2017 Tata R5 Express: Wesley So charges ahead

1/19/2017 – Who could have predicted it? While Pavel Eljanov had been making headlines with his grip of sole lead, all eyes were also on Magnus Carlsen who had been chasing after the lead, punctuated by a super win over Wei Yi in round four. Still, after Carlsen drew in round five against former second Nepomniachtchi, and Eljanov lost to Aronian, it was Wesley So who scored a fantastic victory over Harikrishna to take the sole lead. Karjakin fell surprisingly to Adhiban in a French Defense. Express report.

Jon Speelman's Agony Column #37

1/19/2017 – Niel Hickman, a retired judge in his sixties, used to get regularly beaten up in college by the young Tony Miles, and then by the likes of GM Jim Plaskett. He now lives in Norfolk, does Guardian crosswords and writes a bit – on jurisprudence and chess. Niel has submitted two games, a tragedy from 2011 and a very nicely played attacking effort from 2015. They are annotated and explained by him and Jon Speelman. Agony and ecstasy.

Strengthen your chess foundation with IM Nisha Mohota

1/18/2017 – Nisha Mohota is an International Master and an experienced trainer. Last year she was in Hamburg to record a DVD in the ChessBase studio. "Strengthen your chess foundation" contains important theoretical and practical knowledge on openings, middlegames and endgames. The DVD also focuses on one extremely important element in chess that is rarely spoken about – psychology. Six hours of high quality content.

2017 Tata Rd4: Taking no prisoners

1/18/2017 – If the third round was deserving of the title “bloody round” then the fourth was even more so. Not only were there three high quality wins in the Masters by Eljanov, Carlsen, and So, but there might have been four had Giri not slipped at the last moment. The Challengers saw all seven games end in decisive results. It wasn’t all smooth sailing as will seen, while some, like Ragger continued his steamrolling ways with a fourth straight win. Full report with annotations by GM Georg Meier.

Daniel King looks at Tata Steel

1/18/2017 – During our coverage of the Tata Steel tournament, we have once again enlisted the help of GM Daniel King, who has been producing round-by-round videos in which he recaps the action of the day in the Masters, as well as a close look at one of the games of the round, such as the ultra exciting So-Rapport game of round three. However, he has also been hosting a lengthy daily show on Playchess where all the games get scrutinized. Check out these great videos.

Hans Berliner, chess master and programmer, dies at 87

1/18/2017 – He learned chess at the age of 13, and the game became a preoccupation and obsession. Hans Berliner played for the US Olympiad team and four times in the US Championship. He later graduated in computer science and became a professor at the Carnegie Mellon University. There he pioneered hardware programming and built the first machine that exceeded 2400 Elo points. Last Friday he passed away in his retirement home in Florida. Hans Berliner is also remembered for what many have called the greatest chess game ever played.

2017 Tata R4 Express: Carlsen, So, and Eljanov win

1/17/2017 – The leaders are certainly making themselves felt and noticed, and it was never clearer than in round four. Magnus Carlsen faced Chinese prodigy Wei Yi, and it was a fascinating game to watch as he eventually broke his resistance and scored a win. Not to be outdone, leader Pavel Eljanov overcame B. Adhiban in an excellent endgame, while Wesley So kept pace with a fine win of his own over Loek Van Wely. The Challengers was all-out war with not one draw in seven games. Express report.

The short diagonal

1/17/2017 – 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!

Fritztrainer: Alexei Shirov on cracking the Berlin Wall

1/17/2017 – The Berlin Defence gives White a hard nut to crack – after 5.d4 White has trouble proving any advantage. Top Latvian GM Alexei Shirov proposes a different approach: play 5.Re1 and you will get a symmetrical position that is not boring at all. With a whole range of grandmaster games Shirov shows that White can indeed develop pressure and seize the initiative, and that the position is full of subtleties. His latest DVD gives you a first-class weapon against the Berlin and helps you to be at least one step ahead of your opponent.

I will go to Iran as a chess player and just play chess!

1/17/2017 – Ju Wenjun won the tournament in Khanty Mansiysk and with it the overall women's Grand Prix as well. This gives her the right to challenge the World Championship winner in Tehran 2017. ChessBase India's Niklesh Jain got in touch with the women's world number two and asked her questions, not only about her Grand Prix victory, but also about the hijab controversy, Hou Yifan's decision to pull out of the cycle and her personal ambitions in chess.

2017 Tata Rd3: Manic Monday

1/17/2017 – What a round it was. While the masters saw three decisive games, the challengers saw six of the seven games end with victors and losers. It was also a round defined by fatal blunders that upset the balance of the games. The most obvious was Rapport’s change of fortunes as he went from won to lost against So, but he was not alone as Bok and Jones also self-immolated on the board. Still, it wasn't all tragedies as Wei Yi and Karjakin scored. Report with analysis by GM Tiger Hillarp-Persson.

2017 Tata R3 Express: Bloody round with tough games

1/16/2017 – The third round was a very exciting round to follow, with decisive results all over, and some epic games. By far the most exciting was the battle between Wesley So and Richard Rapport. The Hungarian brought in all his imagination and verve and reached a dead won game only to blunder it away in a couple of moves. Tragic. Nepomniachtchi also tried his hardest to save a hard endgame, but slipped at the end and lost to Wei Yi. The Challengers saw all games but one end in wins. Express report.

