Johan van Hulst, 1911-2018

4/17/2018 – Prof. Johann van Hulst, a teacher, parliamentarian, active chess player until his last days passed away last month in Amsterdam at the age of 107. For his humanitarian actions, saving over 600 Jewish children during World War II, he received the Yad Vashem distinction "Righteous Among the Nations" from the State of Israel in 1972. | Pictured: On January 28, 2011, Van Hulst celebrated his centenary in Wijk aan Zee | Photo: Alina l'Ami

The Weekly Show with Lawrence Trent

4/17/2018 – Tuesdays at 18:00 CEST (5 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 Indian prodigy Praggnanandhaa.

Endgame Magic with guest Nick Pert

4/17/2018 – GM Nicholas Pert 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 on-demand!

Welcome to the new ChessBase Shop!

4/17/2018 – The ChessBase Shop has a new design! Here's a brief tour: You'll see all new products at a glance, find an overview about product categories and authors, of course, the popular the "Openings A-Z" returns, offering quick and easy access to your favourite openings, and the new "Shop Assistant" has recommendations and help. So, come on in! | Photo: ChessBase
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Stopping the pawn

4/17/2018 – Knights are quick and dangerous, as every blitz player knows. They can trouble king, queen, rook, and bishop. But when knights have to stop passed pawns they are often surprisingly clumsy.

Youth ravages Sharjah Masters

4/16/2018 – The 2nd Sharjah Chess Masters is currently taking place in the UAE. Nearly 130 players compete for the first prize of $ 15,000, including five players over 2700. After six rounds, the young Iranian star Parham Maghsoodloo (pictured) is in the clear lead and is the man to beat (no one has!). | Photo: Niklesh Jain

Tour of a chess set collection

4/16/2018 – Are you fascinated by pieces and clocks? Ever lust after an expensive wooden Staunton? Davide Nastasio takes a break from reviewing chess videos to bring you a glimpse behind the scenes of a Singaporean chess collector who specialises in chess sets. But that's not all! Wait until you see his clocks! The physicality of the tools of the game provides a window into chess history as well. | Photo: Stephen Kong

EWICC: Gunina beats Muzychuk to take the lead

4/16/2018 – Valentina Gunina took the sole lead after seven rounds in Vysoke Tatry, Slovakia. Against the top favourite, Mariya Muzychuk, she managed a very convincing victory on Saturday. Six players are now a half point behind with 5½ / 7. Sunday was a rest day. Play resumes Monday at 15:00 CEST (9:00 AM EDT) | Photo: Official site

Help and support

4/16/2018 – Most modern computer programs can be handled intuitively. You start the program and get up to speed quickly. But from time to time, everyone needs a little help to get the most out of your programs. ChessBase offers a variety of support options. Here's a primer for what to do when that someone is you! | Drawing: ChessBase
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Speelman's Agony #74

4/15/2018 – Before this week's games I'd like to request more material from readers which can be sent either to the Dropbox mentioned below or directly to me at jonathan@speelman.demon.co.uk — 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! | Pictured: Clement Lelievre (right) with Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and Laurent Fressinet in 2015

The Learning Curve for Chess Skill

4/15/2018 – ChessBase recently reported on the new artificial intelligence program “AlphaZero” and its astoundingly steep learning curve for chess skill. Given just the rules of chess, in 24 hours of playing games only against itself, it improved to a superhuman level. Along the way, AlphaZero discovered and ultimately abandoned standard openings such as the French and Caro-Kann Defences. | Pictured: The learning curve projection for World Champion Magnus Carlsen overlayed on the actual rating trend.

Review of Wesley So's secret weapon

4/14/2018 – REVIEW: This DVD gives an insight into the mind of one of the top professional chess players of our time. The way he prepares, his opening knowledge, the way he studies, what he finds important or useless. Clearly, a must-have DVD, not only for knowing more about the 1.b3 opening, and how it is played today but for the huge amount of ideas conveyed through the videos. Davide Nastasio explains why.

Amatzia Avni: Aesthetics and Beauty

4/14/2018 – Chess players are very practical, result-oriented. They do feel satisfaction when they manage to produce a stunning combination or an imaginative opening novelty, but beauty is not a goal per itself. They are looking for strong, practical moves, ones that lead to victory in the game. Beauty is an ancillary factor. But it is a major goal for composers of chess problems and studies, as the Israeli problemist explains in part two of his article.

