St. Louis Summer Chess Classic LIVE

5/23/2018 – The Saint Louis Chess Club continues to expand its offerings of world-class chess. Four times a year, for example, invitational tournaments are held, in which young players from the Elo range between 2500 and 2600 points are able to gain valuable experience against invited veteran players. The final round in two groups is live with an abbreviated commentary webcast from 20:30 CEST (14:30 EDT).

Endgame Magic with guest GM Daniel Fernandez

5/23/2018 – England's newest grandmaster, Daniel Fernandez, is in Hamburg recording a FritzTrainer to be published later this year. He joins Karsten for a look some recent endgames from tournament practice. Watch live at 15:00 CEST (9:00 AM EDT) or later on-demand!

Chess on the high seas: The Panama Canal

5/23/2018 – The chess tournament aboard the "Norwegian Bliss" continues, as the players travel from Miami to Los Angeles. On the way the chess tourists have now made the transition from the Atlantic to the Pacific passing the "eighth wonder of the world": MICHAEL DOMBROWSKY sends his latest dispatch. | Photo: Andreas Back

NEW: Yannick Pelletier: A Classical Guide to the French Defence

5/23/2018 – The French Defence is the sharpest opening setup against 1.e4. With his first two moves, e6 and d5, Black tries to provoke the advance e4-e5. This closes the centre and gives Black the opportunity to get active play on both wings. This DVD gives you the key to start out with the French Defence. GM Yannick Pelletier is a specialist of this opening and believes that the most efficient way to understand its ideas, plans, and typical structures is to study classical lines. He offers you a repertoire that is based on well-established lines that have been tried and tested for decades and that have proven their validity.

KCF announces summer youth camp in Europe

5/23/2018 – PRESS RELEASE - The Kasparov Chess Foundation, European Chess Union and the European Chess Academy are launching a summer camp in Slovenia this July. Find out who's eligible and how to register. The deadline is June 30th.

The Weekly Show with Lawrence Trent

5/22/2018 – 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 Capablanca Memorial.

Duda new Polish Champion

5/22/2018 – The ninth and final round of the Polish championship in Warsaw was played on Sunday. A draw was enough for Jan-Krzysztof Duda against Mateusz Bartel, as Duda's only remaining pursuer, Kacper Piorun, lost to Aleksander Mista. Duda's final score was 6½ / 9 points; Piorun finished second at 5½ / 9. The women's championship had to be decided in a tiebreak between Jolanta Zawadzka and Anna Warakomska with Zawadzka ultimately coming out on top. | Photo: Piotr Jedrzejewski, mp2018.pzszach.pl

Dancing with rooks

5/22/2018 – People often believe that you do not have to calculate much in endgames because there are only a few pieces left on the board which reduces tactical possibilities. However, the opposite is true. Because there are only so few pieces left tactical precision is required.

Fritz 16 and the new Powerbooks

5/22/2018 – In the last few months, we have published a number of "Special Powerbooks" for various openings, e.g. for the London System, the French Defence or the Nimzo-Indian. These Powerbooks are very popular, which is no real surprise because they contain lots of information that you will not find elsewhere. Moreover, with Fritz 16, the opening trees and statistics in the Powerbooks are ideal to practise your repertoire. | Photo: ChessBase
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Twenty grandmasters play blitz for charity

5/21/2018 – More than twenty Grandmasters including the World Championship Challenger Fabiano Caruana (pictured playing tandem blitz) came together in New York on Sunday for the 2nd annual event, a day of quad tournaments, GM blitz, simuls, and other special events. The proceeds from the event will go to Mount Sinai Hospital Ovarian Cancer Translational Research Laboratory. Last year's donation to another cancer charity exceeded $20,000! GM Maxim Dlugy was the blitz winner. | Photo: Vanessa Sun

Shankland crushes Capablanca Memorial

5/20/2018 – Sam Shankland is on a roll. He added to his recent U.S. Championship triumph by dominating the annual Capablanca Memorial in Havana, Cuba from start to finish. Needing only a draw in the final round, he instead racked up an additional win to finish an impressive point and a half clear of Alexei Dreev! ALEX YERMOLINSKY offers his take. | Photos: Lennart Ootes

Speelman's Agony #76

5/20/2018 – "Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions..." This week's contribution comes from an ambitious young lad from India, who likes Mark Twain, and...evidently...orangutans! 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!

