The Power Play Show

11/30/2018 – Friday at 18:00 CET (17:00 UTC) Daniel King will go on air on playchess.com. You can watch the episode live for free. All the usual puzzles, games and instruction will be on offer, plus Daniel will be looking at the tie-break games from the World Championship. Puzzle and the live video...

Amateur chess with a difference

11/30/2018 – The World Championship has naturally dominated the headlines over the past three weeks, but let us not forget that chess is played by millions of amateurs worldwide. That's the focus of a new tournament in Serbia from January 3rd-11th, 2019. DIANA MIHAJLOVA explains. | Pictured: The Amateur Chess International Tournaments are accompanied by an ever-present mascot: a stylized chess piece with a head of a panther, called "Archibald". | Photos: Tournament archive

Princeton wins Ivy Chess Challenge

11/30/2018 – The inaugural Ivy Chess Challenge was the one of the strongest collegiate tournament to be ever held in North America, after the Pan-American Collegiate Championships. Though the name is a bit misleading, as only three out of the six teams were Ivy Leagues, the tournament nevertheless boasted very strong chess-players, on both rating and academics. QIYU ZHOU was there representing the host University of Toronto and sends this report. | Photo: Changong Yu

Fire on the board

11/30/2018 – The diagram position saw the queen sacrifice 18.Bxh6, giving rise to fantastic complications. After 18...Nxf4 19.Bxg7+ Kh7 20.Rxf4 White threatens checkmate. Can you show — or maybe even remember — how Black could have won?

Magnus Carlsen keeps the crown

11/29/2018 – The 2018 World Championship match in London concluded on Wednesday. Two days before his 28th birthday, Sven Magnus Øen Carlsen confirmed his status as World Champion for at least two more years. And he did it in style, getting a 3:0 wipe-out in the rapid tiebreaks over Fabiano Caruana. Both players were deservingly praised for their efforts afterwards, in what was considered one of the most far-reaching chess events in recent history. GM DANIEL FERNANDEZ and GM YANNICK PELLETIER analysed all the games of the tiebreaks. | Photos: World Chess

Misha Tal: The fall of the eagle

11/29/2018 – Last time our columnist offered a glimpse of young Tal as seen by his friend, Valentin Kirillov: Then we saw a young eagle soaring in the sky. Now we see him with wings burning and falling. Here is how the tragedy unfolded. | Pictured: Mikhail Tal and Boris Spassky at blitz | Photo: chess-news.ru

Game of the Week: Beating the Petroff

11/28/2018 – Ideas and strategies in Grandmaster games can be quite instructive. IM Merijn van Delft presents games like these every Wednesday at 20:00 CET (19:00 UT, 2 pm EDT). On this week's show: Magnus Carlsen's attempt in London to beat Caruana's Petroff. The live show is free to watch, and available on-demand for ChessBase Premium account holders. To chat, please visit videos.chessbase.com/live or login via Playchess for Windows.

World Championship 2018 - Closing Ceremony LIVE

11/28/2018 – The moment we've all been waiting for! Live games (for Premium members) from the 2018 World Championship match in London. Every two games will be followed by a rest day until Game 12 (if necessary) on November 26th which will be preceded by an additional rest day. All rounds start at 15:00 UT (London time) / 16:00 CEST / 10:00 EST. If needed there would be a rapid tiebreak match on Wednesday, November 28th. | Photos: Patricia Claros

Kramnik: "Magnus needs to get rid of this fear of losing the title"

11/28/2018 – Former World Champion Vladimir Kramnik is one of many grandmasters and chess fans crestfallen at the string of twelve draws we have witnessed over the past three weeks. He thinks Magnus Carlsen is still the favourite in the tiebreak (60%/40%) but that Caruana has won over a lot of fans, and if he has a good tiebreak match strategy worked out in advance, and makes use of his chances, he can win. | Photos: World Chess

Kings Tournament celebrates Romania's Centenary

11/28/2018 – In honour of the Centenary of Romania's Unification Day, the ROMGAZ Kings Tournament organised an event that included some of the strongest players from the country and the country's diaspora. Viorel Iordachescu and Alina l'Ami won the men's and women's tournaments, respectively. Each event combined rapid and blitz formats with four players in each category. In both cases, there was a close fight for first place. | Photos: Official site

New format for the Women's World Championship Cycle

11/28/2018 – The 2018 Championship ended last Friday, with Chinese GM Ju Wenjun winning the 64-player knockout tournament to retain her title. In the meantime FIDE had revised the system, and surprised the chess world with a comprehensively revised new format. It consists of an eight-player double round robin Candidates Tournament to be held in the first half of 2019, with the winner playing the reigning Women's World Champion at the end of the same year. Here are the details of the whole cycle.

The Weekly Show with Lawrence Trent

11/27/2018 – Tuesdays at 18:00 CEST (5:00 pm UK time, Noon EDT) Lawrence Trent brings you the latest trends, games and combinations from elite chess tournaments. Lawrence is LIVE this week and free for ChessBase Basic account holders for a limited time! (Why not register for FREE in 30 seconds if you don't already have an account?) This week Lawrence looks at the 'Tournament of Peace' in Zagreb.

