A light-footed knight

7/10/2018 – Knights are generally unable to cover a lot of ground in a hurry, but sometimes they can get a boost from tactical stricks and hustle across the board.

Chess alive by the Dead Sea

7/10/2018 – The "Gideon Japhet Cup" ended in Jerusalem on Friday, July 6th. Grandmaster Ian Nepomniachtchi slipped into the lead in the double-round rapid tournament finishing ahead by a full point over four other protagonists with equally well-known names: Peter Svidler (Russia), Vassily Ivanchuk (Ukraine), Boris Gelfand (Israel) and Georg Meier (Germany) finished with 5 points each. The Ukrainian Anna Muzychuk came sixth with 4.0 / 10. In the parallel open Arkadij Naiditsch won with 6.0 / 7 in front of five players with 5½ points respectively. | Pictured: Gelfand and Ivanchuk relax after the tournament | Photo: Ritvo Photography

Review: A lifetime repertoire: play the Nimzo-Indian

7/10/2018 – Rustam Kasimdzhanov is not only a great player in his own right, he's also Fabiano Caruana's main coach, and therefore played a major role in the new World Championship challenger's success at the Berlin Candidates tournament. That's why, speculates reviewer DAVIDE NASTASIO, the first customer for this recent DVD offering was Magnus Carlsen or one of his seconds, in preparation for November's match. When a possible World Champion is learning from a former one, shouldn't we all do the same?

Hans Tikkanen is Swedish Champion 2018

7/10/2018 – The Swedish championship ended Sunday, in Ronneby, a small town in the south of the country. The night before, Grandmasters Tiger Hillarp Persson had shared the lead with Tikkanen, but after Tiger made a tactical misjudgment against Nils Grandelius, the way was cleared for Tikkanen. The new (and old!) Swedish champions also won their last games with Black - the win against Oskar von Bahr was Tikkanen's sixth win in the nine-round tournament. The final score: Tikkanen 7.0 / 9, Hillarp Persson and Grandelius 6.0 / 9. | Photo: Lars OA Hedlund

Simon Says — The Magic of Tal, part 2

7/9/2018 – In this Simon Says, Simon looks at "The Magic of Tal". The action is live most Mondays starting at 18:00 CEST (Noon EDT). Watch live or on-demand with a ChessBase Premium account.

The Power Play Show

7/9/2018 – Monday at 6pm UK time Daniel King will go on air on playchess.com. You can watch the episode live for free. All the usual puzzles, games and instruction will be on offer. Puzzle and the live video...

Wesley So prevails in Leon

7/9/2018 – In a very tense match, Wesley So defeated Paco Vallejo in the blitz tiebreak rounds despite the fact that the Spaniard obtained better positions in most of the games. So played offbeat openings that did not quite work out in his favour, but showed great tenacity in the ensuing positions. This was Wesley's second consecutive tournament victory in Leon. | Photo: Official website

Yermo's Travels: World Team Championship 50+

7/9/2018 – GM ALEX YERMOLINSKY travels to Radebeul (near Dresden), Germany to take part in the 6th World Team Championship 50+ & 65+ from July 7th to the 15th. The American all-GM squad also features Alexander Shabalov (pictured), Joel Benjamin, Jaan Ehlvest and Sergey Kudrin, making it the highest rated team in the competition. High-expectations, but Yermolinsky will also take time out to keep ChessBase readers apprised of how things progress, with annotated games an photos. Now about that cowboy...

Tiviakov wins Dutch Championship with a round to spare

7/8/2018 – In Amsterdam the last round Sunday was not to determine a winner; the Dutch Champion for 2018 was already set in the person of Sergei Tiviakov. Tiviakov had to deal with Loek van Wely, the top seed in the field, in round six, but after Van Wely made a serious mistake, Tiviakov pressed an extremely dangerous initiative and converted his advantage confidently to take an insurmountable lead over Erwin l'Ami, Erik van den Doel and Ivan Sokolov. | Photos: Harry Gielen / Official site

Vallejo gets lucky break to reach the final in Leon

7/8/2018 – An incredible case of mutual blindness allowed Paco Vallejo to tie the match against Jaime Santos in the rapid section of Saturday's second semi-final in Leon. Paco then went on to defeat his young compatriot in the blitz tiebreaks to reach the final, where he will face Wesley So. Both Santos and Praggnanandhaa proved to be worthy opponents of their higher-rated colleagues. | Photo: Official website

Pal Benko – eleven twins

7/7/2018 – In problem chess "twins" are two or more problems, normally composed by a single author, that are slight variations of each other. This is usually brought about by moveing pieces slightly or subtly, or adding, removing or exchanging a piece. Sometimes the position is moved to another location on the board. The solutions should be different. Now our dear and faithful friend Pal Benkö has sent us a record-setting eleven twins. Have fun solving these unique problems. | Photo: Diana Mihajlova

So beats Pragg by the slimmest margin in Leon

7/7/2018 – The second youngest grandmaster in history, R. Praggnanandhaa came close to beating the second highest rated rapid player in the world Wesley So in the first semi-final of the Leon Masters. Pragg actually won the first game with Black and had a chance to obtain a big edge in the opening of the second. The Indian impressed both So and the audience. | Photo: Official website

