American Chess Magazine: It's cool to be smart

10/19/2017 – That's the tagline of the quarterly print magazine, which soon celebrates its one year anniversary. The 150+ page colourful glossy "Issue No. 4" recently arrived at the ChessBase office, and includes a dose of "endgame strategy" from Karsten Mueller, a review of Simon Williams' DVD on The London System and an intriguing article on Tablebases by Jon Edwards, among extensive coverage of tournaments, player interviews, and educational features.

Endgame Magic with Julian Grötzbach

10/19/2017 – Julian Grötzbach is a chess player from Hamburg. Many years ago he was an intern at ChessBase but today he joins endgame expert Karsten Müller to take a look at some endgames - from his own practice and recent tournaments. Live at 14:30 CEST (6:30 AM EST)!

Chess photography: Tips and Tricks

10/19/2017 – In the first article on chess photography, the basic do's and don’ts were the object, hoping to bring a bit of light into how to achieve more engaging photos. This next part will provide some of the techniques used by the top pros to take their images to the next level. Naturally, these are very much in the reach of anyone wishing to learn and willing to spend a bit more time. Enjoy this tutorial.
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First Jamaica International Festival

10/19/2017 – The first Jamaican International Chess Festival brought four strong youngsters to promote chess on the beautiful island of Jamaica: Awonder Liang, Akshat Chandra, Akshita Gorti and Qiyu Zhou — all up-and-coming players with notable achievements. They gave speeches, played simuls, blitz and rapid chess for the purpose of inspiring youth in Jamaica. Qiyu Zhou gives a first-hand account. | Photo: Changrong Yu

Chess960 battle: Nakamura vs. Carlsen?

10/18/2017 – In February, 2018, there may be an unusual exhibition match held between Magnus Carlsen and Hikaru Nakamura, playing Chess960 (also known as Fischer Random). The competition is planned for the Hening Onstad Art Center in Bærum, Norway. It's funding is not yet fully secured, but Carlsen's manager is confident. | Photos: Alina L'Ami

50 games you should know: Morphy vs. Duke of Brunswick, Count Isoard

10/18/2017 – Occupying the center, developing pieces, opening lines, mating the enemy king: Paul Morphy knew how to win quickly. His most famous game also followed this pattern. Morphy played it November 2, 1858, against the Duke of Brunswick and Count Isouard in the Duke's loge in the Paris Opera. Morphy's brilliancy is more than 150 years old but the strategic pattern is still relevant. As Magnus Carlsen knows. | Photo: (left) Engraving by Daniel John Pound, based off a photograph by a Parisian photographer named Thompson) was first published in "The Drawing-Room Portrait Gallery of Eminent Personages," vol. II, London. 1859 | (right) Morphy in New York City, 1857 by Mathew Brady

New: Houdini 6

10/18/2017 – Houdini 6 continues where its predecessor left off, and adds solid 60 Elo points to this formidable engine, once again making Houdini the strongest chess program currently available on the market. Read the details. @StockfishLegalNotice

Larissa Volpert's best pawn endgame

10/17/2017 – Our Study of the Month author Siegfried Hornecker has a mystery to solve, and he needs your help! Larissa Volpert, the professor for philology and chess master, died in New York City on October 1st, 2017, at the age of 91. A game fragment from a 1961 Soviet chess magazine provides a glimpse into one of her greatest triumphs — a pawn ending so elegant that it resembles a composed study. But was the rest of the game as equally awe inspiring?

The Weekly Show with Lawrence Trent

10/17/2017 – 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 continuing a look at the European Club Cup in Antalya, Turkey which ended last Saturday.

The knight paves the way

10/17/2017 – "Knight endings are like pawn endings." That is easily said and often true. However, there is one important difference one should not forget: the knight can sacrifice itself! An endgame lesson from Karsten Müller.

Kramnik and the Reti (Part 1)

10/17/2017 – Among the top active players, few if any can claim to have made as many powerful contributions to opening theory as Vladimir Kramnnik. One need only recall that Kramnik is the only player on record to 'out-prepare' Garry Kasparov, and for the World title no less. In recent times, one of his latest pet openings has been the Reti, and guiding the reader through some of the changes along the way is GM Alex Yermolinsky. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

Fighting chess in CBM 179

10/17/2017 – A detailed review from Prof. Nagesh Havanur. Among other things this issue includes all games from super tournaments, Altibox Norway Chess and FIDE Grand Prix tournaments with winners, Levon Aronian and Ding Liren annotating decisive battles. Our reviewer re-examines the Aronian-Carlsen encounter and also sets up a little test for young readers. The magazine offers a bonanza for lovers of rapid play. There are games from Norway, Paris and Leuven blitz events. 1968 games with 11 opening surveys from Spanish to Semi-Slav. Not to be missed.

European Club Cup: Globus first across the finish line

10/16/2017 – The Azerbaijani team Odlar Yurdu were poised to win the European Club Cup 2017 in Antalya, Turkey on Saturday, but came up short against the Czech team of AVE Nový Bor losing 2½ : 3½. That let the Russian top seeded team of Globus to leapfrog into victory. Vladimir Kramnik finally got a white game, and duly won over Ernesto Inarkiev. Among the Women, Batumi Chess Club NONA, though not without incident. | Photo: David Llada

Aronian and Caoili tie the knot

10/16/2017 – World number two Levon Aronian and Arianne Caoili were married on September 30th, 2017, in Yerevan, Armenia. It was a Christian wedding ceremony held in one of the most ancient churches of the country. The most important guest at the wedding was Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan along with first lady Rita Sargsyan. We have official pictures of the wedding exclusively sent to ChessBase and also a few videos to give you a feel of the celebrations, including Levon singing! | Photo: Alisa Studios, Los Angeles

Indians at the Isle of Man 2017

10/15/2017 – We look back at IoM one more time, focusing on the many Indian players who performed admirably, first and foremost, Vishy Anand for his second place finish, scoring 7.0 / 9. The second was Vidit Gujrathi, who had a very solid +4 performance. However, his biggest achievement of the event was surely holding Magnus Carlsen to a draw. And the third, rather lesser known, was GM Swapnil Dhopade, with a rating of 2532, but who performed at an Elo of 2768. We got in touch with all the three high performers and try to understand the secrets of their success. Photos: | Alina l'Ami (Anand), Chess.com/Maria Emelianova (Vidit and Swapnil)

William Lombardy (1937-2017)

10/14/2017 – Grandmaster Bill Lombardy died in California on Friday morning, of a likely heart attack. Lombardy was the World Junior Champion in 1957 (the first American to win that title) scoring a perfect 11-0, a performance that has never been repeated. He shared first at the U.S. Open Championship three times (1963, 1965 and 1975). But he is perhaps best known as a coach of Bobby Fischer. Lombardy was with Fischer throughout the 1972 World Championship match in Reykjavik. He would have turned 80 years old in December.

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...