Nakamura wins Opening Blitz in Zurich

2/12/2016 – With a dashing 3-0 start, there was no doubt that Nakamura was the best blitzer out there in the opening tournament. The event did not count for points, it was held as part of the opening ceremony and to determine who has more whites and who has more blacks in the rapid portion. We bring you a round by round report of an exciting opening in Zurich!

Tehran WGP Rd1: What a setting

2/12/2016 – In the strongest tournament organized in Iran, the FIDE Women's Grand Prix has just started in Tehran with the best female players in the world. The exceptions being Hou Yifan and Mariya Muzychuk who are preparing for their epic showdown in March. As can be seen in the photos, the location was a beautiful venue that just begs to be photographed.

Strongest ever US Championships this year

2/12/2016 – The U.S. Championships will be held simultaneously at the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis (CCSCSL) from April 13 through April 30, 2016. The open section features a clash between the nation's top-three players: Fabiano Caruana, Hikaru Nakamura and Wesley So, all in the top ten slot in the world. The seven-time U.S. Women's Champion GM Irina Krush seeks to defend her title. Press release.

Control function

2/12/2016 – 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.

Grand Chess Tour 2016 with two new events

2/11/2016 – Last year it was three events, in Norway, Saint Louis and London. This year Norway drops out and is replaced by two rapid+blitz events, in Paris and Brussels. The three top finishers from 2015 are invited, as well as the five highest average rated players of 2015. The participants are still to be announced, the total prize fund is US $1,050,0000 across the four events. Press release and dates.

Statistics for the 5th Zurich Chess Challenge

2/11/2016 – With just one day left before the start of the 2016 Zurich Chess Challenge people are asking: who has the best overall chances, who will be the ultimate winners. The event has a "new classic" (one hour per side) format, so one has to delve into many results of the players in different game formats to find an answer. This was done by the organizers in a wonderful collection of statistics.

Huffington: The Dance of Chess Kings

2/10/2016 – In his game the world's top-rated woman Hou Yifan World Champion Magnus Carlsen found himself in an endgame that was a theoretical draw. But it was not as easy as one may have thought: the Chinese GM would have to find a precise defense in a wonderful world of zugzwangs, stalemates and critical, correspondence or conjured squares. Huffington Post columnist Lubomir Kavalek explains in a very instructive column.

Rooks rule

2/10/2016 – 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. Today on the playchess server, 4 pm: Endgame Magic with Karsten Müller and Nisha Mohota!

Talents shine in Moscow Open

2/9/2016 – The Moscow Open is a huge chess festival, organized by the Russian State Social University, the RSSU. Several hundred chess fans play in a number of different tournaments. In the strongest group, the A-Open, two relatively unknown Russian talents finished first with 7.5/9 each: GM Yuri Eliseev and FM Dmitry Gordievsky. Eliseev won on tie-break.

Zurich: "new classic" with Morozevich and Gelfand

2/9/2016 – No, they won't be playing in the main event, which features six world-class grandmasters. Boris Gelfand and Alexander Morozevich will play a two-round match on Saturday, February 13th, at the Hotel Savoy Baur en Ville, simultaneously with the first two rounds of the main event. And with the same "new classical" time controls: 40 minutes per game with additional 10 seconds for each move. An interesting experiment.

ChessBase Account: no new costs, just new features

2/8/2016 – A player recently asked about subscribing to ChessBase Account, explaining that he already had a Premium subscription to Playchess, but dearly wanted the new goodies such as the tons of great video courses. It showed how misunderstood all these new changes are, since ChessBase Account is not a new pay service, it is a series of new features added for free to Premium subscribers!
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Bundesliga: Favorites lead

2/8/2016 – Germany's first league, the "Bundesliga", is a strong event and a long event. From September to April sixteen teams play a round-robin for the title. This season the 16 teams nominated 150 grandmasters, of which 18 have a rating of 2700 or more. Almost halfway through the season top favorite Baden Baden and co-favorite Solingen lead the table.

Mark Taimanov celebrates 90th birthday

2/7/2016 – As a child Mark Taimanov was a film star and later he was one of the best chessplayers of his time. He was also a celebrated concert pianist, giving concerts all over the world. With his fourth wife he founded and runs a chess school in St. Petersburg. Today, 7th February 2016, Taimanov celebrates his 90th birthday. Dagobert Kohlmeyer talked to the multi-talent.

