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

Batumi Olympiad Round 1: Li Chao is the biggest casualty

9/25/2018 – The first round of the Batumi Olympiad 2018 saw no upsets in the form of match score, but there were individual upsets where a Moroccan player was able to beat 2700+ Chinese GM Li Chao. Vassily Ivanchuk could not win his game and Sophie Milliet lost to a 1900 opponent. We bring you all the pictures from the venue as well as videos that give you the flavour of the environment. The tournament is just warming up with ten more rounds to go, but there is already so much going on! That's what Olympiads are all about, too many things happening at the same time!

Israeli grandmasters triumphed at the Corrida Chess Tournament

9/25/2018 – World-class players, such as David Navara, Alexei Shirov, Veselin Topalov, Richard Rapport, Valentina Gunina, Jon Ludvig Hammer or Markus Ragger were the stars of the eighth annual Nový Bor at the Corrida Chess Tournament, which was won by the Israeli grandmasters. The main match was dominated by Boris Gelfand (pictured), who beat the Czech no.2 chess player Viktor Láznička, 6:2. The match between Tadeáš Kriebel and young Israeli player Nitzan Steinberg ended with a narrow victory for the visiting player. | Photo: Vladimir Jagr

Nigel Davies: learn to face the Caro-Kann

9/24/2018 – For White, the Exchange Variation (1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.exd5 cxd5 4.Bd3) is a simple and easy to answer to the Caro-Kann. It is probably something you can use very effectively in your next tournament, especially if you have been given instructions by a true expert, and have practised the strategies he advocates against a human-like chess engine that matches the strength of your future opponents. That's precisely what you'll find here. Give it a try and see what it does for your understanding of this popular opening.

Simon Says — Basman's lost ideas (part 1)

9/24/2018 – In this Simon Says we take a look at an idea from one of the real pioneers of original chess, Michael Basman. Does his opening idea of 1 e4 e6 2 d4 a6!? make any sense? Simon is on-demand this week, but free for ChessBase Basic account holders. You can register a free 90-day account to watch.

The best ever chess opening ceremony!

9/24/2018 – It was an opening ceremony like no other. So meticulously planned and so well executed. It was held at 9 p.m. and it was 45 kilometres away from the city of Batumi. Yet when the ceremony ended, no one was complaining. We bring you the entire detailed article with photos, videos and just about everything you wanted to know about this grand curtain raiser. Opening report from Batumi Olympiad 2018 in Georgia.

Terrific chess in Tenerife

9/24/2018 – The name of the tournament sounds like music. On Tenerife, the "1st Torneo Internacional de Ajedrez San Cristobal de la Laguna" was held, fittingly in an old convent. The guests met a chess-loving population, young and old. Venezuelan IM Daniel Pulvett emerged the winner a half point ahead of Grandmasters Ilja Zaragatzki and José ("Pepe") Cuenco Jiminez and FM Makan Rafiee who tied for second place. | Photos: Melik Kramer

Artemiev edges Harutyunian to win Nezhmetdinov Memorial

9/23/2018 – Rashid Nezhmetdinov (1912-1974) was one of the most famous chess players in the world during his lifetime — a few decades ago, it was almost impossible not to find his name while studying or following chess. In the early sixties, the International Master even worked as a coach of World Champion Mikhail Tal. The city of Kazan, Nezhmetdinov's hometown, hosts a memorial tournament in his honour every year. The 40th edition of the event finished Friday with a narrow victory by Russian Grandmaster Vladislav Artemiev. | Photos: Official website

In beautiful Batumi!

9/23/2018 – Batumi is a resort and port city on the Black Sea. It is the capital of the Georgian republic of Adjara and it is also the host city for the 43rd World Chess Olympiad 2018. The organizers have predicted that 4,000 people from 189 countries will be present in Batumi over the next fortnight making it the central hub of the chess world for the next few days. ChessBase reporters Sagar Shah and Amruta Mokal went through the city a couple of days before the beginning of the Olympiad and bring to you some of the best sights of Batumi.