Yasser Seirawan - A Radical Solution Final Thoughts

12/31/2016 – After the World Championship match between Sergey Karjakin and Magnus Carlsen Yasser Seirawan proposed a "Radical Solution" to change the format of the World Championship match. It triggered an enormous discussion. Readers sent in hundreds of comments, Emil Sutovsky and Maurice Ashley published different proposals. Now Seirawan sums up his final thoughts on the World Championship format.

Sergey Karjakin is World Blitz Champion 2016

12/30/2016 – Sergey Karjakin is new World Champion in Blitz. After narrowly missing to beat Magnus Carlsen at their World Championship match in New York, Karjakin got the better of Carlsen at the World Blitz Championship in Doha, Qatar. Though it was close. Very close...

Fair play in engine chess

12/30/2016 – About a month ago Houdini 5 appeared. But how strong is the new engine by Robert Houdart? Is it even stronger than Komodo 10? A lot of users want to find out and use the Fritz 15 graphical user interface to let engines play a match against each other. We show you what to keep in mind to give both engines a fair chance in such a match.

Fireworks

12/30/2016 – 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.

Rencontrez Etienne – Le Champion

12/30/2016 – Etienne Bacrot is not in the chess media that often, but he has been a talent from such a young age. He recently won the strong FIDE Open at the London Chess Classic with good friend Sebastien Maze. Sabrina Chevannes decided to find out a bit more about the Frenchman and what was behind this strong performance.

Carlsen and Karjakin dominate Blitz World Championship

12/29/2016 – Sergey Karjakin and Magnus Carlsen were the two dominating players in the first 12 rounds of the World Blitz Championship in Doha. Karjakin finished the day with 10.0/12, did not suffer a single loss and defeated Carlsen in round 5. Though he lost against Karjakin, Carlsen was also in splendid shape. He finished with 10.0/12 and now shares the lead with Karjakin. Impressions, games, standings.

Upsets in first rounds of the Rilton Cup

12/29/2016 – The 46th Rilton Cup is played from December 27 to January 5 in Stockholm. This year 21 grandmasters start, ten of them have a rating of 2600+, top seed is Gata Kamsky. But the grandmasters do not have an easy life at the Rilton and the first two rounds brought a couple of upsets.

Kasparov on the future of Artificial Intelligence

12/29/2016 – "You will go down in history as the first person to be beaten by a machine in an intellectual pursuit where you were the most advanced member of our species," says American author, philosopher, and neuroscientist in this extraordinary podcast interview with Garry Kasparov. After discussing the current world political situation they go on to the subject of machine intelligence. Kasparov also announced a book called Deep Thinking that is due for release in May.

Vassily Ivanchuk is new World Champion in Rapid Chess

12/28/2016 – The World Rapid Championships in Doha, Qatar, had a dramatic finish. Before the last round five players shared the lead with 10.0/14. Three of these five players won in the last round: Magnus Carlsen, Alexander Grischuk and Vassily Ivanchuk. The tie-break had to decide - in this case, the Elo-average of the opponents. And here Ivanchuk was best and became World Rapid Champion 2016. Games and results...

Pretty Blunders - Jon Speelman's Agony Column #34

12/28/2016 – In his last Agony Column of 2016 Jon Speelman looks into the past where he discovered examples of won positions that were mishandled pretty badly. After this trip down memory lane Jon Speelman looks at crucial errors that occured in high-class events of 2016.

World Rapid Championship, Day 2: Ivanchuk strikes

12/27/2016 – On day 2 of the Rapid World Championship in Doha, Qatar, Vassily Ivanchuk was in great form. He started the day by beating Magnus Carlsen in round 6 and finished it with a win against Shakriyar Mamedyarov. With 8.0/10 he is now sole leader, half a point ahead of Mamedyarov and Ian Nepomniachtchi. With 7.0/10 Carlsen shares places 4 to 10 with six other players. Games and results...

