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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

10/15/2016 – The first round of this prestigeous tournament begin on Sunday. It has a very stong Open, and two amateur groups. But of greatest interest are the Hoogeveen Matches that pit Women's World Champion Hou Yifan against former WCh Challenger Nigel Short, and young Dutch star Jorden van Foreest against Ivan Sokolov. Earlier this week, on her way to Holland, Yifan was in Hamburg and visited ChessBase. Big illustrated report by Frederic Friedel.

10/14/2016 – In the chess world, Dr. Kenneth A. “Ken” Kiewra was initially known as the father of IM Keaton Kiewra. He raised Keaton in Lincoln, Nebraska, where Keaton dominated chess, winning the Nebraska State Championship nine times in a row. As Keaton’s rating soared, Ken became interested in whether his parenting experience with Keaton was unique. His research into chess prodigies and their parents led to chapters in two books and an article in a peer-reviewed journal. Alexey Root asks Ken about his experience nurturing chess talent.

10/14/2016 – It had really seemed ‘written in the stars’ as Gawain Jones had managed to combine strong play with exceptional good fortune to reach the knockout phase unscathed. He then overcame Zhou Jiangchao to meet Polish player Darius Swiercz, but that is when everything went wrong, and in a dramatic final he lost. There was no shortage of big winners though, as every section saw players leaving off with big paychecks. Jeffery Xiong also became the youngest ever American player in the Top 100.

10/14/2016 – 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.

10/13/2016 – The Global Chess Festival organised by Judit Polgar can be described in many ways but the main feeling when you enter the glorious venue used, the Castle Garden Bazaar on the Danube in the center of Budapest is “fun”. There is an abundance of colour and music and noise that immediately attacks your senses. As a child you have a huge variety of activities to choose from, that is the idea: to show chess as an enjoyable activity that can be shared around the world as a common language. Enjoy this illustrated report.

10/13/2016 – How about sitting in the comfort of your living room and challenging a player anywhere in the world to play a game with you, on a "real chess set"? Sound's impossible right! With the world's smartest chess board, "Square Off", it no longer is! This article deals with the journey of how a revolutionizing chess technology was created. After years of hard work and innumerable prototypes, the final product is now ready. And you can be the proud owner of the Square Off chess set by supporting their campaign on Kickstarter.