Simon Says — My own games (2)

11/27/2018 – For a change, Simon takes a look at some of his own recent games in this episode, including highlights from the Isle of Man open and 4NCL tournament. Simon is live this week. If you miss the show, you can watch it in the archive with a ChessBase Account. Don't have an account? You can register a free 90-day account to watch!

ChessBase 15: Replay Training (part 2)

11/27/2018 – The first part of the tutorial about the new "Replay Training" function in ChessBase 15 explainded how to use this function. The second part explains how to optimize your training and how to save the results of your replay sessions. Try it, have fun, get better! | Drawing: ChessBase
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A great rook

11/27/2018 – Rook and knight are not always in harmony. Coordinating them properly often requires precision.

World Championship Game 12: And on to the rapids...

11/27/2018 – Two years after Magnus Carlsen openly went for a draw with White in the last classical game of his match against Sergey Karjakin, the World Champion offered a draw in a playable — slightly superior — position to take the struggle to rapid tiebreaks. Fabiano Caruana understandably agreed to split the point and now everything will be decided on Wednesday, when four rapid games — and blitz and Armageddon if the tie is not broken — will determine the champion. Guest analysis by GM WESLEY SO and GM ERWIN L'AMI. | Photos: World Chess

Tata Blitz – a video feast

11/26/2018 – Did you catch the world-class blitz at the Tata Steel tournament in India? For the vast majority the venue, like with so many other events, was just too far away. Thankfully Sagar Shah, who set up ChessBase India, was there and filmed the most interesting games from the best possible angle. You can watch the action at close range, see the players think and react to the opponent's moves, and even analyse on the replay board with engine support. It's highly enjoyable — just ask 1.3 million viewers on YouTube you have watched Praggnanandhaa vs Anand!

Chess bets

11/26/2018 – Chess enjoys the reputation of being a rational game in which chance plays no or only a very limited role. However, one of the sponsors of the World Championship match between Magnus Carlsen and Fabiano Caruana in London is "Unibet", the Swedish company that provides an internet platform for sports betting and online gambling. Thorsten Cmiel looked at odds, betting and possible manipulation in chess. | Photos: World Chess

World Championship Musical Interludes

11/26/2018 – One of the laudable goals of World Chess has been to attempt to forge ties between the chess community and the wider world by highlighting working creatives who are inspired by the game. Three chess fans who are eager to share their passion through their primary mode of expression have been among the guests in London over the past weeks: Pianist and composer Jason Kouchak, singer/songwriter Juga, and designer Daniel Weil. Each brings a unique musical style but shares a common aim — to generate excitement around the sport and reach new audiences.

World Championship Game 11: "At this point the tension is at its peak"

11/25/2018 – And then there was one! The World Championship match is headed to a dramatic conclusion after Magnus Carlsen could not score a goal in his last White game. Game 11 ended up as one of the shorter and least interesting draws of the match although it started promisingly enough. The previous Challenger Sergey Karjakin was the surprise guest making the ceremonial first move and he got a smile out of both players by starting with 1.b4 for Magnus. Carlsen opted not to take Karjakin's suggestion to heart and played into a critical line from the Petroff preparation of Caruana — a line shown in the training video accidentally leaked before Game 4. Guest analysis by GM BORIS GELFAND and IM LAWRENCE TRENT. | Photos: World Chess

Hornecker on Heuäcker

11/24/2018 – It is said it is better to lose a friend than a good joke — or in this case a pun. Today our study expert SIEGFRIED HORNECKER presents a talented composer born in Hamburg on December 16th, 1899, but who lived for many years in Vienna. "The soul of an artist had its price with Heuäcker valuing beautiful, aesthetic chess more than practical necessities". | Photo: GFHund CC BY 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons

Review: The Baffling 2.b3 Sicilian

11/24/2018 – The Sicilian is, of course, a major opening if not THE major opening! It certainly has been instrumental to the ongoing World Championship match! For club players looking to make the life of a Sicilian veteran very unpleasant, with unusual ideas, patterns and moves forcing them to think from move 2, this is an anti-Sicilian line worth dabbling in! If White wants to throw down the gauntlet and bring Black into a dark forest, where 2+2 doesn't always equal 4 and the path leading out is only big enough for one, then...well, you get the picture! Reviewer DAVIDE NASTASIO explains why following IM Lawrence Trent can bring Black into a world of pain, and definitely time-trouble.

Women's World Ch: Ju Wenjun defends her title

11/23/2018 – The champion kept her title. Ju Wenjun defeated Kateryna Lagno 3:1 in the tiebreaks of the 2018 Women's World Championship final match by winning both 10+10 games after drawing the first two rapid encounters. This was the first time since 2000 that a player defended her title in a knockout tournament. With another championship cycle over — the second one this year — the next one is expected to include a Candidates Tournament. | Photos: Official site

Karsten Mueller: "Endgames are like pure mathematics"

11/23/2018 – Today is the birthday of ChessBase's endgame expert, Grandmaster Karsten Mueller. Recently he was interviewed by Sagar Shah of ChessBase India, who writes, "the interview is amazing, packed with great stories, analysis and your thoughts on different topics of great importance."