7th London Chess Classic begins tomorrow

12/3/2015 – Friday, December 4th, 2015: the first round of the London Chess Classic starts at 16:00h local time, which translates to 17:00h CET, 11 a.m. New York, 9:30 p.m. New Delhi and 19:00h Moscow. On weekends the games start two hours earlier. We will bring live coverage on Playchess.com, with audio commentary by strong analysts and running evaluations by the world strongest computers.

Awonder Liang is youngest ever IM in US

12/2/2015 – Records come and go, and US chess has seen an explosion in interest among young players in the past decade. Until a week ago, the record for the youngest IM in the US was held by Samuel Sevian, but it was just broken by IM-elect Awonder Liang, beating him by three months. Except his record of youngest national master was also just broken.

Fire on board

12/2/2015 – The 7th London Chess Classic started yesterday with the inaugurual British Knockout Championships. In the quarterfinal the favorites Luke McShane, Gawain Jones and David Howell all won their two-game mini-matches. But Nicholas Pert and Jonathan Hawkins had to play a tie-break. Pert won thanks to a win in the Armageddon-Blitz and in a wild and messy game.

Mighty Indians at the World Youth 2015!

12/2/2015 – India sent fifty young and talented kids to participate in the World Youth Championships 2015 in Greece. They returned with a massive tally of eleven medals – five gold, three silver and three bronze. We got in touch with these young kids – the medal winners sent us annotated games. We also have opinions of five-time World Champion Vishy Anand and the coach behind the WYCC success: GM R.B. Ramesh.

December 2015 ratings: Carlsen slumps, Muzychuk rises

12/1/2015 – To say that Magnus Carlsen's year has been a flop would be an understatement. After a poor result in the European Team Championship, he has dropped to his lowest rating since 2011. On the flip side, Mariya Muzychuk, who has been envigorated by her win at the World Women Championship, has risen non-stop, and is now the world no. 3. Here are the numbers in all their glory.

Ilyumzhinov: Only chess connects me to Syria!

12/1/2015 – He was intending to go to the US last weekend, but after sanctions were imposed FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov instead took part in a TV interview in Moscow. "I don't sell any ISIL oil to Syria," he states. "We supplied them with a thousand chess sets and three thousand chess books for children." He also opened chess clubs in Aleppo and Damascus, but they were bombed by "the terrorists". Chess-News reports.

Wei Yi wins brilliancy

12/1/2015 – China's greatest talent, 16-year old Wei Yi, won the strong 1. China Kings Match in Taizhou, an eight player knockout event. Tan Zhongyi won the Queens Match by defeating Ju Wenjun in a blitz-tie-break. Wei Yi did not need a tie-break to create drama in the final against Bu Xiangzhi. After a draw in the first game he decided the match with a brilliant combination.

The sting of the scorpion

12/1/2015 – 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!

1st FIDE World Online Women Blitz Ch.

12/1/2015 – Flying in from all over the world, the top female online blitz players came to Rome, Italy to fight for the final prize: the title of the First FIDE World Online Women Blitz Championship (Gesundheit!). At stake was also a top prize of US$3000, with names such as Harika Dronavalli, who took gold, Alexandra Kosteniuk, Valentina Gunina and more. Illustrated report by Alina L'Ami.

ChessBase Account: Become an opening expert

11/30/2015 – Memorizing humongous amount of opening theory is one of the biggest problems faced by chess players at all levels. But in the ChessBase Account there is a new web based application called Openings Trainer which can help you overcome the difficulty. In this article we explain you the features of this app, with step by step screen grabs. There is also a video you should watch.

Shipwrecked in the Benoni

11/30/2015 – The Canadian grandmaster Eric Hansen (Elo 2577) was favorite to win the Cultural Village tournament in Wijk aan Zee and to get invited to play in the Tata Steel Challenger tournament in January 2016. Hansen started with 5.5/6 but then something went wrong in his game against the young Georgian Nino Khomeriki. Now Nijat Abasov will play the Challengers in Wijk.

