Candidates: Opening moves

3/10/2018 – And so it begins. The eight candidates were presented on the ground floor of the Berlin "Kuehlhaus" last night to a crowd of assembled guests including the keynote speaker, Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan. Highlights from the opening press conference and party, along with live games of round one starting at 15:00 CET (9:00 EST). | Photo and drawings by World Chess

The soul of Fritz

3/10/2018 – Meet Mathias Feist, the soul of Fritz, and a core member of the ChessBase team. Matthias has been the lead developer of Fritz since its inception, over 25 years ago. Fritz has been a world computer chess champion, but nowadays the focus is more on how to make it increasingly useful for humans as a fun and engaging training tool. Fritz 16 has raised the bar in this regard and in this interview with the Spanish magazine Peon de Rey, Jorge Casado seeks to uncover how the program and computer chess generally has evolved over the years. Mathias Feist has had a front row seat! | Photo: Nadja Wittman

Candidates Berlin 2018: What you need to know

3/9/2018 – The long-anticipated Candidates tournament starts tomorrow! You can watch with live video on WorldChess.com or the games on ChessBase via live.chessbase.com. We'll be having daily coverage, including the popular video round-up shows with well known contributors like Daniel King, Lawrence Trent, Simon Williams, Erwin l'Ami and Oliver Reeh. | Photo and drawings by World Chess

Tune your tactics: Initiative with the b pawn

3/9/2018 – 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! Friday at 15:30 CET (9:00 AM EDT) it's all about the initiative with the b pawn!

Vlastimil Hort: Memories of Bobby Fischer (1)

3/9/2018 – Robert James Fischer was born on March 9, 1943. He died January 17th, 2008, and today he would have celebrated his 75th birthday. He was madman and genius, full of contradictions, and though much has been written about his life and games he still remains a mystery. Vlastimil Hort knew Fischer personally and shares memories of "Bobby". | Photo: Marshall Chess Club collection

Knights attacking queens

3/9/2018 – Playing 10...Nxc5! in the diagram position might send a shiver down your spine in view of the possible replies 11.Nb5 and 11.Nd5 when Black can never allow his own queen to be captured on c7. Can you make the move work in both cases?

The Twitter war between Magnus Carlsen and Anish Giri

3/9/2018 – Twitter is becoming a battlefield of exchanges between top players these days. The Candidates 2018 is beginning in a couple of days from now and Magnus Carlsen and Anish Giri have already had quite some serious battle of words on Twitter. While Magnus attacked Anish with all his might, the Dutch GM has been able to maintain his cool. A lot of this happened after it was made public that Anish Giri is working with Vladimir Kramnik in Berlin. We bring you chronologically all of what happened along with some background behind the tweets! | Photo: Lennart Ootes
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Women in focus

3/8/2018 – Last Sunday in Moscow the contest "blondes against brunettes" was held for the eighth time. Alexandra Kosteniuk led the "brunettes" to a clear victory. In India, IM Tania Sachdev launches a "Powerless Queen" project, and in Belgrade, there's a 50th International Women's tournament ongoing | Pictured: Elmira Mirzoeva | Photo: Russian Chess Federation

The Power Play Show

3/8/2018 – Thursday at 9pm UK time Daniel King will go on air on playchess.com. You can watch the episode live for free. This episodes about Anand's success in the Tal Memorial Rapid. All the usual puzzles, games and instruction will be on offer. Puzzle and the live video...

Gisbert Jacoby former ChessBase CEO, 1943-2018

3/8/2018 – Gisbert Jacoby was a chess aficionado and multiple Hamburg champion. As a national coach of the Hamburg Chess Federation, he later promoted many Hamburg talents. From 1988 to 1999, Jacoby was a Managing Director of ChessBase and set the course for the development of the young company. He was friendly with chess luminaries such as Garry Kasparov and Judit Polgar. Last Thursday he died in Hamburg.

Gamma Reykjavik Open: The first three rounds

3/8/2018 – Just two days in, already three rounds have already been played in Reykjavik. And only three players remain on a perfect score: Mustafa Yilmaz, Vaibhav Suri and Elshan Moradiabadi. Alina l'Ami, this time in front of the camera, started with two out of two but then lost to Moradiabadi. Gerd Densing reports. Game annotations by GM Daniel Fernandez | Pictured: Alina l'Ami | Photo: Gerd Densing

Play the Pirc like a Grandmaster Vol. 1 by GM Mihail Marin

3/8/2018 – The Pirc is an opening which can give White the false confidence of having the initiative. Black lets White build a huge central pawn structure, and then, like in a guerrilla warfare attacks those pawns, and the weak squares behind. Don't miss the chance to learn an opening which will deepen your understanding of many pawn structures! Davide Nastasio has the review.

