Going back or going forward?

10/30/2015 – 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.

Bilbao: Chess drama on the theatre stage

10/29/2015 – In the Chess Masters Final in Bilbao a draw counts as 1-1. That was the result of both games in round three, So against Anand and Ding against Giri. However, one could not help to feel that Ding and Giri deserved more than a mere point for their impressive and dramatic performance. It lasted no less than 172 moves and developed into a drama in five acts.

Kirill Alekseenko wins Chigorin Memorial

10/29/2015 – The 18-year old Kirill Alekseenko is one of the most promising Russian talents. 2012 he already had three GM-norms but he did not manage to get the 2500 rating which he needed for the title. Until 2015. Once Alekseenko was GM he went from success to success. In October he won the strong Chigorin Memorial in St. Petersburg. Pictures, report, interview.

Strong lineup for Al Ain Classic in December

10/29/2015 – Open tournaments are getting stronger – and how! The Al Ain Chess Classic is to be held in the United Arab Emirates from 22nd to 31st December. There is still a lot of time for the registration deadline to end, but the tournament has already attracted the interest of fifty-two grandmasters. The top seed is none other than the legendary Latvian GM Alexei Shirov. Expect fire on the board.

Massive WYCC starts in Porto Carras in Greece

10/28/2015 – The World Youth championship has begun in Porto Carras, Halkidiki in Greece, with world championship titles for both boys and girls in categories ranging from under-8 to under-18. As a result no fewer than 1596 competitors have come from 91 nations around the world to vie for a place in history. Here are some of the names to watch for and many beautiful photos by Reint Dykema.

Strong chess in Bilbao

10/28/2015 – On 26. October the VIII Grand Slam Masters Final began in Bilbao. Viswanathan Anand, Anish Giri, Ding Liren and Wesley So compete in a six-round all-play-all tournament. Parallel to this small but strong tournament the Ibero-American Championship takes place in Bilbao. The first days brought interesting chess including a surprising queen sacrifice.

The Global Chess Festival 2015 (2/2)

10/27/2015 – The first report about the Global Chess Festival in Budapest conveyed a general impression of the Festival and showed how visitors saw the 1000 faces of chess. The second part brings analyses of the games of the Highlander Cup and shows the many different ideas and ways Judit Polgar and her organizing team had to attract children to chess. Pictures, games, analyses .

The magic of the knight

10/27/2015 – 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 Andrew Martin!

4th Anatoly Karpov Trophy starts

10/26/2015 – The 4th Anatoly Karpov, started in Cap d'Agde, France, and promises a week and more of top-notch rapid game action for the fans. The preliminary is a double round robin between eight guests, four men, including Karpov himself, four ladies, of whom Mariya Muzychuk, the reigning World Woman Champion. The competition can be followed live on Playchess, and has daily videos.

Skopje: Siberia and Nona ECC 2015 champions

10/26/2015 – Team Siberia from Russia and Nona from Georgia won the European Club Cup open and women’s sections. Both dominated right from the start and gave no chances to others to wrest the lead from them. The event turned out to be quite horrible for some of the top players, but one guy must be extremely happy with his performance: Vladimir Kramnik who is now world number four!

Robert Ris: Fighting the Ruy Lopez Exchange

10/26/2015 – The Exchange Variation can be very boring – queens come off the board quickly and you find yourself defending a long endgame practically straight out of the opening. What to do, especially if you need to win your next game with the black pieces? IM Nisha Mohota has her own personal solution in this kind of an emergency: Listen to a 60-minutes course by IM Robert Ris.

Experience wins out at Hoogeveen

10/25/2015 – Hoogeveen ended in a success for experience, where Jan Timman defeated his much younger opponent Jorden Van Foreest in a fun match with dynamic games, while Sopiko Guaramishvili smashed Anna-Maja Kazarian with an unforgiving 5.5-0.5. The heavily disputed Open was won by top-seed Abhijeet Gupta. Report, pictures, games.

