US Champ. Rd8: Crowded leaderboards

4/23/2016 – With tension and fatigue extracting their toll, the leaderboards have become jumbled. There are two leaders in the US Championship and a three way tie in US Women’s Championship. Nakamura is making a strong comeback and he is now only half a point behind the leaders, while Zatonskih joins leaders Paikidze and Abrahamyan in the Women's. Round eight with GM analysis.

Parligras is the Romanian Champion 2016

4/23/2016 – After a gap of 15 years Mircea-Emilian Parligras once again became the Romanian National Champion. "Every time I said to myself – maybe next year. Now that it has finally happened, it is like a dream come true!" These were the feelings of Mircea after winning the title. In this article you will find an interview with the 35-year-old grandmaster and also two instructively annotated games by him. Parligras also shares with us his secrets of success and future plans.

NYT: The littlest chess champions

4/22/2016 – We do not often link to general articles on chess in the mainstream media. But this one is inspiring and describes a chess initiative in New York City that deserves emulation. In after-school programs kindergarten and first graders are shown a different way of using their brains. Often they go on to beat elite private school teams. Some are even trained by weathered characters in Washing Square Park. Don't miss this one.

Stavanger: Five draws in round four

4/22/2016 – The fourth round of the Altibox Norway Chess tournament was the first without any decided games. Perhaps Pentala Harikrishna, who played against Nils Grandelius, came closest to a win but his advantage vanished after he forced the Swedish Grandmaster to give his queen for rook and minor piece. With 3.0/4 Magnus Carlsen remains sole leader.

US Champ. Rd7: So joins Caruana in lead

4/22/2016 – As we approach the final days, the tension is rising and nerves are starting to play a crucial role. Leader Caruana faced the teen-talent Jeffery Xiong who fell into trouble, but saved the game with great resilience. This allowed Wesley So to catch him after beating Shabalov in just 23 moves. Nakamura also closed the gap after a masterpiece over Akobian. Report with GM analysis.

Norway Chess: Daniel King's "Play of the Day", Rd.3

4/22/2016 – Round three of the Norway Chess tournament led to "the battle of the Scandis" as Daniel King dubbed the game between Magnus Carlsen and Nils Grandelius. The young Swedish grandmaster tried the Nimzowitsch-Sicilian, a rare guest in top tournaments. But this failed to surprise the World Champion. On the contrary: Carlsen countered brutally.

Bluff?

4/22/2016 – 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.

Norway Chess R3: Carlsen wins in style

4/21/2016 – In round three of the Altibox Chess Tournament Magnus Carlsen played against Nils Grandelius. In the opening blitz tournament Carlsen drew against the Swedish grandmaster, but in classical chess Grandelius lost clearly. In an unusual opening Carlsen sacrificed a piece for which he had tremendous pressure that Grandelius could not shake off. The four other games were drawn. Carlsen now leads with 2.5/3.

Norway Chess: Daniel King's "Play of the Day"

4/21/2016 – The most spectacular encounter of round two of the Norway Chess tournament was the game between Anish Giri and Maxime-Vachier-Lagrave. Anish Giri enjoys the reputation of being always execellently prepared but Vachier Lagrave still dared to play a sharp line of the Najdorf against him. This quickly led to tactical fireworks. Daniel King takes a close look.

US Championship: Caruana takes sole lead again

4/21/2016 – After five of eleven rounds the players had a free day at the US Championship in St. Louis but then round six brought a top encounter: Wesley So played with White against Hikaru Nakamura. The game ended in a draw and that gave Fabiano Caruana, who had White against Alexander Onischuk, the chance to take sole lead again. Which he did with a nice trick in the endgame.

US Championship 2016 - The strongest ever?

4/21/2016 – Three top ten players start in the US Championship 2016 and nominally it is the strongest US Championship of all times. But can you really compare today's tournaments with those of the past? Andy Soltis takes a look at previous Championships that were surprisingly strong and concludes that in a historical context 2016 might not be "the strongest ever".

Norway Chess: Ambush in the Najdorf

4/20/2016 – After the very lively first round of the Norway Chess tournament in Stavanger round two was more quiet. Four of the five games ended in a draw though three of them had a number of interesting moments. In the only decisive game of the round Anish Giri fell victim to an ambush Maxime Vachier-Lagrave had prepared in one of his pet lines in the Najdorf.

Magnus knows his classics!

