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.

10/12/2016 – It might seem like a needle to the great Dutch player, but consider that Timman and Karpov have a rivalry that now spans over 100 classical games, with their first match taking place 26 years ago. In this time, Jan Timman had never been able to best the 12th World Champion, Anatoly Karpov in a match, and it was not for lack of trying. At long last, he can finally cross off that item on his bucket list that had to seem was written in permanent ink: 'beat Tolya in a match.' Illustrated report.

10/12/2016 – This week's pair of games are by Michael Bacon from Lavonia, a small city in Georgia. He learned chess in his twenties, and made a living for many years from backgammon, also playing other games including poker, bridge and latterly Go on the Internet. Michael was champion of the city of Atlanta from 1974-6. The two games he sent, a victory against a strong opponent and then a heavy defeat against a less formidable opponent, are a fine encapsulation of the Agony and Ecstasy of chess in a microcosm.

10/11/2016 – As a chess fan, what's your daily schedule like? If you are a student, you will probably attend classes and work on assignments, then follow chess games online, play a ton of blitz. But whatever you are doing right now, put it on hold! Hou Yifan, the Women’s World Champion, is in Hamburg, at the ChessBase HQ. And at 7 p.m. CEST on Wednesday she will be doing an interaction session with everybody, via Playchess and ChessBase’s Official Facebook and Twitter handles!

10/11/2016 – 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. Today on the playchess server, 4 pm: Endgame Magic with Karsten Müller and Vidit Gujrathi!

10/10/2016 – The rounds five to seven were among the most intense, as they meant the cutoff for those who would get to see a big payday on Millionaire Monday, and those who would be left fighting the last two 'normal' rounds. After the dust settled in round seven, every section saw playoffs needed to choose the qualifiers. It wasn't just about the very top GMs in the Open section, as even players rated under 1200 will fight for thousands of dollars!

10/6/2016 – Some days you have quiet rounds where the top seeds do their business without much fuss, most of them win with a few draws but the fifth round of the Isle of Man tournament saw a few big names have a real setback. Second seed Hikaru Nakamura, former world championship challenger Peter Leko and top Paraguayan GM Axel Bachmann were all defeated by lower-rated opponents in very sharp games. Report with games and test positions.

10/5/2016 – In a sense, the event was both uneventful in that it ended with five draws, yet not quite so, as it leaves Ian Nepomniachtchi in the driver’s seat going to the last round, with Anish Giri right behind. Of the five games, the two hardest fought were Levon Aronian against Li Chao, and Kramnik’s 7-plus hour battle with Tomashevsky as he tried his hardest to convert a material advantage. Report with analysis by GM Moradiabadi.

10/5/2016 – Did you ever wonder how World Champion Magnus Carlsen lives? The "Financial Times" did, and asked journalist Mihir Bose and photographer Ilja C Hendel to visit the world's best chessplayer and take a look into the "home and (mind)" of Magnus Carlsen. When talking to Bose Carlsen revealed amongst other things a great interest in political figures and military history.

10/5/2016 – On 6th October the 3rd Millionaire Chess tournament starts in Atlantic City. And again it is a tournament in which players can win a lot of money. Chess organiser, author, coach and commentator GM Maurice Ashley is one of the driving forces behind the Millionaire Chess tournament. In an interview he openly talks about expectations, this year's tournament, Chess in the US and why he is so enthusiastic about the game.

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.