An interview with Hou Yifan

7/16/2015 – Hou Yifan is currently the world's best women player and extremely popular with the public. Inviting her to the Sparkassen-Chess Meeting in Dortmund was definitely a good move by the organisers. German chess journalist Dagobert Kohlmeyer used the chance to talk with the Chinese about the World Championship, the young Chinese players, and much more.

A Tribute to the unsuspecting hero

7/16/2015 – When the streets are closed off for the red carpet to be rolled out for a movie’s premier, what would you guess it is about? You may be surprised and impressed to find out it won twenty awards and was nominated for another eight, but would you even suspect that the main theme of the movie is chess? Yes a chess movie wining twenty awards! Preview with videos.

Aryan Tari wins Norwegian Championship

7/16/2015 – Early July the Norwegian Championships were played in Oslo as part of the "Landsturneringen". Magnus Carlsen, Jon Ludvig Hammer, and Simen Agdestein did not try for the title, giving young talents a chance to shine. 16-year old Aryan Tari won and became the third youngest Norwegian Champion of all time. Magnus Carlsen won gold in an unusual team event.

Danzhou: Wang Yue wins with 2887 performance

7/15/2015 – People were predicting victory in this Chinese tournament by top seed Ding Liren, or by the recently successful Yu Yangyi. After a stunning game in round two many switched to 16-year-old Wei Yi. But as the tournament progressed it was the experienced 28-year-old GM Wang Yue who began to score one victory after another and win the tournament. Final report with annotated games.

Opposites attract: Carlsen and cars

7/15/2015 – He himself owns a Teslar. On a trip to Volkswagen, the biggest automaker in Germany and Europe, World Chess Champion Magnus Carlsen got ride a 700 hp Lamborghini and visit the secret Volkswagen test site. There he took a spin with FIA World Rally Champion Sébastien Ogier in a 318 hp Polo and discovered that chess and rallying had more in common than you would think.

US Junior Championship 2015

7/14/2015 – The US Junior Closed Championship 2015 takes place from 7th July, 2015 to 15th July, 2015 at the Chess Club and Scholastic Center St. Louis. It is a ten-player round robin event, in which the best juniors of the USA take part. After seven rounds IM Akshat Chandra and FM Arthur Shen lead with 5.0/7, half a point ahead of IM Jeffery Xiong. Pictures, games, analyses.

Knight hunting

7/14/2015 – 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! Today on playchess, 4 pm: Endgame Magic with Karsten Müller and Robert Ris.

Giri and Haast win Dutch Championships

7/13/2015 – Anish Giri and Anne Haast are the new Dutch Champions. After a quick draw in the final round Giri still could have been caught by Loek van Wely, but the six-times Dutch Champion blundered in time trouble. Anne Haast laid the foundations of winning the title earlier by winning in round five against 13 times Dutch Women's Champion Zaoquin Peng. Report and games...

Commonwealth Ch: Culture shock in Delhi

7/13/2015 – Hit by 40° on arrival WIM Sabrina Chevannes, the nominated female from England for the Commonwealth Championship, struggled with accommodation, traffic, power cuts – and an attack of typhoid fever! Thankfully the organisers were extremely helpful, and after withdrawing from play Sabrina took it on herself to look around town and file a final report on the tournament.

Havanur on ChessBase Magazine #166

7/12/2015 – The current issue carries trademark sections on tactics, strategy and the endgame. In all there are 2543 games of which 128 are annotated. "That’s a miniscule number, did you say? I spent a whole month worrying about just one position." Prof. Nagesh Havanur gives us a mystery puzzle to solve, one aimed to test your positional judgement.

Karpov defeats Sveshnikov in match

7/12/2015 – Two chess legends met in a rapid chess match in Riga, Latvia from July 7 to July 9. Twelfth World Champion Anatoly Karpov faced the renowned chess theoretician Evgeny Sveshnikov in a six-game match that played over three days. The match enjoyed top-notch conditions with a beautiful locale, live video transmission, and GM commentary. Karpov won the match, though not before a minor upset.

Damljanovic wins Open Serbian Championship

7/12/2015 – Chess is a young man's game? Not necessarily so, if you ask Branko Damljanovic. The 54-year old Serbian Grandmaster just won the International Championship of Central Serbia with a score of 7.5/9, leaving a number of young and old masters behind. Second place went to GM Nikola Sedlak, third place to young British IM Fernandez. Report, games, tactics.

