11/28/2017 – It is one of the most important tools of chess professionals and amateurs alike: the flagship database of 7.8 high quality games, from 1560 to 2017, extensively classified, with direct access to players, tournaments, openings, middlegame and endgame themes. 71,000 games are annotated by top players. And best of all: the database is constantly updated, for a full year, with around 250,000 new games expected in 2018. How it all works and how you can use the Mega Database is explained in a very instructive video by IM Sagar Shah.

11/28/2017 – The attacked white knight c3 in the diagram must withdraw, but in view of Black's lurking bishops not all retreat squares are equally good. 25.Ne2 or 25.Nd1 — what would be your candidate?

11/28/2017 – Wesley So is in Hamburg and paying the ChessBase headquarters a visit before he's playing the London Chess Classic. In a special webcast Wesley will do a Q&A on Tuesday november 28. Get your questions into the comment section which will be picked up in the live broadcast.

11/28/2017 – Vassily Ivanchuk was impressive on his way to winning the blitz tournament and at one point was leading by three full points. He finished two points clear of Sergey Karjakin. Anna Muzychuk lead the women's tournament from start to finish, ultimately scoring 1½ points more than her nearest rival Elisabeth Paehtz. The tournament (November 24th-29th) was held in memory of Elisabeta Polihroniade who helmed the event for its first nine years until her death in 2016 at age 80. Ivanchuk and Muzychuk also won their respective rapid tournaments for a clean sweep!

11/27/2017 – Even chess players hardly remember Fedor Bohatirchuk although the Ukrainian-Canadian doctor and chess master led a life worth remembering. He lived in turbulent times, and he was a strong chess player with a life-time score of 3½-½ against Mikhail Botvinnik. He also inspired Boris Pasternak to the character of "Doctor Zhivago". Today, Bohatirchuk would celebrate his 125th birthday.

11/27/2017 – We recently published an article on the ultimate PC for chess, designed for the pro on the road, or the enthusiast seeking the best, setting a budget ceiling of $2000-$2500. The question many asked was what about those who cannot spend so much? The size of the budget isn’t everything, and here is a full PC with eight cores of chess processing power for just $500!

11/23/2017 – Over the years the "Thoresen Chess Engines Competition" (TCEC) has become the unofficial Computer World Championship and the very best programs start in this tournament. After two qualifiers, season 10 now finishes with the superfinal in which Komodo faces Houdini. They play 100 games against each other, and the games are shared live on PlayChess. As a bonus, we bring you a brief modern history of computer chess. @StockfishLegalNotice

11/23/2017 – Thursday at 6pm UK time Daniel King will go on air on playchess.com. You can watch the episode live for free. Daniel King will discuss the latest news on the FIDE Grand Prix in Palma de Mallorca, showing how Magnus Carlsen de-fangs the London System and, as usual, will be setting puzzles and answering your questions. Puzzle and the live video...

11/23/2017 – Peruvian grandmaster Julio Granda Zúñiga has been crowned World Senior Champion in the over-50 category, scoring an impressive 9½ points out of 11 rounds. The silver and the bronze went to Rogelio Antonio and Eric Prie respectively, both with 8½ / 11 points. In the over-65 section, Evgeny Sveshnikov stood out with 8½ / 11 points. The title of Senior Women's World Champion over-50 was awarded to WGM Elvira Berend (7/9). The great favourite of the over-65 women's section, Nona Gaprindashvili managed only the runner-up spot this time, behind Tamar Khmiadashvili. Both scored 7½ / 9 points, but Khmiadashvili won their direct encounter. | Photo: (Granda) Alina l´Ami | (Sveshnikov) Helen Milligan

11/23/2017 – Round six of the FIDE Grand Prix in Palma was a bit of confirmation of how the tournament had gone thus far. Levon Aronian built a big advantage against Svidler, but after a mistake settled for a draw, and is still sole leader. The next notable result was Teimour Radjabov’s loss to Tomashevsky after declining a draw earlier. Read on in this illustrated report. | Photo: Valerij Belobeev

11/23/2017 – For those who don't give a fig for pumpkin pie this Thankgiving, here's a dessert treat even your grandmaster will love. Anya Corke Allen is a chess player with a penchant for baking, and shared her adventures making a chocolate chess cake. Yummy! | Photos: Anya Corke Allen

11/23/2017 – Readers may have noticed a recent, and significant, change in Playchess, notably the playing room: the new ratings. It is designed to get you a quick game with no delay against a random opponent with a similar rating. These "pools" include ratings calculated on games played at the same time control, as compared to the previous system which lumped multiple game times together as "blitz" up to 5 minutes with 4 seconds of increment. We now have 1-minute bullet, and 3-minute and 5-minute blitz, with no added time. The ratings for previous modes, and individual challenges, are now called "Classic" but continue to be maintained independently. Read on for a more detailed explanation.