2017 Tata Rd2: Eljanov takes lead; Carlsen wins

1/16/2017 – After a lukewarm opening round, the action picked up with no fewer than three wins in the Masters. The first and foremost was Carlsen, who repeated Karjakin's offbeat 6.a3!? from round one to beat Wojtaszek, but not to be outdone, Pavel Eljanov notched a second straight win, beating Loek Van Wely for a perfect 2.0/2. The Indians dueled with Pentala Harikrishna taking the full point. In the Challengers, Markus Ragger has 100%. Full report with analyses by GM Alex Yermolinsky.

2017 Tata R2 Express: Eljanov and Ragger are the early leaders

1/15/2017 – The pace picked up in the second round, with Magnus Carlsen notching his first win after a fine victory over Radoslaw Wojtaszek. This was not enough to share the lead as Eljanov won his second straight, defeating Van Wely. In the battle of the Indians, Harikirshna beat Adhiban and is tied for second now. In the challengers, Ragger also scored his second win, while a much awaited duel between juniors Jeffery Xiong and Jorden Van Foreest saw the American take the point. Express report.

2017 Tata Rd1: A slow start in Masters

1/15/2017 – The lineups in both the Masters and Challengers of the 2017 Tata Steel festival promise intriguing bouts and thrilling encounters with names such as Magnus Carlsen, Sergey Karjakin, Wesley So, and Levon Aronian in the Masters, while the Challengers also has hot names such as Ragger, and rising juniors de Foreest and Xiong. Still, the Masters had a slow start with only one win by Eljanov over Rapport. Illustrated report with annotations by GMs Daniel King and Georg Meier.

3rd ChessBase India Online Blitz tournament on 15th January

1/14/2017 – The 3rd ChessBase India "Vishy Anand" online blitz tournament will be held on 15th of January 2017 at 13.30 server time (13.30 CET) on the Playchess server. The tournament is open to all the players of the world. The winner will win 12 months of ChessBase premium account along with Vishy Anand's DVD Vol.1+2. The second and third places will win nine and six months CB Premium Account + CBM 175. There are even more lucky prizes! Check out the article for more details.

New ChessBase service: all live tournaments at a glance!

1/14/2017 – As you know the Tata Steel Chess Tournament 2017, with Carlsen, Aronian, So, Karjakin, Giri, etc., is starting this weekend. So you will spend the next two weeks logging into Playchess and following the activites of these top players. Or you will watch some or the other high-class events that are taking place. This you will do using a Playchess Client or a ChessBase Account broadcast. Now there is a different and even mor convenient way. Take a look.

48 blindfold boards - The tale behind the record

1/14/2017 – On December 4, 2016, Timur Gareyev played against 48 opponents in a blindfold simul that lasted nearly 20 hours to set the new world record, a truly unbelievable exhibition of human strength and stamina. However, the road to the record was one of extensive preparation during which he met with leading experts in memory techniques, and even brought in the last surviving opponent of Najdorf's 1947 record, 92-year-old Luciano Andrade. Here is the full story behind the world record.

A quiet surprise

1/13/2017 – 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.

Introducing American Chess Magazine

1/13/2017 – As fellow chess fans, we always welcome a new chess magazine in which to indulge in our passion, but rarely does one appear with the amount of Wow factor that can be seen in the new American Chess Magazine. The large, beautifully produced magazine not only brings a slew of articles on events with deeply commented games, but comes also with columns by names such as Baadur Jobava and Vassily Ivanchuk. This new publication comes from the venerable Informant now celebrating 50 years of existence.

Dynamic diagrams

1/12/2017 – In chess publishing, there is nothing quite as ubiquitous as the chess diagram. From the first chess books in the 1500s to the latest articles on the web 500 years later, diagrams are a key element of the tale. It may seem astonishing therefore that even with today’s ease of technology no one has attempted to improve on it, other than the artwork. Until now that is, as ChessBase introduces a set of tools to include dynamic diagrams in your online articles.
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Three birthdays!

1/12/2017 – January 12 seems to be a special day for chess: today, three well-known chessplayers celebrate thieir birthdays! The oldest of the jubilarians is Vlastimil Hort who turns 73 today. Much younger is Sergey Karjakin, World Championship Challenger and reigning World Blitz Champion. But the youngest of the three is Harika Dronavalli. Happy Birthday!

Women's World Championship 2017: Who plays, who doesn't?

1/12/2017 – The Women’s World Championship 2017 will be played from 10. February to 5. March in Tehran. The decision to play in the Iranian capital was controversial, not least because women in Iran are forced to wear a headscarf in public, and all players have to comply to this rule. But Fide stood by its decision and now published a list of the 64 players who will fight for the Women's title. Top seed is Ju Wenjun, second seed Anna Muzychuk. But a number of top players refused to start.

Best of 2016: the results of your voting

1/11/2017 – We asked, you voted: who was player of the year 2016, who was female player of 2016, what game was the best of 2016 and what move? And which endgame did the chess fans like best? Here are the results.