Jan-Krzysztof Duda wins Lake Sevan 2015

7/31/2015 – The annual “Lake Sevan 2015” tournament was held in Martuni, Armenia. The ten player round-robin event had an average Elo of 2617, with most of the players very young and still in their developing phase. It was won a 17-year-old Polish GM with a score of 6.0/9 and a 2736 performance. We bring you an extensive multi-part report with indepth analysis of some very exciting games..

Good ideas?

7/31/2015 – 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.

Biel Final: MVL wins again!

7/30/2015 – MVL and Wojtaszek went into the last round with the lead. MVL took care of Rapport without any problems: after only 20 moves the Frenchman was up a pawn and had a better position. Wojtaszek was thrashing Navara's position, his passed pawn crushing his opponent. Navara was lost, but in time pressure... he survived! MVL wins the tournament! In the last game, Eljanov suicided against Adams.

Granda Zuniga supreme in Andorra

7/30/2015 – 48-year-old Julio Granda Zuniga recorded one of his strongest tournament results ever by winning the 2015 Andorra Open with the fantastic score of 8.0/9, including wins over his main rivals and a last round win over GM Adrien Demuth ensuring he would not share first. With this result, he earns a neat 27 Elo, and shows that age is just a number.

Chess goes Go in China

7/30/2015 – A few days after one match between Russia and China ended, they play the second. This time they try a new format for team competitions: a knock-out system which is rather popular in Go competitions in China but has hardly been tried in chess. In the first round Karjakin won against Wei Yi. Zhang Jilin reports from the very far east.

NEW: ChessBase Magazine #167

7/30/2015 – The best moments from the top tournaments. With analyses by Nakamura, Yu Yangyi, Jakovenko, and other top players. Enjoy the brilliancy Wei Yi - Bruzon Batista: rook sacrifice, king hunt, and a lot of quiet moves! Play like Anish Giri in „Move by move“ with GM Simon Williams. Discover a comfortable way to counter the Sicilian with 1.e4 c5 2.b3. And much more...

Biel 09: MVL leapfrogs Navara

7/29/2015 – Another exciting round in Biel, this time with two more black wins. MVL demolished Navara in the nice side of an English, baiting the Czech player with a "free" pawn that turned out to be rather poisoned. MVL crushed his opponent's activity and now is tied with Wojtaszek in the lead, who drew Adams. Rapport lost yet again, this time agains Eljanov, and is last by 2.5 points...

David Howell dominates in Leiden

7/29/2015 – Just before the start of the British Championship GM David Howell proved to be in splendid form. He smoothly won an open in Leiden in the Netherlands that took place from 18th to 26th July with 8.5/9. With this result Howell for the first time in his career has more than 2700 elo in the live rating list. But at the start of the tournament he really had to sweat.

Biel 08: Navara, Wojtaszek lead

7/28/2015 – The super tournament in Biel is coming to a close, but the fighting continues in strong fashion. Two decisive games were seen today, and the one draw could easily have been a win for Eljanov in his duel against Wojtaszek. The Pole survived and shares the lead against Navara, who simply wiped Rapport off the board. MVL put the positional pressure on Adams, who eventually cracked.

Politiken Cup: 15 players share lead

7/28/2015 – The Politiken Cup is a chess festival with a great tradition and a strong and big open. This year the tournament is played in Helsingør and the open attracted 430 players, among them a number of strong GMs. After four rounds 15 players share the lead with 4.0/4. One side-event is a ChessBase seminar that teaches you how to get the most out of your programs.

Welcome to Abu Dhabi Masters 2015

7/28/2015 – The European continent is a hotbed of strong open events taking place throughout the year. What are the other options for participating in a good tournament? The perfect location for players all around the world to participate is the Middle-East, perhaps in the 22nd Abu Dhabi International Chess Festival which will take place from the 23rd to 31st of August 2015.

Master Class vol.5 - Emanuel Lasker

7/28/2015 – It is interesting that the World Champion of 27 years, Emanuel Lasker, is also one of the hardest to define. In the fifth volume of the Master Class series, the topic is not only the breakdown of all the individual features of his play, from openings to endgames, with all the videos and games you could hope for, but a remarkably deep investigation of the secret of his success.

