London Rd9: Three-way playoff, Carlsen is champion

12/14/2015 – Three players finished with 5.5/9 points, leading to a very exciting three-way playoff. Due to the nature of the rules, Vachier-Lagrave and Giri first squared off, with MVL prevailing in a dramatic turnaround. He then faced Carlsen for the title. More playoff tension, but in the end Magnus Carlsen claimed both the London Classic title and the Grand Chess Tour. Express report.

LCC R08: Giri wins, exciting finish expected

12/13/2015 – The eighth round produced only one decisive game – Anish Giri beating Hikaru Nakamura. However, the other games were filled excitement, most notable being Carlsen’s draw against Topalov, where the 50 move rule hampered the World Champion’s chance to win the game. The last round promises to be an especially exciting one as five players have a chance to win the title. We have an illustrated round eight report with lots of pictures and game analysis.

Ivanchuk wins ACP Masters in Ashdod

12/12/2015 – Vassily Ivanchuk from Ukraine is the winner of the ACP Masters rapid super tournament that ended on Thursday in the Israeli city of Ashdod. The Ukraine No.1 beat Frenchman Etienne Bacrot in the final match with a flawless two wins and one draw to take home the title and the US$10 thousand first prize. Here is the final illustrated report.

London Rd8: Giri joins MVL in the lead

12/12/2015 – It was not for lack of trying, but round eight saw four of the five games draw, a scene the fans are all too familiar with. The only win was Anish Giri's victory over Hikaru Nakamura, still not recovered from yesterday's disheartening loss. Magnus Carlsen pressed Vesselin Topalov for the longest time, but could not crack the Bulgarian. Express report with video analysis by Daniel King.

London Rd7: Three decisive games!

12/11/2015 – Three decisive games! The moment we saw that there was no Berlin played on any of the boards we knew that this round was going to be different. Carlsen ground down Nakamura after a marathon seven hour struggle. Maxime played a beautiful game to down Anand, and so did Aronian to beat Veselin Topalov. In the FIDE Open Dutch GM Benjamin Bok won the event with an impressive 8.0/9. We have game analysis, interviews and pictures from London.

John Hartmann: Diving into Databases

12/11/2015 – "You can buy the fanciest GUI," writes John Hartmann, "and you can collect all of the strongest engines around, but if you’re working with poor quality data, your research will suffer for it." He takes a look at the chess databases that are available for ambitious players and takes a special look at the Big and Mega Databases from ChessBase, each currently with 6.46 million games.

LCC R6: Video analysis by Daniel King

12/11/2015 – Another round with four draws and one decisive game finished yesterday. Even with such a high number of draws Daniel King found some interesting positions which he included into his round report. The games Topalov vs Adams and Grischuk vs Anand got his attention. In his usual manner Daniel King explains the ideas of the player in a comprehensive and lively way. Click here for the videos...

Watch out!

12/11/2015 – 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.

London Rd6: Grischuk grinds down Anand

12/10/2015 – Four draws one win – that’s the trend at each round of the London Chess Classic. Alexander Grischuk scored a full point against Vishy Anand by playing a highly consistent game. Topalov drew a winning position against Michael Adams. The other three games were not exactly dramatic. David Howell won the British Knockout with a score of 4:2 and Benjamin Bok leads the FIDE Open with a score of 7.0/8. Pictures, videos and analysis from London.

ACP Masters starts in Ashdod, Israel

12/9/2015 – It is described as the strongest event ever held in Israel, and the twelve-player rapid event in Ashdod has not disappointed. With star power such as Gelfand, Ivanchuk, Nepomniachtchi, as well as names such as Bacrot and Sevian, there were all the ingredients to a thrilling event. The players were split into two groups with four qualifiers, with plenty of fun chess.

London Rd5: Anand beats Topalov in virtuoso endgame

12/9/2015 – Vishy Anand’s victory over Veselin Topalov was the highlight of the day. Caruana missing a one move win against Grischuk, with loads of time on his clock, was quite shocking. Going in to the rest day we have three leaders – Vachier-Lagrave, Nakamura and Giri, all with +1. In the British Knockout Howell inched closer to the title with another draw. The open event is heating up with ten players on 5.0/6. High quality pictures and analysis from London.

LCC R4 and R5: Video analysis by Daniel King

12/9/2015 – There's a high chance of 4 draws and one decisive win per round if you look at the first five rounds of the London Chess Classic 2015. The decisive wins from round 4 and 5 are reviewed by Daniel King in his usual comprehensive manner. Being present at the Classic, he's the right man to show you some insights to the games. Click here for the videos...

