Looking back at the Isle of Man (2/2)

10/25/2016 – Observing the top players, our intrepid photographer/report/player Alina L'Ami began to ponder how it was they managed to deal with the stress of performing at the highest level and manage the great stress this can put on the players. After all, it is a constant fight to play as well as possible and bring home the bacon. How do they do it? These were some of the questions asked and speculated upon in this photographic essay with games and positions.

Shak wins Amir Timur Rapid 2016

10/25/2016 – The Amir Timur Rapid Round Robin Tournament was held from 18th to 21st October at Hotel Miran International in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. The event was a tribute to Amir Timur, a famous conqueror who would be celebrating his 680 birthday. The 12-round quadruple tournament had an average rating of 2726 with elite players Mamedyarov, Gelfand, Ponomariov and local hero Kasimdzhanov making up the field. We have pictures, history lessons, and tactics for you to solve.

Leonard Barden still going strong – at 87

10/25/2016 – He has been writing his weekly chess column in The Guardian uninterrupted for sixty-one years now, breaking all records for this area of publication. Leonard's observations on the contemporary chess scene are well written and meticulously researched, and each column contains a game and, very enticingly, an entertaining and instructive chess puzzle. Visit the Guardian chess page on Friday – you will never regret it.

Mark Dvoretsky's final interview - Part I

10/25/2016 – It was a huge shock for the entire chess world when, on September 26th 2016 Mark Dvoretsky passed away at the age of 68 years. At the Candidates tournament, which were held in Moscow in March 2016, ChessBase editor Sagar Shah and his wife Amruta Mokal met Mark at his home in Tallinskaya. In an interview that lasted well over two hours you get to know a lot about the legend's personality. This is Dvoretsky's last in-depth interview which deals with his life as a player, trainer and an author. Mark is no more but his teachings live on.

The rook outfoxes the bishop

10/25/2016 – 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!

SPICE Cup won by Samuel Sevian

10/24/2016 – Held in St. Louis, Missouri, the 2016 SPICE Cup was held from Oct 17-22 with a strong and attractive field of players that included Le Quang Liem (2723 FIDE) as top seed, as well as a number of GMs and top US juniors such as Jeffery Xiong, Samuel Sevian, and more. The event saw a strong fight right to the end when Sevian and Robson were left equal first which was decided by a tiebreak game won by Sevian. Report, photos, and games.

Hoogeveen 2016: Short, Sokolov and Gupta are the stars

10/24/2016 – Abhijeet Gupta won the 2016 Hoogeveen Open after scoring a comfortable 7.5/9. Lalith Babu, who had been leading with Gupta after seven rounds suffered an unfortunate accident to end on the third spot. Sandipan Chanda jumped in with a strong finish to take the runners up position. Lucas van Foreest performed excellently and ended on the fifth spot. The matches saw vistories by both Short and Sokolov respectively. We have pictures, tactics, stories and much more – in our final report from the Hoogeveen Festival 2016.

Russian Superfinal Rd3-7: The excitement continues

10/23/2016 – … in the Women’s event at least. The men’s competition is now led by six players out of twelve on plus one after a full seven rounds with a massive 76% draws. It is milkmaid chess at its best. The women on the other hand have shown who is wearing the pants in the event as they go all-out at each other every round setting an example of combativeness. Nevertheless, it hasn't all been the chess equivalent of watching paint dry as there has also been a fair share of fascinating positions.

Looking back at the Isle of Man (1/2)

10/22/2016 – The recently finished Isle of Man tournament was one more piece of evidence of how much the professional chess landscape has changed. No longer can one describe Opens as events a top player will shun, and the Isle of Man was one of those 'super' opens where one might find the world's elite playing just a table or two away, toiling at the board no different than the rest of us. Bringing us this retrospective is Alina L'Ami with her photos and comments.

Fritztrainer: Evans Gambit for the new generation

10/21/2016 – He calls it "one of the most romantic of all openings", one you can play with white when you go 1.e4. Savielly Tartakower said that this attacking opening was invented to make men understand that chess is a gift from the gods. You cannot get higher praise than that. Or a better teacher than GM Simon Williams, whose aggressive style has brought down a number of top-class opponents (like Carlsen and Gelfand). His latest DVD has 4½ hours of gripping video.

Hoogeveen Open: Gupta, Lalith Babu lead with 2800+ performance

10/21/2016 – A traditional chess tournament in Netherlands has 81 players competing in the Open section. Thirteen of them are Indians, and aftere seven rounds seven of these Indians are sitting pretty on top-ten. GMs Abhijeet Gupta and Lalith Babu are both performing remarkably at over 2800, and lead the remaining field by at least one point. We have beautiful pictures and remarkable positions from the games – with some tactics for you to solve.

Lever action

10/21/2016 – 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.