Megaranto, Ni Shiqun dominate Asian University Ch.

10/25/2015 – GM Susanto Megaranto from Gunadarma University and WGM Ni Shiqun from Shanghai University of Finance and Economics won the Men’s Individual Event and Women’s Individual Event in the 1st Asian University Chess Championship, which was held in the Capital University of Physical Education and Sports in Beijing, China. Here is the final report with video by Liang Ziming.

Playchess multi-board on the smartphone

10/24/2015 – In the last weeks, two of the web browser apps by ChessBase have finally been fully adapted to work on tablets and smartphones: Playchess and the Tactics Trainer. You can now use the browser version of Playchess to play games and view multiple broadcast boards at the same time on your smartphone. In this guide, learn also how to transform it into a one-click app.

ECC 2015 R5: Siberia and Nona lead

10/24/2015 – After five rounds at the European Club Cup the team from Siberia in the open section and Nona in the women’s are the only teams with a perfect score of 10.0/10. Vladimir Kramnik is giving us some wonderful lessons in the art of playing perfect chess. There are some more instructive game annotations and your chance to find a winning move against a 2740 opposition.

First Asian University Championship in Beijing

10/23/2015 – The First Asian University Chess Championship is ongoing during 18th-25th October in Beijing, China. It is comprised of an Open competition, a Women's competition and a Team event, and brings in teams from Mongolia, Vietnam, Singapore, Chinese Taipei, Japan, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Philippines, Indonesia and China. Report by Liang Ziming.

Chess Talent: Vincent meets Garry

10/23/2015 – He comes from a family of musicians: father teaches at the university, mother plays concert cello. Vincent himself is a budding pianist – and a very strong chess player, as became clear in a coaching session at ChessBase. So we took him to meet the 13th World Champion to get a really profound evaluation. Garry Kasparov confirmed: a truly extraordinary talent. Now guess how old Vincent is.

Super bishops

10/23/2015 – 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.

Exclusive World Blitz videos

10/22/2015 – Last weekend you may have been like us, avidly watching the World Blitz games either on Playchess for the complete experience, or via the live video. The problem with the video was that it only ever showed one single board, almost always Carlsen. Fair enough, but that meant a lot of great players and games missed. Not so! Pascal Simon brings many exclusive videos and analysis.

The Global Chess Festival 2015

10/22/2015 – Judit Polgar became a grandmaster in 1992 when she was 15 years and four months old. At that time she was the youngest grandmaster of all time, breaking Bobby Fischer's record from 1958 by one month. She soon developed into the best female player of all time. Now she helps to make chess more popular, for instance, by organising the Global Chess Festival.

High quality chess in Skopje

10/21/2015 – The European Club Cup for the open section as well as women is being held in the historical city of Skopje. It is a gathering of the best players in the world – six of the top ten grandmasters in the rating list are participating. A lot of fighting chess is on show and stars like Nakamura and Giri have already had to bite the dust. We have six instructive game annotations for you. Learn and enjoy.

Hoogeveen: Timman strikes first

10/21/2015 – After two draws Jan Timman showed his strategic skills to win the third game of his match against Jorden van Foreest in fine style. In the second match in Hoogeveen between Sopiko Guramishvili and Anna Maja Kazarian Guramishvili continues to dominate and won her third game in a row. After five rounds Sengupta Deep emerged as sole leader in the open tournament.

The king in the cage

10/21/2015 – 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!

Chess and art in Hoogeveen

10/20/2015 – Last weekend the 19th Hoogeven Chess Festival began. Most visitors come to watch the strong players in action, but they also got to see an exhibition of the Dutch painter Tjerk Zijlstra. In his works he makes use of the Lewis chessmen, and is inspired by studies by Richard Réti. Tjerk describes the artistic, philosophical, and spiritual motifs of his paintings. A study of chess and art.