12/11/2018 – The 10th London Chess Classic is underway with the semifinal played at the headquarters of Google's DeepMind. Demis Hassibis (pictured in the background) joined tournament director Malcolm Pein and a schoolgirl — learning chess under the Chess in Schools and Communities umbrella — on stage at the start of the first classical game. Yesterday, at the London Pro-Biz Cup, chess-loving business people or celebrities joined grandmasters taking turns in a tandem chess team tournament. Garry Kasparov was among the professionals, but it was the team of Roiko Vujatovic and David Howell that won. | Photos: Lennart Ootes

12/11/2018 – V. Saravanan is a strong chess player, an eloquent speaker and also a fine chess coach. He was also the commentator at the World Junior Championship 2014 and a journalist for many eminent tournaments like the World Championship 2012 and the Sinquefield Cup 2017 and 2018. However, there is one video which made the world see a completely different side of him. Last January, we released a video of Saravanan entitled "Must read books to become a better chess player". It was a one-hour video where the Chennai IM spoke about some of his favourite books of chess. The video became very popular and had over 32,000 views on our YouTube Channel. Now Saravanan is back, this time with part II of his "Must read books to become a better chess player" and this will be premiered LIVE on 11th of December 2018 at 15:00 UTC.

12/11/2018 – YAICP — Yet Another Indian Chess Prodigy! His name is D. Gukesh and he stems from — where else — Tamil Nadu, the home state of Vishy Anand. Gukesh was born on May 29, 2006, which means he is currently twelve and a half years old. On Saturday the lad scored his second GM norm in a closed round-robin in Paraćin, Serbia. Gukesh has a live rating of 2490 and from Thursday onwards will be playing in the next GM Open. Will he be able to break Sergey Karjakin's record? This will be his last chance. | Photo: Nebojsa Radosavljevic

12/11/2018 – In the endgame, far advanced passed pawns are often very dangerous. But in this endgame with dark-squared bishops, the player with the black pieces can navigate the dangerous waters to safety. Can you?

12/11/2018 – There was not much of a breather for Fabiano Caruana after his defeat in the tiebreak at the World Championship. He is back in London joining Hikaru Nakamura, Levon Aronian and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave as the four players qualified for the London Chess Classic, the final leg of the 2018 Grand Chess Tour, from December 11th to 17th. Can Caruana regain his mojo in rapid chess against Nakamura? Meanwhile, the top four players in England fight for the British Knockout Championship in a parallel semifinal and final.

12/10/2018 – In this Simon Says Simon takes a look at some of his recent games. He also delves deeper into some openings ideas when White moves the g-pawn early on. Simon is live this week at 18:00 CET (17:00 UTC). If you miss the show, you can watch it in the archive with a ChessBase Account. Don't have an account? You can register a free 90-day account to watch!

12/7/2018 – It was a long time coming, but the wait is over. After nearly a full year, being ping-ponged from one peer reviewer to the next, the final paper on AlphaZero is out, shedding light on a number of hitherto unknown or misunderstood elements in its construction, not to mention some clarifications and corrections. These include sample code to help implement their work and all the games of the match against Stockfish, of which 20 were specially chosen by GM Matthew Sadler. | Graphic: Deep Mind

12/6/2018 – The Sunway Sitges International Chess Festival returns next week for a 5th edition in Sitges, Barcelona, Spain from December 13th to the 23rd. There are still a few places available in the tournament which is rapidly becoming one of the strongest open events in the chess world, and this year will feature Russian GM Dmitry Andreikin, Ukrainian GM Vassily Ivanchuk and Indian super-talents GM Nihal Sarin and GM R. Praggnanandhaa. | Photo: Sharath Elumulai

12/6/2018 – The world was watching, but some people saw the spate of draws differently. Does the World Championship need reform? This is a debate that will continue for a while, perhaps until the next World Championship match in 2020. Contributor STEPHEN OLIVER PLATZ offers his opinion on Carlsen vs Caruana match as well as the World Championship format. The thesis? Blame the rules. | Photo: World Chess

12/6/2018 – In northern Germany children last night were polishing boots and setting them outside their front doors, expecting gifts from Saint Nicholas on December 6th. As a northern German company we want to participate in this tradition: today we offer a wonderful new 60 Minutes course by IM Lawrence Trent, The Sizzling Scotch Gambit, to our readers. Just go to the ChessBase Shop and download the course. Today it is fully free of charge!

12/6/2018 – The World Championship Match 2018 ended recently, to mixed reviews: Many thought the match was dull and boring, while other called it one of the best World Championships in terms of quality of play. When it comes to opinions, there can be no one better than five-time World Champion Vishy Anand. The legend has played innumerable matches for the highest title — he has been there and done that! Anand did a 31-minute video interview, in his house in Chennai, with IM SAGAR SHAH, who transcribes the key passages with live diagrams.

12/5/2018 – It was quite a series: 102 matches in a row without a loss by the team of Novy Bor in the Czech League (the 'Extraliga'). Last Sunday, this incredible series ended in defeat. Aneta Vignerova, Miss Czech Republic 2009, opened the competition Moravská Slavia vs Labortech Ostrava. | Photos: Vladimir Jagr