Scenes from the Karpos Open 2018

4/13/2018 – The 2018 Karpos Open was won by IM Radoslav Dimitrov ahead of GM Sinisa Drazic on tiebreak. Both players scored 7½ / 9 points. Diana Mihajlova sends photos and a brief report from the Macedonian capital, Skopje. | Pictured: Drazic and Dimitrov

Garry Kasparov's 55th birthday

4/13/2018 – The 13th of April is "Kasparov-day". Today, 55 years ago, arguably the best player in chess history was born and since then has shaped the history of chess like no other player — not only on the board! Andre Schulz briefly traces Kasparov's history from his first international moves, through the peak of his career in 1999, his life in politics (both in and out of the chess world) and on to his recent advocacy work. | Photo: Kasparov.com

Calculation training with ChessBase

4/13/2018 – Practising to calculate variations quickly keeps your chess mind in shape and helps you to win more games. ChessBase has a whole suite of tools that help you to train your calculation skills. In this overview, you can find a training recipe to suit your taste. Have a look and try it out!
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Back, forth and sideways

4/13/2018 – In any endgame the bishop f3 would clearly dominate the knight f6. With queens on the board, however, White's vulnerable king on f2 becomes the decisive factor. How can Black exploit it?

NIC: When Harry meets the English

4/12/2018 – The popular S.O.S. column from New In Chess Magazine, recently featured an almost comical second move for black against the English early fianchetto: 2...h5. NIC columnist Jeroen Bosch notes, ‘A move like 2...h5 gives rise to a lot of early creativity, of course.’ See what he means in this entertaining article from the leading global English chess magazine.

Diego Flores first in Dubai

4/12/2018 – The 2018 Dubai Open was played between April 2nd and 10th. In a field stacked with 2600+ grandmasters, the Argentinian Diego Flores (pictured with the Sheik Rashid Bin Hamdan Al Maktoum Cup) was crowned champion with 7½ / 9 points. In the last round, he beat the Indian Surya Ganguly on the top table. The runner-up was Eduardo Iturrizaga (Venezuela) who drew with Ahmed Adly (Egypt). S.P. Sethuraman (India) and Adly also scored 7/9 points to take the third and fourth spots, respectively. | Photo: (trophy) Dubai Culture Club on Facebook; (Flores) Carlos Ilardo / Graciela Manteiga (ChessBase archive)

Nakamura supports chess talent in Africa

4/12/2018 – American Hikaru Nakamura, one of the world’s top chess Grandmasters, has shown his generosity by honouring a pledge he made earlier this year to assist two promising junior players from South Africa to further their chess careers. Hikaru identified the two young talents during his visit to South Africa in January while he was attending the South African Junior Chess Championships. Khanya Mazibuko (pictured), one of the selected players, was able to secure a win against his idol during the 100 player Simul in Johannesburg. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

Meeting Yannick Pelletier

4/12/2018 – The unending stream of interesting visitors and authors coming to the ChessBase office in Hamburg, and frequenting our studio, continues. Often, we try to grab them for a few quick questions to see how they are and what's new. This time it was GM Yannick Pelletier who visited us in Hamburg in order to prepare a new FritzTrainer. Here's the latest, brief impromptu interview. | Photo: Pascal Simon (ChessBase)

Amatzia Avni: Different Thinking

4/11/2018 – A lot of chess writing is devoted to the thought process of players. Chess coaches direct their students to look for good, healthy, strong moves – not to search for beautiful ones. Problemists are quite different. For them beauty is a major goal. Composers search for extraordinary positions, which will bring the Aha! or OMG effect. In CHESS Magazine the well-known Israeli problemist examines some of the characteristics which separate those who play from those who compose and solve studies and problems.

EWICC: Dzagnidze and Cornette in the lead

4/11/2018 – After three rounds at the European Women's Championship, the number of perfect scores is down to two: Nana Dzagnidze and Diamante Cornette. They will face off today in round four. 21 players are in the chasing pack with 2½, among them the top seed Mariya Muzychuk and the German number one, Elisabeth Paehtz. WATCH LIVE (from 15:00 CEST) | Photo: Official site

The Tigress of Madras: Aruna Anand (part 3)

4/11/2018 – The final part of the interview with the Tigress of Madras Aruna Anand! While in the first two parts we got to know Aruna better, in the third part we turn up the heat with rapid-fire questions! For each question, Aruna has very little to time decide on her answer and this gives us some great insights into the mind of one of the greatest managers in the world of chess. India is lucky to have an icon like Vishy Anand and Vishy Anand is lucky to have a pillar like Aruna in his life! | Photo: Mandatory selfie with Sagar Shah and Amruta Mokal