4/20/2016 – It is always a joy to see Magnus Carlsen in action. His moves are accurate and there is a lot that we can learn from them. In his first round game against Harikrishna at the Norway Chess 2016, the World Champion made a move that reminded Sagar Shah about a game of Botvinnik played in 1941. Using this example as the base, the author delves into the topic of how studying classical games of great masters of the past can help you become a stronger chess player.

Norway Chess: Daniel King shows the hightlights

4/20/2016 – Lively start in Stavanger at the 4. Altibox Norway Chess tournament. Giri still knows how to win, Kramnik shows his superb strategic understanding and Carlsen steamrolls Pentala Harikrishna with a number of powerful moves. In the end the World Champion could even afford to miss a forced mate. Daniel King shows highlights of the first round.

Surya Ganguly wins Bangkok Open

4/20/2016 – Surya Shekhar Ganguly is the winner of the 16. Bangkok Chess Club Open. After beating Loek Van Wely in the final round Ganguly had 7.5/9 points and shared first place with Spanish GM Francisco Vallejo Pons, who had won against Nigel Short in the final round. But Ganguly had the better tie-break and this helped him to win the tournament.

Barden's record-breaking chess column

4/20/2016 – According to our calculations Leonard Barden has been at it for sixty years and seven months – making him the longest running uninterrupted weekly chess column in the world and in history. At 86 Leonard remains hale and his columns are topical and refreshing. And they are always accompanied by a chess puzzle that is great fun to solve. Here are excerpts and links to his recent Guardian chess columns.

Norway Chess: Carlsen, Kramnik and Giri win

4/20/2016 – The Norway Chess tournament in Stavanger saw a lively first round and three players winning with the white pieces: Anish Giri used his tactical chances to win against Pavel Eljanov and Magnus Carlsen steamrolled Pentala Harikrishna. Vladimir Kramnik won against Nils Grandelius by showing patience and good technique. The other two games ended in a draw.

Saint Louis: Fireworks in round five

4/19/2016 – Tournament leader Fabiano Caruana drew in round five of the US Championship in St. Louis and this allowed Wesley So, who won a smooth and powerful attacking game against Varuzhan Akobian, to regain the shared lead. Hikaru Nakamura showed tactical acumen against Sam Shankland while Gata Kamsky boldly attacked Jeffrey Xiong but blundered in the end.

New: Pert: Repertoire against Offbeat Openings

4/19/2016 – A lot of people do have a solid repertoire against the main lines but do not know what to do when the opponent surprises them with an offbeat opening. On his new DVD the renowned English grandmaster and coach Nick Pert shows how Black can successfully counter openings such as the Pseudo-Trompowsky, the London Sstem, and other offbeat openings. More...

A very strong knight

4/19/2016 – 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!

Breaking fast in Skopje (2/2)

4/19/2016 – In this second part of her report on the Karpos Open in Macedonia, we are reminded that in spite of the fascinating walk through the city of Skopje through the camera's lens, it is nevertheless a tournament and a good one at that. In first place after nine rounds was the Bulgarian GM Kiril Georgiev with 7.5/9 followed by eight with 7.0/9. Here is the illustrated report with analysis.

Norway Chess: Carlsen wins opening blitz

4/18/2016 – The Altibox Norway Chess tournament in Stavanger began with a blitz competition, in which Magnus Carlsen showed good form and ambitious chess. The World Champion started with 7.5/8, drawing only against Swedish GM Nils Grandelius. But in the final round Carlsen got a bit careless which helped Anish Giri to beat the winner of the blitz tournament.

US Championship: Big Point for Caruana

4/18/2016 – In round four of the US Championships in St. Louis Fabiano Caruana scored a big point in the fight for title and money: he won against Hikaru Nakamura to become sole leader with 3.5/4. Wesley So, who drew against Sam Shankland, is half a point behind. In the women's tournament Irina Krush, Tatev Abrahamyan and Nazi Paikidze share the lead with 3.0/4 each.

Norway Chess begins

4/18/2016 – Magnus Carlsen fans can be happy - only a few more hours and the World Champion will play again. Today, the Altibox Norway Tournament starts with a blitz tournament at 5.30 pm Central European time. Tomorrow, 4 pm CET, the first round of the 10-player round-robin with top players such as Anish Giri, Vladimir Kramnik, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave or Pavel Eljanov will begin..