9/18/2017 – In this Simon Says we take a look at one of the most exciting replies to 1.d4. Join Simon Williams for an overview of this opening which arises after 1.d4 d5 2.c4 Nc6. Watch live from 18:00 CEST (12 Noon EDT):

9/18/2017 – The quarterfinal tiebreak was a short affair as Maxime Vachier-Lagrave managed to show some excellent bit of chess in the second 25'+10" rapid game with the black pieces. He beat Peter Svidler with an overall score of 2.5-1.5 and advanced to the semifinals. He will now face Aronian in the final hurdle for the qualification to the Candidates tournament. Wesley So will be pitted against Ding Liren. We bring you all the analysis of today's tiebreak and also what you can expect in the matches that begin on Tuesday.

9/17/2017 – This week's games are by Andreas Niedersberger, pictured playing chess against his very beautiful cat, which apparently has a predilection for the Rubinstein French. Andreas gave up chess — a childhood hobby — at age fourteen, and only when his own children had grown up a bit did he return to the game. His two games feature a Tarrasch (or Semi-Tarrasch) and an open Sicilian.

9/17/2017 – In his previous instalment GM Efstratios Grivas showed us, systematically, how to win rook vs bishop with three paws each on the same side. In Round 4 of the FIDE World Cup, the endgame rook vs bishop occurred again, this time with a pawn each on the same side. The experienced Armenian Levon Aronian, currently number two in the world, decisively defeated the young Russian Daniil Dubov. Grivas tells us exactly how.

9/17/2017 – Four semi-final spots were at stake. Three of them have been filled. Levon Aronian drew his game against Ivanchuk after beating him yesterday, while Wesley So and Ding Liren beat Vladimir Fedoseev and Richard Rapport respectively. One remaining spot will be filled by the winner of Peter Svidler and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave encounter. The duo will fight it out in the tiebreaks on Sunday and the winner will take on Aronian. We have photos, analysis and video interviews that will give you a complete feel of round five, game two, from Tbilisi, Georgia.

9/16/2017 – How big, you say? Well, big enough that that have to use names like 'Gigafinal' and 'Terafinal' to do it justice! But despite its size, in the summer of 2016, the future of the Delancey UK Schools’ Chess Challenge was in doubt, as the founder and owner, International Master Mike Basman, faced an unexpected and daunting tax bill. Now under new ownership, Sarah Longson hopes to continue to inspire future generations of children. She reports on the recent 2017 edition which attracted star power in the form of grandmasters David Howell and Stephen Gordon. Harry Grieve (pictured) won the 'Terafinal' | Photos: facebook.com/DelanceyUKSchoolsChessChallenge

9/12/2017 – "She has never really worked extremely hard," said Vladimir Kramnik, "and, of course, that's a big compliment — never working like the professional male top players and yet achieving so much." Chinese GM Hou Yifan, the greatest female talent in chess today, wants her life to be to be "rich and colorful, not narrow." In 2012 she enrolled in Peking University, and is now scheduled to do a course at the University of Chicago. Read all about her in this extensive ESPN article.

9/12/2017 – The Tactics app in the ChessBase Account suite is a wonderful tool that allows one to work on tactics and calculation skill while having it adapt the difficulty to the player. The snag is when you are sure you have the solution, but are told it is wrong. In this tutorial, you will learn how to have the engine analyse your wrong moves, to learn why they failed.

9/11/2017 – Every evening (CEST) we offer you a round-up show of the games played at the World Cup in Tbilisi. IM Lawrence Trent showed the elimination round 3, game 2 and Monday's tiebreak. Have a look...

9/11/2017 – In this Simon Says we take look at some of the most beautiful and interesting positions that Simon has recently come across. Watch live from 18:00 CEST (12 Noon EDT):

9/11/2017 – Magnus Carlsen made the bold decision to play in this unpredictable knock out format of the World Cup, and on Sunday he was eliminated by world number 35 Bu Xiangzhi of China. Along with Magnus, also Kramnik and Nakamura have had to book their return tickets. Out of the top ten players in the world that were playing at this event, only one has qualified to round four. Five have been knocked out and four will play the tiebreaks. We have a huge round three, game two, report from Tbilisi. | Photos: Amruta Mokal

9/10/2017 – Dresden has become a hotbed of chess activity. This year the East German city hosted the World Chess Solving Championship, which has grown from 18 participants in its inaugural event 40 years ago to 89 solvers in this year. John Nunn, who has been an avid and successful competitor in the past, took a number of medals in Dresden, and sent us an interesting report, with selected problems for you to solve. | Photos: Franziska Iseli