Chess in a former Silk Road oasis

2/6/2016 – Chess is booming in Iran. A few days after the end of the Iranian Championships an international tournament took place in Mashhad, Iran's second most populous city, formerly an oasis along the ancient Silk Road. After nine rounds GM Pavel Maletin and IM Maksim Chigaev (both from Russia) shared first place with 7.5/9 each. Maletin won on tie-break-points.

Hesse: Threats of the nth degree

2/5/2016 – Averbakh called them "threats of the 1st degree" – moves which directly and bluntly threaten to bring about a concrete mate or the win of material. 2nd degree threats are moves which are intended to enable threats of the 1st degree. And so it continues, recursively. In his wonderfully entertaining book Joys of Chess Prof. Christian Hesse goes all the way to threats of the 5th degree.

Review: The Classical French

2/5/2016 – Former FIDE-World Champion Rustam Kasimdzhanov enjoys the reputation of being one of the world's best theoreticians. A lot of top players and federations are very keen to hire him as opening trainer. For ChessBase users things are more easy: they only need to get hold of one of his DVDs. For instance about the Main Line of the Classical French. Review...

The tricky London

2/5/2016 – 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.

Gibraltar: Hikaru Nakamura wins after tie-break

2/4/2016 – Hikaru Nakamura won the Tradewise Gibraltar Chess Festival last year and he won it this year. But not as smoothly as before. This year after nine of ten rounds Nakamura shared the lead with seven players. By winning the last round against David Anton, he qualified for a tie-break against Maxime Vachier-Lagrave. Here, after four draws Nakamura won the fifth game and the tournament.

Looking back: Qatar Masters 2015 – a class of its own

2/4/2016 – What happens when you organize a tournament that has 132 players, 77 of them grandmasters? What happens when 17 players above 2700 are trying their best to defeat the reigning World Champion? What happens when playing hall, facilities and accommodation are world class? What we get is an open tournament of a stature that has never been seen before in the history of chess – say our reporters in Doha.

Chess Down Under: The Australian Women's Masters

2/4/2016 – Melbourne is remarkable. It is no coincidence that the Economist Intelligence Unit has ranked Melbourne as the world's most liveable city for five times in a row (2011 to 2015). Deimante Daulyte had the pleasure and the chance to play chess in this city. She became second in the Australian Women's Masters and shares her impressions in a large pictorial report.

Gibraltar 09: Eight players share lead

2/4/2016 – The two top encounters of the ninth round of the Gibraltar Open ended in a draw. E. Bacrot drew M. Vachier-Lagrave, P. Harikrishna shared the point with D. Anton. This allowed four players to catch up and now eight players share the lead with 7.0/9 before the tenth and final round. If no sole leader emerges, a play-off will decide the winner.

Magnus Carlsen plays Simul in Dutch Parliament

2/3/2016 – After winning the Tata Steel tournament in Wijk aan Zee for the fifth time, equalizing the record of Vishy Anand, Magnus Carlsen showed Dutch politicians the intricacies of strategy and tactics: He gave a simul against 30 Dutch politicians in the "Tweede Kammer", the Dutch Parliament. Carlsen only lost to Jeroen van den Berg, the organizer of Wijk aan Zee.

Gibraltar 08: Four players share the lead

2/3/2016 – After eight of ten rounds four players with 6.5/8 each share the lead at the Tradewise Gibraltar Chess Festival: Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Etienne Bacrot, David Anton, and Pentala Harikrishna. Half a point behind follows a group of twelve players with 6.0/8 each. Among them is top seed Hikaru Nakamura who won with Black against Sergey Grigoriants.

Paul Keres, the Composer

2/2/2016 – For his 100th jubilee there was a Keres Memorial tournament in Talinn, Estonia. Paul Keres, the strongest player who never made it to World Champion, is still a legend for his adventurous play and astounding combinational skill. But he was also a remarkable composer who started with a clever two-mover at the age of thirteen. Prof. Nagesh Havanur presents a collection of Keres problems and studies for you to solve.