Wei Yi dominates Danzhou Supertournament

7/19/2017 – Chinese prodigy Wei Yi gets stronger and stronger and dominated the Hainan Danzhou Super GM tournament from beginning to end, winning four games and drawing five to finish sole first with 6.5/9. On the live-rating list the 18-year old Chinese is now the world's number 14.

Speelman: Winning on One Side

7/19/2017 – This year’s World Senior Team Championship was held in late April on the island of Crete. In the over-50s section Short, Nunn, Speelman, Arkell and Chapman played in the England One team and finished third. Our columnist Jonathan Speelman scored 5.5/7 points, winning two very nice games in the end. Jon uses these two games to demonstrate how you can play for a win in a rook and knight endgame, even when things are looking fairly drawn. Don't miss this practical GM endgame lesson from CHESS Magazine.

Help Nino Khurtsidze overcome cancer

7/19/2017 – Top Georgian player Nino Khurtsidze is fighting cancer. She underwent surgery in Germany and now has to undergo five rounds of chemotherapy. The total cost is beyond what she can afford. Her friends have asked the chess community to support her efforts to overcome the situation and return to the chess board. | Photo: Evgeny Surov, chess-news.ru

Alexander Morozevich turns 40

7/18/2017 – Today, Alexander Morozevich celebrates his 40th birthday. Morozevich is one of the most original grandmasters in the chess scene and was in his best year, 2008, number two in the World Cup. The Russian Chess Association honors the anniversary with a portrait.

Exercises in Style: From Wilhelm Steinitz to Magnus Carlsen (2/4)

7/18/2017 – What is style in chess? And how unique is it? Tal and Botvinnik played differently but how easy — or difficult — is it to spot these stylistic differences? Part 1 of the "Exercises in Style" presented games by Wilhelm Steinitz, Emanuel Lasker, José Raúl Capablanca and Alexander Alekhine, the first four World Champions in the history of chess. Now follow games by Max Euwe, Mikhail Botvinnik, Vassily Smyslov and Mihail Tal. Do you know which World Champion played which game?

The long march

7/18/2017 – In pawn endings when there are no more pieces on the board the kings can often roam freely. However, they should know where they are going.

Vive la Victoire in Vin

7/17/2017 – The Médoc Wine Open already has a 20 year tradition of meting out prizes in wine, as a fraction of winners' weights. This year the top honors went to FM Pablo Ollier who received 60 bottles for his victory. Evi Zickelbein participated for the 10th time, finished in fourth and brought home 14 bottles to Hamburg, as well as this report.

Hans Tikkanen is the Swedish Champion

7/17/2017 – This weekend the Swedish Championship wrapped up in Stockholm, where over a thousand players took part in the many rating groups, as the Swedish Chess Federation celebrated its 100th anniversary. GM Hans Tikkanen won the title.

Surprise weapon against the French

7/17/2017 – If you play 1.e4 you might not always welcome the French and its often unique structures. But there is a way to take French aficionados out of their comfort zone. Play 3.Bd3! In the current issue of the ChessBase Magazine International Master Georgios Souleidis shows you why this move is worth a try.
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45th Sparkassen Dortmund: Bluebaum and Wojtaszek lead

7/17/2017 – Round two showed a tournament that is clearly hard to define early on. While Vladimir Fedoseev made headlines by beating his compatriot Vladimir Kramnik in the opening round, in round two he was soon in big trouble against Matthias Bluebaum after excessively optimistic opening play, and lost. Joining Bluebaum is Radolaw Wojtaszek, who defeated Wang Yue in a back and forth struggle. Report with analysis by GM Moradiabadi.

Bobby Fischer in Iceland – 45 years ago (4)

7/16/2017 – The challenger, tormented by the cameras installed in the playing hall, traumatically lost the first game of his match against World Champion Boris Spassky. He continued his vigorous protest, and when his demands were not met Fischer did not turn up for game two. He was forfeited and the score was 0-2. Bobby booked a flight back to New York, but practically at the very last moment decided to play game three – in an isolated ping-pong room!

45th Sparkassen Dortmund: Kramnik falls to Fedoseev

7/16/2017 – Vladimir Kramnik is referred to as Mr. Dortmund locally, and for good reason: he has won the prestigious tournament a staggering ten times. As the top seed and no. 2 player in the world, it was no small surprise to see him fall to the young gun Vladimir Fedoseev, the latest rising star in the Russian chess pantheon. Defending champion Maxime Vachier-Lagrave also had a brush with defeat, though lived to tell the tale. Enjoy this report with analysis by GM Moradiabadi.

Teimour Radjabov wins FIDE Grand Prix in Geneva

7/16/2017 – It was a suitably exciting end to an overall excellent tournament. In the final round, Teimour Radjabov fought a tough-as-nails game against Ian Nepomniachtchi, who needed a win in order to pull the first-place rug from under the Azeri’s feet. Incredibly, both players offered draws at different moments, and both declined, though in the end, they did indeed draw, giving clear first to Radjabov, and second to Nepomniachtchi. Final report with analysis by GM Lenderman.

