Kavalek on Huffington: Chess Triumphs, Stumbles and Embarrassments

2/25/2017 – Two American grandmasters won the first major chess events of 2017. Wesley So triumphed in the traditional Dutch tournament in Wijk aan Zee and Hikaru Nakamura prevailed in Gibraltar. Their victories were almost upstaged by the Women’s world champion Hou Yifan. She deliberately lost a last round game in five moves with the white pieces. GM Lubomir Kavalek recapitulates with seven annotated games.

Sharjah GP Rd6: The one that got away

2/24/2017 – It was the closest of affairs, and Nakamura had to think it was in the bag as he pressed forth with a won endgame against Grischuk, but a late misstep was all it took, and the chance to join the leaders slipped away. Nepomniachtchi made no such mistakes and took down Li Chao to enter the group a half point behind the leaders, while Rapport is back at 50% after defeating Riazantsev. Full report with analysis by Tiger Hillarp-Persson.

What to do against the Queen's Gambit - an interview with Robert Ris

2/24/2017 – In round four of the Fide Grand Prix tournament in Sharjah Shakriyar Mamedyarov won an energetic game against Michael Adams' Queen's Gambit Declined. A game ChessBase author and International Master Robert Ris followed with great joy. After all, Mamedyarov played an opening Ris also favors and recommended on one of his DVDs. In a short interview Ris talks about this line and about openings and opening research in general.

Women's World Ch. 5.1: Epic Accidents

2/24/2017 – Harika's woes with the black pieces continued. In the first game of the semi-final clash, she failed to defend reasonably and had to suffer a terrible crash. One can only hope that she makes a comeback in the next game with the white pieces. Meanwhile, a huge accident of epic proportions took place in the game between Kosteniuk and Muzychuk. Report.

Defend to checkmate

2/24/2017 – Tactics can seem deceptively simple, particularly when seeing an engine analysing grandmaster games. Strange, however, how difficult it is to find the right move and to calculate variations properly when playing yourself. It is easier if you solve tactical puzzles regularly. In the ChessBase Magazine and his tactics column Oliver Reeh helps you to do so.

The prestigious Aeroflot Open 2017 begins!

2/24/2017 – After the Gibraltar Masters, we have another super strong open tournament on our menu - the Aeroflot Open 2017. With an average rating of 2582 and players like Yu Yangyi, Vitiugov, Inarkiev, Jobava, taking part, it is a tournament that is packed with action. We bring you an illustrated report from first three rounds of the event.

Match of the Millennials – USA vs. The World

2/23/2017 – There's going to be an extraordinary event in July in Saint Louis: eight American players will face some of the best juniors from around the world – four players under 17, two boys under 14 and two girls under 14 years old. "An extra-ordinary opportunity for the best juniors, both Americans and World, to test their skills and fighting spirit in a prestigious event," said GM Efstratios Grivas, who will be one of the trainers selecting the World Delegation.

Tehran WWCh Rd4 TB: Harika maintains control, reaches Semis

2/23/2017 – There was only one tiebreak game. It was Harika all the way. The Indian poster girl stayed true to her style and won the first 25-minute tiebreaker with the white pieces and drew the next game to reach the semi-finals of the Women's World Championship 2017. She is in with the chance to become the first women's world champion ever from India. Illustrated report.

Sharjah GP Rd5: Adams, Grischuk, and Jakovenko win

2/22/2017 – Although the games were harder fought this round compared to the previous anemic one, only three games out of nine ended in a decisive result. Nakamura seemed to have excellent chances against co-leader Mamedyarov, but in the end drew. Adams bounced back from his bad loss to Mamedyarov yesterday, and overpowered Hammer, while Grischuk and Jakovenko both broke their four draw streaks with wins over Eljanov and Riazantsev respectively. Full report with fascinating analysis by Alex Yermolinsky.

Singapore Chess Federation: this is no ban

2/22/2017 – We recently reported that the "golden couple" GM Zhang Zhong and WGM Li Ruofan, Singapore's top players, had been "banned" from participating in the the forthcoming Asian Zonal 3.3, because they showed "insufficient involvement in the local chess life." The Association of Chess Professionals protested, and now the Singapore Chess Federation has replied with the following letter.

Memories: Vlastimil Hort on Salo Flohr

2/22/2017 – Before World War II Salo Flohr was one of the world's best players. In 1939 Flohr was to play a World Championship match against Alexander Alekhine but the outbreak of the war destroyed Flohr's hopes to become World Champion. Vlastimil Hort knew Flohr well and shares memories.

Tehran WWCh Rd4 G2: The sign of three

2/22/2017 – Maybe this is what Hou Yifan meant when she chose not play the 2017 World Championship. The top seed Ju Wenjun was caught completely unawares in the opening against Tan Zhongyi who pushed her off the cliff to qualify for the semis. Joining Zhongyi were Kosteniuk and Muzychuk. Harika had to hold a draw with black to qualify as well. But the experienced Nana Dzagnidze played exactly what the doctor ordered. Illustrated report.

