Remembering Mihail Tal

11/9/2016 – Today, 9th November 2016, Mihail Tal would have celebrated his 80th birthday. Tal is one of the most popular World Champions though he reigned only for one year. But this short time on the chess throne was enough to secure him a special place in the history of chess. Not only because of his magical games but also because of his kind and modest nature. His opponents feared the magician from Riga, his fans admired him. The German chess journalist Dagobert Kohlmeyer knew Tal well and shares memories.

Novi Sad, Rd 2: Favorites continue to win

11/8/2016 – In round two of the European Club Cup in Novi Sad the favorite teams continued to live up to their role as favorites. After two rounds twelve teams still have 4 out of possible 4 team points and six of these teams even have 11 out of 12 possible board points and lead the field. Results, tables, games...

Activity is the order of the day

11/8/2016 – 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!

Alexander Areshchenko wins strong open in Bad Wiessee

11/8/2016 – 475 players started in the 20. Open International Bavarian Championchips that took place from 29th October to 6th November in Bad Wiessee, Germany. After nine rounds seven players shared first place with 7.5/9 and the Ukrainian GM Alexander Areshchenko won on tie-break. But the decision was close. Very close.

ChessBase Magazine 174: What will Magnus play?

11/8/2016 – The World Championship in New York between Magnus Carlsen and Sergey Karjakin starts in a few days. What can we expect? In order to predict the opening choice of the reigning Champion, Nagesh Havanur consults the latest issue of ChessBase Magazine. Will Carlsen go for an Anti-Sicilian with 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.c3? Will he play the Scandinavian or Modern with black against 1.e4, and the Ragozin against 1.d4? Quite apart from the divination powers you can get from CBM 174 it is also a highly recommended training tool.

A day with the Queen of Katwe (1/2)

11/7/2016 – Recently chess players of Mumbai had a day filled with chess and fun. Firstly everyone saw the movie Queen of Katwe together. It was truly an inspirational movie. This was followed by learning the Queen's Gambit Declined from Power Play 23. In part I of this article, we bring you the reasons why Queen of Katwe is a movie that every chess lover must watch at all costs. And it is best to watch it, as we did, together with other chess friends.

Kick off at the European Club Cup

11/6/2016 – The European Club Cup, the strongest club tournament of the year, began this weekend in Novi Sad, Serbia. The event lasts from 5th to 13th November and attracted 20 of the world's best 30 players, among them Vladimir Kramnik, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and Levon Aronian. The best player in the Women's Tournament is reigning Women's World Champion Hou Yifan.

Kortchnoi Zurich Chess Challenge 2017

11/6/2016 – On June 6th this year one of the all-time greats of chess, Viktor Lvovich Korchnoi, passed away. In his final years, debilitated by a series of strokes and bound to a wheelchair, he attended the Zurich Chess Challenge each year, in fact playing a match himself in 2015. To honor the unforgettable chess legend there will be a special memorial tournament from April 13th to 17th, 2017 in Zurich. Take note of these dates – you can participate as well.

Queen of NY: Judit Polgar talks about analysing the match

11/6/2016 – After officially retiring from professional play, many fans might have worried the Hungarian star would drop out of the chess world, but these fears seem to have been put to rest. We first saw Judit Polgar embrace new roles such as coach of the Hungarian ‘Open’ team at the Olympiad, and now as another first, when Magnus Carlsen and Sergey Karjakin battle it out in New York City, she will be the official commentator. Judit Polgar talks about her expectations, her preferences and her plans.

A Sunday chess task for our readers

11/6/2016 – "I would like to pose you with a rook endgame, which was one of the best calculations I have done in my chess career till date," writes Avathanshu Bhat. He was faced with a rook and three pawns vs rook and three pawns ending and had to calculate quite deeply to win it. You are asked to do the same on our interactive PGN player. After you have excercised your chess skills you can listen to the video analysis of the player himself.

Finding inspiration in Haarlem (1/2)

11/5/2016 – "A Dutch legend, a Syrian refugee and a 64 year-old Israeli… and chess, of course. That's all it takes to rediscover the pleasure of the 64 squares, through the pleasure of the others. One doesn't necessarily need to be around Carlsen to feel the spark of the beauty of chess. The light in a chess player's eyes wired for this game is just as fascinating and, perhaps, the best mirror a chess lover could possibly find." Thus starts an illustrated report by Alina L'Ami.

Bill Gates denies attendance at World Championship

11/5/2016 – Readers will recall the recent announcement made by FIDE president Kirsan Ilyumzhinov that both Mark Zuckerberg and Bill Gates, the foremost tech moguls of our age, would be visiting the World Chess Championship in New York City. In an interview to TASS, a Russian news agency, he stated that invitations had been tendered to both, and had been accepted. Wishing to follow-up on this in order to learn more, we reached out to them.