The Candidates Tournaments 1950, 1953, and 1956

3/7/2018 – On March 10th, the Candidates tournament 2018 will begin in Berlin. In November, the winner of this tournament will play a match for the world championship against Magnus Carlsen in London. Candidates tournaments have always been special, providing memorable moments in chess history, with scandals, drama and, of course, brilliant games. In the run-up to the start of this year's tournament, it's a good time to take a look at some previous classics. | Photo: Herbert Behrens (ANEFO) (Cropped from GaHetNa (Nationaal Archief NL)) [CC0], via Wikimedia Commons

Fier wins 10th Batavia Tournament

3/7/2018 – The dMP Batavia tournament (made possible by main sponsor De Melker & Partners), was won by Brazilian GM Alexander Fier, who flew to Amsterdam fresh off his success in the Brazilian Championship last month. Fier also won the blitz tournament for the second straight year. Tournament director and ChessBase contributor, IM Merijn van Delft, sent this recap. | Photos: Lennart Ootes

The surprising Sicilian: Shock your opponent with an early ...Qb6!?

3/7/2018 – In the modern game, a player has to be ready to play almost any opening variation at short notice. The plan is to interrupt the preparation of the opponent at every turn. A knowledge of dynamic and slightly unusual lines could well score many,many points for the resourceful player. The Kveinys Variation : 1 e4 c5 2 Nf3 e6 3 d4 cxd4 4 Nxd4 Qb6! is surprisingly little-played, yet gives Black excellent chances and on this new ChessBase DVD, Andrew Martin explains how the system works.

Run your own games and tournaments on the web

3/7/2018 – New: Start a private tournament in your browser! Chess clubs, schools, companies, or any other collection of players, can also offer chess online — on their own chess server — for free! It is simple and does not does require much of any technical skill. In fact, all it takes are a few mouse clicks. It's a powerful and completely free self-service tournament system in your web browser! Here's how to get started in a few easy steps! | Photo: Hamburger Schachclub
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The Weekly Show with Lawrence Trent

3/6/2018 – Tuesdays at 18:00 CET (5 pm UK time, Noon EST) 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 continues his look at classic Candidates tournament games.

Reykjavik Open 2018 begins

3/6/2018 – The Gamma Reykjavik Open 2018 is all about Robert Fischer, who would have turned 75 this year. In Reykjavik he celebrated his greatest success, and he's also buried in Iceland. Among the participants are over 30 grandmasters. Richard Rapport and Pavel Eljanov lead the ranking list. Live games and commentary, plus a preview and photos by Gerd Densing.

A powerful queen

3/6/2018 – Who is stronger? The queen or two rooks? This (of course) depends on the concrete position. However, the queen is always happy if she gets help.

Endgame Magic with guest Yannick Pelletier

3/6/2018 – Yannick Pelletier is a Swiss Grandmaster and well known DVD author for ChessBase. He's in Hamburg to record a DVD. He's in the organising comitee for the Biel Chess Festival and still very active on the chess board. Today he joins Karsten to look at some fascinating endgames from recent tournament praxis! Live at 15:00 CET (9:00 AM EST)!

Unstoppable Sergey Karjakin, too hot to handle at the Tal Memorial Blitz!

3/6/2018 – 13 rounds of blitz is tiring. If you are not playing well you want to get over with it as soon as possible. But if you are winning like Sergey Karjakin was at the Tal Memorial Blitz 2018, you would want to keep playing forever! Sergey was in top-notch form as he mustered up 10.0/13 (+8,=4,-1) and finished 1½ points ahead of second-placed Nakamura. The American tried hard but couldn't keep up with Karjakin's pace. Third place was won by Ian Nepomniachtchi. We have the full coverage with interesting games, positions and lot of videos!

What engines calculate

3/5/2018 – Nodes, and lots of them! When you analyse with an engine do you understand all the data in the engine window? Fritz calculates with 2317 kN/sec and a cloud engine with 121 MN/sec? Sure, this has to do with the speed and the performance of the engine but what exactly are nodes? | Photo: Nadja Wittmann (ChessBase)
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I know what I did last weekend

3/5/2018 – Bunratty's 25th Anniversary is over, but it's still on the mind of ChessBase photographer Alina l'Ami, who sends this retrospective from her own (quite successful) visit to the Irish hamlet. Fun for all and all for fun! | Pictured: A sampling of the 362 players | Photos: Alina l'Ami

Tal Memorial 2018 in Moscow: LIVE

3/5/2018 – In memory of Mikhail Tal, the 11th Tal Memorial takes place in Moscow from March 2nd-4th, with a blitz tournament on March 5th. The venue is the Museum of Russian Impressionists in Moscow. Participants are Mamedyarov, Kramnik, Svidler, Nepomniachtchi, Anand, Dubov, Nakamura, Gelfand, Karjakin and Grishuk. Watch live with video updates and more from the venue by Sagar Shah and Amruta Mokal