Sharjah GP Rd4: Mamedyarov joins MVL in lead

2/22/2017 – With breathtaking verve, Mamedyarov went all out against Adams, and scored a powerful win to join MVL in the lead. Most games drew, some with little or no effort to fight, though not all such as Eljanov vs Hou Yifan that went the distance. Li Chao was the other winner of the day, defeating Tomashevsky. Enjoy the illustrated report with analysis by Tiger Hillarp-Persson.

Tehran WWCh Rd4 G1: A Man's got to know 'her' limitations!

2/22/2017 – The exciting quarterfinals clash between most of the best female players in the world yielded two results and two draws. While Ju Wenjun huffed and huffed to safety against Tan Zhongyi, Kosteniuk held Ni Shiqun with black, with hopes of pressing in the next round with white. Stefanova looked to be in trouble against Muzychuk until she was let off the hook. Not content with drawing with black, the Bulgarian played adventurously and lost. Harika won as well, thanks to some help. Illustrated report.

Stopping the pawns

2/21/2017 – To be a piece up is nice. Usually. However, in the endgame you have to take care to keep enough pawns on the board that can queen and mate your opponent. In his endgame blog Karsten Müller shows how this is done.

Iran bans teenage chessplayers for "harming national interests"

2/21/2017 – Dorsa Derakhshani is a talented teenaged chessplayer residing in Spain, originally from Tehran, Iran. She is only the second female in Iran's chess history to have become an international master. Her younger sibling Borna Derakhshani is a talented lad of fifteen and has a good career ahead of him. Imagine their surprise when they were informed by Dorsa's friends that she and her younger brother had been 'banned' by the Iranian Chess Federation!

Sharjah GP Rd3: Nakamura overcomes Rapport

2/20/2017 – Although round three saw the vast majority of the games end in draws, the wild battle between Hikaru Nakamura and Richard Rapport left few doubts any such thing would happen to their game. After a QGD Chigorin, Rapport castled queenside, and the gloves were off! MVL continues sole leader. Illustrated report with analysis by Alex Yermolinsky.

Tehran WWCh Rd3 TB: The magnificent eight

2/20/2017 – With half of the matches going into the tie-break, the world championship saw another exciting, although slightly less dramatic, match-ups. however, the trend clearly favoured the higher rated players, who dominated their respective strong opponents. There were moments of great play and lapses worthy of mentioning. Joining Muzychuk, Stefanova, Dzagnidze, and Shiqun are four others. Here is the illustrated report with GM analysis.

Jon Speelman's Agony Column #41

2/20/2017 – Michael Jones, 30, is an English language teacher who has traveled the world, playing chess everywhere, "from the balcony of a youth hostel in Frankfurt and a thermal bath in Budapest, to a park in Kutaisi, Georgia, and a bazaar in Kyrgyzstan." Now back in the UK he plays for Stafford and has sent in two deeply annotated games: in one he got checkmated after blundering against a standard sacrifice; and in another he triumphed with a truly outrageous swindle.

Sharjah GP Rd2: Maxime Vachier-Lagrave makes it two

2/20/2017 – The Frenchman Vachier-Lagrave showed superb form as he completely outclassed Rapport with black to score a second win. Yesterday's loser Ding Liren bounced back with a win over Saleh Salem, while Mamedyarov was the third winner of the day, defeating Tomashevsky in 37 moves. Full report with analysis by Tiger Hillarp-Persson.

In order to beat the monsters I had to become one myself!

2/20/2017 – It was the first super tournament of his life. B. Adhiban started as the last seed at the Tata Steel Masters 2017. Not much was expected from him. But he shocked the chess world with a performance of 2812 and finishing third behind So and Carlsen! We go in touch with Adhiban and spoke to him about his tournament, mind set, expectations, and last but not the least, his crazy opening choices.

Tehran WWCh Rd3 G2: All calm on the western front!

2/19/2017 – Six out of eight games drawn, mostly in a peaceful manner. Among these draws, there were two that actually went very well in black’s favor until the players on the black side decided to call it a day and conceded a draw. All said and done, four players qualified for the Quarterfinals while the remaining eight will fight in the tiebreakers. Illustrated report.

Sharjah GP Rd1: MVL, Adams, and Rapport draw first blood

2/19/2017 – It promised to bring levels of excitement and dynamism, and the new format did not disappoint. Three games ended in decisive results, with one hardly a surprise: Ding Liren - Rapport. The game was a mess as expected, and both players sopught to show who was the wilder of the bunch. Adams defeated Salem after he produced super piece centralization, and strangled his rival. Finally, MVL outplayed Li Chao in an endgame to score. Full report with analysis by GM Alex Yermolinsky.

Tehran WWCh Rd3 G1: Play by the Book!

2/18/2017 – The third round of Women's World Championship in Tehran saw a rather peaceful day in which ladies at the office tried to play cautiously. With five out of eight games drawn, and some of them being dull and uneventful, three players scored to go to the next round with high hopes. The pervasive theme of these three games was the fact that the winners played the whole game by the book and did not try to do anything eccentric but to execute the known plans of their respective positions, step by step. Here is the illustrated report with GM analysis.