Tata Steel Rd10: Caruana closes in on Carlsen

1/27/2016 – All eyes were on Giri vs Carlsen, since the young Dutch GM has a positive score against the World Champion, but a draw ensued. Caruana took advantage, closing the distance to half a point after completely dominating Wei Yi. The big game in the Challengers between the two leaders Adhiban and Safarli ended in an important win for the Indian. Large illustrated report with analysis by Carlsen.

Tata Steel R09: Wei Yi vs David Navara

1/27/2016 – In the first eight rounds of his first Masters tournament in Wijk aan Zee Chinese Chinese prodigy Wei Yi drew all his games. But in round nine he threw caution to the winds and in a closed Spanish castled queenside to prepare for some violence. This soon led to sacrifices which culminated in a scintillating mating attack. Daniel King takes a closer look.

Gibraltar: Anand starts with a draw

1/27/2016 – The last time former World Champion Vishy Anand played in an open tournament with classical time control was back in 1986. After this long break he started the Tradewise Gibraltar Chess Festival with a draw against Szidonia Lazarne Vajda. This was the biggest surprise of the first round in which most of the favorites won. But not all of them.

Iranian Championship: Youngster beats GM for lead

1/27/2016 – In the previous report, a couple of youngsters were in the lead together with the top-seed GM Maghami, well over 100 Elo above the pack. One would have expected a few more rounds would allow him to establish his authority, but instead, a huge win by Alireza Firouzja in round nine, has now placed the 12-year-old in sole first! Report, games, positions.

AI pioneer Marvin Minsky dies at 88

1/27/2016 – Marvin Minsky, born in 1927, was an American cognitive scientist in the field of artificial intelligence, co-founder of the MIT's AI laboratory, and author of several texts on AI and philosophy. Minsky, who died of cerebral hemorrhage last Sunday, considered the problem of intelligence "hopelessly profound” and "did not consider anything else worth doing.” Listen to him talk about computer chess.

Tata Steel Rd9: Carlsen takes full point lead

1/26/2016 – It started slow, with four uninspiring draws, but the Magnus locomotive has now reached peak speed with a fourth win, and is now in the lead by a full point. Prodigy Wei Yi finally scored his first win, after a one-sided demolition of Navara’s kingside. In the Challengers, Adhiban fell to Dutch talent Van Foreest, and is tied with Safarli for first. Illustrated report with GM analysis.

Gibraltar: Opening ceremony and drawing of lots

1/26/2016 – For the Financial Times the Tradewise Gibraltar Open "is the strongest and best-organised event of its kind in the world". The Masters tournament, in which players such as Vishy Anand, Hikaru Nakamura, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Yu Yangyi and many more strong players compete, begins Tuesday, 15.00 local time. The drawing of lots took place the evening before.

Taking care of the knight on the rim

1/26/2016 – 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!

Are Chess and Islam Incompatible?

1/26/2016 – Saudi Arabia’s top cleric recently issued a fatwa, or religious decree, against chess. But many Islamic scholars across the centuries said there is no reason to believe that the game violates the tenets of Islam. Jamaal Abdul-Alin, a Washington based freelance journalist, offers his in-depth opinion on the subject. We publish it in full, with the kind permission of the Agon Worldchess site.

Gibraltar starts with a simul

1/25/2016 – Tomorrow the first round of the Tradewise Gibraltar Masters 2016 begins. It is one of the strongest open tournaments of the year and top players such as Vishy Anand, Hikaru Nakamura, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and others will fight for an overall prize-fund of 185,000 pounds. Radoslaw Wojtaszek and Alina Kashlinskaya opened the Festival with a simultaneous exhibition.

Tour de France clashes with Biel

1/25/2016 – The 49. International Chess Festival Biel will start and end a week later than planned, and will now take place from 23rd July to 3rd August. The reason for the delay is another sporting event: the Tour de France. The 16th stage of the tour leads the cyclists and their followers to Bern and thus all hotels in the region will be fully booked. Press Release

Tata Steel R08: Navara vs Caruana

1/25/2016 – In round 8 David Navara played against Fabiano Caruana. Carlsen and Caruana were leading after round 7. In a Nimzoindian Navara ended up with an isolated double pawn on the c file after the opening. After exchanging a lot of pieces Navara improved his position from move to move in the endgame. Daniel King shows this game as his "Game of the day"...

