Indonesia: always the same, yet always different

1/3/2017 – With about 260 million inhabitants Indonesia is the world's fourth most populous country and it is a land full of natural beauty and diversity. Economically, Indonesia is on the rise and it also has a flourishing chess community. When revisiting Jakarta to play a tournament in the Indonesian capital Alina l'Ami was again struck by the many fascinating facets of Jakarta and Indonesia. Illustrated report...

Best of 2016 - Female Player of the Year

1/3/2017 – In the first voting about the highlights of 2016 we asked for the player of the year. In the second voting we ask for the "Female Player of the Year 2016". A lot of players stood out through their play and their successes in 2016 but which player left the deepest impression on you? Have a look at our list of candidates and choose your female player of the year 2016!

Study of the month: The pawn is the soul of the game

1/3/2017 – Two problemist friends, John Nunn and Yochanan Afek, have proposed it: introduce a monthly column on our newspage to demonstrate the artistic beauty of chess studies. It is a genre in which authors are able to show beautiful patterns and ideas that never occur in regular tournament chess games, but which are possible in composed positions. We have gladly accepted and present the first installment by German composer Siegfried Hornecker. Enjoy.

Stopping the checks

1/3/2017 – 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!

The new rating list: Carlsen leads, Caruana comes closer

1/2/2017 – The Fide just published the first rating list of 2017. World Champion Magnus Carlsen starts the year as number one - in classical chess, in rapid and in blitz chess. But in classical chess Fabiano Caruana is only 13 Elo points behind. Hou Yifan continues to dominate the women's ranking list, Wei Yi is best junior, Lei Tingjie the best girl. Lists and statistics...

"I never celebrate until I get home with the trophies!"

1/2/2017 – One player who did exceedingly well in 2016 is Wesley So. The 23-year-old won two super tournaments – the Sinquefield Cup and London Chess Classic, he helped the US win team gold in the Chess Olympiad in Baku where So also won gold for the best performance on board three. So also won the Grand Chess Tour ahead of legends such as Viswanathan Anand, Vladimir Kramnik, Veselin Topalov and others. We got in touch with Wesley So to talk about the London Chess Classic and the chess decisions in much greater detail.

Best of 2016: Player of the Year

1/2/2017 – 2016 is over - time to review the chess highlights of the year. In the first of five votings we ask: which player impressed you most in 2016? A lot of players stood out through their play and their successes in 2016 but which player left the deepest impression on you? Have a look at our list of candidates and choose your player of the year 2016!

Fernando Arrabal - Hymn to Chess

1/1/2017 – Fernando Arrabal, born August 11, 1932, in Melilla, Spain, is a writer, director, poet and passionate about chess. He has published more than 100 plays, 14 novels, 800 poetry collections, numerous essays and for over 30 years has written a chess column for the French weekly "L'Express". To greet the new year Arrabal sends ChessBase readers a chess poem, a hymn to chess.

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!