Tal Round 7: Peace in Moscow

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.

The World Youth Championships end in Khanty-Mansiysk

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.

The stalemate box

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!

2016 Isle of Man Rd3 - Action all around

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.

Is the Modern Scotch an under-rated opening?

10/3/2016 – Evgeny Tomashevsky was playing the Modern Scotch with black in the first round of the 2012 Tal Memorial. He lost the game to Teimour Radjabov. Fast forward to 2016 – Tomashevsky playing the Modern Scotch with black, once again, this time against Nepomniachtchi. He loses again! We investigate both the games in this article, with analysis by Teimour Radjabov and Alejandro Ramirez. And we show you a DVD that presents the white strategies in detail and also outlines a dynamic way for Black to counter the latest trends.

Isle of Man 01+02: Wesley held by Harika

10/3/2016 – In a total field of 133 players we see no Russians – not a single lone GM or IM. But: 75% of the Gold Medal United States Olympic team is in the Isle of Man to win the tournament. And: almost 20% of the total participants in the event are Indians. After two rounds of play 16 players are on 2.0/2 – but not world number 6 Wesley So, who was stopped by Indian number two female Harika Dronavalli. Big report with lots of annotated games + Round three live!

Tal Round 6: White bloodbath

10/2/2016 – What an exciting and powerful round we had in Moscow! Four white wins, which blast the tournament wide open! The most important ones for the top standings were Aronian's win against Giri, finishing with a flourish, and Nepo's positional domination against Mamedyarov: the Russian now regains sole lead. Svidler blew Li Chao off the board while Kramnik beat Gelfand, who suffered his fifth loss in a row.

Isle of Man International tournament 2016

10/2/2016 – This tournament is taking place from October 1st to 9th, 2016. The participants include Fabiano Caruana, Wesley So, Hikaru Nakamura, Michael Adams, Pavel Eljanov, Wang Hao, Alexei Shirov, Hou Yifan, with a total field of 132 players. The first round saw clean wins by most of the top seeds (Peter Leko, 2709, drew against an untitled 2363 player). You can watch the action of round two here on our news page.

Jon Speelman's Birthday Agony Column #22

10/2/2016 – Today he turns 60, our very popular columnist Jonathan Speelman, grandmaster and mathematician, twice Candidate for the World Championship. In 1978, at the age of 21, he defeated his first GM, none other than Bent Larsen in the Lone Pine tournament (which Larsen went on to win). In celebration of his birthday Jon annotates this "ecstasy" game, as well as an "agony" encounter against Peter Biyiasas. Learn and enjoy.

Tal Round 5: Anand roars back

10/1/2016 – A relatively quiet day in Moscow, as we had been spoiled with about three decisive games per day in the Tal Memorial. The only win today was by Vishy Anand against the completely luckless Boris Gelfand. It was an interesting affair in a Rossolimo Sicilian, but White with good preparation always had the edge. Priyadarshan Banjan brings a full transcript of Anand's post-game interview.

Creativity: Why it cannot be a machine property

10/1/2016 – A month ago, we published an article discussing the topic of machine creativity entitled “Machine creativity: What it is, and what it isn’t”. Naturally, this was not meant as the final word on the topic, but rather an invitation to discuss and deliberate on it. In the pursuit of that discussion, author and programmer Dr. Ofer Shamai, a PhD in Philosophy of Science, sent a thoughtful reply to it, expounding his thoughts on the subject with a slightly different definition of 'creativity'. Food for thought.

October 2016 ratings: Kramnik is now 2817

10/1/2016 – What a month! There was no shortage of results with the Baku Olympiad taking place with players ranging from World Champion Magnus Carlsen to the lowliest amateur. It was a time to shine, and some players did just that to blinding extremes, such as Georgian Baadur Jobava's result good for 33 Elo, or Ukraine's Andrei Volokitin whose performance was almost beyond 3000! Vladimir Kramnik's gold medal result took him to a personal best of 2817 Elo and world no.2 once again. Here are the results, stats and more!

Tal Round 4: Giri on fire, two other wins

9/30/2016 – With his third straight victory it is Anish Giri that is stealing the show in Moscow. He leads with 3.5/4, half a point ahead of Ian Nepomniachtchi who drew against Levon Aronian. Two other games were decisive: Vladimir Kramnik returns to 50% by defeating Vishy Anand, while Li Chao came with strong preparation and beat a luckless Gelfand with the black pieces. Report of round four.

Back to form in Mexico

9/30/2016 – Chess globetrotter Alina l'Ami had a problem: she was continually losing rating points but had no idea why. As she loves chess and travelling she felt that the best cure to fight her Elo-disease would be a tournament in an inspiring country and gladly accepted the invitation to the Copa Independencia 2016. Mexico indeed inspired her and the result of the tough tournament once again showed that it is good to trust your feelings.

An impressive career

9/30/2016 – 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.

World Youth Championships: a perspective by a coach

9/30/2016 – The World Youth Championships U14, U16 and U18 are played from 20th September to 4th October in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia. More than 400 players travelled to the Siberian city, accompanied by more than 260 parents and coaches. David Koetsier is coach of the Australian team and sends a report about the adventures of the Australian team that reflects on the unique atmosphere of youth tournaments.

An interview with chess legend Judit Polgar

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".

Protest against playing the Women's World Championship in Iran

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.

Tal Round 3: Three wins!

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!

The Xavier Parmentier Foundation

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.

Play three tournaments in Incredible !ndia

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.

Jon Speelman's Agony Column #21

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?

How Anand trounced Mamedyarov's speculative sacrifice

9/28/2016 – Vishy Anand joined the lead at the 2016 Tal Memorial in a stylish manner. He fended off a sacrificial attack by Mamedyarov to emerge a piece up in a winning endgame, despite Black's three passed pawns as compensation. A study-like finish gave a nice win to the Indian former World Champion. Find out all about this endgame in step-by-step analysis by Sagar Shah, and in comments by Viswanathan Anand himself! Very instructive.

Timur Gareyev Breaks World Consecutive Blindfold Chess Record

9/28/2016 – GM Timur Gareyev is a man with a mission: the man who likes to call himself "Blindfold King" wants to set records in blindfold chess. And he does: on September 24th, at the Coralville Marriott Hotel in Iowa, from 9:32 in the morning to 7:45 in the evening, he played 64 consecutive blindfold games, winning 54, losing 8 and drawing 2. That's a new world record!