Four in a row: Lázaro Bruzón Batista wins Carlos Torre Memorial

12/27/2016 – From December 15th till the 20th one of the strongest open swiss tournaments in the history of Latin America took place in the city of Mérida, Yucatán - Mexico. For the fourth time in a row and the fifth time ever, Cuban grandmaster Lázaro Bruzón Batista was victorious. He was the sole winner with 7.5 out of 9, edging out GM Aleksandr Shimanov from Russia and peruvian IM Deivy Vera Sigueñas, who both obtained 7 out of 9. Illustrated report.

The winning zone

12/27/2016 – Every week ChessBase magazine author and renowned endgame expert Karsten Müller presents a remarkable or particularly instructive endgame in his blog. A click on the diagram opens a larger board. Test your endgame skills, improve and have fun!

World Rapid Championship, Day 1: Favorites Stumble

12/26/2016 – The World Rapid and Blitz Championships in Doha, Qatar, are a prestigious event and attracted players such as Magnus Carlsen, Sergey Karjakin, Hikaru Nakamura, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Vishy Anand and many more. However, on day one Carlsen, Karjakin & Co. had trouble to find their rhythm and after the first of three days and the first five of 15 rounds it is Anton Korobov who leads with 5.0/5.

Christmas puzzles with Pal Benko

12/25/2016 – Another year passes, and we end it with our traditional Christmas puzzles – this year for the seventeenth time. Over the holidays we try to give you something unusual: puzzles that cannot be easily solved with a computer, tasks which require you to think all by yourself. And once again, as happened frequently in the past, we received three wonderfully entertaining problems from the great composer Pal Benko, who wished us and our readers a Happy Christmas.

Merry Christmas!

12/25/2016 – ChessBase wishes all chess friends and readers a Merry Christmas and happy holidays!

Schachkalender: Who am I? Solution

12/24/2016 – Every year the German "Schachkalender" challenges its readers to a quiz. Under the heading "Who am I?" the "Kalender" gives biographical hints and asks for the name of a well-known chessplayer. This year we offered an English version of the quiz and searched for a player who once had been the number one of his country, had a famous student and was a professional in another sport. A lot of readers took part in the quiz, three won an issue of the ChessBase Magazine. Solution...

Advent calendar: December 24

12/24/2016 – From December 1 to December 24 we invite our readers every day to open a door in our advent calendar. Click and enjoy a little chess treat. Behind the door, the door of December 24, waits an opening video. One of the world's greatest opening experts shows a line that might prove useful. Advent calendar, door 24.

Wei Yi vs Richard Rapport: The Armageddon Decides

12/24/2016 – Only ten rating points separate Richard Rapport (2717) and Wei Yi (2707), the world's two best juniors. And the match they played from 20th to 23rd December in Yancheng, China, was close. A 2-2 tie after four classical games required a blitz-tiebreak. After two blitz-games and another 1-1 tie, an Armageddon game decided the match in favor of Rapport.

The London Chess Classic closes in style

12/23/2016 – After an exciting ten days of chess, it almost feels like an anti-climax when the London Chess Classic ends, as there’s no standard prizegiving for the players. What many don’t realise is that there is an official dinner after the event for some special guests. Take a sneak peek into what goes on at the private dinner…

Advent calendar: December 23

12/23/2016 – From December 1 to December 24 we invite our readers every day to open a door in our advent calendar. Click and enjoy a little chess treat. Behind door 23 hides one of the best and fastest players in the history of chess. Advent calendar, door 23.

2016 Christmas Buyer's Guide: Champions and ChessBase

12/23/2016 – Concluding the suggested 2016 Christmas Buyer’s Guide, here are fine selections of great games collections by top players with names such as Anand and Kramnik, as well as Master Classes on world champions that now extend to Karpov and Kasparov, two names who dominated chess for 40 years, and of course the flagship programs that have helped make ChessBase what it is, as well as new ones that open a world of possibilities.

Theoretical victory

12/23/2016 – 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.

Who is the world's best junior? Wei Yi vs Richard Rapport

12/22/2016 – Wei Yi and Richard Rapport are the world's top two juniors and both are known for their entertaining and uncomprosing attacking chess. From 20th to 23rd December they play a match in Yancheng, China. Wei Yi won the first game, Rapport the second, the third was a draw and this leads to a current score of 1.5-1.5. Analyses and photos.