European Club Cup: Round 7 LIVE

10/14/2017 – Globus edged out Odlar Yurdu in the final round by beating SHSM Legacy Square Capital 4½ : 1½ on the second table, while Oldar Yurdu lost the Czech team of AVE Nový Bor 3½ : 2½. In the Women's competition, Batumi Chess Club NONA and Odlar Yurdu were even on match points, but the Batumi team had the better Sonneborn-Berger tiebreak score. Live games and commentary from 14:00 (CEST) | Photo: David Llada

Come play chess in Rio de Janeiro!

10/14/2017 – From November 11-18, 2017, the Marcel Duchamp International chess festival will be held in sunny Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. There will be no fewer than eight events, from the Master group with grandmasters and masters already inscribed, a sub-2200 and sub-1800 event, as well as the Brazilian Rapid and Blitz championship. All in the gorgeous setting of Rio de Janeiro. | Photo: Albert Silver

Yermo's Travels: the Innsbruck Open

10/13/2017 – In his most active series of chess events in many years, the highlight of GM Alex Yermolinsky's summer was a trip to Europe where he played his first open there in 20 years: the Innsbruck Open in Austria. For anyone seeking a relaxing event surrounded by Mother Nature at her most gorgeous, the setting of mountains, forests, and the Inn river is hard to improve upon. And of course while playing a fine chess tournament! | Photo: A. Yermolinsky

Back rank pranks

10/13/2017 – Due to his confined king, Black must be very careful when taking on e5 in the diagram position. The game continuation 33...Rxe5? loses by force. Can you prove the win for White after that?

Memory Techniques: the chess equation

10/13/2017 – Concluding the series on memory techniques, after detailed tutorials on how to create a Memory Palace, its history, and the Peg system, here is the chapter on how it all ties together to be used in chess. Timur Gareyev, who broke the world record for a blindfold simul, wrote to the author detailing his personal adaptation used to help him break the record. We hope you enjoyed this series and find it useful. | Photo: Sohn Conference/Youtube

ChessBase 14: First Steps

10/13/2017 – An introductory tutorial to using ChessBase 14, from our resident expert. Learn installation and activation, navigating the program, working with databases, entering games, training, the cool "assisted analysis" feature, how to use Fritz as a sparring partner effectively, advanced search functions, creating a custom repertoire against your next opponent, and using databases in the cloud! You'll want to bookmark this for future reference for sure!
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European Club Cup: Just two teams with 100%

10/12/2017 – Top team Globus continues to lead, but had to jump a high hurdle in Novy Bor during Round 3. In a very competitive match, the Russians finished with a tight 3½ : 2½, lead by a win from Sergey Karjakin. In the fourth round, they crushed Gambit Asseco from Macedonia 5½ : ½, but will have a tough test once again in Round 5 facing the strong Azerbaijani team of Odlar Yurdu. | Pictured: Arkadij Naiditsch and Rauf Mamedov | Photo: David Llada

The Power Play Show with GM Karsten Müller

10/12/2017 – Thursday at 5pm UK time Daniel King will go on air on playchess.com. You can watch the episode live for free. Daniel King will have a special guest for this show: GM Karsten Müller. For this episode some endgames will be discussed as well as some puzzles. Puzzle and the live video...

Vlastimil Hort: Encounters with Wolfgang Unzicker

10/12/2017 – Vlastimil Hort continues to share memories of great chessplayers and personalities he has met during his long chess career. One of them was German Grandmaster Wolfgang Unzicker. At first, Unzicker suspected that Hort was a communist spy, but when this suspicion was dispelled, they became friends and liked to tell each other jokes in Russian. | Photo: André Schulz

Haute couture for the chess world

10/11/2017 – A new exhibit at the World Chess Hall of Fame in Saint Louis puts a new twist on the question of professional chess player dress codes. In cooperation with the Saint Louis Fashion Fund, the museum launched a "Designer Chess Challenge" which paired up professional fashion designers with chess pros to craft a chic but practical tournament outfit. The results are on display in "PINNED!", which opened October 6th and runs until Spring, 2018. | Designer Photos: Geoff Story, TOKY | Chess photos: Austin Fuller, Matt Kile, and Spectrum Studios

Komodo 11: A finely tuned engine

10/11/2017 – When it comes to chess engines, Komodo 11 is bang up to date and is often referred to as the engine that can think like humans! Amazed by this, Davide Nastasio got his hands on this silicon giant to test it out for himself. After spending several hours exploring the various features of Komodo, he was not only convinced that the engine does analyse positions in a human-like manner but also felt it is an extremely useful tool for the modern chess player. Below is his insightful review.