Dutch Championship: Tiviakov leads

7/6/2018 – Sergey Tiviakov got a full point Wednesday at the Dutch Championships in Amsterdam from Ivan Sokolov. In the Spanish game Sokolov committed suicide on the 23rd move and had to give up two moves later. Tiviakov is alone in the lead. In the women's tournament Peng Zhaoqin and Anne Haast lead ahead of Tea Lanchava. | Photo: Harry Gielen / official site

A chat with Pragg

7/6/2018 – R Praggnanandhaa recently qualified for the Grandmaster title at the Gredine Open in Italy. Besides scoring his final grandmaster norm with a round to spare, the little champ also finished joint first in the tournament alongside GM Ivan Saric. But this success came after a dismal finish at the Schaakweek Apeldoorn where he had finished at the bottom of the leaderboard. In this interview, he tells how he remains confident despite setbacks, his meeting with Vishy Anand and his preference for sambhar and rice over pizza. | Pictured: Praggnanandhaa received a grand welcome on his return to India | Photo: Arun Sekhar

NEW: Andrew Martin: Meeting the Gambits Vol. 2 – Gambits after 1.d4

7/6/2018 – Squashing counterplay is a favourite pastime of strong chess players and in meeting the Gambits Vol 2 we see plenty of that. When facing gambits the most important thing is not to panic, a feeling usually induced by lack of knowledge. Keep calm, learn the antidotes and face the aggression with renewed confidence. This DVD, ideal for players up to 2200 level, will help you to do just that.

Tune your tactics - Rooks paving the way

7/6/2018 – 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!

Football fever: Swedes pause chess clock

7/6/2018 – Sweden is currently in football fever. In the face of the game against England on Saturday even the kick-off time for the rounds of the Swedish Championships in Ronneby was brought forward to 10:00 CEST, but not for championship group. There, Hans Tikkanen leads by one point. On Wednesday he defeated Jonny Hector. Ingemar Falk gives an insight into the soul situation of the country before "the big game". | Photos: Lars O. Hedlund

Alexey Sarana wins grueling Russian Higher League

7/6/2018 – An impeccable start and a cruise-control finish was enough for young Alexey Sarana to win the Russian Higher League. Grigoriy Oparin obtained back-to-back wins in rounds six and seven to tie in points with Sarana, but had to settle for second on tiebreaks. The women's section did have a clear winner in Oksana Gritsayeva, who finished on 7/9. The real bounty, however, was a spot in the Russian Superfinals, a reward received by five players in each section. | Photo: Dmitry Kryakvin / Russian Chess Federation

Reversals of fortune in Jerusalem

7/5/2018 – Fierce chess battles at the Gideon Japhet Memorial rapid cup have led to the first place being up for grabs going into the last two rounds on Friday. Not only are Ian Nepomniachtchi and Georg Meier currently ahead by half a point, they face each other in the final two games! In the ACP Open group, Arkadij Naiditsch conceded his first draw but has 5½ out of 6 with one round to play, and is poised to win the tournament. | Photo: Ritvo Photography

Karthikeyan and Sachdev are Commonwealth Champions

7/5/2018 – It was an exciting final day at the Commonwealth Championships 2018. At the end of penultimate round we had four leaders with a score of 6½ / 8. P. Karthikeyan was the only one who won his game. With 7½ / 9, he became the Commonwealth Champion. Tania Sachdev scored 6.0 / 9 and took the women's title. Report by SAGAR SHAH, for ChessBase India. | Photo: Amruta Mokal

Postcards from El Ksiba

7/5/2018 – Chess life continues in Morocco, reports DIANA MIHAJLOVA, who sends this photo report looking back at the El Ksiba Open won by Spanish GM David Larino Nieto in May, and previews the upcoming Chefchaouen Open. | Pictured: The famous Moroccan mint tea was always at hand | Photo: cosmopolitana.blog

Hort stories: Ludek Pachman (part 2)

7/5/2018 – Ludek Pachman was an important theoretician, an industrious author, and a controversial personality. In Czechoslovakia he was a staunch communist but after the "Prague Spring" he changed from Saul to Paul or, as some people think, from Saul to Saul. Vlastimil Hort shares memories of Ludek Pachman. (Part 1) | Photos: Archive Michalek

Light summer mate IV

7/5/2018 – In the diagram position White threatens to win the black queen with Bg4+. So far, so clear - but I bet you have already seen why after 30...Qf8 the bishop move leads to success as well!

Path to Gold recounts U.S. Olympiad team story

7/4/2018 – It's Independence Day in the United States, and therefore a day for cookouts, celebrating and fireworks. Or, why not take in a film? In this case, you only need spare 13 minutes to learn all about the 2016 Olympiad triumph of Team USA. Starring Fabiano Caruana, Hikaru Nakamura, Wesley So, Sam Shankland and Ray Robson, with John Donaldson (as "captain") and Aleksandr Lenderman (as "coach"). Produced by the World Chess Hall of Fame.