10/13/2018 – Less than a month before the World Championship match begins in London, Magnus Carlsen flew to Porto Carras to represent Valerenga Sjakklubb at the European Chess Club Cup. The Norwegian expectedly rested on day one, when all the favourite teams comfortably swept their lower-rated opponents by wide margins. Only in the women's section we saw a surprise, as Caissa Italia Pentole Agnolli had to settle for a draw against the Russian SSHOR. | Photo: Niki Riga / eurochess2018.com

10/12/2018 – Kings that go walkabout on a full board are rare but charming. At the Chess Olympiad 2018 in Batumi such wandering kings could be admired in two interesting games. In Mamedov vs Shankland (pictured) the voyage of the king was defensive, in the game Hillarp Persson vs Laurusas, which won the brilliancy prize in Batumi, the white king joined a mating attack against the black king. Both games have historical predecessors. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

10/12/2018 – Recently we've seen Chess960 being actively discussed as a way to play chess while avoiding opening theory, testing our opponent's mind from the start. However, for the amateur, playing tournaments on the weekend, there are so many possibilities in the opening theory that it is nearly impossible to cover all of them decently. Many already have adopted setups like the London system, or the King's Indian Attack (KIA) so they don't have to study opening theory. Gareyev proposes an attacking alternative in the Trompowsky, a lesser known opening which can oblige Black to think from the first moves while creating plenty of tactical problems. DAVIDE NASTASIO takes a look in this interactive review that encourages the reader to try out key middlegame and endgame positions against an engine. Get your daily training here and now! | Photo: Lennart Ootes

10/12/2018 – Having traded the enemy fianchetto bishop, White has managed to land the queen on h6 ("a beast on h6"). His first move in the diagram position might be obvious, but can you also guess which piece will become the true hero of his attack? Enjoy!

10/11/2018 – Tomorrow an impressive team tournament gets underway — this year's European Cup — and among those in action will be World Champion Magnus Carlsen who plays for the "Valerenga Sjakklubb" from Oslo. The Elo favourite is the team of "Alkaloid" with an average rating of 2741 and Ding Liren among the players. Another 2800 player, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov leads the Azerbaijani team Odlar Yurdu. | Photo: European Chess Union

10/11/2018 – The organisers of the 2019 Altibox Norway Chess tournament have unveiled a new format aimed at reducing the rate of draws. It's either "innovative" or "bizarre" depending on who you ask but is sure to be an interesting subject of debate in the months leading up to the June, 2019, tournament. We explain the new idea and check in on the Twitter reaction. Plus, have your say in our reader survey! | Photo: Lennart Ootes / NorwayChess.no

10/8/2018 – In this Simon Says, Simon takes a look at the most interesting games from the second half of the Olympiad. 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.

10/8/2018 – Blitz is often bad-mouthed and thought as damaging a player's development. The historical evidence shows the contrary. Most legendary names like Fischer, Bronstein, Tal, were all avid blitz players. The benefit of blitz is easy to understand: within the short span of time of a blitz game, one can see the defects in thought-process, opening repertoire and of course, missing endgame knowledge. Especially at the amateur level, blitz can be a fundamental tool to improve one's own chess. A blitz tournament at the chess club is also a chance for that human interaction, which unfortunately was taken away being modern chess played mainly online. Chess is definitely more pleasant, and exciting when played face to face over the board, and of course more painful!

10/7/2018 – “Here is my secret. It is very simple: It is only with the heart that one can see rightly”. This phrase, extracted from Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s ‘Little Prince’, has travelled all around the world, like its author had done while alive. The French writer and aviator was, incidentally, also very fond of chess. SERGIO NEGRI compiles quotes, anecdotes and interpretations that confirm this compelling, albeit unsurprising, connection.

10/7/2018 – The FIDE Presidential election was not the only heated contest at the FIDE Congress. The African Chess Confederation held an election for its President and deputies as well, which proved to be much closer than the FIDE election and included its own case of "withdraw and endorse" at the eleventh hour. But unlike Nigel Short, ACC candidate Tshepo Sitale's plea to support insurgent candidate Essoh Essis failed to tip the scales sufficiently to stave off Lewis Ncube — an Ilyumzhinov loyalist who supported Dvorkovich — who was narrowly re-elected to a new term. | All photos: Macauley Peterson

10/6/2018 – The excitement levels had gone off the charts for the final round of the Batumi Olympiad 2018. The strongest teams were fighting against each other to decide who would take gold. USA and China were pitted against each other in the open section and China and Russia faced off against each other in the women's. The matches ended in 2-2 draws with a lot of drama surrounding them. The tiebreaks favoured China in both the sections and they went home with a double gold! In the Open, the USA took the silver and Russia the bronze while in the Women's Ukraine had to be content with silver, and bronze went to Georgia's first team. Full report from Batumi by Sagar Shah and Amruta Mokal.

10/5/2018 – Vladimir Petrovs had a tragic life. He was born in 1907 and became one of the strongest players in Latvia. His biggest success was the international tournament in Kemeri 1937 where he finished joint first with Reshevsky and Flohr, ahead of Alekhine and Keres. When Germany occupied Latvia in WW II he fled to Moscow but after critical remarks about the commuist regime he was arrested and in August 1943 he died in a Soviet labour camp. | Photo: Vladimir Petrovs with his wife Galina (Russkije.lv)