The Wei Way: Danzhou dominated by teen sensation

7/16/2017 – Wei Yi is having a stellar performance in the super-GM tournament in Danzhou, China. With an impressive +4 score, he looks unstoppable, as he rockets up the FIDE rating list to crack the Top 15 for the first time. GM Elshan Moradiabadi looks at two of Wei's key wins.

FIDE Grand Prix - Geneva: Tense round leads to showdown

7/15/2017 – Round eight of the FIDE Grand Prix in Geneva was both fascinating and intense. While leader Teimour Radjabov drew quickly and quietly against Alexander Raizantsev, Alexander Grischuk put up a huge fight against Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, and in spite of a huge advantage, was unable to close the deal. Ian Nepomniachtchi took advantage and joined Grischuk in second after beating Levon Aronian.

Krasenkow storms Corsica's Porticcio Open

7/15/2017 – The traditional Porticcio Open took place for the fourth year in a row on Corsica island, gathering 139 participants from 18 countries and beating all the records of the previous years. Tournament winner Michal Krasenkow from Poland had an impressive 8/9 score and 2834 performance. Eltaj Safarli and Gadir Guseinov finished 2nd and 3rd. IM Nino Batsiashvili was the top woman. Surprise upsets were 14-year-old Corsican prospect Albert Tomasi (rated just 2141) beating GM Sergei Zhigalko, and 10-year-old Maurizzi Marc Andria (a mere 1841) downing French grandmaster Fabien Libiszewski (2542)!

Sasikiran wins 52nd Capablanca Memorial 2017 - Part II

7/14/2017 – When a close-to-2700 GM wins a super tournament, a lot of things have to go his way. He needs to convert winning positions, he needs to save the inferior endings, and in general he has to showcase tremendous amount of willpower to register such a result. At the 52nd Capablanca Memorial 2017 Sasikiran Krishnan did just that. And in his conversation with IM Sagar Shah via Skype, Sasikiran shares all the interesting moments that happened in his games of the tournament. Going over the annotations carefully is a sure shot way of improving your chess.

FIDE Grand Prix - Geneva: Teimour Radjabov regains sole lead

7/14/2017 – Three wins, but what a win one of them was. In round six, Indian Pentala Harikrishna had scored a big win over Levon Aronian, not only dashing the Armenian’s dreams to pieces, but making it a three way tie for first with Grischuk and Radjabov. In round seven, Teimour Radjabov had some inspired opening play, and milked a small advantage for all its worth into a resounding victory to take sole first. Here is the report, video interviews, and analysis by GM Lenderman.

Exercises in Style (1/4): Solutions

7/14/2017 – The "Exercises in Style" invite readers to have a fresh look at the games of the World Champions. Part 1 presented four games, one each by Steinitz, Lasker, Capablanca and Alekhine. However, the information who played when and where against whom was hidden. Instead, you were asked to guess which World Champion played which game. A surprisingly difficult task though each game to a certain extent was typical for the World Champion who played it. Here are the solutions.

Rapid raid

7/14/2017 – The only thing one might dislike in Black's position in the diagram is the unprotected bishop a3, while his king seems reasonably safe. But just two knight moves — 21.Ng5!? Nf5? — and it's already over: White gets a decisive attack, with the innocent looking rook d1 being the possible match-winner. Ready for a workout?

Memory Techniques: the Peg system (part two)

7/14/2017 – In this second part on the Peg system, author David Fadul explains how this works, and how it is used together with the Memory Palace technique to give a fuller system to use. You will also learn about how Dominic O'Brien, an 8-time World Memory Champion, added his own refinements to become the Dominic system, as well as the Major System. Though this will all be tied together to use in chess in the final part, note that this has also been a hot topic in mainstream media such as CNN and Time magazine.

What is Switch-Side Chain-Chess?

7/13/2017 – There are many chess variants. A recent one was invented by an AI expert at the Tenaga National University of Malaysia, by Dr Azlan Iqbal. He subsequently received a research grant to develop a mobile app, in order to study "cleverer algorithms" and get the computer to play as well as humans. Working on a shoestring budget Azlan managed to develop two apps, one for Android and one for iOS. You can try your hand – it's free of charge.

FIDE Grand Prix - Geneva: Harikrishna joins three-way lead

7/13/2017 – The rest day in Geneva seems to have done the trick, since round six was sizzling. Five of the nine games ended in decisive results, and even the draw between the leaders Alexander Grischuk and Teimour Radjabov was hard-fought. At the top of the leaderboard, it was Harikrishna’s convincing win over Aronian that made the biggest waves, allowing him to join the leaders. Report, videos, and GM commentary.

John Saunders in CHESS Magazine

7/12/2017 – "Do you find yourself spending too much time on social media?" asks the columnist in the July issue of CHESS Magazine. "Me too." John describes how he keeps compulsively checking his Facebook and Twitter accounts. It uses up a lot of time, but there are plus points: you find a lot of chess puzzles, many of them quite irresistible. He shows us two examples which you can try to solve on our interactive javascript chess board. Have fun.