvo photography
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Light summer mate III

6/29/2018 – In the diagram position, Black is just fine — the only thing she should avoid is the game continuation 20...Ne5?? Are you itching to move some white pieces after that?

GM tutorial: learn to play the Ruy Lopez

6/28/2018 – GM EFSTRATIOS GRIVAS is a world renown trainer. He tells you what the strategic goals of the main line of the Ruy Lopez are, and the way you can continue in tournament play. After reading a few paragraphs about this very popular opening, you can try it out for yourself, right there in your browser, against an engine that matches the playing strength of your potential opponents. You can play any number of games and test different ideas. Have fun!

Abu Dhabi: 'The land of the Gazelle'

6/28/2018 – The Abu Dhabi Chess Festival is just around the corner and its premier event, the Masters' Tournament, features an exciting list of players. Some of the bigwigs include Richard Rapport, Alexander Morozevich, Anton Korobov and Vladimir Fedoseev. With such a strong field, the tournament offers an ideal opportunity for aspiring masters to earn norms or gain rating points.

Four chess legends meet in Platja d'Aro

6/28/2018 – A small town in Catalonia's beautiful Costa Brava has welcomed four renowned chess players from the past. Anatoly Karpov, Ljubomir Ljubojevic, Anatoly Vaisser and Eugenio Torre are playing a unique rapid and blitz tournament in Platja d'Aro. David Llada sent some very nice pictures from the singular Legends Tournament. | Photos: David Llada

The Power Play Show

6/27/2018 – Wednesday at 6pm UK time 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. Puzzle and the live video...

Zweig: A Chess Story and a dramatic death

6/27/2018 – One of the most popular writers in Europe — the most translated in the interwar period — Stefan Zweig escaped the Nazi regime as a prominent writer. Since he thought Hitler's threat would spread throughout the world, he emigrated repeatedly and visited South America several times, considering the continent "a promised land". An admirer of Argentina, he finally settled in Brazil, where he died in 1942. In this article, SERGIO NEGRI reviews his extensive and successful literary work, including the one that has chess as its fundamental protagonist, "Schachnovelle".

The Weekly Show with Lawrence Trent

6/26/2018 – Tuesdays at 18:00 CEST (5:00 pm UK time, Noon EDT) Lawrence Trent goes on air on Playchess.com. In his show, Lawrence will be dealing with the latest trends, games and combinations from elite chess tournaments. Today, Lawrence will have a look at games from the two recent matches, overshadowed somewhat by the Grand Chess Tour events in Leuven and Paris.

Talking modern correspondence chess

6/26/2018 – Does correspondence chess have any meaning in 2018, when chess engines definitely overcame the best humans already back in about 2005? Is it useful for a chess player to study a database of correspondence chess games? Or to use it as a reference? Discover more in an interview with Wolff Morrow, one of the top ten correspondence chess players in the USA!

Evans Gambit for the new generation

6/26/2018 – A romantic gambit? A modern product of top engines? How to define the Evans gambit? In today's frenetic chess world, with new tournaments every weekend, a chess warrior must keep the competition always unprepared using different sharp openings. Reviewer DAVIDE NASTASIO has the review as GingerGM (AKA Simon Williams) continues his journey helping other chess players to spice up their openings and gain points while playing exciting chess.

The fortress - real or an illusion?

6/26/2018 – Some players believe in fortresses, others do not. But no matter whether you are believer or not, some fortresses are real and really solid. In the endgame rooks are usually much better than a knight. But with pawns on one side, the defending side might build a fortress:

"I don’t see Nigel as a great leadership candidate"

6/25/2018 – IM Malcolm Pein, now a candidate for FIDE Deputy President, took time out from a full schedule for a chat with Macauley Peteron in Leuven at the end of the "Your Next Move Rapid and Blitz" tournament. Malcolm discussed the Grand Chess Tour, the FIDE / Agon proposed "broadcast policy," the upcoming World Championship in London, and his thoughts on the election including having his old friend Nigel Short as a political sparring partner. | Photo: Lennart Ootes / Grand Chess Tour

Simon Says — The English Defence

6/25/2018 – In this Simon Says, Simon looks at an opening for black today: The English Defence against 1.d4 or 1.c4. The action is live most Mondays starting at 18:00 CEST (Noon EDT). | Photo: Alina l'Ami

Using ChessBase on your Mac computer

6/25/2018 – ChessBase, Fritz & Co. are programs for Windows but they do also run on Mac computers if you install Windows, which is nowadays easy to do using, for instance, Boot Camp, Parallels, or VMware Fusion. We compare these three alternatives and describe how you can use them to install ChessBase on your Mac.
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GCT Paris: Nakamura by a nose

6/25/2018 – Sergey Karjakin seemed unstoppable after Saturday's first nine rounds of blitz, however, Nakamura finally emerged as the winner of the Paris Grand Chess Tour. Hikaru fought until last minute and finished one and a half points ahead of the field. Meanwhile, Wesley So played it safe to get clear third and keep the lead in the Tour overall standings. | Photos: Lennart Ootes / Grand Chess Tour