Speelman's Agony #64

11/12/2017 – Jon looks at a pair of exciting if blunderful games from an enthusiastic Chilean amateur. Want Jon to take a look at your games? Send them in, and if selected, not only will you get free detailed commentary of your games by one of chess’s great authors and instructors, and former world no. 4 player, but you also win a free three-month ChessBase Premium Account!

Ding Liren Game of the Year?

11/11/2017 – Ding Liren, the Chinese number one and participant in the Candidates Tournament 2018 in Berlin, enjoys the reputation of being a solid positional player. But in round 18 of the Yingmei Cup — the Chinese Team Championship — he showed that he is also a world class attacking player by demolishing Bai Jinshi with Black in one of the most beautiful and most spectacular games of the year. Grandmasters Daniel King and Rustam Kasimdzhanov both had a closer look. Enjoy! And tell us about your favourite games of 2017. | Photo: Amruta Mokal

On the Road to Damascus

11/11/2017 – Curiosity, asking ourselves questions, engaging actively our opening study — what we really need on the road to chess mastery. In this review Davide Nastasio was curious to discover what made GM Bauer begin to play the Scandinavian, and thanks to Megabase 2017 he shares his findings in this review, through showing some critical games everyone should know.

Ahmed Adly wins strong Tegernsee Open

11/10/2017 – The International Open Bavarian Championship in Gmund attracted 484 players, among them a lot of strong grandmasters. GM Ahmed Adly from Egypt started with 6.0/6 and after a dramatic finish won on tie-break with 7½ / 9. IM Marco Baldauf presents highlights and brilliancies. | Photo: Alina l'Ami

Tune your tactics - Play it like Magnus

11/10/2017 – 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 Play Magnus event from Hamburg!

Battery-driven

11/10/2017 – Some pieces spend the biggest part of a game asleep. Never mind — as long as they hear their wake-up call to spring into action! What do you suggest for White in the diagram position?

Remembering Mikhail Tal

11/9/2017 – November 9th is the birthday of Mikhail Tal, one of the most fascinating and adored World Champions. Tal loved to play chess, whether it was blitz, simultaneous events or games with classical time-control, and his imagination led to countless wonderful games. On the occasion of the birthday of the "Chess Magician" Prof. Nagesh Havanur shows brilliant games and a haunting elegy to pay a short tribute to Tal. | Photo: Unlikelylads / Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Magistral Ciudad de Barcelona

11/9/2017 – On Thursday, November 9th "Masters of the City of Barcelona 2017" gets underway. The Catalan Chess Federation organises the event with sponsorship from the City of Barcelona and with the collaboration of Ateneu Barcelonès which is also host. Participants, details, and live broadcast from 16:30 PM CET. | Collage photos: Alina l'Ami

Magnus Carlsen Play Live Challenge simul

11/8/2017 – On Thursday at 19:00 CET (1 pm EST) ChessBase will webcast the Play Live Challenge, where World Champion Magnus Carlsen takes on twelve opponents in a 30 minutes per player clock simultaneous exhibition. The show will be live at the Hotel Atlantic Kempinski in downtown Hamburg, and will feature commentary by IM Lawrence Trent.

Ask Magnus, a special live webcast

11/8/2017 – Want to ask Magnus Carlsen a question? The World Champion will be our guest today on a special live webcast, where he'll take questions and have a look at one of his best games from his most recent tournament in the Isle of Man. | Photo: Amruta Mokal
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Fritz Powerbook 2018

11/7/2017 – The name says it all: Powerbook. This DVD contains over 21 million opening positions, the current opening knowledge. For study and training — your own opening repertoire gains a power boost.

The Weekly Show with Lawrence Trent

11/7/2017 – 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 European Team Championship!

Endgame Magic with guest Rustam Kasimdzhanov

11/7/2017 – Rustam Kasimdzhanov is a Grandmaster from Uzbekistan. A former FIDE World Champion, Rustam is also and renowned author and trainer of top players like Fabiano Caruana. He joins Karsten to look at some of his own fascinating endgame from recent years! Live at 15:00 CET (9:00 AM EST)!

Two bishops and two outside pawns

11/7/2017 – Opposite-coloured bishops are a paradox. In the middlegame they favour the attacker. In the endgame they favour the defender. In fact, some endgames with opposite-coloured bishops are drawn even if one side is two pawns up. But they don't draw themselves! You still have work to do.

