The Weekly Show with Lawrence Trent

3/13/2018 – Tuesdays at 18:00 CET (5 pm UK time, Noon EST) 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 the game Aronian-Kramnik from the Candidates as well as games from the Reykjavik Open and the Bundesliga.

Reykjavik Open: Rapport in the lead, Lenderman wins Chess960

3/13/2018 – After seven rounds in the Reykjavik Open, Richard Rapport and Baskaran Adhiban lead with 6 points apiece. Young Nihal Sarin is having a breakout performance, and was leading after five rounds, and still maintains a tournament performance rating of 2767. Games annotated by GM Daniel Fernandez Watch round eight live! | Pictured: Alexandr Lenderman (centre) was the winner of the rest day rapid tournament celebrating Bobby Fischer | Photos: Gerd Densing

Tactics and technique

3/13/2018 – "Chess is 99% tactics" is an often quoted statement that emphasises how important it is to keep an open mind for tactics. Even when only a few pieces are left on the board.

Meeting Matthias Wüllenweber

3/13/2018 – ChessBase was founded in 1986 and back then no one talked about "start-ups". But 30 years later ChessBase still feels like a start-up, and between shelves full of ChessBase DVDs and lots of computers new ideas are tossed around day after day in the ChessBase office in Hamburg, where new software is developed with cheerful enthusiasm. As ever, Matthias Wüllenweber, ChessBase founder, associate and chief developer is the driving force. We asked him what makes him tick. | Pictured: Matthias (left) in a meeting with Hou Yifan | Photo: Frederic Friedel (ChessBase)

Candidates Round 3: Kramnik wins brilliancy

3/12/2018 – The big winner of round 3 of the Candidates Tournament in Berlin is Vladimir Kramnik. With a powerful and brilliant attack, he won a crucial game with Black against Levon Aronian. The other three games of the round ended in a draw. With 2½/3 Kramnik is now sole leader. Tuesday is the first rest day in Berlin. The tournament resumes on Wednesday at 15:00 CET (10:00 AM EST) | Photo: World Chess

The importance of knowing endgames

3/12/2018 – Can you play rook and pawn vs rook? It is one of the most common endgames, and your ability to win it, when it is winnable, or draw it when that is possible, will bring you a fair number of rating points. The endgame expert André Chéron did pioneering work in this field, and Milos Pavlovic, grandmaster and chess trainer, gives us some vital tips, based on Chéron's work. It's all in the latest edition of the UK-based Chess Magazine.

German League, Round 11-12: Solingen stumbles

3/12/2018 – This weekend most German chess fans focused on the Candidates Tournament that started in Berlin. But the German League also played over the weekend and the current season promises an exciting finish: two teams play for the title, five against relegation.

Candidates, Round 2: Grischuk wins against So

3/12/2018 – Round 2 of the Candidates Tournament in Berlin brought one win and three draws. Alexander Grischuk bounced back from his loss against Vladimir Kramnik in round 1 and won an energetic attacking game against Wesley So. Mamedyarov and Aronian, Kramnik and Karjakin, and Ding Liren and Caruana all drew their games. | Photo: André Schulz

Analysing with Fritz 16

3/11/2018 – Today, in the time of strong engines, analysing chess games seems to be easy: fire up the engine and let the computer work out the lines. This is useful but does not help your chess as much as analysing actively. ChessBase offers a lot features that help to analyse, from entering games to analysing professionally. | Drawing: ChessBase
More...
 18

Candidates come out swinging

3/11/2018 – An unusual start to the Candidates tournament in many respects. Three winners, three losers, and several players troubled by their first-round experience in the "Kuehlhaus" Berlin. The good news is, the first round games were great, amid many teething problems. Fans and professionals alike are eagerly awaiting round two to see how the situation develops. | Photo: Frederic Friedel

Nabokov, chess composer

3/11/2018 – He faced the process of writing as a "literary chess problem", and considered the composition of chess problems to be comparable to poetry. Vladimir Nabokov was one of the most celebrated creators of bridges between art and chess. | Pictured: Nabokov in 1973 | Photo: Walter Mori

Final 2018 GCT participants

3/10/2018 – The players for the next Grand Chess Tour circuit have been announced, settling the question of whether or not Magnus Carlsen would return to defend his 2017 win — he won't. The demanding schedule of the GCT was too much to commit to fully during a World Championship match year. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

Candidates: Opening moves

3/10/2018 – And so it begins. The eight candidates were presented on the ground floor of the Berlin "Kuehlhaus" last night to a crowd of assembled guests including the keynote speaker, Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan. Highlights from the opening press conference and party, along with live games of round one starting at 15:00 CET (9:00 EST). | Photo and drawings by World Chess