Andriy Vovk wins in Oslo

10/11/2017 – The Elo favourite at the Chess Festival Oslo was Polish grandmaster Grzegorz Gajewski who helps Vishy Anand as a second. However, Gajewski played too many draws and also stumbled against young Chinese IM Di Li. Things went smoother for Andriy Vovk, who won the tournament with 8½/10. | Photo: Anniken Vestby / Schachfestival Oslo

Isle of Man Retrospective

10/10/2017 – 13 o'clock Saturday afternoon in the sweeping bay of Douglas, Isle of Man. The out of sorts wind and nagging rain make sure one hurries indoors, into the snug haven of Villa Marina. Excited in anticipation, the chess crowd keeps on chirping and chatting and glancing at the swinging doors. A chilled Viswanathan Anand walks in, and relaxed Fabiano Caruana, a determined, frowning Hikaru Nakamura, Vladimir Kramnik, intimidating and imposing, and then there's Carlsen...Alina l'Ami retells the story of Isle of Man in pictures.

Remembering Milan Vidmar

10/10/2017 – Milan Vidmar was a phenomenom: Despite being an amateur, between 1910 and 1930 he was one of the world's top players and regularly finished among the top in world class tournaments. Vidmar was an electrical engineer by training and in this field he also made a career. He died 55 years ago, on October 9, 1962. | Photo: Slovenske Novice

The Weekly Show with Lawrence Trent

10/10/2017 – 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 is all about the European Club Cup, going on in Antalya, Turkey.

The power of the bishops

10/9/2017 – If they come in pairs bishops can be very strong. But sometimes even a single bishop is strong enough to control the whole board. This edition of Karsten Müller's endgame column looks at what happens when the bishops face off against a rook.

Ivan Salgado is 2017 Spanish Champion

10/9/2017 – The 83rd Spanish Individual Championship was held between September 29th and October 7th in Las Palmas of Gran Canaria. After nine rounds of competition, champion Ivan Salgado López was crowned. He scored six wins and three draws and left the final score at 7½ / 9. Runner-up was David Anton with 7/9 points. Daniel Forcén was third. | Photos: Patricia Claros

European Club Cup: Favourites all win

10/9/2017 – The European Club Cup began with wins for top teams in both the Open and the Women sections. The Russian team Globus, with several of the world's elite grandmasters, won 6: 0 against the Icelandic team Fjölnir. Defending champions Alkaloid from Macedonia had a slightly harder time, initially giving up 1½ board points against Augusta Perusia from Italy. Among the Women's teams the favourites from Batumi won just 2½ : 1½ against Anatolia from Turkey.

Too fast, too strong: Carlsen's Singapore simul

10/9/2017 – The October 6th, 2017, was a great day for Singapore chess. Thanks to the efforts of Norwegian Business Association Singapore, World Champion Magnus Carlsen visited the country for a simul against 16 players that was greatly enjoyed and appreciated by all the chess lovers of Singapore. The opposition that Magnus faced was not easy. Some players were rank amateurs, but there were also seasoned experts, with six-time National champion IM Kevin Goh Wei Ming (rated 2461!) being one of the participants. But Magnus showed absolutely no mercy; he cleaned up the field with a 16-0 score in little over an hour! | Pictured: Esther Koh (Business Development Director, Zenitant Holdings), Magnus Carlsen, and Michelle Tay (Director, Hauterobe Pte Ltd) | Photo: Junior Tay

Kovalyov: The Canadian Case

10/8/2017 – The Chess Federation of Canada will present their case on behalf of Anton Kovalyov on Monday morning at the Ethics Commission hearing during the 88th FIDE Congress, in Antalya, Turkey. Before heading East, Canadian delegate to FIDE, Hal Bond, gave us a preview of some of the issues that are likely to come up in the meeting. | Pictured (clockwise from top left): Zurab Azmaiparashvili, Francois Strydom, Anton Kovalyov, Rajesh Hari Joshi, Willy Iclicki, Ion Dobronauteanu, Pedro Dominguez Brito | Photos: FIDE.com (except Kovalyov: Amruta Mokal)

Speelman's Agony #62

10/8/2017 – This week's games are by John Thornton, a Welshman who was 70 earlier this year. Years ago, he sent me some corrections for my book 'Analysing the Endgame' and he says, very pleasingly that: "I recently went back to that to provide material for a session that I ran at a local club where I used analysis of the famous Spassky vs. Fischer game — the analysis you gave holding up exceedingly well against computer analysis."

Kovalyov case moves to Ethics Commission

10/7/2017 – It's tempting to make light of this affair by, for instance, referring to it as "the short(s) report". But when a tournament as prestigious as the FIDE World Cup is making international headlines for what amounts to dress code enforcement, it should be no laughing matter. We take a comprehensive look at the facts in evidence and Kovalyov's response to the previously published report. | Photo: Chess.com / Maria Emelianova (used with permission)

CHESS Magazine: Find the winning moves

10/6/2017 – Test your tactical ability with these positions grouped in rough order of difficulty. The games come from various recent events, not least the British Championship and the Grand Chess Tour. Don’t forget that whilst sometimes the key move will force mate or the win of material, other times it will just win a pawn. Take your time analysing the positions, on our news page, assisted by a JavaScript chess engine.

Tune your tactics - Double Check

10/6/2017 – 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 IM Oliver Reeh and Pascal Simon! Friday at 3.30 pm CEST it's all about the double check!