2015 CEZ Trophy G3: Another fight, another lesson

6/16/2015 – Although the match has not been going his way, David Navara has been putting up a valiant fight against player on the rise, Wesley So. The third game saw a hard fought Semi-Slav with plenty of moments, but the American player failed to improve his slight edge held throughout the struggle. Also invited to the event was world renowned coach and author, Mark Dvoretsky.

Not all detours lead to Rome

6/16/2015 – 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. Today on the playchess server, 4 pm: Endgame Magic with Karsten Müller and Erwin L'Ami

2015 Norway Blitz won convincingly by MVL

6/16/2015 – It was all you could hope for in the prelude to the elite Norway Chess tournament. A collection of the highest rated players in the world, a bit of trash-talking, and hours and hours of thrilling blitz chess. At stake the top five would enjoy one more game with white than the bottom five. The surprise winner, who led from the get-go was MVL, beating Caruana and Carlsen. Fun games and more.

CEZ Trophy: Wesley So strikes first

6/15/2015 – The second game of the match between top Czech player David Navara and challenger Wesley So was no less fascinating and was a powerful display by the newly minted American player. Hoping to neutralize White’s ambitions, Black exchanged queens quite early, but it was not enough and Wesley So outplayed his opponent and drew first blood.

Norway Chess 2015 preview

6/15/2015 – The first leg of the 2015 Grand Chess Tour starts tomorrow in Stavanger, Norway! The super tournament features nine of the top players in the World: Carlsen, Anand, Caruana, Grischuk, Nakamura, Aronian, Giri, MVL, Topalov plus the qualifier from EnterCard, Hammer. The festivities commence with a blitz tournament to determine the pairings, but that is not the only unusual detail of the event!

Wei Yi repeats in Leon

6/15/2015 – It is a feat that had not been achieved in years, and the only other player to have done it was Viswanathan Anand. Wei Yi has become the repeat winner in the Leon Magistral rapids after defeating Maxime Vachier-Lagrave in the finals by the minimum margin. Through a combination of resourcefulness, tenacity, and striking in the one opportunity that he was given, Wei Yi wins again!

CEZ Chess Trophy 2015 begins

6/14/2015 – Every year Czech hero David Navara, rated 2751, faces a world-class opponent in Prague. This time it is Wesley So, 27 points higher and number seven in the world. The event started with a strong 22-board simul which the "Filipino Lightning" took all of 100 minutes to complete. The first match game was an amazing draw. GM Karsten Müller shows us how Wesley could have won.

Leon Rapids Semifinals

6/14/2015 – The traditional Leon Rapids are taking place in Spain. The players this year are Wei Yi, Anton Guijarro, Ponomariov and Vachier-Lagrave. The semifinals have taken place and the Frenchman and the Chinese player have advanced, but both did so with great difficulties, winning their matches 2.5-1.5! Tomorrow will feature the strong final between Wei Yi and MVL.

Lucky Dino: New Open in Malta

6/13/2015 – Swiss IM Roland Ekstroem and a Polish Candidate Master Piotr Tworzydlo shared first place in the Lucky Dino Open in Sliema, Malta, held 20-26 May 2015. The two players scored 7.5/9 1.5 points ahead of the third prize winner, Tiberiu-Petre Stanciu from Romania. This pictorial report Piotr Kaim contains very instructive and entertaining "banter" commentary by the winner.

4 versus 4

6/12/2015 – 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.

Top-12 in France: Alexander Ipatov reports

6/12/2015 – The Top-12, the finals of the French Team Championship were played in idyllic surroundings and ended with a smooth victory of Bischwiller. GM Alexander Ipatov played for the team of Bois Colombes which won bronze. In an illustrated review the World Junior Champion of 2012 shares impressions and points to some highlights of one of the world's strongest team events.

Harika: cool to be uncool

6/11/2015 – "Chess in India has a new poster girl," says the Times of India. It is 24-year-old Harika Dronavalli, who has just bagged the Popular Choice award of the newspaper. In a candid interview the semifinalist of the 2015 Women's World Championship talks about travel, food, hobbies, general interests – and marriage plans. We have added some personal details to the story.