Jon Speelman's Agony Column #24

10/20/2016 – 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+ is known as the Jerome Gambit, a wacky, completely unsound invention of a US Civil War veteran in the 19th century. Morbid curiosity led Rick Kennedy to do a lot of historical research and in fact start a Jerome Gambit blog on the opening, which currently has over 2,300 posts. He submitted two games to our Agony and Ecstasy columnist, who presents Rick's analysis while dropping in the odd note of sanity.

Hoogeveen 2016: Short takes lead

10/20/2016 – Two decisive games in the matches of Hoogeveen, one involving a technical king walk from a Catalan and the other a total demolition by Sokolov against Van Foreest's King's Indian. Yifan really suffered straight from the opening when her novelty left her in an inferior position, and Short's technique was simpy great. In the Open section the Indian domination simply continues.

New York chess hustlers get pwned by Magnus

10/19/2016 – No, it's not a typo! Background: there is vigorous chess activity in New York's Washington State Park, and plenty of hustling going on there. Sometimes, though, someone turns up who is really, really strong. And then the hustlers get owned, as in a video shot in 2010 that recently went viral: World Champion Magnus Carlsen took a detour to the park, watched his manager get "crushed" and then, with Liv Tyler watching, proceeded to restore the honour of Norwegian chess.

Kavalek in Huffington: Honoring Chess Beauty

10/19/2016 – In his very substantial column GM Lubomir Kavalek compares World Champion Misha Tal (1936-1992) to saxophonist Charlie Parker, "both flying high with no barriers, no limits to their intuition, imagination and improvisation." In a review of October games Kavalek shares his thought on a study-like fininsh by Anand in the Tal Memorial, and compares it with masterpieces by Bent Larsen and Henry Bird. It is historically and didactically interesting.

Hoogeveen 2016: Van Foreest strikes back

10/18/2016 – Game two of the matches in Hoogeveen brought more of the same, which is both a good thing and a bad thing. The match between Hou Yifan and Nigel Short once more saw neither player able to get a leg up, for two draws now, but if experience prevailed in game one of the second match with a win by Ivan Sokolov, 17-year-old Jorden van Foreest struck back in game two with a powerful sacrificial attack.

The sharp endgame weapon zugzwang

10/18/2016 – 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!

Russian Superfinal Rd1-2: An inspiring start

10/18/2016 – The Russian Championship Superfinal to determine the Russian Champion for both men and women is currently running in Novosibirsk, Russia, and as usual, is the strongest national championship there is, even with the absence of names such as Kramnik or Karjakin. Peter Svidler leads the men’s lineup with Grischuk, Tomashevsky and others, while Kosteniuk and Gunina top the women’s rankings. With exciting games from the start, this report includes detailed analysis by GM Jonathan Speelman.

Hoogeveen 2016: Sokolov strikes first

10/17/2016 – The Hoogeveen Festival has started, and brings a number of fun events to watch. The eye-catcher is of course the match between Hou Yfan and ‘old git’ Nigel Short played over six games, with a second match between Dutch talent Jorden van Foreest and Ivan Sokolov. There is also a strong open with a large contingent of Dutch and Indian players. The first match games were fascinating struggles, and Sokolov was the first to draw blood.

Improve your 1.e4 repertoire with Fritztrainers

10/17/2016 – The ChessBase Online Shop is constantly increasing the number of products in its repertoire. We have DVDs on practically every opening, with hours of video lessons provided by world-class experts. Today we bring you a list of hot items – absolute essentials – guiding you through the opening after playing 1.e4 or reacting to that move. Each product has a short description and a video sample. Our October shopping guide contains a useful 1.e4 overview in PGN.

Live Q&A with Women's World Champion Hou Yifan!

10/17/2016 – Last week we did an interesting Q&A with Women's World Champion Hou Yifan, who was in Hamburg visiting the ChessBase HQ. It was an interactive session where visitors could ask questions in Playchess and on ChessBase’s Official Facebook and Twitter handles! The session lasted just over an hour, and Yifan came across as an intelligent and eminently likeable chess star. For those who missed it live we have a full YouTube video and excerpts from the Q&A.

Global Chess Festival with the Polgars (2/2)

10/16/2016 – The chess highlight of the Global Chess festival was the Highlander Cup which was an eight player knockout rapid event. The participants consisted of many of the top Hungarian players versus last year’s winner Rustam Kasimdzhanov and Boris Gelfand. There was the theme “There can only be one”, which was also reflected in the event’s single prize, US$15 thousand at stake so there was plenty of motivation among the players. Illustrated report with games.

Why bother to bone up on Steinitz? (2/2)

10/16/2016 – "I have always been hooked on the game’s history," writes IM Craig Pritchett, a leading Steinitz authority, in the British magazine CHESS. In part one he took our readers through the history of the game’s so-called ‘Romantic Age’. In this second part Craig expands on Steinitz’s more nuanced, strategically based chess understanding and primacy, and the ways in which his greatest games and writings substantively helped move chess forward towards a radically new and long-lasting, early ‘modernity’.