10/26/2016 – This week's pair of games are by Davide Nastasio, who is 50 and lives in Atlanta, Georgia. A nurse who has worked in various roles including medical-surgical oncology and emergency nursing, Davide got interested in chess in 2011 when he was looking after his then one-year-old son, who used to fall asleep on him. Immobilised lest he wake him, he one day saw an advertisement for a chess site. Thus began his chess career. Oh yes, and he grows orchids.

10/26/2016 – While the Chigorin Memorial may no longer have the luster of other top international events, its long tradition and list of world class players who participated and won mean it can never lose its shine. For the second consecutive year, Kirill Alekseenko came ahead of the field of 372 strong, taking clear first with 8.0/9 and beating out 26 players higher rated. Nevertheless, this superb result was almost overshadowed by the GM norm with 2673 performance by 11-year-old Nodirbek Abdusattorov.

10/25/2016 – Observing the top players, our intrepid photographer/report/player Alina L'Ami began to ponder how it was they managed to deal with the stress of performing at the highest level and manage the great stress this can put on the players. After all, it is a constant fight to play as well as possible and bring home the bacon. How do they do it? These were some of the questions asked and speculated upon in this photographic essay with games and positions.

10/25/2016 – The Amir Timur Rapid Round Robin Tournament was held from 18th to 21st October at Hotel Miran International in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. The event was a tribute to Amir Timur, a famous conqueror who would be celebrating his 680 birthday. The 12-round quadruple tournament had an average rating of 2726 with elite players Mamedyarov, Gelfand, Ponomariov and local hero Kasimdzhanov making up the field. We have pictures, history lessons, and tactics for you to solve.

10/25/2016 – He has been writing his weekly chess column in The Guardian uninterrupted for sixty-one years now, breaking all records for this area of publication. Leonard's observations on the contemporary chess scene are well written and meticulously researched, and each column contains a game and, very enticingly, an entertaining and instructive chess puzzle. Visit the Guardian chess page on Friday – you will never regret it.

10/25/2016 – It was a huge shock for the entire chess world when, on September 26th 2016 Mark Dvoretsky passed away at the age of 68 years. At the Candidates tournament, which were held in Moscow in March 2016, ChessBase editor Sagar Shah and his wife Amruta Mokal met Mark at his home in Tallinskaya. In an interview that lasted well over two hours you get to know a lot about the legend's personality. This is Dvoretsky's last in-depth interview which deals with his life as a player, trainer and an author. Mark is no more but his teachings live on.

10/25/2016 – 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!

10/24/2016 – Held in St. Louis, Missouri, the 2016 SPICE Cup was held from Oct 17-22 with a strong and attractive field of players that included Le Quang Liem (2723 FIDE) as top seed, as well as a number of GMs and top US juniors such as Jeffery Xiong, Samuel Sevian, and more. The event saw a strong fight right to the end when Sevian and Robson were left equal first which was decided by a tiebreak game won by Sevian. Report, photos, and games.

10/24/2016 – Abhijeet Gupta won the 2016 Hoogeveen Open after scoring a comfortable 7.5/9. Lalith Babu, who had been leading with Gupta after seven rounds suffered an unfortunate accident to end on the third spot. Sandipan Chanda jumped in with a strong finish to take the runners up position. Lucas van Foreest performed excellently and ended on the fifth spot. The matches saw vistories by both Short and Sokolov respectively. We have pictures, tactics, stories and much more – in our final report from the Hoogeveen Festival 2016.

10/23/2016 – … in the Women’s event at least. The men’s competition is now led by six players out of twelve on plus one after a full seven rounds with a massive 76% draws. It is milkmaid chess at its best. The women on the other hand have shown who is wearing the pants in the event as they go all-out at each other every round setting an example of combativeness. Nevertheless, it hasn't all been the chess equivalent of watching paint dry as there has also been a fair share of fascinating positions.

10/22/2016 – The recently finished Isle of Man tournament was one more piece of evidence of how much the professional chess landscape has changed. No longer can one describe Opens as events a top player will shun, and the Isle of Man was one of those 'super' opens where one might find the world's elite playing just a table or two away, toiling at the board no different than the rest of us. Bringing us this retrospective is Alina L'Ami with her photos and comments.

10/21/2016 – He calls it "one of the most romantic of all openings", one you can play with white when you go 1.e4. Savielly Tartakower said that this attacking opening was invented to make men understand that chess is a gift from the gods. You cannot get higher praise than that. Or a better teacher than GM Simon Williams, whose aggressive style has brought down a number of top-class opponents (like Carlsen and Gelfand). His latest DVD has 4½ hours of gripping video.