9/5/2016 – Round four was the first true clash of the titans, as Russia squared off against Ukraine. The match was more than just a sports confrontation as the two nations have been bumping heads in no uncertain terms these last years. After an opening loss, Ukraine rallied back and took it 2.5-1.5 in a spectacular comeback. No less impressive was Hou Yifan getting trampled over-the-board by Dana Reizniece-Ozola, Latvia’s Minister of Finance! Here is the report with photos, videos, and GM commentary.

9/5/2016 – In the third round of the Baku Olympiad 2016, Evgeny Tomashevsky was playing Iordachescu. In their game, the Russian had a dominating knight on d4 against his opponent's sick-looking bishop on e6, yet he captured the bishop with his knight in what seemed to be a positively paradoxical move. Had he blundered? Or was there a hidden reason behind this choice? The answer lies in a classic game played exactly 31 years ago by Anatoly Karpov!

9/5/2016 – Three of eleven rounds are played at the 42nd Chess Olympiad in Baku. Still too early for decisive encounters but time to settle in and to get a feeling for the hotel, the venue and the surroundings. Hours before the fourth round Manuel Weeks, captain of the Australian team, gathered first impressions and speaks about the simple things that make an Olympiad successful, the worries of the strong players and the ambitions of his Australian team.

9/5/2016 – 180 teams take part in the Open Section of the 42nd Chess Olympiad in Baku, 140 in the Women Section, and every round brings a wealth of interesting games. After each round Daniel King selects highlights of the round and analyses them. His highlight of round three is the game Andrey Volokitin vs Daniel Fridman, a short, dramatic encounter with an entertaining king hunt.

9/4/2016 – After three rounds, there are still 16 teams in the Open section still with perfect scores, and 13 in the Women's section. If this seems a lite, it bears remembering how many teams there are in the overall event. There were few surprise results in the Open section as far as matches go, at least on paper, but the games had promised something else in some cases. The real surprise of the day (aside from Nakmaura's brush with defeat) was China's draw against Vietnam in the Women's section in spite of a dominant Hou Yifan Report, photos, and GM analysis.

9/4/2016 – For the top teams the Chess Olympiad is a serious affair. They battle for points, prestige and medals. But the Olympiad is also a festival to celebrate the joys of chess and this is what Jamaica does. With a rating average of 2166 the Jamaican team are are ranked 115 of 180 teams but that does not diminish their joy of being in Baku. Ian Wilkinson, President of the Jamaica Chess Federation, sends an enthusiastic report about the start of the Olympiad.

9/4/2016 – The province of Guadalajara is one of the least populated areas of Spain. Most of the 288 municipalities are villages with populations less than 250. Hinojosa is one such village. But the farmers in Hinojosa seem to like chess: they invited two juniors to play a game of chess and then replayed the moves with tractors and other agricultural machines on a field, creating a unique game.

9/4/2016 – Even though the current World Champion is from Norway and the current Women's World Champion is from China, Russia is still a superpower in chess. And the European Youth Championship that finished last week in Prague showed that Russia still has a seemingly inexhaustible pool of talented young players: Russia won no less than 15 of 36 possible medals. The remaining 21 medals were shared among 16 different nations. Results and games.

9/3/2016 – Round two of the Baku Olympiad already saw a number of stiff matches with far more balanced opposition. Still, although there were some close calls in the Open section, with isolated upsets, the favorites still held all the way down to table 29 where the teenage Iranian team managed to hold the much higher rated Georgian team to 2-2. In the Women’s section however, the Filipinos pulled off a huge upset by actually defeating the 4th seed Georgian team, who outrated them by almost 350 Elo. Illustrated report with GM analysis.

9/3/2016 – It is tempting to think that must be a typo. 110 years old? Or that the description is a generous exaggeration to link this supercentenarian (the official term for anyone reaching 110) to the noble game, but neither is the case. Zoltan Sarosy, born in Hungary in 1906, is the oldest man living in Canada, and was a professional chess player with titles from the 1920s to the 1980s, winning the Canadian Correspondence Championship three times. Here is a look at a man who has literally played chess for 100 years.

9/2/2016 – The ChessBase India newspage started in September 2015. It's been a year now that we have been providing comprehensive coverage of the Indian chess scene – tournaments, achievements and promoting deserving players. It was time to take it a step further: ChessBase in Hindi! Starting with the Baku Olympiad we will be providing you with all the updates not only in English but also in the national language.

9/2/2016 – The 2016 Baku Olympiad certainly lives up to its name with no fewer than 180 teams ranging from Russia to Djibouti in the Open section, and 140 teams in the Women's section. The opening round saw results that reflected the huge rating disparities, with the occasional heroic result, but the greatest surprise was without a doubt Bulgaria's draw against Sudan, in which two of the Bulgarian fell prey to their Sudanese opponents. Big report with GM commentary.