ACM: Cat and Mouse with Vassily Ivanchuk

2/8/2018 – American Chess Magazine #5 is out, featuring a dashing Magnus "Clark Kent" Carlsen on the cover. The issue is packed with great stories, and we present the annotated game from Vassily Ivanchuk's World Cup run. That prompted ACM reader Art Jensen to send in this photo of his own cat "Taz" enjoying the article! The issue also includes reviews of two ChessBase DVDs.

Chess in prisons makes a difference

2/8/2018 – Carl Portman is an English chess player who wrote a unique book on chess. This is not another theoretical book, this is a legacy book as he likes to call it titled 'Chess Behind Bars' by Quality Chess. In his interview with Amruta Mokal for ChessBase India, Carl talks about why he decided to start Chess in Prison voluntarily in England, what motivates him to continue working on this project, how successful he was in this unique project, how he tries to push this in governors' prison agenda, different situations he had to face and how he dealt with it.

How to save your games at playchess.com?

2/7/2018 – Ever wonder how you save your Playchess games? The answer to this question might come as a surprise: you do not need to save them! Why? Because the games are saved automatically. Here's a quick explanation how this works and where you can see the games you have saved.
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Jan Timman's birthday study tournament

2/7/2018 – Jan Timman turned 66 years old on December 14th, 2017, and received an unusual gift from his friend of 50 years, IM Hans Bohm: a study competition launched in his honour. 66 composers from around the world competed for a 2000 euro prize fund. Noted study expert Yochanan Afek brings us the highlights — pull up a chair, settle in, and enjoy. | Pictured (clockwise from left): The jury: Jan Timman, Hans Böhm, Yochanan Afek, Harold van der Heijden | Photo: Dorette van der Heijden

Rapid match Hou Yifan vs Anatoly Karpov

2/7/2018 – The northern Chinese city of Harbin was the venue for a friendly competition between Hou Yifan and Anatoly Karpov. Over two days, the pair contested six rapid games. Karpov won the match 3½ : 2½. These days the 66-year-old Karpov rarely competes in serious tournaments. But he is still dangerous. | Photo: Imsa.cn

Filatov remains head of Russian Chess Federation

2/6/2018 – On Saturday, February 3, the Russian Chess Federation held presidential elections. The current president Andrey Filatov started the day facing several challengers, notably Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, the current FIDE president, who is expected to stand for reelection to the body in September at the Chess Olympiad in Batumi. Ilyumzhinov received support from an unlikely source in former ECU president Silvio Danailov, but ultimately Ilyumzhinov withdrew his bid before the actually voting was held, and Filatov was easily returned to office, along with his team. | Photo: ruchess.ru

The Power Play Show

2/6/2018 – Tuesday at 6pm UK time Daniel King will go on air on playchess.com. You can watch the episode live for free. Daniel King will be discussing a positional masterpiece by Levon Aronian. All the usual puzzles, games and instruction will be on offer. Puzzle and the live video...

The Weekly Show with Lawrence Trent

2/6/2018 – Tuesdays at 18:00 CET (5pm UK time, Noon EST) Lawrence Trent goes on air on Playchess.com. In his show, Lawrence will be dealing with the latest trends, games and combinations from elite chess tournaments. This week features games from the German Bundesliga.

Checks — and how to escape them

2/6/2018 – "All rook endings are drawn", is an often quoted witticism. However, things are not that simple. In fact, a lot of rook endings are won — provided the side that has an advantage knows what to do with this advantage. Which, of course, is easier said than done.

Tigran Petrosian on new Armenian money

2/6/2018 – Armenia honours its World Chess Champion Tigran Petrosian with a banknote. The likeness of the 9th World Chess Champion graces the new 2000 dram which has recently been issued for the first time in the country, as part of a new series of notes.

Carsten Hensel, from London to Bonn and beyond

2/6/2018 – Carsten Hensel was manager of Peter Leko and Vladimir Kramnik and was directly involved in the most important chess events during a very tumultuous time for chess. Now he wrote a book about the life of Vladmir Kramnik which will appear soon. In an interview Hensel talks about the book, his work with Kramnik and various World Championship matches. | Photo: Vladimir Kramnik on the cover of the book

A male dominated game?

2/5/2018 – On Sunday January 14th 2018, something very unusual happened in England. A chess tournament took place with upwards of 260 players, all of whom were female. The southern semi-final of the ECF National Schools Girls’ Championships was made up of eighty seven separate teams of three. Thirty two schools took part. This may be commonplace in countries such as Turkey, India, the USA and others, but in the UK it is almost unique. IM Andrew Martin has the story. | Photo: Jasmine Andrews

Simon Says — Tradewise Gibraltar action

2/5/2018 – In this Simon Says, Simon Williams will be taking a look at the best moves and games from the tournament voted chess "open of the year". Come and join the show for lots of entertaining chess! Watch live from 18:00 CET (12 Noon EST). Puzzles, free sample and information inside... | Photo: Alina l'Ami

Impressions from Tata Steel 2018

2/5/2018 – The Tata Steel Tournament, often called the "Wimbledon of Chess", is held in a wind-swept Dutch coastal resort, Wijk aan Zee, in the middle of winter. It is very prestigious and attracts top players from around the world, as well as hundreds of amateurs, who play in subsidiary tournaments or simply come to watch the action in the top groups. We bring you impressions of this year's 80th anniversary event, and a wonderful chess study to solve. You can win a Fritz 16 signed by the winners!

