The Weekly Show with Lawrence Trent

11/7/2017 – Tuesdays at 5pm UK time Lawrence Trent goes on air on Playchess.com. In his show Lawrence Trent will be dealing with the latest trends, games and combinations from the elite chess tournaments. This week features games from the European Team Championship!

Endgame Magic with guest Rustam Kasimdzhanov

11/7/2017 – Rustam Kasimdzhanov is a Grandmaster from Uzbekistan. A former FIDE World Champion, Rustam is also and renowned author and trainer of top players like Fabiano Caruana. He joins Karsten to look at some of his own fascinating endgame from recent years! Live at 15:00 CET (9:00 AM EST)!

Two bishops and two outside pawns

11/7/2017 – Opposite-coloured bishops are a paradox. In the middlegame they favour the attacker. In the endgame they favour the defender. In fact, some endgames with opposite-coloured bishops are drawn even if one side is two pawns up. But they don't draw themselves! You still have work to do.

Azerbaijan wins European Team Championship

11/7/2017 – Azerbaijan secured the European Team Championship gold on Monday with a draw against Ukraine. The Azerbaijani team scored a critical win over top-seeded Russia in Round 8, such that even a last round win for the Russians over Germany was only good enough for the silver medal. Ukraine, the third seed going in, took the bronze. In the European Women’s Team Championship, the favourites Russia, clinched gold with a round to spare, leaving Georgia and Ukraine battling for silver and bronze. In the end they finished exactly according to their starting rank. Fourth seed Poland was upset by ninth seed Romania and so just missed out on a medal. Analysis by IM Irene Sukandar | Photo: EuroTeams2017.com

50 games you should know: Steinitz vs. von Bardeleben

11/6/2017 – In chess the goal of the game is to checkmate the enemy king. However, most chess games are not decided by elegant mating attacks but because one side is materially superior. You first take the pieces of the opponent, then you mate. Sacrifices suspend these brutal rules of materialism, that makes them so enchanting. And some sacrifices seem to be almost magical.

Simon says: Latest developments in the French Defence

11/6/2017 – In this Simon Says we take look at the latest developments in the French Defence. Watch live from 18:00 CEST (12 Noon EDT).

Gold to Russian Women

11/6/2017 – The Women's event gold goes to Russia for the second straight year as they blanked Turkey 4 : 0 to clinch with a round to spare. The silver and bronze medal battle is between Georgia, Poland, Ukraine and Armenia. IM Irene Sukandar looks at key moments from Round 8. | Photo: EuroTeams2017.com

European Teams Open is still open

11/6/2017 – Azerbaijan beat Russia in Round 8, leaving the tournament to be decided in the final round with both teams plus Ukraine vying for the title. Rauf Mamedov has a remarkable 7½ out of 8 games and has broken 2700 for the first time. Azerbaijan takes a small lead into their match with Ukraine, Germany rocketed to fourth with wins over Armenia and Israel, and will face Russia. GM Daniel Fernandez and IM Lawrence Trent annotate the best games from Rounds 6-8. | Photo: EuroTeams2017.com

Chess Player's Mating Guide Vol 1: Learn some lethal smacks

11/6/2017 – Pieces are tossed in like fuel to burning fire, a king’s pawn shelter ripped apart. One player sees bone-chilling nightmares; his opponent couldn’t hold his thumping heart. More pieces come marauding in, hacking off every defender. The king begins running for his life; in the end, it’s caught en prise. An aesthetic murder is engineered. It’s checkmate! For those romantics who crave for such excitement in their chess games, Robert Ris has selected examples from his professional coaching practice with the aim of helping them understand the method behind what seems madness. | Graphic: 4fingerprodigy

How to lose to a 9-year-old at chess

11/5/2017 – Gone are the days of old men smoking pipes, playing chess in silence in draughty church halls. There has been an influx of youth, especially since the rise of extremely strong computers that allow youngsters to learn and advance in the game much faster than previously. This is especially the case in the U.S., where there is a seemingly endless stream of young talent coming through, most of them wildly underrated and poisonous for your Elo standing. Steve Barrett writes about this in CHESS Magazine.

What does 2018 hold for the FIDE Presidency?

11/5/2017 – The election for the presidency of the World Chess Federation is a year away, but there is already intrigue swirling around whether Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, the current president, can or will run again. Though Mr. Ilyumzhinov recently lost a no-confidence vote by the executive board, it is not clear that will be enough to dissuade him, and the acting president, Georgios Makropoulos, has ducked repeated questions. Dylan McClain updates on the current situation.

5e Rencontres Internationales des Échecs francophones

11/5/2017 – Les 5e RIDEF ont eu lieu du 28 octobre au 04 novembre 2017 dans le cadre majestueux de Yasmine Hammamet. Nous y étions. Pour celles et ceux qui ne nous auraient pas suivi au quotidien sur facebook, voici notre reportage publié exceptionnellement sur le portail ChessBase en anglais, en attendant que s'inaugure très bientôt le portail de ChessBase en français!

