5/29/2019 – The tiebreak of the FIDE Grand Prix tournament in Moscow was played today between Alexander Grischuk and Ian Nepomniachtchi. IM Merijn van Delft looks at how Grischuk reached the final — a key win over Hikaru Nakamura. The live show is free to watch, and available on-demand for ChessBase Premium account holders (but FREE for a limited time!). To chat, please visit videos.chessbase.com/live or login via Playchess for Windows. Merijn is live at 18:00 UTC (20:00 CEST / 2 PM EDT).

5/29/2019 – Ian Nepomniachtchi took the second game of the rapid tiebreak to win the final match over fellow-Russian Alexander Grischuk. Both classical games were drawn. Game two on Tuesday was a Ruy Lopez Berlin, which remained level until the players agreed to a draw on move 23. Game 1 of the all-Russian final was also drawn on Monday. The match will therefore be decided in a rapid and blitz tiebreak on Wednesday at 12:00 UTC (14:00 CEST / 8:00 EDT).

5/29/2019 – The defending champions led by Israeli GM Maxim Rodshtein were undefeated and skated past powerhouse Asnières Le Grand Echiquier featuring Maxime Vachier-Lagrave en route to victory in the 11-round event that was held in the city of Brest in western France from May 18th to May 28th. | Photos: French Chess Federation

5/28/2019 – The first leg of the 2019 Grand Prix series will be decided on tie-breaks after Alexander Grischuk and Ian Nepomniachtchi signed a 23-move draw in the second game of the final match. The tie-breaks will be played on May 29th, starting at 15:00 local time, with two 25+10 rapid games set to initiate the battle. The champion will earn eight points in the overall GP (plus all the extra points gained by not going to tie-breaks). | Photo: Niki Riga / World Chess

5/28/2019 – On the show today, the Lindores Abbey tournament was a fun little show up in Scotland and Lawrence will have a look at a key game plus review the important chess action of the past week. Live beginning at 16:00 UTC (18:00 CEST, 12 Noon EDT) and free for a limited time, or forever on-demand with a ChessBase Basic Account. You can register a free 90-day account to watch.

5/28/2019 – Armenia has the most ambitious school chess programme in the world. It recently hosted its third international conference and the first meeting of FIDE´s new Education Commission in the ressort town Tsakhkadsor. STEFAN LOEFFLER attended. | Pictured: The final of the Armenian Championship of Primary Schools took place in parallel nearby. | Photos: Armenian Chess Academy

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

5/26/2019 – Yes, you read that right! The two crucial factors that will make Carlsen's task difficult of winning the Lindores Abbey Chess Stars 2019 are Ding Liren, who has fared excellently against Carlsen in recent times and the other being cold. The tournament is being played in a distillery and Magnus is feeling quite cold in there. After three rounds Carlsen and Ding Liren are leading with 2.0/3, Karjakin is on 1½/3 while Vishy is on the last spot with ½/3. A detailed day one report by IM Sagar Shah from the venue.

5/26/2019 – An all-Russian final will kick off Monday in Moscow, as Ian Nepomniachtchi will face Alexander Grischuk to decide the champion of the first leg of the Grand Prix. 'Nepo' defeated Radoslaw Wojtaszek on tie-breaks, with a win in the fourth rapid game, after the first three encounters finished drawn. Curiously, Grischuk and Nepomniachtchi have the exact same live rating at the time. | Photo: Niki Riga / World Chess

5/25/2019 – 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. As it would go too far to analyse his entire biography, just the important details will be given here, while also exploring the history of the Réti manoeuvre. | Photo: Ernst & Cesanek, Public domain via Wikimedia Commons

5/25/2019 – The chess world was following the FIDE Grand Prix happening in Moscow. There's the women's candidates tournament coming up and there is also the Norway Chess super tournament that will take place in a few days. Amidst all of these big events, a small town Lindores Abbey in Scotland decided to host one of the strongest rapid tournaments on 25th and 26th of May. How did Lindores decide to hold such a strong event in such a short period? Who are the organizers? How did they manage to get Carlsen, Anand, Ding Liren and Karjakin playing? IM Sagar Shah who is present at the venue brings you an opening report.

5/25/2019 – While Ian Nepomniachtchi and Radoslaw Wojtaszek drew their second semi-final game and are set to decide their fate on tie-breaks, Alexander Grischuk defeated Hikaru Nakamura with the white pieces and is the first finalist of the Moscow Grand Prix. Grischuk was better out of the opening and kept increasing the pressure until Nakamura blundered away the game. Expert analysis by GM DANIEL FERNANDEZ. | Photo: Niki Riga / World Chess

5/24/2019 – At the Polish national championships in Warsaw, the two Elo favourites only came in second place. The Open Championship was won by Kamil Dragun, who spent several years in the USA as a student at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley. Iweta Rajlich took the Women's Champion title, finishing a full point clear of Polish women's number one Monika Socko. | Photos: Marek Skrzypczak / mp2019.pzszach.pl