10/5/2016 – Alexei Shirov is famous for his wild tactical play and his intuitive sacrifices. However, in the top encounter of round four in the Isle of Man tournament he defeated the young and tremendously talented Indian Grandmaster Santosh Gujrathi Vidit with dry but strong technical chess to take the sole lead with 4.0/4. Half a point behind follow five players with 3.5/4 each. One of them is Wesley So who won with Black against Julio Granda Zuniga, showing very energetic play.

10/5/2016 – "I have always been hooked on the game’s history," writes IM Craig Pritchett, a leading Steinitz authority, in the British magazine CHESS. "As I struggle to keep my FIDE rating afloat into my chess-playing seniority, I have taken to writing books on great players, their styles, times and significance. I have never had the slightest doubt that striving to understand the contribution to the game’s development made by Wilhelm Steinitz (1836-1900) and others is not just intrinsically of interest, but that it also positively benefits our own chess.

10/4/2016 – As the title suggests, there were five draws today in Moscow after we had been spoiled with hard-fought, violent rounds. Several of the games saw little to no chances for either side to win, or even create real threats. Nepomniachtchi keeps his half point lead over Giri, who had amazing news yesterday! On the rest day his son Daniel was born! Congratulations to him and Sopiko.

10/4/2016 – With a populuation of about three million Armenia is a small country. But a country with a strong chess tradition and lots of talent. At the World Youth Championships in Khanty-Mansiysk in Russia, Armenia won two of six possible (U18 Open, U18w, U16 Open, U16w, U14 Open and U14w) gold medals. The four other gold medals went to Russia, China, India and Greece. All in all, Russia won the most medals: seven from eighteen.

10/4/2016 – 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!

10/4/2016 – In a large open as strong as the Isle of Man, every round is a feast, every game a meal, with no shortage of exciting positions and exotic play. Round three saw many of the top players already facing stiff grandmaster competition with few of the lopsided pairings from the first two days. This led to some exciting bouts including hard fought draws at the top. Sharing his enthusiasm of all there was to see is Manuel Weeks, highlighting some of the best games with lots of quiz positions.

9/30/2016 – Judit Polgar was a chess prodigy and is the only woman who has ever made it to the top ten in chess. After the Chess Olympiad in Tromso 2014 Judit Polgar retired from tournament chess but of course remained faithful to the game she loves. At the Chess Olympiad in Baku 2016 she was captain of the Hungarian team that played in the Open and she is the driving force behind the Global Chess Festival in Budapest, a fine celebration of chess. Manuel Weeks spoke with the "first lady of chess".

9/29/2016 – During the Chess Olympiad 2016 in Baku the General Assembly of FIDE made two important decisions which concern major tournaments. FIDE decided to play the Chess Olympiad 2020 in Khanty-Mansiysk and to let the Iranian Chess Federation organise the Women's World Championship 2017. This decision caused furious protests because in previous tournaments in Iran the women participants were forced to wear a headscarf.

9/29/2016 – A relatively bloody day in Moscow, as three white victories significantly change the standings. All of them came in very different ways: Mamedyarov annihilated Gelfand with a powerful attack, Nepomniachtchi was able to defeat Kramnik with excellent positional maneuvers while Giri ground down Tomashevsky in an extremely long endgame. Report, GM commentary and even a transcript of Vishy's analysis!

9/29/2016 – French chess trainer Xavier Parmentier was a passionate and caring coach. He helped many young chess players in difficult situations to find a way to develop self-confidence and to have success in chess and in life. Thanks to his help the 12-year old Fahim Mohammad, an immigrant from Bangladesh, was able to become French Champion U12 and later World Champion of his age group though he was forced to live as a homeless illegal in France. In April this year Xavier Parmentier died at the age of 52. Now a foundation continues his work.

9/29/2016 – Many foreigners wait for a chance to visit India. Filled with diverse landscapes, historic and cultural background, various cuisines and landmark structures – a trip to India can be a life transforming experience. If you are a chess player, here's some good news for you: you not only get to play in three back to back strong tournaments with a hefty prize fund, but you get to see the country. And if you are an IM or a GM you get some excellent conditions.

9/28/2016 – This week's pair of games are from Ian Sellen who is originally English but now lives in Wellington in New Zealand. Aged 53, Ian is married with children, works in a financial software company and enjoys playing and listening to music, cryptic crossword puzzles, and learning foreign languages. As usual on Wednesdays GM Jonathan Speelman provides help to a strong chess amateur by commenting on his or her games. [Complete intro]. Like to submit some of your own?