Simon says: Some crazy games

11/20/2017 – In this Simon Says Simon Williams takes a look at some crazy games that he has recently played. Expect lots of crazy sacrifices! Watch live from 18:00 CEST (12 Noon EDT).

Chess Festival Aeroflot Open 2018

11/20/2017 – The Aeroflot Open Chess Festival, which is popular throughout the world, will be held in Moscow from 19th February (the date of arrival) to 2nd March 2018 (the date of departure). This major event is open to chess players from all over the globe, of most varied qualification: from unrated to those having a very high rating. As before, the festival is held under the wings of Aeroflot – Russian Airlines.

FIDE GP in Palma: Sac, sac, mate!

11/20/2017 – What an exciting round it was! Round four not only saw a plethora of decisive games, but spectacular ones at that. Levon Aronian was once more his brilliant best as he defeated Anish Giri in a beautiful game with sacs coming from all directions. Ding Liren's imaginative attack against Ernesto Inarkiev was also a joy to watch, and even Hikaru Nakamura's endgame squeeze over Radjabov started with a sparkling queen sac. Report and analysis by GM Alex Yermolinsky. | Photo: Valerij Belobeev

FIDE GP in Palma: Missed opportunities

11/19/2017 – Round three was mostly one of missed opportunities as many games failed to capitalize on the promise of their positions. The first and foremost was Maxime Vachier-Lagrave's excellent chances against co-leader Levon Aronian that fizzled out during the technical transition, while Rapport will regret his near-win not yielding its fruits. That said, Peter Svidler did deliver mate on the board against Jon Hammer! Report and analysis by GM Alex Yermolinsky | Photo: Valerij Belobeev

Building the ultimate chess machine

11/18/2017 – In a recent discussion with top grandmasters, notably GM John Nunn, the topic came up on what the ideal configuration and setup would be for chess analysis, whether at home, or abroad. Naturally we are talking about reasonable budget restraints as well, since otherwise the sky is the limit. What is better? Several strong machines, or just one top computer? Read on to find out. | Photo: AMD

Beating Magnus after a month of training?

11/18/2017 – Max Deutsch is an obsessive learner, a product builder, and guinea pig for a "Month to Master" project: the 24-year-old entrepreneur who lives in San Francisco has shown that he can train himself to memorize a deck of cards in two minutes, hold a 30-minutes conversation in Hebrew and develop perfect pitch, in each case after just 30 days of training. After eleven tasks he set himself for 2017 the twelfth was to beat World Champion Magnus Carlsen in a game of chess. The experiment, described in the Wall Street Journal, took place in Hamburg earlier this month. Tell us what you think.

FIDE GP in Palma: The lions are awakened

11/18/2017 – After a cautious game in round one, Teimour Radjabov roared like a lion as he unleashed a powerful King's Indian as only he, one of the world's foremost proponents, could do. It was a masterful game as he beat Vallejo Pons. Levon Aronian is another who scored a brilliant win, showing magnificent opening preparation that caught Inarkiev in his net. Here is the round two report with analysis by GM Alex Yermolinsky. | Photo: Agon

Tune your tactics - Rook-Bishop Battery

11/17/2017 – 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 Rook-Bishop Battery!

The jinxed 41st move

11/17/2017 – It's a well-known scenario: you think you made the time control but you are not quite sure, and therefore you quickly make one more 'neutral' move to be on the safe side. But that is often easier said than done. The diagram position is one example how difficult it is to play it safe: How does White keep the balance, with 41.Kg2 or 41.h4?

Tania Sachdev's Twelfth Knight

11/17/2017 – Simultaneous events, the battle of one player against many, are fun, fascinating and exciting. Sometimes they are even charming. Carl Portman reports about such a simul, given by Tania Sachdev in the village of Shutford near Banbury in Oxfordshire. | Photo: André Schulz

12-year-old beats top GM – update

11/17/2017 – The World Junior Chess Championships is considered one of the most prestigious tournaments in the world – great players like Spassky, Karpov, Kasparov, Anand have been the World Junior Champions in the past. Players are 20 years old or younger. But after five rounds, in place three we find a 12-year-old who has beaten the top seed (GM Jorden van Foreest, rated 2616) in a flawless game for which we have video analysis. And in round five Indian prodigy R. Praggnanandhaa beat another GM and chalked up a rating performance of 2830!