Tiviakov in Capri

11/4/2017 – Between October 26th and 29th, 2017, the Italian island of Capri hosted the 3rd International Tournament "Isola di Capri Vladimir Lenin". During those three days, Sergei Tiviakov drew two conclusions: that the island is beautiful, and that his own skills have suffered a bit during the almost 10 months of total absence from the board, while he was dedicated to training the team of Turkmenistan. Although he had to yield first place to Aleksander Rakhmanov — the only player with 6 points — Tiviakov was sixth and returned with a fine collection of photos as consolation, which he now shares with you.

Study of the Month: November, 2017

11/4/2017 – As our readers will know, the Australian state Victoria was named for the British queen whose long-reign record was surpassed two years ago by Queen Elizabeth II. Being the most powerful person of the world, we can draw a parallel between her majesty and chess where queens also have great power — although not nearly such great one.

Mega Database 2018

11/3/2017 – The Mega Database is chess. With 7.1 million chess games, of which 71,000 are commented, the mega documents over 500 years of chess history and always has up-to-date opening knowledge for the preparation for the next game and the next opponent. A must for every chess player!

Euro Teams Women: Russia in front

11/3/2017 – The European Women's Team Championship tournament has familiar names at the top: Russia leads, but Georgia, Ukraine, Poland and Turkey are all close behind. Spanish board one Sabrina Vega was all smiles at the start of Round 5, and in fact held her opponent Alexandra Kosteniuk to a draw, but Russia took the match 3 : 1 to become the only team in either tournament with a perfect match record at the half. | Photo: www.euroteams2017.com

Hidden hitch

11/3/2017 – Friday Tactic: Following ...Qxa1 in the diagram position, White hopes to catch the opponent's queen with Bb2 and then start playing with his bishop pair. But Black has a way to thwart this. Can you see how?

Improve your Chess with Tania Sachdev

11/3/2017 – Passion and hard work are the secrets to chess success, if to these two ingredients one adds a Chessbase DVD created by a successful Indian IM, the result is nearly certain: big chess improvement! ChessBase contributor Davide Nastasio takes a deep dive into IM Tania Sachdev's general strategy DVD, in this review.

Croatia unlikely Euro Teams leader

11/2/2017 – Who would have guessed that Croatia would be in the sole lead at the European Team Championship heading into the rest day? They beat Germany, while Hungary and Armenia played to a 2-2 tie. Russian and Poland are also a point off the pace. Shakhriyar Mamedyarov turned in a scorching win over David Navara and broke 2800 on the live rating list. Highlights from Rounds 4 and 5 including extensive game annotations from GM Daniel Fernandez. | Photos: euroteams2017.com

The land of Gandhi invites you for World Youth (U-16) Olympiad 2017

11/2/2017 – The World Youth Olympiad (under-16) will be held in India in the city of Ahmedabad from the 10th to 19th of December 2017. Already 17 teams have registered for the event. India is fielding their strongest team which includes GM Aryan Chopra and two of the biggest talents R. Praggnanandhaa and Nihal Sarin. Will there be any team to stop the hosts? In this article you get all the information about the event and also get to know why from a tourist point of view, Gujarat is one of the most scenic destinations in the country. Thumbnail image: Lennart Ootes

November 2017 FIDE Ratings: Magnus Carlsen supreme again

11/1/2017 – Never has the Top Ten looked so crowded with so little to separate one from the other. In fact, every single player has been world number two at least once, if only for a day. One constant has re-established itself, and that is Magnus Carlsen's domination, as he opened the gap to 36 Elo points after a win at the Isle of Man. Of note also is Egyptian GM Amin Bassem who became the first African to crack 2700. | Photo: Alina L'Ami

Remembering Alexander Alekhine

11/1/2017 – Alexander Alekhine himself thought that he was born on November 1, 1892, but historians checked again and concluded that he was born on October 31. The confusion seems to be due to an error in the conversion of the Julian to the Gregorian calendar. All the same, we celebrate the fourth World Champion's birthday — reason enough to look back on his life and career. | Photos: Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons

Endgame Magic with guest Steve Berger

11/1/2017 – Steve Berger is an International Master from Germany. He grew up in Hamburg, but spent 22 years living in Berlin before returning to Hamburg. He has previously recorded an "Opening Recipes" live show in German for ChessBase, and is a professional chess trainer and author. He joins Karsten to look at some of his own endgame exploits full of tactical tricks! Live at 15:00 CET (10:00 AM EDT)!

Yermo's Travels: the 2017 Spice Cup

11/1/2017 – Recently, the 2017 Spice Cup was held in St. Louis, Missouri, and won by Lazaro Bruzon Batista, Yunieska Quesada, and Dariusz Swiercz. This traditional event is organised by Webster University, also home to the strongest collegiate team in the US. It brought players from around the globe, including a field rich in titled players. Among them was our correspondent Alex Yermolinsky, who performed well, and brings his report with some fantastic games and notes. Not to be missed! | Photo: Paul Truong