Tata Steel Rd8: Carlsen leads after Caruana falters

1/24/2016 – Perhaps the first sign the round would not be ‘business as usual’ was when Carlsen chose the …g6 variation of the Ruy Lopez, eventually drawing Karjakin. Caruana seemed poised to take advantage, as he obtained a significant edge against Navara, only to get pushed off the board. Still, the biggest surprise was Eljanov failing to convert a dead won endgame against Adams. Report, pictures, analysis.

Saudi Chess Association replies on ban

1/24/2016 – It made the news around the world: Saudi Arabia’s top cleric declared chess “the work of Satan”, and issued a religious decree, a fatwa, forbidding the evil game. Obviously the consternation and worry on what that might behold for the game echoed around the world, and the Saudi Chess Association has published a letter to assuage concerns.

2016 Iranian Championship: Two kids and the no. 1

1/24/2016 – The Iranian Men’s championship, held in Tehran, Iran, has reached its midway point with a few surprises. At the top of the pecking order is Ehsan Ghaem Maghami, currently second, who has even held the world simul record, but leading is Alireza Firouzja, 12 years old, and in third is Aryan Gholami, 14 years old. At stake are spots on the Olympic team.

Looking back: at the Keres Memorial – ACP Open 2016

1/24/2016 – Earlier this week we brought you a retrospective report on the rapid chess event held in Talinn, Estonia, in honour of the 100th anniversary of their greatest chess playing son, Paul Keres. Today in part two we bring you a short interview with ACP President Emil Sutovsky and more instructive games, with positions for you to solve. What a great way to improve your chess skills.

Tata Steel Rd7: A day of big wins

1/23/2016 – How else to describe a round in which the leaders clashed and big results came of them? Magnus Carlsen was quick to pressure Pavel Eljanov and won a fascinating game after the latter sacrificed a piece for play. Quicker still, was Baskaran Adhiban who demolished his co-leader Alexey Dreev in 24 moves, while Caruana ground down Ding to share lead with Magnus. Large illustrated report.

Aeroflot Open 2016 – not to be missed!

1/22/2016 – This great open tournament is into its 13th edition, running on February 29 to March 10th. The Open will be held in three rating categories, so that practically anyone can take part. There are excellent discounts offered by the organizers and Aeroflot Airlines. And the exchange rate of the Ruble makes everything affordable. This article will give you nine good reasons why Aeroflot Open 2016 should not be missed.

Tata Steel Rd6: Carlsen leads with Caruana and Ding

1/22/2016 – It was a fascinating round, dominated early on by the speed with which Carlsen took apart Tomaschevsky, invading the 7th and wrapping it up a few moves later. Anish Giri was the second of the day, defeating Mamedyarov, while Hou Yifan almost joined the lead after outplaying Wei Yi in an endgame, only to stumble and draw at the end. Report with analysis by IM Sagar Shah.

Top Saudi cleric calls for ban on chess

1/22/2016 – The game originated in India around the 6th century AD. "Chaturanga", or "Shah!" in Persian, was taken up by the Muslim world and subsequently spread to Southern Europe – for which we are thankful. Now (once again we may add) there is an effort to ban it for religious reasons. The fatwa by a one of Saudi Arabia's top clerics has led to hundreds of broadsheet articles and a Twitter storm, including some famous chess players.

Houdini?

1/22/2016 – 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.

ChessBase Account: Event Organizers and the Cloud

1/21/2016 – It is normal for a tournament organizer to enter the games played in an event, and often to have several people doing so on different computers. Having copies of ChessBase 13 on all machines may not be feasible, but there is a solution if at least one copy is installed on a machine. The secret is using the ChessBase Account web app My Games Cloud. Here are step-by-step instructions.

Tata Steel Masters Rd5: Carlsen scores gutsy win

1/21/2016 – The fifth round of the Masters was a highly combative one, with gritty chess on all boards. Ding Liren defeated Sergey Karjakin to join Fabiano Caruana in the lead after the latter drew Hou Yifan. Mamedyarov also scored versus Adams, but the cliffhanger of the day was Magnus Carlsen’s gutsy win with black over Van Wely, sacrificing a piece. Illustrated report with GM analysis.

Miguel Sánchez: Capablanca: A Chess Biography

1/21/2016 – In 1976 the Cuban writer Miguel Angel Sánchez published "Capablanca, leyenda y realidad", which the Union of Writers and Artists of Cuba elected as best biographical book of the year. During the next thirty-seven years Sánchez continued to search all over the world for new material about the Cuban. He now published his findings in an exciting new book. A review...