Pawn Sacrifice - movie of the 1972 match

6/11/2015 – Bobby Fischer and Boris Spassky are coming to a theater near you in a film based on the life of the recluse genius and his epic 1972 showdown for the world title. Whatever one may think of it, the all-star cast leaves nothing to be desired, with Edward Zwick, director of The Last Samurai, and Tobey Maguire who championed the project for ten years.

One player, three titles

6/10/2015 – Players who are good in blitz and rapid chess are also often good in classical chess. The best example is Magnus Carlsen, who is World Champion in classical, rapid, and blitz chess. At the Icelandic Championship GM Hedinn Steingrimsson followed Carlsen's example. He won the tournament to become reigning Icelandic champion in all three disciplines.

Top-12 finishes with few surprises

6/10/2015 – The Top-12 has come to an end. The last round only ratified the dominance of the top teams. The only close match at the top was between Clichy and Mulhouse Philidor: the top rated team in the tournament found itself losing fourth and fifth board, but they took sixth, seventh and eigth to win. Final report, highlighting the best players and an unusual GM norm.

John Hartmann: And then there were two

6/9/2015 – Currently there are two programs vying for the title of strongest chess engine in the world, and both have seen new releases in recent months. Komodo and Stockfish currently top all computer lists, in that order. But they have different personalities, as John Hartmann shows in his engine review. "Shows" includes both engines simultaneously analyzing in an interesting realtime video.

Colliding kings

6/9/2015 – 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!

One round to go, Top-12 already clinched

6/9/2015 – It was a close call in round nine, but they left no doubts in round ten. Bischwiller continues with a perfect score and has secured first place in France's top-12. Clichy can catch them on points still, but the tiebreaks are insufficient and so it is all over. It also seems unlikely that Clichy does not get second, but Bois-Colombes is still knocking on their door.

Interview with Bassem Amin, African Champion

6/8/2015 – In May Grandmaster Bassem Amin, with an Elo of 2634 Egypt's number one, won the African Individual Chess Championships for the third time. Priyadarshan Banyan used the opportunity to ask the new African Champion who currently is doing military service in the Egyptian army to comment on his career, chess in Africa, and chess in Egypt.

Third year of the Maharashtra Chess League

6/8/2015 – It is just one state in India – but: Maharashtra is population wise far larger than any country in Europe, and: it has a thriving chess community. The state chess league is unique bidding system, definitely worthy of imitation, whereby top players are auctioned to the sponsors of the league. The inauguration is also graced by the likes of Vishy Anand and Bollywood superstar Aamir Khan.

Top 12: Bischwiller retains Perfect

6/8/2015 – It wasn't an easy task, and the final result of the match was not decided until the marathon game between Choisy and Maisuradze ended, but Bischwiller took a narrow 2-1 win against the strong team of Mulhouse Philidor to retain their perfect score. Clichy destroyed the lowest rated team in the event by 8-0, and for now are second. We bring you a summary of every single match!

Top-12 Under Way

6/6/2015 – The French Team Championship is reaching its conclusion, as the Top-12 has crossed the half-way mark in beautiful Grau-du-Roi. Top players are participating, including So, Giri, Jakovenko, and many others. The favorite by far is the team of Clichy, with an average rating of almost 2650, but they currently trail the strong team of Bischwiller, lead by Giri, Naiditsch and Bacrot.

Kasparov and thirty years of computer chess

6/6/2015 – On June 6th 1985 the 22-year-old Garry Kasparov came to Hamburg to play a preparation match for his World Championship bid – and to do a remarkably critical interview with a leading German news magazine. During the visit he played a simul against 32 of the strongest chess computers of the day. We invite you to compare the games with today's chess engines. Garry annotated one of them for us.

ACP Euro Women Rapid won by Kosteniuk

6/6/2015 – The final day of the ACP European Women’s Rapid championship confirmed the swing seen in the previous day. Stefanova’s train seemed to be running out of steam, while Kosteniuk was at full speed. The two players met in round nine, and while the Bulgarian held a decisive advantage, she lost control and the Russian won and secured the title. Report, analysis, and videos.