Baku 3.TB: Nail biters!

9/19/2015 – Another exciting round of tiebreaks. Several of today's matches actually finished during the rapid portion of the tiebreak. Andreikin got his sweet revenge on Kramnik, while MVL, Svidler, and Topalov passed. Le Quang Liem was unfortunate enough to mate himself against So. Adams and Dominguez went all the way to 5+3, where the Brit prevailed. Meanwhile Naka-Nepo ended in Armageddon!

Baku 3.2: Plenty of results

9/18/2015 – Just a bit over half of the matches today finished in a victory for one of the players. The biggest name to go home is Grischuk, as he lost again to Eljanov. The Ukrainian now has an amazing 6-0 score in classical games in the World Cup! Ding Liren and Wei Yi are through and will guarantee a Chinese in the quarter finals... they play each other!

"Bundesliga": The new season begins

9/18/2015 – Club chess is strong in Germany. About 90.000 players are organised in the German Chess Federation and play from autumn to spring in various leagues for their clubs. The best teams start in the first league, the so-called Bundesliga. It is very strong, very traditional, and very international. This weekend the new season begins but the favorite remains the same.

Thinking further

9/18/2015 – 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.

Rogoff on the Fischer movie "Pawn Sacrifice"

9/18/2015 – Harvard professor Kenneth Rogoff is a world famous economist – and a chess grandmaster. He thinks that in the Hollywood movie actor Toby Maguire portrays Fischer with remarkable authenticity "indeed, pitch-perfect for those of us who met Bobby in his prime" (as Rogoff did). In his review Ken speculates how Fischer would not be Fischer in today's world.

Baku 3.1: Couple of Miracles, Many draws

9/17/2015 – 4/16 of the games today finished in decisive results, but a few of the games did see very tense drama unfold, especially close to time pressure. Lu Shanglei can count his lucky stars as he survived against Topalov basically down a piece. In Grischuk's topsy-turvy time trouble against Eljanov, it was complicated, then totally winning, then lost. And now he must win with black tomorrow to survive.

Predictions for round three

9/17/2015 – We are now down to 32 players, 16 encounters, and as the rounds progress the match-ups keep getting closer and tighter. Some of the opponents are so evenly matched that it is no longer easy to choose a favourite. But in this article we do exactly that – give you a description of each pairing and predictions for all 16 matches. Do your views concur with or differ from ours?

Baku 2.TB: Only two upsets

9/16/2015 – It was a slugfest in many of the matches, and several were very close affairs, but at the end of the day out of the fifteen tiebreaks only two ended in victories for the underdog. Both Le Quang Liem (VIE) and Alexander Areschenko (UKR) triumphed over Nikita Vitiugov (RUS) and Levon Aronian (ARM) to go into round three. One of the matches made it all the way to Armageddon: Adams-Laznicka.

Moscow Blitz bonanza

9/16/2015 – The Moscow Blitz Championship was held last week after a long series of qualifying events, to culminate in an incredibly strong twenty-player final who fought for the gold in a giant round-robin. Names such as Nepomniachtchi, world no.4 in blitz, Morozevich and many more took part. The women’s event fared no worse and was won by Valentina Gunina, also among the world’s best.

Baku 2.2: Many tiebreaks

9/15/2015 – Fifteen of the thirty-two matches played in round two of the World Cup in Baku resulted in 1.0-1.0 ties and will be going into tiebreaks tomorrow. Three more 2700s have been sent home: Lu Shanglei got rid of his compatriot Wang Hao by securing a draw today, Harikrishna blundered a piece against his teammate Sethuraman while Navara could not tie the series vs. Guseinov. Round two.

Another case of cheating?

9/15/2015 – Smartphones, mini cameras, strong chess programs - the better the technology, the more cheaters rejoice. But how to explain your new playing strength? Or your strange behavior at the board? Or (when discovered) the hidden electronic devices? At the Imperia Chess Festival in Italy one player raised a lot of suspicion and left many questions unanswered.

Knight-check-shadow

9/15/2015 – 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!

Baku 2.1: Fights continue!

