9/10/2016 – Eugenio Torre from the Philippines, Asia's first grandmaster, is a phenomenon. In Baku he plays his 23rd Olympiad, more than any other player in chess history. Torre, who once qualified for the Candidate Matches and at his peak was number 17 in the world, gave his olympic debut in Siegen 1970 and since then has won three bronze medals for his results on board one. He is 64 years old, but still very strong. In Baku he plays on board three for the Philippines and started with 6.0/7 and an Elo-performance of 2712. A short tribute.

9/10/2016 – The Ukrainian team seems to be in good shape at the Olympiad in Baku. They beat Russia and China and only lost to the USA. After seven rounds they have 12 from 14 possible team points and share second to seventh place, and are only one point behind the leading US team. However, one prominent player is missing in the line-up of the Ukrainians: Vassily Ivanchuk. Where is the Ukrainian top player? Well, he is playing an open in Poland - a draughts tournament.

9/10/2016 – What an astonishing round it was! It literally saw all the previous leaders suffer setbacks. The biggest headline was without question the crushing victory of Team USA over India by 3.5-0.5. But this was not the only eye-opener. Previous co-leaders Netherlands lost badly to Latvia 3-1 and China, ranked third, lost 3-1 to England. Russia's 3.5-0.5 win over the Czechs sets up a double-date with the USA. In the Women's event, Russia was held to a draw by Poland, while China beat Ukraine. Full report, results and GM analysis.

9/9/2016 – During the first week of August the city of Belgrade hosted the 40th World Chess Solving Championship. Brian Stephenson, a member of the British Chess Problem Society, ran the Championship and chose the problems for the participants to solve. In the September issue of CHESS Magazine he presented two of the studies, and the solution to one from the May issue. Our readers are challenged to solve them, especially one that has a prize attached to it.

9/9/2016 – 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.

9/9/2016 – With the field at the top winnowed down to a handful the matches of the day were of paramount importance. The big match between Holland and India was epic: The Dutch started strong on all boards, but the Indians rallied and emerged victorious. The Ukrainians, who had shared the lead, faced Team USA, and it was Caruana's victory over Eljanov that decided their fate. The Women's event was no less dramatic as the Ukrainians squandered a sure win to draw with Russia, while China was held to a draw by Romania. Here is the report with instructive notes by GM Elshan Moradiabadi.

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.