6/2/2019 – An exciting round in Kazan resulted in two decisive games at the 2019 Women's Candidates. Nana Dzagnidze played bravely with Black and defeated Anna Muzychuk, while Aleksandra Goryachkina took down Valentina Gunina in 92 moves, after the latter stubbornly defended an inferior position for hours on end. Both co-leaders will have the white pieces on Sunday, when round three will be the last one before the first rest day. | Photo: Eteri Kublashvili

6/1/2019 – Many will know the Austro-Hungarian (and later Czechoslovakian) Richard Réti as a world-class player, but also as a great composer of endgame studies, so — in time for his 130th birthday — we continue our exploration of European chess composers with him. (Read part 1) | Photo: Ernst & Cesanek, Public domain via Wikimedia Commons

6/1/2019 – The 2019 Women's Candidates Tournament started on Friday in Kazan. All four games of round one were drawn, but a couple of them could have easily finished decisively. Valentina Gunina faltered in time trouble against Kateryna Lagno, but later showed great resourcefulness to save the half point, while Aleksandra Goryachkina missed a couple of chances against Alexandra Kosteniuk. | Photo: Anastasya Karlovich

5/31/2019 – For years Elisabeth Paehtz (born January 8, 1985) has been the clear number one chess player among German women. Since 1998 the World Youth Champion U18-Girls and World Junior Girls Champion 2005 has been playing for the German National Women's team, but in a press release from May 29 she announced her decision to quit, citing the "unequal treatment of women" compared to men in German chess and in the German Chess Federation. One day later the German Chess Federation replied. | Photo: Lars OA Hedlund

5/31/2019 – On the show today: GM Daniel King considers "study-like game" from the Lindores Abbey Chess Stars Tournament, held last weekend. Power Play is live most Fridays at 16:00 UTC (18:00 CEST, Noon EDT) 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...

5/31/2019 – In the diagram White has just captured on d4. What do you make of this continuation — or rather the position arising 21...Nxd4 22.Bxd4 Bxd4 23.Rxd4 and now?

5/28/2019 – World Champion Magnus Carlsen once famously quipped that he doesn't believe in fortresses. But sometimes fortresses are strong enough to save a draw despite a heavy material disadvantage. White to play and draw...

5/27/2019 – Alexander Grischuk had the white pieces in the first classical game of the final at the Moscow Grand Prix. Ian Nepomniachtchi played the Grünfeld and showed great preparation to equalize and even get some hopes of getting an advantage. Correct play by both sides, however, led to a 38-move draw. After the draw, a decisive result on Tuesday will put an end to the tournament. | Photo: Niki Riga / World Chess

5/27/2019 – Magnus Carlsen won the fifth tournament of the year 2019. But things were not so simple for the World Champion. He struggled quite a bit in this tournament and was losing against Karjakin as well as Ding Liren in rounds 5 and 6. Through sheer fighting spirit and hanging in there, he was able to win the first place with 3½/6. IM Sagar Shah who was present at the venue, brings you all the action.

5/27/2019 – All world champions leave their mark on chess. Past champions had different styles but each and every one of them played the endgame exceptionally well. Steinitz laid the first foundations, Lasker embodied fighting spirit, Capablanca pure techique, Alekhine attack, Tal magic, Petrosian defence, Smyslov harmony. Let one of the greatest endgame experts, Karsten Müller, improve your endgame skills with this historical review — in 13 hours of interactive video lectures!

5/27/2019 – Chess players in the past spoke many languages to be able to travel to different countries, and to read chess literature, which in that time was scarce. Today, while some still do, with the advent of computers and a globalized age we've witnessed an expansion of English as a lingua franca, much like Latin in its day. However, ChessBase's production of DVDs in different languages (German, Spanish and now French) continues apace, so we can stir our curiosity for foreign languages, and eventually be able to follow a GM teaching a fashionable opening in his own mother tongue. Italian-expat in America DAVIDE NASTASIO tried just that with GM Christian Bauer's London System.

5/26/2019 – As is well known, Wilhelm Steinitz justified positional chess theory and thus ended the Romantic era. It is less well-known that Steinitz himself was previously a great chess romantic. A contribution by Stephan Oliver Platz. | Photo: Austrian National Library