Yermo's Travels: the 2017 Spice Cup

11/1/2017 – Recently, the 2017 Spice Cup was held in St. Louis, Missouri, and won by Lazaro Bruzon Batista, Yunieska Quesada, and Dariusz Swiercz. This traditional event is organised by Webster University, also home to the strongest collegiate team in the US. It brought players from around the globe, including a field rich in titled players. Among them was our correspondent Alex Yermolinsky, who performed well, and brings his report with some fantastic games and notes. Not to be missed! | Photo: Paul Truong

Announcing GAMMA Reykjavik 2018

10/31/2017 – The organisers of the annual Reykjavik Open have recently announced information on the March, 2018 edition, which will be extra special, as it will commemorate Bobby Fischer himself. Fischer would have turned 75 years old during the event, if not for his untimely death in 2008. They have sent us the key details.

Pawn barriers

10/31/2017 – Bishops like to have free diagonals, pawns like to be protected. However, sometimes it is difficult to combine both. But you should know what is more important.

Speelman's Agony #63

10/30/2017 – This week GM Jon Speelman takes a break from amateur games to look at a new theme: when your engines let you down. Two famous examples from World Championship history — Kasparov vs. Anand (1995) and Kramnik vs. Leko (2004), plus two recent ones from the Isle of Man and the European Club Cup. Want Jon to take a look at your games? Send them in, and if selected, 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! | Photo: Chess.com / Maria Emelianova

ETCC: Highlights from first two rounds

10/30/2017 – After rounds one and two, seven teams have won both matches in the open, with the overall leader Hungary winning 6½ of 8 possible board points. Among the leaders are Armenia who brought in Levon Aronian to face the host team of Greece (pictured). The women's tournament has eight teams, each with two wins. The leader is Israel with 6½ board points. England's new Grandmaster Daniel Fernandez annotates five games for our report. | Photo: ETCC on Instagram (www.instagram.com/etcc2017)

Kramnik to play 2018 Candidates

10/30/2017 – Vladimir Kramnik has received the organiser's wild card for the March, 2018 Candidates tournament in Berlin, according to an official release by Agon Ltd. Only two spots remain to be filled via the FIDE Grand Prix. As of now the players will be Sergey Karjakin as the previous World Championship runner-up, Levon Aronian and Ding Liren via the World Cup and Wesley So and Fabiano Caruana thanks to rating qualification. | Photos: Amruta Mokal

Abdusattorov second youngest GM ever

10/29/2017 – Nodirbek Abdusattorov has GM norms from last year's Chigorin Memorial and from Abu Dhabi 2017. And now he's added a third in the Chigorin Memorial in St. Petersburg this weekend. Combined with a rating over 2500 he has met the qualifications for the GM title several months ahead of the previous record held by Parimarjan Negi. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

A chess tournament at sea (2)

10/29/2017 – On its way from Copenhagen to Miami the cruiser Norwegian Getaway stopped at the Azores, nine islands that formed by volcanic eruptions. The landscape seemed to have inspired the players who produced tense and exciting games. | Photo: Beltz

"It's chaotic": An interview with Kiril Georgiev

10/28/2017 – What is going on with chess in Bulgaria? Currently the country has no fewer than three chess federations but none of them is recognised by the ministry of sports in Bulgaria or FIDE. In an interview with Vera Jürgens the Bulgarian grandmaster and top player Kiril Georgiev gives insights into this mess, and speaks about his chess career and life as a chess professional.

Europe's rapid and blitz champs: Muzychuk and Kosteniuk

10/28/2017 – Last weekend, in Monte-Carlo, the European Women's Rapid Chess Championship was held. Anna Muzychuk, already World Champion in this discipline, won. The Blitz Championship followed, and there the Russian Chess Federation celebrated a threefold success as Alexandra Kosteniuk, Kateryna Lagno and Valentina Gunina finished in the top three spots. | Photo: Nadja Wittman

CHESS Magazine: East or West

10/27/2017 – In the November issue of CHESS Magazine, International Master and organiser Malcolm Pein shares his views regarding the recent 88th FIDE Congress in Antalya, Turkey, where one of the more unusual decisions coming out of the Executive Board meeting was a non-binding "motion to "request the FIDE President [Kirsan Ilyumzhinov] not to run in the next Presidential elections." | Photo FIDE.com

Hoogeveen: Blitz decides the fate of both matches

10/27/2017 – After an action-packed first half, play continued with the same intensity in rounds 4-6 in Hoogeveen. While Adhiban and van Foreest continued exchanging blows in round 4-6, Ivanchuk tried his best to keep his one-point lead by holding his Chinese opponent to draws. Going into the final round, Adhiban had caught up with van Foreest in terms of the score while Wei was in a must-win situation.| Photos: Lennart Ootes

Tune your tactics - Knight Sacrifice on f2/f7

10/27/2017 – 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 GM Karsten Müller and Pascal Simon! Friday at 3.30 pm CEST it's all about the knight sacrifice on f2/f7!

