GCT Paris: So steps up the scoreboard

6/21/2018 – After the second day of the GCT rapid tournament in Paris, as in Leuven last week, Wesley So has taken the lead again. Today, the US Grandmaster won two games and played one draw. In the live Rapid Elo list So has now gained 86 points and is second behind Magnus Carlsen. | Photo: Lennart Ootes / Grand Chess Tour

Tune your tactics - Rook lifts - from classic to modern

6/21/2018 – A solid tactical understanding is sure to help any chess player in critical situations. Whether it is a simple exchange or a mating attack, tactics are ubiquitous. Take advantage of the opportunity to develop your tactical understanding in this series with IM Oliver Reeh and Pascal Simon! (Normally) Friday's at 15:30 CET (9:00 AM EDT) it's all about Tactics!

Crucial Chess Skills for the Club Player

6/21/2018 – International Master Robert Ris, well known for his Chessbase DVDs, has now published his first print book. In it he gives special attention to three essential elements of practical play, all key elements for every ambitious player seeking to improve. The first part of the book explores essential knowledge of rook endgames, offering a clear method to learn them. Then focus on tactical play and the way one should think, and how to cultivate one's own ability to sense the opportunity for a tactical strike. Ris also examines important aspects of positional play which will lead to a deeper understanding of the game. Reviewer DAVIDE NASTASIO looks at how Ris' teaching approach can help serious chess students master all the facets of the game.

GCT Paris: Three lead after three rounds

6/21/2018 – The second leg of the Grand Chess Tour has begun, with three rapid chess rounds played in Paris today. After the first third of the rapid round-robin, Viswanathan Anand, Levon Aronian and Wesley So are in the lead with 4 points each. Paris, like the tournament in Leuven last week, uses double-points scoring for the rapid games, which will be combined with the scores in the blitz tournament this weekend to produce an overall winner. Photos: Lennart Ootes / Grand Chess Tour

NEW: Master Class Vol. 10: Mikhail Botvinnik

6/20/2018 – Mikhail Botvinnik became world champion in 1948 and remained so until 1963. During this time he either successfully defended his title against David Bronstein, Vassily Smyslov and Mihail Tal or got it back in a return match. The systematic, scientific method of working in chess begins with Botvinnik. Karsten Mueller, Mihail Marin, Oliver Reeh and Yannick Pelletier break down his legacy in this latest entrant into our Master Class series.

KCF Young Stars "working with Garry"

6/20/2018 – The Kasparov Chess Foundation (KCF) and Saint Louis Chess Club have been running the very successful Young Stars – Team USA program for the past six years. Team USA’s program has helped develop several American chess prodigies from across the country, including the likes of GM Jeffery Xiong and GM Sam Sevian. Young Stars has been capped off with individualized training sessions with Garry Kasparov’s coaching staff and special training sessions with Kasparov himself. | Photo: Andrew Tsay

Who put the "Indian" in Indian openings?

6/20/2018 – Why, after all, are the Indian openings called "Indian"? Conrad Schormann tried to find an answer to this question and found it in the ChessBase Mega Database. It led him back to a clash of classical and hypermodern theory in old India.

"FIDE should be encouraging chess, not discouraging it"

6/19/2018 – Nigel Short is in a four-way race for President of FIDE, to be decided in an election in Batumi at the Chess Olympiad on October 3rd. Until a few days ago, it was a three-way race with one of those being the incumbent Kirsan Ilyumzhinov. But now the Russian Chess Federation is poised to nominate someone else: Russian economist and politician Arkady Dvorkovich. Macauley Peterson spoke to Nigel for an hour in Leuven, during the first stop of Grand Chess Tour, to get his current thoughts on the race. | Photo: Lennart Ootes / Grand Chess Tour

The Weekly Show with Lawrence Trent

6/19/2018 – 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 Netherlands' "Schaakweek Apeldoorn GM Tournament".

TCEC 12: Komodo wins Premier Division

6/19/2018 – The "Top Chess Engine Championships" (TCEC) is a competition of the world's best computer programs which play in several divisions. The strongest programs start in "Division Premier". TCEC Season 12 just came to an and was won by the new Komodo 12, place two went to Stockfish. On Monday, June 18, Komodo 12 and Stockfish started to play their 100-game superfinal.

The fourth phase

6/19/2018 – Opening, middlegame, endgame — according to classical teachings these are the three parts of a chess game. In the opening and in the middlegame the king better hides, in the endgame, it can get active. But modern teachings stipulate that there is a fourth phase of the game — in which king safety is key again.