NEW: ChessBase Magazine #169

11/30/2015 – Enjoy highlights of the FIDE World Cup and the European Club Cup, analysed and commented by top players such as Vladimir Kramnik and Pavel Eljanov. Let Erwin l'Ami show you a practical repertoire against the Dutch (2.Nc3 d5 3.Bg5 d5 4.e3) or join Karsten Müller to find a spectacular draw in an opposite-colored bishop ending from the World Cup final.

London calling

11/30/2015 – So far, 2015 has not been a particularly good year for World Champion Magnus Carlsen. From a rating of 2862 in January 2015 he dropped to a current live-rating of 2834. Carlsen will hope to regain some points in the London Chess Classic 2015, the final leg of the Grand Chess Tour. The tournament will begin on 4th December, the pairings are out now.

79 years ago: Capablanca beats Botvinnik

11/29/2015 – Jose Raul Capablanca (1888-1942), third World Champion, was a child prodigy and a legendary figure. The Cuban genius influenced many successors, from Botvinnik to Carlsen, with his positional understanding and endgame play. In this report by Prof. Nagesh Havanur we see him in a different role, as an astute chess psychologist. It includes some amazing analysis.

Magnus Carlsen homestory in The Telegraph

11/28/2015 – The London Chess Classic will start in about a week and English journalist Nigel Farndale used this opportunity to visit and to interview World Champion Magnus Carlsen at his new house in Norway. With dry humor the World Champion talked about his career, love and infatuation, his elo-rating, his passion for soccer and the pros and cons of being a super-star.

An interview with Dronavalli Harika (1/2)

11/28/2015 – With a rating of 2513 Dronavalli Harika is India’s number two woman player. The 24-year-old is well on her way to the top, and has climbed the ranking ladder steadily over the past couple of years and recently won the World Women's Online Blitz. She discusses her performance at the 2015 Women’s World Championship, where she won bronze, how she prepares for games and tournaments in this in-depth interview.

Top knockout at the London Chess Classic

11/27/2015 – A new high-level event is joining the extensive list of tournaments that make up the 7th London Chess Classic Festival: Eight of Britain’s best chess players, with the exception of Michael Adams, who plays in the Classic itself, will contest the inaugural British Knockout Championship. But not only the line-up is impressive. Press Release...

The right perspective

11/27/2015 – 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.

Vishy Anand: in pursuit of excellence (2)

11/27/2015 – Louis Philippe, a premier Indian men’s apparel brand, has a show hosted by an Indian tennis legend, Vijay Amritraj. In it famous personalities discuss their journey to reach the top of their profession. Last week we brought you part one of a very profound interview Vijay conducted with former World Chess Champion Viswanathan Anand. Today you can enjoy the second part.

Interview with Viktor Bologan

11/26/2015 – Viktor Bologan is a strong and successful grandmaster who currently mainly works as a coach. But at the European Team Championship he still was the player with the best Elo-performance. When Bologan was in Hamburg to record his new DVD about the King's Indian Defense he talked about his career, his approach to chess, his training methods and when chess is fun.

Kings and Queens in China

11/26/2015 – The Chinese chess players like to practice and often play against each other. From 24. November to 1. December eight of the country's best men and eight of the best women players meet in Taizhou to play the 1st China Chess Kings and Queens Matches, a short knock-out tournament. The first round led to interesting games and brought some surprises.

US Sanctions against FIDE President

11/26/2015 – It comes at a bad time: on the eve of a visit to the USA, to negotiate the venue of the 2016 World Chess Championship (Los Angeles, San Francisco or New York), FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov has been hit by sanctions of the US Treasury. This is mainly because of dealings with Syria and it President Assad. Currently US citizens are generally prohibited from engaging in transactions with him.

Come and get it – Fritz 15 released!

11/25/2015 – As you may have noticed – if you pay attention to the info screen that appears the first time you come to our news page – the latest 64 bit multiprocessor version of our flagship program is now available. Not only is it stronger than any Fritz we have previously released, it also has some amazing new training features. And it gives you access to the great new ChessBase Account World.

Four new Senior World Champions

11/25/2015 – In 2014 FIDE decided to make chess seniors ten years younger and since then the entry fee for a senior tournament is a possible 50-year birthday present. Since then the World Championships have also become stronger and have attracted more participants. New World Champions are Predrag Nikolic, Vladimir Okhotnik, Galina Strutinskaia and Nona Gaprindashvili.