Queen in the crossfire

10/27/2017 – Black has just transferred his queen to the kingside with 18...Qa5-h5 (diagram), planning after 19.g4 Qg6 to challenge the mighty white queen e4. Will he get away with this manoeuvre — or has he built on sand?

ChessBase Reader 2017

10/27/2017 – Are you on the lookout for easy to use Windows software that can read all relevant data formats used in the saving of chess games and positions? If so, you absolutely have to install the latest version of our ChessBase Reader 2017 on your computer. It's a free download!
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1st Laos International Open

10/27/2017 – Laos is not a country that garners many international headlines, much less regarding its chess scene. But Singaporean contributor Edwin Lam reports that they seem to have made good progress, particularly in the area of Chess in Schools, which has the strong support of the government. Most importantly, they are hitting key milestones in chess education at the grassroots level, amongst administrators (for instance via FIDE Arbiters' seminars), and in tournament play (running local events). And come this January, 2018, they will be hosting Laos' first-ever international open!

Hoogeveen Tiebreak

10/26/2017 – Vassily Ivanchuk took on Wei Yi and Baskaran Adhiban faced Jorden van Foreest in a rapid tiebreak in Hoogeveen. Ivanchuk and Van Foreest both won 2-0. Full report on the second half coming Friday. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

A chess tournament on a train

10/26/2017 – The 7th annual Chess Train tournament rolled into Prague's main station after five days and nine rounds of rapid chess October 13th to 17th. With games played entirely on board a dedicated train from Czech Railways, this is a one-of-a-kind event that is a lot of fun — so much so that some players return year after year. International Master Roman Khaetsky from Ukraine took top honors, as he finished undefeated, yielding just three draws. | Photos: Anezka Kruzikova

A chess tournament at sea

10/26/2017 – The "Chess tournament at sea", organised by Jörg Hickl, recently set out from Denmark's capital, Copenhagen, and is currently nearing its destination in Miami, Florida, on a route that takes it via the Azores, St. Maarten and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Among the special features, that make this seven round Swiss open unusual: the players will cover 7800 km during the tournament! German entrant Michael Dombrowsky, Elo rated 1997 (the number two seed!), sent us this "postcard".

Shattered illusions: "The Rise and Fall of David Bronstein"

10/25/2017 – David Bronstein is a chess legend. In his critical memoir, The Rise and Fall of David Bronstein, Genna Sosonko shares memories of the life and the career of the grandmaster who has inspired the chess world with his ideas and his games, and who in 1951 almost became World Champion. | Photo (right): Anne Fürstenberg

Diego Flores Champion of Argentina 2017

10/25/2017 – The 92nd Final Argentine Superior Championship was played between October 12th and 24th. Diego Flores was undefeated scoring 9½ points in 13 rounds. His triumph increases his Elo rating by 13 points, getting him back over 2600 for the first time since 2013. In positions two, three and four, were Federico Perez Ponsa, Ernesto Real de Azua and Sandro Mareco, all with 8 / 13 points. | Photo: Carlos Ilardo

Paul Morphy Masterclass

10/25/2017 – Even at the age of 12, Paul Morphy (1837-1884) was regarded as an extraordinary chess player in the USA. But on his European tour of 1858-59 he showed himself to be also superior to players across the continent. We've taken several opportunities to celebrate Morphy of late, and now here's one more. The new masterclass DVD — the ninth in the series — we attempt to decipher the "Mythos Morphy".

The Weekly Show with Lawrence Trent

10/24/2017 – Tuesdays at 5pm UK time Lawrence Trent goes on air on Playchess.com. In his show Lawrence Trent will be dealing with the latest trends, games and combinations from the elite chess tournaments. This week Ivanchuk vs. Wei Yi from the Hoogeveen Tournament was undoubtedly the star of the show.

Hoogeveen: A power-packed first half

10/24/2017 – After three rounds of play at the Hoogeveen Matches, Vassily Ivanchuk took the lead against the Chinese star, Wei Yi after his win in the third round. In the other match between Adhiban Baskaran and local lad, Jorden van Foreest, the Indian number five was the first to taste blood in round two but van Foreest came back strongly in the third round to level scores. | Photos: Lennart Ootes