The right corner

7/28/2015 – 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 GM Niclas Huschenbeth!

Biel 07: Wojtaszek leader

7/27/2015 – Two of the three leaders faced each other, and it was Wojtaszek that came out on top in that game with a strong positional grind against MVL. Navara only managed a draw against Eljanov in a complicated position which dissolved into a drawn endgame. Catching him in second place is now Adams, who took a long time to convert an extra piece against now last place Rapport.

Genesis Potini – Kia ora tautini tonu te kingi!

7/27/2015 – That's Maori for "Long live da king!" The Dark Horse is a heart-warming drama about the struggles and failures, the triumphs and successes of the life of New Zealander Gen “da man” Potini. But doing a film review of the movie wasn’t enough for Desmond Rooplal: he researched the man himself and the people around him. His follow-up article contains unique images and narrative.

ChessBase in Pardubice

7/27/2015 – The Czech Open is part of the International Chess and Games Festival. Almost 300 players start in the A-Open, top seed is Viktor Laznicka, the number two in the Czech Republic. He won the first three rounds and leads with nine other players with 3.0/3. Martin Fischer represents ChessBase in Pardubice and offers advice how to get the best out of your programs.

Enos Grant Memorial Blitz in Jamaica

7/26/2015 – Attorney-at-law Enos Grant was the founder of the Jamaica Chess Federation in 1969, which he served as President for nineteen straight years. Recently the JCF and the Kasparov Chess Foundation staged an inaugural Blitz tournament in memory of the "founding father" of Jamaican chess, an event full of controversy, excitement, spills and thrills. Ian Wilkinson reports.

Biel 06: Three at the top

7/25/2015 – The day before the rest day, and it was almost a round with three black victories! Adams defeated Navara after the Czech player allowed some rather obvious sacrifices to shatter his position. Rapport's opening was not good, Wojtaszek enjoyed an extra pawn from the opening and converted it. Finally, MVL seemed to be cruising to victory against Eljanov, but he gave his opponent counterplay.

Crushing queen sacrifices

7/25/2015 – .... or not. That is the question asked of the reader here. Normally, positions like these come with the prelude "White to play and win", and the answer is the timeless queen sac. Not so here. Here you are told up front that White plays Qxg6, and now must work out the consequences. Is it winning? Losing? Neither? How many of the position's secrets can you uncover?

Grand Granda in Andorra Open

7/25/2015 – Nestled in the Pyrenees mountain range, the microstate Andorra, continues its chess tradition and is now celebrating the 33rd edition of its yearly Andorran Open. In a time when competition for the chess tourists is the highest, this year's event drew literally dozens of masters and grandmasters, thanks to excellent organization with exemplary media-friendly material.

Biel 05: Close Calls

7/24/2015 – We are on the half way mark in Biel, and it is David Navara that still leads after the fifth round saw three draws. Navara equalized without effort against MVL. Not so easy were the draws that Rapport and Wojtaszek obtained. The Polish player was against the ropes against Adams, but survived, while Rapport's resourcefulness found a miracle draw against Eljanov.

Ashritha Eswaran continues to win

7/24/2015 – Coach Dejan Bojkov and his student Ashritha Eswaran had a hectic schedule in June and July. First Ashritha played the US Championship for Girls U20 and then they flew to Colombia to play in the Pan Americanships Girls U18. After that the Pan American Championships G20 followed in El Salvador. But there still was time to visit the past.

Interview with GM Kovalenko

7/24/2015 – Becoming a 2700 GM is a not an easy feat, sometimes they are even separated with the fictitious title of "super grandmaster". Very few grandmasters have crossed the 2700 mark, but it is almost unheard of that one of them does it by only playing open events! Dorsa Derakshani sat down with Igor Kovalenko after the Najdorf memorial and asked him: "how did you do it?"

Summer classic: Lasker

7/24/2015 – 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.