Easy and efficient - download your ChessBase products

6/19/2018 – Downloading your ChessBase products is easy and offers many advantages: you can immediately install and use the products (on several devices) and you do not have to wait for the mailman — and you can also easily move your programs to a new computer. Here's a short tutorial about downloading ChessBase products. | Drawing: ChessBase
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Swaminathan says no to compulsory hijab

6/18/2018 – “Tournaments should be held in places which uphold the rights of chess players”, says WGM Soumya Swaminathan after withdrawing from the Asian Nations Cup 2018 due to a dress code that requires women to wear a hijab. The Asian Nations Cup will be held from July 27th to August 4th, 2018 in Hamadan, Iran. Soumya has refused to travel to the tournament as she thinks that the dress code violates her human rights. This stand by Soumya which started as a small Facebook post has snowballed into international coverage.

Simon Says — King and pawn endgames

6/18/2018 – In this Simon Says, Simon looks at practical examples of king and pawn endgames. The action is live, most Mondays starting at 18:00 CEST (Noon EDT). | Photo: Alina l'Ami

30-minute training: Learn to play the Rubinstein

6/18/2018 – IM SAGAR SHAH, who runs ChessBase India, is a very experienced chess trainer. He tells you what the strategic goals of this opening are, and the things you should strive to be doing. After reading a few paragraphs about this interesting opening line, 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!

Studies of Isenegger

6/18/2018 – Samuel Isenegger was a Swiss chess composer who worked as an editor of the "Schweizerische Schachzeitung" (the Swiss Chess Newspaper). Udo Nouvertne explores one of his most famous compositions, and how different authors made the same mistake when reproducing it in their collections. | Pictured: A painting by Paris Bordone, c. 1540

Speelman's Agony #78

6/17/2018 – John Chernoff sets chess and financial data to music, and sent Jon a collection of annotated games for review, replete with tactics, sacrifices and one very big 'oops' moment! Just a reminder — 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!

An eventful chess weekend in Maribor

6/17/2018 – The second weekend of June saw Slovenia's second largest city, Maribor, host a series of chess activities. First, Alexei Shirov took on six promising Slovenian players in a clock simultaneous exhibition. At the same time, a match faced two very strong historical figures in the chess world, Alexander Beliavsky and Evgeny Sveshnikov. The weekend also included an online match against a club from Shanghai, a blitz tournament and the final match of a league of cadets. | Photo: Lena Uranjek

Harikrishna finishes strong to beat Navara in Prague

6/17/2018 – Pentala Harikrishna won the CEZ Chess Trophy this Saturday after defeating David Navara in a 12-game rapid match. The Indian scored three wins in the final games to overcome the one-point advantage Navara had amassed before the last day of play. It was a great result for the hastily invited Harikrishna, who replaced Ding Liren at the last minute. | Photo: Prague Chess Society

GCT: Wesley So survives to win "Your Next Move"

6/16/2018 – In the Belgian city of Leuven, the "Your Next Move Rapid & Blitz" ended today with the victory of the American Wesley So. His score in the rapid tournament, which ended on Thursday, gave him a substantial lead in the overall standings. But a bad run of form in the blitz saw his lead melt away to zero, and set up an exciting if somewhat unlikely final round that saw So — but also his closest rivals Sergey Karjakin and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave — all lose. | Photo: Lennart Ootes / Grand Chess Tour

Grand Chess Tour LIVE in Leuven

6/16/2018 – Tuesday, June 12th, the Grand Chess Tour 2018 starts in Leuven, Belgium, with a combined rapid chess and blitz tournament. Ten world-elite players will compete over five days that will certainly deliver an entertaining spectacle. The prize fund is $ 150,000, with $37,500 for the winner. Live games and commentary from 14:00 CEST (8:00 AM EDT). | Photo: Grand Chess Tour / Lennart Ootes

GCT: Karjakin prevails in Leuven's first day of blitz

6/16/2018 – The first of two days of blitz in Leuven finished with Wesley So still in the lead, despite his losses in the final two games of the day. Sergey Karjakin was the star of the day, getting four wins and no losses to reduce So's advantage to only 1½ points. Levon Aronian won four and lost two and is tied with Karjakin in second place. The tournament concludes tomorrow with nine more rounds of blitz. | Photo: Spectrum Studios / Grand Chess Tour

Komodo MCTS: the boa constrictor approach

6/15/2018 – The inclusion of the new Monte Carlo Tree Search (MCTS) version of Komodo has had many users surprised, confused, and even describing it as a gimmick. However, its value is not to be underestimated, and it allows the astute user to find resources the very best engines are completely blind to. GM Karsten Mueller has helped illustrate this with some finely chosen examples in the following article. Read on to see what makes Komodo MCTS so special!

Review: A classical guide to the French Defence

6/15/2018 – While this DVD is dedicated to an opening repertoire for Black, we can also catch a glimpse into the grandmaster's mind. We are treated to a show where pawn structures, relationships between pieces and pawns, and middlegame plans come alive through the words and explanation of a top GM. Yannick Pelletier guides us beyond the mere memorization of moves and lines, directly into the land of strategy and planning. DAVIDE NASTASIO says it definitely has a certain 'je ne sais quoi'.