German League, Round 8: Baden-Baden held to a draw in Hamburg

2/5/2018 – In the 8th round of the "Schachbundesliga" there was another big surprise: The powerhouse OSG Baden-Baden yielded a 4-4 tie against the Hamburger SK, and their advantage over SG Solingen now stands at only 1½ board points. The HSK team showed strength on the lower boards, where Thies Heinemann managed to upset Rustam Kasimdzhanov. The other two top teams from Solingen and Bremen were able to win clear victories today. | Photo: André Schulz

German league, Round 7: Baden-Baden on top, surprise in Munich

2/4/2018 – The 7th round was played in the chess Bundesliga on Saturday. In Norderstedt, north of Hamburg, OSG Baden-Baden with Maxime Vachier-Lagrave on the top board clearly defeated the host club with 7 : 1, thus remaining at the top of the league. There was a big upset however, for the strong newcomer from Deizisau: The favoured squad lost a fight against Munich MSA Zugzwang 3½ : 4½. The match between Werder Bremen and Solingen finished 4 : 4.

Open Games with Bc5!

2/3/2018 – The open games are the formative backbone of a chess player. They teach fundamental lessons on initiative, development, and material value. A common example can be when we sacrifice a pawn to gain a needed tempo. It is the sacred duty of every chess player, young or old, to try to play 1...e5 against 1.e4, and gain knowledge, and understanding, which will reflect in tournament games, as well as understanding high level praxis. The latest Sam Collins DVD provides the basis for such enrichment of our chess understanding!

(S)Hort victory

2/3/2018 – Winning against a reigning world champion is always something special. In this example, Vlastimil Hort finds a tactic to take a point off of Anatoly Karpov.

What were the odds of Hou Yifan’s pairings in 2017?

2/2/2018 – The Gibraltar Masters wrapped up Thursday, with Levon Aronian in first place. This year round ten passed without incident, in contrast to 2017 when, on February 2nd, the story of the day was a rare scandal involving women's World Champion Hou Yifan deliberately losing a game in protest of the high number of women she was paired against. She was further confounded when a similarly unlikely string of pairings happened in October at the Isle of Man Open. Johannes Meijer looks at the odds in detail. Hou did not return to Gibralter in 2018, but instead competed in the Tata Steel Chess Masters. | Photo: Alina l'Ami

Tradewise Gibraltar: Aronian takes the playoff

2/2/2018 – On the last day of the Tradewise Chess Festival in Gibraltar, there was plenty of excitement. Seven players ended tied after ten rounds. The four best on tiebreak battled in a pair of rapid and blitz matches. Aronian defeated Richard Rapport and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, who ended Nakamura's run as Gibraltar champion. | Photo: Sophie Triay

Let a 2800 Elo player be your opening tutor: Wesley So!

2/2/2018 – ChessBase has video tutorials with the world's best grandmasters. Be it Garry Kasparov, Vishy Anand, Vladimir Kramnik, Nigel Short, Viktor Korchnoi, everyone has recorded Fritztrainers with ChessBase. Continuing this legacy of products with outstanding quality, we are proud to launch two DVDs by Wesley So. This is an amazing opportunity to learn 1.b3 with white and Italian with black from a player who has a live rating of 2799.3! | Photo: Alina l'Ami

Opening package: 1.b3 and Black Secrets in the Modern Italian

2/2/2018 – Wesley So published two new opening DVDs: 1.b3, the so called Nimzo-Larsen-Attack, for White and his black secrets in the modern Italian. Get them in a package and save money! In a total of nine video clips, top ten player Wesley So talks to IM Oliver Reeh, explaining his personal preferences as Black in the Italian game. The videos are structured according to specific concepts and ideas.

Meeting Oliver Reeh

2/2/2018 – As we are privileged with so many interesting visitors and authors coming to the ChessBase office in Hamburg and frequenting our studio, we often try to grab them for a few quick questions to see how they are and what's new. This week it is IM Oliver Reeh who was sitting in the studio for an (off-camera) impromptu interview. | Photo: Pascal Simon (ChessBase)

Tradewise Gibraltar: Happenings

2/1/2018 – There's a lot more going on every year in Gibraltar aside from the main Masters tournament. From player interviews, to master classes, to the always entertaining "Battle of the Sexes" here's some of what's been happening. | Photo: Sophie Triay