Pal Benko: Variations on a Kubbel study (2)

7/12/2015 – Our good and faithful friend, GM Pal Benko, recently explained to us why one of the most famous studies of all time, composed in 1922 by Leonid Kubbel, was not completely flawless – and indeed worthy of improvement. He showed us how the process works, and in today's second part you can watch one of the greatest composers of our generation polishing flawed studies.

Chinese poetry in Danzhou

7/11/2015 – In the morning of the rest day at the Danzhou International Chess tournament, all ten of the players came to the Danzhou First Middle school, to give a simul to the local chess kids. There they answered question by the young chess fans, after which they proceeded to the Dongpo Institute, named after one of China's most famous poets. One of the highlights was Wei Yi's recitation on video.

The Najdorf Memorial 2015 begins

7/10/2015 – Miguel Najdorf was a true chess legend. Born in Warsaw in 1910 he later lived in Argentina where he became a successful businessman. In his prime he was one of the world's strongest players. The annual Miguel Najdorf Festival, which starts on Friday in Warsaw, celebrates the memory of this true chess lover. 500 players take part, among them many strong GMs.

Pan American Championships in Cali

7/10/2015 – The Pan American Championships took place in Cali, Colombia. It was a tournament with a tough schedule - nine rounds in six days - that was not made any easier by heat and humidity. But for GM Dejan Bojkov and his long-time students Ashritha and Aksithi Eswaran and Chenyi Zhao it was a success. They won three medals and won one of the three won gold with 9.0/9.

Leitmotif

7/10/2015 – 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.

The World Open: An experience

7/10/2015 – The World Open is one of the oldest and most prestigious tournaments in American history. One reason for GM Alexander Ipatov, World Junior Chess Champion 2012, to visit the USA and take part. He shared first prize with seven other players, won $ 5.000, and made a lot of experiences. Some good, some less pleasant, but all remarkable. Big illustrated report.

Brilliant Start of Chess Summer

7/9/2015 – Fabiano Caruana's outstanding victory at the Dortmund tournament, a U.S. rating record and a magnificent king's hunt by the Chinese wizard Wei Yi marked the first days of summer. Huffington chess columnist Lubomir Kavalek walks us through the 1.5-point Caruana triumph in Germany and Wei Yi's incredible king hunt, as always with an eye to historical predecessors.

Fighting social inequality and prejudice with chess

7/9/2015 – How do you fight social inequality as well as prejudice with chess? Meet Kevin Cripe, a chess coach who has done precisely that for the last decades in an impoverished community of the US, using chess to teach children to fight against apathy, and the evils of prejudice. Read his tale, plus the help received from Anne Frank's childhood friend, and donate to a worthy cause.

A cornucopia of Chess: ChessBase Magazine

7/8/2015 – What to do if the summer is hot and you had to spend days with boring assignments and now want to train some chess and feel the wish to catch up on recent chess events? Have a look at the ChessBase Magazine 166! Indian IM Narayanan Srinath decided to to so and with a wealth of diverse and high-class chess material he treated himself to a wonderful Sunday full of chess.

Danzhou: Wang Yue and Ni Hua going strong

7/8/2015 – The 6th Hainan Danzhou tournament began with a spectacular second round "game of the decade" by 16-year-old Wei Yi. The Chinese phenom has settled down to 50% after six rounds, while his experienced colleagues Wang Yue and Ni Hua are in the lead with 5.0 and 4.5 points – and performances of 2968 and 2837. We have a big report with analysis and interesting positions to study.

"Grace-Time" Controversy – the real story

7/8/2015 – "As you aware, in an unfortunate incident GM Koneru Humpy withdrew from the Commonwealth Chess Championship 2015," wrote A.K. Verma, Secretary of the Delhi Chess Association. "Too much has been written about this. As Organising Secretary of Championship it's my responsibility to clear the air." Attached was a document relating the DCA's stand and view on the issue.

Huffington Post: Topalov on Top in Norway

7/7/2015 – In the first round of the Norway Chess 2015 in Stavanger Magnus Carlsen lost on time in a winning position against Veselin Topalov. The 40-year-old Bulgarian turned this lucky break into first place with a string of victories – in the last round Topalov holding Vishy Anand, 45, to a draw. Looking back at the event Huffington columnist Lubomir Kavalek analyses games by Carlsen and Anand.