Blindfold World Record event in Las Vegas

11/4/2016 – François-André Danican Philidor played three opponents, Paul Morphy took on eight. In the 20th century Pilsbury played twenty, Koltanovsky 34 and Najdorf 45. Now a leading blindfold grandmaster, Timur Gareyev, is planning to set a new record by playing 47 games simultaneously while blindfolded. The event will take place at the University of Nevada in Las Vegas. You can participate: the organisers are looking for funds and players.

Sam Collins: The Spanish Fianchetto

11/4/2016 – Are you frustrated by the regular games that come after 1.e4 e5? Are you, like Magnus Carlsen, looking for a way to generate playable but unbalanced postions? Well the moves 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 g6 lead to exactly that. A leading expert, Sam Collins, explains the key ideas of 3…g6 and provides a complete repertoire for Black, suitable for regular use. Over four hours of video, 800 key games, and interactive training with video feedback.

Special edition of Donald Duck with Carlsen coming

11/3/2016 – Readers may recall a couple of years ago when the local Norwegian edition of Donald Duck comics decided to pay homage to their star, Magnus Carlsen. It should therefore come as no surprise to find out that in tribute to the world championship match to be held next week, Magnus Carlsen will grace its pages once more in a special edition laced with humor and lessons in chess!

Corsica Masters: MVL beats Anand in final

11/2/2016 – The cover picture to the left best describes what happened in the Sunday clash between MVL and Anand. It was a fighting match to be fair. Anand sacrificed his queen in the first game with the black pieces but had to build a fortress in the end to secure a draw. He might have fancied his chances of pushing with white against MVL. But the Frenchman is popular all over the world for his expertise in Sicilian Najdorf. The audience were praying for the Najdorf to appear and the Frenchman obliged.

Jon Speelman's Agony Column #26

11/2/2016 – This week's games are by Samiha Sharmin Shimmi from Bangladesh. Samiha began to play chess at the age of 13. She graduated in Computer Science and Engineering, but also took part in important tournaments. Now she works as a Software Engineer and takes part in chess competitions occasionally – like playing in the national women's championship since 2002, finishing sixth this year. Jon Speelman comments on an Agony and an Ecstasy game by Samiha.

November 2016 ratings: Nepo closes in on the Top 10

11/1/2016 – It was a busy month for the players, though less so than after Baku. This month the results for the Russian Championship, the Isle of Man, and the Tal Memorial were all computed. This brought Caruana to the no.2 spot at 2823, while Nepomniachtchi is at no.12 after his surprising win at the Tal Memorial. In the Women's list, Hou Yifan drop a few more points and 'only' 55 Elo ahead of the rest. Among the surprising results is Vladislav Artemiev who had two great blitz results and is now no.3 with 2850. Report, stats, and more.

Riazantsev and Kosteniuk are 2016 Russian champions

11/1/2016 – The finale of the Russian Superfinal was easily the most exciting phase of the event, with a marked increase in decisive games in the Men’s final, and more action overall. After a six-way tie (out of 12 players) for first after seven rounds, it was Alexander Riazantsev who broke away to take clear first. Alexandra Kosteniuk all but left her rivals in the dust taking clear first in the Women’s a round in advance. Read the report and enjoy the excellent games.

Queen in the corners

11/1/2016 – 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!

CHESS Magazine November 2016: Studies with Stephenson

11/1/2016 – The World Problem conference is not just about solving. The chess composers present at the event are not idle but take part in one or more of the wide range of composing tourneys that these events always include. This year, for the first time, the Azerbaijanis ran a study composing tourney. First prize was won by Danish composer Steffen Slumstrup Nielsen. Problem expert Brian Stephenson explains the study and gives you another study to solve.

ChessBase Opening Encyclopedia 2016

10/31/2016 – This DVD is a mix of the old and the new. Players like Magnus Carlsen have blurred the borderline between the two and keep experimenting with new systems. You never know what they will play next. The Opening Encyclopedia 2016 has 5,629,050 games, of which more than 84,000 are annotated. There are 5,900 opening surveys by the finest opening specialists, and 931 theory databases. Review by Nagesh Havanur

Mark Dvoretsky's final interview - Part II

10/31/2016 – In Part II of our interview with Dvoretsky we go into more specifics. We ask Mark how can we improve at tactics and endgames. We ask for his opinion on famous authors like Jacob Aagaard and Karsten Müller, and also great trainers like Tukamkov and Chuchelov. He also narrates a funny incident about working with ChessBase software and reads out a passage written by Lev Psakhis that had him in splits. It's an interview from which you can learn a lot, and even though you might not agree with everything that Mark says, it's definitely food for thought.

Corsica Masters: Anand vs MVL in final

10/29/2016 – The surprising thing about Corsica is the inherent diversity of the small Mediterranean island, one of the regions under France. It is a bit like a game between two fighting chessplayers — glittering bays, relaxed beaches, dense forests, mountain peaks. The geography is never constant. Corsica is hosting a notable chess festival with the chief attraction being a rapid tournament featuring MVL and Anand. Illustrated report with analyses.