9/14/2015 – Despite eight short draws in today's round the remaining games were full of excitement. The combination of the day was played by Ding Liren, but even some "quiet draws" like Hou Yifan-Mamedyarov were full of interest. We have seen a couple of heartbreakers in Baku, but nothing worse than Bruzon losing R+BvsR against Kramnik... ten moves away from a draw!

Hans Olav Lahlum: organiser, novelist (2/2)

9/14/2015 – Hans Olav Lahlum is one of Norway's most prominent chess personalities. As TV commentator he helps to make the game popular and as organizer he helped Magnus Carlsen at the start of his career. In the second part of a detailed interview Lahlum talks about organizing chess tournaments, Magnus Carlsen and his career and how he managed to enter the Guinness Book of Records.

Eight interesting match-ups from round two

9/14/2015 – The first round of the World Cup 2015 is over. The field has been narrowed down from 128 players to 64. But there are still 32 games to follow, which is quite a bit. We bring to you the eight most interesting match-up of round two. And while you are waiting for the games to progress out of the openings maybe you would like to solve tactical puzzles from round one.

Erwin l'Ami: The modern Two Knights

9/14/2015 – When she started playing chess, back in 1988, Nisha Mohota faced a big problem: lack of information. Twenty-seven years later, with the advant of computers and the Internet, she faces the opposite problem: too much information. But there is a very nice solution: ChessBase DVDs, in which very strong players present in information in easy-to-learn summaries! Review.

Baku 1.TB - One Armageddon, One big Surprise

9/13/2015 – The big news of the day is definitely of the 18-year old Chilean prodigy, Cristobal Henrique Villagra, knocking out former World Cup winner Boris Gelfand in the tiebreakers. Another previous World Cup winner that will say good bye to Baku is Kasimdzhanov, who lost to Kovalyov. Only one match went to Armaggedon, as Sargissian barely edged out Bartel.

Dhopade wins India’s 2015 National Challengers

9/13/2015 – The tournament has always been a meeting point for the most talented of the Indian players, with spots for the National Premier Championship up for grabs. IM Swapnil Dhopade won the 53rd edition of India’s National Challengers Championship with 10.0/13, half a point ahead of the remaining field. We bring you a richly illustrated report and a choice of tactics for you to solve.

Baku 1.2: Many tiebreaks

9/12/2015 – 24 of the 64 matches in Baku will go to a tiebreaker tomorrow, starting with the rapid format. Only one 2700 has been eliminated so far (Ni Hua) and several have not secured their spot in the next round just yet. Classical chess eliminations saw few surprises, with two of the highest rated players knocked out being from America: Ray Robson and former World Cup winner Gata Kamsky.

Baku 1.1: Upsets here and there

9/11/2015 – Things went mostly as predicted in Baku, as the majority of the top seeds cruised through their games while the middle seeds had many draws as they played players of similar calibre. Some of the major upsets were certainly by two Argentinians: Perez Ponsa beating Dominguez and Sandro Mareco over Ni Hua. Several top GMs were also held to a draw, including Giri, Gelfand, Grischuk and Adams.

WJCC 2015: Duda and Abdumalik lead

9/11/2015 – World Junior Championships for Open section and girls is taking place from the 31st of August to 16th of September 2015 in the city of Khanty Mansiysk, Russia. After eight rounds of play Jan-Krzysztof Duda and fifteen-year-old Zhansaya Abdumalik are in the sole lead half a point ahead of the field. The latter started with 7.0/7 and a rating performance of 3016!! Big illustrated report.

Attacking quartett

9/11/2015 – 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.

World Cup starts today

9/11/2015 – The 2015 World Cup is upon us. Being hosted in the North Flame Tower (Fairmont Hotel) in Baku, the massive 128 player Knock Out event brings some of the best in the world, as well as qualifiers from every region of the globe. The top seeds will have relatively easy games, but the middle matches will be extremely close. We bring you the regulations, pairings, and some opening impressions.

Warakomski wins 2015 Rubinstein Memorial

9/10/2015 – The 51st edition of Akiba Rubinstein International Chess Festival will go down in history as an incredibly emotional event in which players struggled for the trophy till the very end. In the main section a slightly lucky but deserving IM Tomasz Warakomski triumphed after a poor start, after which he spread his wings and took gold. Illustrated report.