On the origins of chess (2/7)

5/19/2018 – "Never play with drunkards and desperate men and quarrelsome people for it leads to a brawl”. Chess researcher SERGIO NEGRI continues his deep dive into the origins of our game, this time focusing on the most widely recognised theory, that of an Indian origin | Image (centre): Krishna and Radha playing chaturanga (early chess) on an 8x8 Ashtāpada (a board) (Wikipedia Commons)

Ju Wenjun becomes 17th Women's World Champion

5/18/2018 – Ju Wenjun has done it: In the tenth and final game of the World Championship match against Tan Zhongyi, she secured herself a world title with a draw. Tan had to win the game, and looked desperately for opportunities, but she could do nothing against the very careful play of Ju Wenjun. | Photo: Gu Xiaobang

Tune your tactics: Kings in danger

5/18/2018 – 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 Kings in danger!

Chess on the high seas: Cartagena

5/18/2018 – The chess tournament at sea will take place on board the new Norwegian Bliss from Miami through the Panama Canal to Los Angeles this year. The first part of the journey followed in the footsteps of pirates and the slave trade along the coast of Cuba through the Caribbean to Cartagena, Colombia. MICHAEL DOMBROWSKY reports. | Photo: Jörg Hickl

Women's World Championship LIVE

5/18/2018 – The Women's World Championship match between defending champion Tan Zhongyi and challenger Ju Wenjun is played over ten games, half in Shanghai (Ju Wenjun's hometown), half in Chongqing (Tan Zhongyi's hometown). After eight games Ju Wenjun leads 4½-3½ and Tan has two games left to catch up. Live games from 9:00 AM CEST (3:00 AM EDT) | Photo: Gu Xiaobing

In the long run

5/18/2018 – Following 22.Nxb7 in the diagram position, Black can get a clear edge — if he finds the right way to tackle White's strayed knight. Any ideas?

Challenging the Champion

5/17/2018 – For the first part of this review, our columnist has selected a featured game from our magazine — Magnus Carlsen's notable win over Gawain Jones in Wijk aan Zee — offering both the background and the outcome from the point of opening theory. Prof. Nagesh Havanur combines analysis from Mikhail Golubev, Peter Heine Nielsen, and the players themselves, plus his own research in an engaging look at one of the most dramatic days at the Tata Steel Chess Tournament.

The Power Play Show

5/17/2018 – Thursday at 8pm UK time Daniel King will go on air on playchess.com. You can watch the episode live for free. This episodes is about a classic game from Smyslov. All the usual puzzles, games and instruction will be on offer. Puzzle and the live video...

Powerplay 26: A tale of three mating attacks!

5/17/2018 – Nigel Short once said, "Modern chess is too much concerned with things like pawn structure. Forget it, checkmate ends the game!" The art of checkmating our opponent is something that we learn when we are young. But once we know what checkmate is all about, we hardly go back to that subject. In order to ensure that you polish your art of pattern recognition related to mating attacks, Daniel King has come out with his latest Powerplay DVD — Powerplay 26. It's named as checkmate challenge — essential knowledge. In order to tell you what this DVD is all about, IM Sagar Shah takes you on a journey of three tales. Three tales of mating attacks by players of three different generations!

Shankland extends lead at the Capablanca Memorial

5/17/2018 – Just a short time after the end of the US Championship, Sam Shankland continues his winning ways in the Capablanca Memorial event in Havana. His score now after the seventh round is an impressive 5½/7 now a full point ahead of Alexy Dreev the nearest competition. This impressive result has pushed Shankland's live rating well above 2700 to 2715 with three rounds left to play. GM MIKHAIL GOLUBEV looks at the key games so far. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

Tan Zhongyi can still hope

5/16/2018 – The ninth game of the Women's World Championship match between reigning World Champion Tan Zhongyi and challenger Ju Wenjun ended in a draw. Before the tenth and final game Ju now leads 5-4 and Tan must win the tenth game to reach a tie-break. However, Tan was lucky to get this chance. Because in game nine she was again on the verge of defeat. | Photo: Gu Xiaobang

Piorun in Polish-Hungarian friendship

5/16/2018 – Before the Polish Championship, there was the Polish-Hungarian friendship championship. This nine-round rapid tournament has been held since 2013, and attracts hundreds of players young and old to Katowice, Poland for a fun-filled weekend. WGM KETI TSATSALASHVILI was there and sends this photo report. | Photo: Walusza photography