Pavel Eljanov: The Ruy Lopez Breyer Variation

11/17/2015 – How nice if one of the best players in the world explains an opening to you. Even nicer if it is a strategically rich opening that leads to interesting rich positions, and if it is an opening which you can play for a lifetime. Pavel Eljanov's DVD about the Ruy Lopez Breyer Variation offers all of this. Indian IM Narayanan Srinath felt inspired.

KCF Gala: 30-year celebration

11/16/2015 – It is hard to believe that already thirty years have passed since Kasparov's triumph over Karpov in their 1985 World Championship match. The elegance of Garry’s last game, including one of the most talked about rook maneuvers in any Sicilian, has inspired young players for more than a generation. This week, at the KCF annual gala, we had the opportunity to relive this triumph.

Showdown in STL: Fabi, Yifan winners

11/16/2015 – Blitz is a dangerous game. The balancing act of time pressure, putting aggression on your opponent and not blundering anything is extremely tricky. Fabiano Caruana, usually not considered one of the top players in the world in this modality, showed that he can hang on with the big boys, won the blitz and the match! Meanwhile, nothing went right for Negi, and Hou Yifan emerged victorious.

Vishy Anand: in pursuit of excellence (1)

11/16/2015 – Louis Philippe is a premier Indian men’s apparel brand, and has a show hosted by an Indian tennis legend, Vijay Amritraj. In it famous personalities across a varied number of fields discuss their journey to reach the top of their profession. Of special interest to us: a very profound interview with former World Chess Champion Viswanathan Anand. Definitely worth watching.

ETCC R02: France beats Armenia!

11/15/2015 – Maxime Vachier Lagrave beating Aronian was the big news of the day as France went on to win their match against Armenia. Spain beat Germany and the Italian team crushed Latvia. In the women’s section, the favourites Georgia, Ukraine and Russia all won their matches, although the Georgians faced a very serious scare from the Turkish team. Pictures and analysis.

Showdown in STL: Big Rapid Results

11/15/2015 – Big results from Saint Louis! In the marquee event, Nakamura was unable to match Caruana's wits in the rapid and fell 3-1. This gives the #2 player in America a full point lead going into the decisive blitz games. However, the big winner of the day was Hou Yifan. A miracle in game three and a solid win in game four gave her a 3-1 for the day, and 6.5-3.5 for current standings.

ETCC R01: Top seeds have it easy

11/14/2015 – The European Team Championships 2015 is underway and all the top European players are in Reykjavik to fight for the title of the best nation in Europe. In the first round all the top teams had it easy, although when there are so many games going on there are bound to be a few upsets. We have some nice pictures from the tournament and analysis of five highly interesting battles.

International Chess Festival Aeroflot Open 2016

11/14/2015 – This Open Chess Festival, which is popular throughout the world, will be held in Moscow from February 29 (date of arrival) to March 11, 2016 (date of departure). The event is open to chess players of varied qualification: from unrated amateurs to world class grandmasters. As in the previous twelve events the festival will be held under the wings of Aeroflot – Russian Airlines.

Showdown in STL: Chess 960 chaos

11/14/2015 – In many ways, this was the phase of the exhibition matches that promised the biggest surprises. Not so much in results, but the positions, as Chess 960 was on the menu today. While still chess at its core, it meant shuffled pieces, unorthodox castling and no opening preparation of any kind. While Nakamura and Caruana had a tight match, Hou all but wiped Negi off the board.

The king's best friend

11/13/2015 – 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.

Showdown in STL: World class Basque Chess

11/13/2015 – The first day of the very exotic exhibition matches in St. Louis began with elite level Basque Chess. Basque chess is when two players play two games against each other at the exact same time, one with white, the other with black. In the top pairing between Nakamura and Caruana, there were great games that ended sadly in draws. On the other hand, Negi handed Hou two defeats.

"Human Chess" - an event to teach children chess

11/12/2015 – In 1988 Vishy Anand became India's first grandmaster. Now, 27 years later, India has 39 grandmasters and at the World Youth Chess Championship in Porto Carras that just ended, India won more medals than any other nation. This chess boom relies on chess teachers like Niklesh Jain who again and again have new ideas to teach children the game.