Azerbaijan wins European Team Championship

11/7/2017 – Azerbaijan secured the European Team Championship gold on Monday with a draw against Ukraine. The Azerbaijani team scored a critical win over top-seeded Russia in Round 8, such that even a last round win for the Russians over Germany was only good enough for the silver medal. Ukraine, the third seed going in, took the bronze. In the European Women’s Team Championship, the favourites Russia, clinched gold with a round to spare, leaving Georgia and Ukraine battling for silver and bronze. In the end they finished exactly according to their starting rank. Fourth seed Poland was upset by ninth seed Romania and so just missed out on a medal. Analysis by IM Irene Sukandar | Photo: EuroTeams2017.com

50 games you should know: Steinitz vs. von Bardeleben

11/6/2017 – In chess the goal of the game is to checkmate the enemy king. However, most chess games are not decided by elegant mating attacks but because one side is materially superior. You first take the pieces of the opponent, then you mate. Sacrifices suspend these brutal rules of materialism, that makes them so enchanting. And some sacrifices seem to be almost magical.

Simon says: Latest developments in the French Defence

11/6/2017 – In this Simon Says we take look at the latest developments in the French Defence. Watch live from 18:00 CEST (12 Noon EDT).

Gold to Russian Women

11/6/2017 – The Women's event gold goes to Russia for the second straight year as they blanked Turkey 4 : 0 to clinch with a round to spare. The silver and bronze medal battle is between Georgia, Poland, Ukraine and Armenia. IM Irene Sukandar looks at key moments from Round 8. | Photo: EuroTeams2017.com

European Teams Open is still open

11/6/2017 – Azerbaijan beat Russia in Round 8, leaving the tournament to be decided in the final round with both teams plus Ukraine vying for the title. Rauf Mamedov has a remarkable 7½ out of 8 games and has broken 2700 for the first time. Azerbaijan takes a small lead into their match with Ukraine, Germany rocketed to fourth with wins over Armenia and Israel, and will face Russia. GM Daniel Fernandez and IM Lawrence Trent annotate the best games from Rounds 6-8. | Photo: EuroTeams2017.com

Chess Player's Mating Guide Vol 1: Learn some lethal smacks

11/6/2017 – Pieces are tossed in like fuel to burning fire, a king’s pawn shelter ripped apart. One player sees bone-chilling nightmares; his opponent couldn’t hold his thumping heart. More pieces come marauding in, hacking off every defender. The king begins running for his life; in the end, it’s caught en prise. An aesthetic murder is engineered. It’s checkmate! For those romantics who crave for such excitement in their chess games, Robert Ris has selected examples from his professional coaching practice with the aim of helping them understand the method behind what seems madness. | Graphic: 4fingerprodigy

How to lose to a 9-year-old at chess

11/5/2017 – Gone are the days of old men smoking pipes, playing chess in silence in draughty church halls. There has been an influx of youth, especially since the rise of extremely strong computers that allow youngsters to learn and advance in the game much faster than previously. This is especially the case in the U.S., where there is a seemingly endless stream of young talent coming through, most of them wildly underrated and poisonous for your Elo standing. Steve Barrett writes about this in CHESS Magazine.

What does 2018 hold for the FIDE Presidency?

11/5/2017 – The election for the presidency of the World Chess Federation is a year away, but there is already intrigue swirling around whether Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, the current president, can or will run again. Though Mr. Ilyumzhinov recently lost a no-confidence vote by the executive board, it is not clear that will be enough to dissuade him, and the acting president, Georgios Makropoulos, has ducked repeated questions. Dylan McClain updates on the current situation.

5e Rencontres Internationales des Échecs francophones

11/5/2017 – Les 5e RIDEF ont eu lieu du 28 octobre au 04 novembre 2017 dans le cadre majestueux de Yasmine Hammamet. Nous y étions. Pour celles et ceux qui ne nous auraient pas suivi au quotidien sur facebook, voici notre reportage publié exceptionnellement sur le portail ChessBase en anglais, en attendant que s'inaugure très bientôt le portail de ChessBase en français!

Tiviakov in Capri

11/4/2017 – Between October 26th and 29th, 2017, the Italian island of Capri hosted the 3rd International Tournament "Isola di Capri Vladimir Lenin". During those three days, Sergei Tiviakov drew two conclusions: that the island is beautiful, and that his own skills have suffered a bit during the almost 10 months of total absence from the board, while he was dedicated to training the team of Turkmenistan. Although he had to yield first place to Aleksander Rakhmanov — the only player with 6 points — Tiviakov was sixth and returned with a fine collection of photos as consolation, which he now shares with you.