FIDE Grand Prix in Palma: A promising start

11/17/2017 – The final stage of the FIDE Grand Prix has started in Palma de Mallorca, Spain, and at stake are the final two spots in the next Candidates. Both Teimour Radjabov and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave will fight tooth and nail to pull the rug from under the feet of Mamedyarov and Grischuk. In round one, MVL had a perfect start with a win over Gelfand. Inarkiev and Giri also won their games with stylish victories. Report and analysis by GM Alex Yermolinsky | Photo: Agon

Duchamp in Rio off to a sunny start

11/16/2017 – It has been literally decades since Rio de Janeiro, nicknamed the “Wonderful City” in Portuguese, has been host to a strong international tournament. The most famous by far would be the Interzonal held in 1979. The 1st Duchamp Chess Festival is underway now, held in world famous Copacabana, and brings masters and grandmasters including Brazilian legend, Henrique Mecking. | Photos: Albert Silver

Evaluating our favourite brain boosters

11/16/2017 – Most parents want their children to reach their academic potential, and they’re willing to go through great effort and expense to help them achieve that goal. In recent years, a number of researchers have offered evidence suggesting that two activities in particular are especially effective at improving children’s cognitive abilities. These are playing chess and learning a musical instrument. But before sending your kid to chess club or band camp, please read on.

Can Radjabov and MVL make it to the Candidates?

11/16/2017 – The Grand Prix series until now was not the most exciting string of tournaments held, mainly because of the high number of draws in the past events. But the last leg held at Palma De Mallorca, Spain, which will begin November 16th, is extremely exciting, because two spots from the Candidates 2018 will be decided from here! Two players who have the best chance to make it are Teimour Radjabov and MVL. We have the pictures from the grand opening ceremony that was held in a Gothic Castle.

Champions Showdown: Carlsen stays on top

11/15/2017 – The last day of the match between Magnus Carlsen and Ding Liren continued the trend of the previous days: Ding had chances but failed to realise them. Carlsen, however, was able to exploit chances he did not really seem to have. No wonder Carlsen won the blitz-match by a huge margin. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

27th FIDE World Senior Chess Championship

11/15/2017 – It's taking place in the north Italian town of Acqui Terme, a place where ancient Romans went to take sulphur baths. 282 players are gathered to play the open and women's Senior World Championship, in the +50 and +65 sections. GMs Granda Zuniga and Zurab Sturua lead in the +50 Open, with 5.0/7 each. On the sidelines there is an initiative to establish a new FIDE Seniors' Commission, to help address future policy, a range of existing issues.

Escape artist

11/15/2017 – Passed pawns often lead to exciting tactics. They invite sacrifices and can lead to mating attacks that have to be calculated carefully. But sometimes the tactical possibilities are even more sophisticated.

DeepMind founder motivates children

11/15/2017 – DeepMind is a neuroscience-inspired AI company which develops general-purpose learning algorithms and uses them to help tackle some of the world’s most pressing challenges. The company's groundbreaking work includes the development of AlphaGo. This Deep Learning program defeated Go world champion Lee Sedol in 2016 — a breakthrough experts proclaimed to have arrived a decade ahead of its time. Demis Hassabis, Co-Founder and CEO of DeepMind, visited UCL Academy in Camden, UK, and took students on a journey through his career from chess prodigy to scientist and business leader and into the complex world of artificial intelligence.

Champions Showdown Live

11/14/2017 – Today, the Champions Showdown in St. Louis will end. Ding Liren and Magnus Carlsen will play 12 blitz games with a time-control of 5 minutes for the whole game. After three days Carlsen leads by 50-18 and thus secured the match. Even if Ding Liren won all 12 blitz games today he would not catch up. But no matter the result, 12 high-class blitz games are still worth watching. The games begin at 18:00 CET (11 am in Saint Louis) on Tuesday. You can follow the action live.

Champions Showdown: Carlsen dominates Ding

11/14/2017 – One match is still running at the Champions Showdown in St. Louis: Magnus Carlsen vs Ding Liren. In round three, on November 13, the World Champion and China's first World Championship Candidate had to play eight 10-minute games. Ding Liren started well but then suffered a debacle. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

The Weekly Show with Lawrence Trent

11/14/2017 – 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 features games from the Bundesliga!

Endgame Magic with guest Lawrence Trent

11/14/2017 – Lawrence Trent is an Internation Master from The United Kingsdom. He's in Hamburg to record a DVD. He also has his own weekly show on playchess (this evening at 18:00 CET). He joins Karsten to today look at some fascinating endgame from recent tournament praxis! Live at 15:00 CET (9:00 AM EST)!

Scenes from Magnus Carlsen's Hamburg swing

11/14/2017 – Photos and video from Magnus Carlsen's two days in Hamburg last week. At the ChessBase office he gave a short interview, greeted the ChessBase team and received the first copy (made by hand) of Fritz 16 (on sale starting on November 14th!). On Thursday Magnus participated in a conference on the theme "digital health" organised by Die Zeit (we have the full interview) and in the evening he played a clock simultaneous exhibition at the Atlantic Kempinski hotel. Carlsen prevailed in all the games, but the 13 players gave him a decent challenge. The group itself was interesting, including German football star Marco Bode, a Norwegian politician, three very young but talented players, several self-proclaimed "addicts" of "Play Magnus" app, and an young Austrian woman who played her first serious game against the World Champion. | Photos: Nadja Wittmann