NY Times: Caruana awaiting his turn on bigger stage

11/12/2015 – As its newest arrival on the top teams, Fabiano Caruana is making the rounds to do his part to promote chess in the United States. He has been impressed by the improvements he has seen since he left it as a teenager. He was recently in new York where he visited schools and met with children for exhibition events and there to cover it was the New York Times.

Nakamura vs Caruana match starts today

11/12/2015 – Today two exciting exhibition matches will take place, and should not be missed. The first is Hikaru Nakamura against Fabiano Caruana, and will be games played in rapid, blitz and even Fischer Random 960! The second, along the same model, will pit top female Hou Yifan against GM Parimarjan Negi. In an innovative step, the readers and fans are invited to vote on the starting positions!

Announcing ChessBase Account – Access everywhere!

11/11/2015 – ChessBase is proud to announce the newest expansion of its online services, ChessBase Account. With it, you can now access a vast library of hundreds of training videos, from openings, to the middlegame, to the endgame, and including complete courses. Furthermore you will enjoy a brand new Openings Trainer to help you memorize your repertoire, and much much more!

Chess Pro-Biz Cup 2015 in London

11/11/2015 – This event, staged for a third time on Monday 14 December, at the conclusion to the 7th London Chess Classic, offers leading business minds the opportunity to team up with the world's best chess players in a fun rapid knock-out tournament. All money raised by this event goes to the Chess in Schools and Communities (CSC) charity. Best pairing: with World Champion Magnus Carlsen.

Nine years of history

11/11/2015 – The Romanian Kings Tournament has a long tradition. The first edition was played in 2007. After nine years of prestige and a string of changes, the 2015 event faced rather challenging times from an international perspective. Alina l'Ami is stepping in and brings you an inspiring retrospective with annotations by Carlsen, Caruana, puzzles, photos and more.

Garry Kasparov - The happiest day of his life

11/10/2015 – 30 years ago, to this day, the victor's laurels were placed on Garry Kasparov, celebrating him as the new and 13th World Chess Champion, the youngest in history. It was not without controversy, much less challenges, but in the end the young challenger surmounted all the obstacles. We take a look at the final stages that led to his world title, and the world commemorating.

Queen retreats on the diagonal

11/10/2015 – 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!

Alexander Morozevich wins Barcelona

11/10/2015 – From November 4-8, a modest sized, yet prestigious six-player round-robin was held in the city of Barcelona, organized by the Catalonia Chess Federation and sponsored by the Barcelona City Hall. Although there was a large number of draws, the life of the event was also its winner: Alexander Morozevich. He brought his usual creativity and fighting spirit.

Simon Williams: The English Opening - Vol 2

11/9/2015 – Since his junior days Simon Williams has been in love with the English Opening. A rewarding love - as Williams points out, the opening helped him to become a grandmaster. Williams now wants to share what he knows and on two DVDs he offers White a solid and aggressive English repertoire. Davide Nastasio tried it out. Here is his review of volume 2.

Mikhail Tal – a favourite of Caissa

11/9/2015 – The 9th of November happens to be the birth anniversary of Misha Tal, who continues to be adored by the chess world long after his death. In 1959 he won the quadruple round robin Candidates Tournament, and the next year he went on to beat Botvinnik in the World Championship match. He was only 24 years old. Prof. Havanur presents a delightful episode from his career.

FIDE visits the Italian Stock Exchange

11/8/2015 – In a surprising turn of events, the Skills Management Committee, a new FIDE commission, was a guest of honor at the Milan Stock Exchange. Presided by its president Roberto Mogranzini, it was invited to hold a three-day seminar during the TOL Expo, holding lectures dedicated to the improvement and innovation the world of trading. Read on this integration of chess and trading.

WYCC 2015 final: India! India! India!

11/7/2015 – What an amazing final result for the ever-evolving chess nation. It took not only five gold medals out of twelve, but also eleven in all. No other nation managed more than one gold. (Ed: Vishy, check the rear-view mirror, they are coming after you.) The final two rounds were full of drama as favorites fell, and new champions took gold. Final report with glorious pictures and results.