Huffington: Ups and Downs of Chess Champions

12/9/2015 – World Champion Magnus Carlsen, 24, has been slipping a bit lately, but still sits at the top of the rating list – alone against three forty-plus players. The conflict of the generations is a never-ending topic that dominates one of the most important novels of the 19th century, Fathers and Sons, by prominent Russian writer Ivan Turgenev. GM Lubomir Kavalek explains.

ChessBase Account: Live database (part two)

12/8/2015 – An important feature of the Live Database is the ability to analyze, annotate and save games. Not only do you have excellent annotation features, but you can also consult the Live Book, and Let’s Check analysis, analyze moves with the Fritz engine, and even save the game to your hard disk or cloud database. These tools work on Windows, Macintosh, and Linux.

Adventures in Portugal

12/8/2015 – Grandmaster Timur Gareyev loves challenges. He once played against 33 players blindfold simultaneously and he likes to travel the world for adventure. At the 9. Figueira da Foz Open in Portugal that took place from 21. to 28. November he enjoyed the surroundings and won with 8.5/9. But his most dangerous adventure came after the tournament.

LCC R04: Nakamura is World No. 2

12/8/2015 – Once again we witnessed only a single decisive result, but almost every one of the five games was a hard fought battle. Nakamura beat Anand, whose hometown of Chennai is under water. Carlsen and Topalov came close to scoring the full point against Adams and Caruana, but couldn’t do so. David Howell and Nick Pert drew their fourth game. In the FIDE Open we have five leaders. Loads of analysis, pictures and exclusive videos from London.

Averbakh's barrier

12/8/2015 – 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!

2015 Ukraine Ch: Kuzubov takes early lead

12/7/2015 – The Ukrainian Championships are underway in Lviv, Ukraine. Both the men’s and women’s events are composed of twelve players, with many of their very best fighting for the title of Ukraine Champion. After four rounds in the men’s event, Kuzubov has stormed into first with 3.5/4, while the Ukrainian Federation still keeps Mariya Muzychuk’s games secret.

Andrew Martin: First Steps in Opening Play

12/7/2015 – There's one question every chess player has to answer: what to play in the opening position? Experienced players and grandmasters might know what to do but if you are less experienced or do not have time to study the opening you might find it difficult to find an answer. Andrew Martin helps you to take the "First Steps in Opening Play". Review...

Mixed field at the German Championship

12/7/2015 – Germany is a chess country. Though it has no 2700+ player after A. Naiditsch decided that the chess pastures are greener in Azerbaijan, Germany's number 100, Lars Stark (Elo 2436), would be number 39 in China. However, Germany's strongest players continuously shy away from the German Championship. Only eight of the 36 participants are among the country's top 100.

Portrait of Judit Polgar in "The Telegraph"

12/7/2015 – Judit Polgar has retired from tournament chess but still promotes the game. The English newspaper "The Telegraph" met "On the black-and-white battlefield with the world’s greatest female chess player" and Rachel Halliwell turned this meeting into a long portrait, in which Polgar speaks about her career, sexism, the benefits of chess and offers four winning tips.

LCC R03: The solid Berlin and the volatile Najdorf!

12/6/2015 – What a round! All five games began with 1.e4. Four players replied 1…e5 – two Berlins, one Anti Berlin and one Anti Marshall, and these four games ended in a draw. Topalov played the Najdorf and was beaten by MVL! We have some exclusive pictures of elite players on the roads of London, plus analysis from the British knockout championships, and also the FIDE Open which now has a sole leader. Big illustrated report.

Breaking news: Ilyumzhinov transfers powers

12/6/2015 – After the extremely surprising announcement that the US Treasury had placed FIDE president Kirsan Ilyumzhinov on the sanction list, forbidding US citizens from conducting business with him, today FIDE released a statement in which he withdraws from FIDE’s legal, financial and business operations, passing these powers to Deputy President Georgios Makropoulos.

London R02: All games drawn!

12/5/2015 – Maxime Vachier-Lagrave came closest to scoring the full point today. He had a winning position against Hikaru Nakamura but he failed to convert it. Magnus against Fabi was quite an interesting struggle, while the rest three were pretty dull draws. David Howell was able to beat Nick Pert to take the lead in the British Knockouts. We also have some pictures from the FIDE Open. Detailed illustrated report.