The soul of Fritz

3/10/2018 – Meet Mathias Feist, the soul of Fritz, and a core member of the ChessBase team. Matthias has been the lead developer of Fritz since its inception, over 25 years ago. Fritz has been a world computer chess champion, but nowadays the focus is more on how to make it increasingly useful for humans as a fun and engaging training tool. Fritz 16 has raised the bar in this regard and in this interview with the Spanish magazine Peon de Rey, Jorge Casado seeks to uncover how the program and computer chess generally has evolved over the years. Mathias Feist has had a front row seat! | Photo: Nadja Wittman

Candidates Berlin 2018: What you need to know

3/9/2018 – The long-anticipated Candidates tournament starts tomorrow! You can watch with live video on WorldChess.com or the games on ChessBase via live.chessbase.com. We'll be having daily coverage, including the popular video round-up shows with well known contributors like Daniel King, Lawrence Trent, Simon Williams, Erwin l'Ami and Oliver Reeh. | Photo and drawings by World Chess

Tune your tactics: Initiative with the b pawn

3/9/2018 – 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! Friday at 15:30 CET (9:00 AM EDT) it's all about the initiative with the b pawn!

Vlastimil Hort: Memories of Bobby Fischer (1)

3/9/2018 – Robert James Fischer was born on March 9, 1943. He died January 17th, 2008, and today he would have celebrated his 75th birthday. He was madman and genius, full of contradictions, and though much has been written about his life and games he still remains a mystery. Vlastimil Hort knew Fischer personally and shares memories of "Bobby". | Photo: Marshall Chess Club collection

Knights attacking queens

3/9/2018 – Playing 10...Nxc5! in the diagram position might send a shiver down your spine in view of the possible replies 11.Nb5 and 11.Nd5 when Black can never allow his own queen to be captured on c7. Can you make the move work in both cases?

The Twitter war between Magnus Carlsen and Anish Giri

3/9/2018 – Twitter is becoming a battlefield of exchanges between top players these days. The Candidates 2018 is beginning in a couple of days from now and Magnus Carlsen and Anish Giri have already had quite some serious battle of words on Twitter. While Magnus attacked Anish with all his might, the Dutch GM has been able to maintain his cool. A lot of this happened after it was made public that Anish Giri is working with Vladimir Kramnik in Berlin. We bring you chronologically all of what happened along with some background behind the tweets! | Photo: Lennart Ootes
More...
 35

Women in focus

3/8/2018 – Last Sunday in Moscow the contest "blondes against brunettes" was held for the eighth time. Alexandra Kosteniuk led the "brunettes" to a clear victory. In India, IM Tania Sachdev launches a "Powerless Queen" project, and in Belgrade, there's a 50th International Women's tournament ongoing | Pictured: Elmira Mirzoeva | Photo: Russian Chess Federation

The Power Play Show

3/8/2018 – Thursday at 9pm UK time Daniel King will go on air on playchess.com. You can watch the episode live for free. This episodes about Anand's success in the Tal Memorial Rapid. All the usual puzzles, games and instruction will be on offer. Puzzle and the live video...

Gisbert Jacoby former ChessBase CEO, 1943-2018

3/8/2018 – Gisbert Jacoby was a chess aficionado and multiple Hamburg champion. As a national coach of the Hamburg Chess Federation, he later promoted many Hamburg talents. From 1988 to 1999, Jacoby was a Managing Director of ChessBase and set the course for the development of the young company. He was friendly with chess luminaries such as Garry Kasparov and Judit Polgar. Last Thursday he died in Hamburg.

Gamma Reykjavik Open: The first three rounds

3/8/2018 – Just two days in, already three rounds have already been played in Reykjavik. And only three players remain on a perfect score: Mustafa Yilmaz, Vaibhav Suri and Elshan Moradiabadi. Alina l'Ami, this time in front of the camera, started with two out of two but then lost to Moradiabadi. Gerd Densing reports. Game annotations by GM Daniel Fernandez | Pictured: Alina l'Ami | Photo: Gerd Densing

Play the Pirc like a Grandmaster Vol. 1 by GM Mihail Marin

3/8/2018 – The Pirc is an opening which can give White the false confidence of having the initiative. Black lets White build a huge central pawn structure, and then, like in a guerrilla warfare attacks those pawns, and the weak squares behind. Don't miss the chance to learn an opening which will deepen your understanding of many pawn structures! Davide Nastasio has the review.