What makes the London Chess Classic special?

1/11/2016 – How do you make a chess festival special? How do you bring together all the resources, spark the interest of the entire chess community, ignite in thousands a passion for the game, and yet make the entire project financially feasible? Sagar Shah and Amruta Mokal were in London for the entire duration of the London Chess Classic and sent us thirteen reasons why this annual event is an example of one of the best planned chess festivals in the world.

Best of 2015: Summary

1/11/2016 – After asking you to vote for the "Best of 2015", we now want to show you the results. Daniel King dedicated his latest Power Play Show to the poll and presented the winners. In the following article you can see if there were any surprises or if all polls ended as you expected. Have a look at the winners.

Kovalenko wins the Keres Memorial - ACP Open

1/10/2016 – With a strong finish Igor Kovalenko became sole winner of the Keres Memorial - ACP Open in Tallinn. He started the last day with 6.5/8, sharing second place with four other players. But after winning against Jan-Krzysztof Duda and Peter Svidler he only needed a draw against Boris Gelfand in the final round to take sole first place with 9.0/11.

Keres Memorial - ACP Open: David Howell leads

1/9/2016 – Chess legend Paul Keres was born on 7th January 1916. To celebrate his 100-year jubilee a strong rapid tournament is played in Tallinn, in which world class players such as P. Svidler, Boris G. or P. Eljanov take part. But after eight rounds the English GM David Howell leads the field with 7.0/8. Half a point behind follow Duda, Svidler, Kovalenko and Gelfand.

25th World Senior Championship (2/2)

1/8/2016 – The 25th World Senior Chess Championships in Acqui Terme, Italy, was an amazing event. More than three hundred players started, including over 100 titled players, among them 18 GMs and 34 IMs. GM Nona Gaprindashvili won the Women’s 65+ section with 7.0/9, GM Predrag Nikolic the Open 50+ with 9.5/11. Ian Wilkinson remembers the event from a Jamaican perspective.

ChessBase New Year's Puzzle 2016 – solutions

1/8/2016 – QM3: A game ends with the move 6...Nf1 mate – find moves that achieve this. That was our New Year's Puzzle. Solutions were sent in from around the globe – hundreds in all. Many letters were quite interesting, so we bring you a substantial selection. One of them has won the historic prize. Finally the coin problem by John Nunn: the solution is a five-second eight-word sentence that any ten-year-old can understand.

Surprise winners in Hastings

1/8/2016 – The Hastings Chess Congress has a very long tradition and the legendary Hastings tournament 1895 was one of the strongest tournaments of its time. Emanuel Lasker, Wilhelm Steinitz and Siegbert Tarrasch took part but in the end the American Harry Nelson Pillsbury won the tournament. A real surprise at that time. This year's Congress also had two surprise winners.

Tricky diagonals

1/8/2016 – 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.

Estonia celebrates Keres' 100th birthday

1/7/2016 – Paul Keres was born 7th January 1916 in Narva, Estonia, and was one of the best players in the history of chess. He played in eight candidates tournaments and four times he finished second. He won games against nine World Champions but never played a match for the title. He was also a fantastic chess writer and an impeccable sportsman. In Estonia he is a national hero.

Rodshtein wins Rilton Cup

1/7/2016 – Jon Ludvig Hammer from Norway and Maxim Rodshtein from Israel were both in good form at the traditionally strong Rilton Cup in Stockholm. Both grandmasters played a number of impressive games and both managed to raise their ratings to 2700+. But fortune smiled a bit brighter on Rodshtein who won the tournament with 8.0/9, half a point ahead of Hammer.

Grand Chess Tour gets smaller

1/6/2016 – Last year the three supertournaments Norway Chess, Sinquefield Cup and the London Chess Classic merged to become the "Grand Chess Tour" series. Now the organisers of Norway Chess decided to go their own ways again and in a press release announced their intention to leave the series: Norway Chess will not be part of the Grand Chess Tour 2016. Press Release

Hunting knights

1/5/2016 – 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!

Naiditsch wins Chrismas Open in Zurich

1/5/2016 – With a rating of 2698 Arkadij Naiditsch was the favorite to win the traditional Chrismas Open in Zurich that took place from 26th to 30th December. Naiditsch lived up to his role and won the tournament with 6.0/7. Half a point behind followed five players of whom Vitaly Kunin and Christian Bauer had the best tie-break. They finished second and third.

Fritz 15 engine - questions and answers

1/4/2016 – With the arrival of Fritz 15, and the new engine, a large number of questions have arisen regarding its strength, its origin, and its future. One of the very strongest grandmasters in activity expressed his concern quite simply, “The rumours say that it's some kind of old Rybka”. Here are the answers as well as an introduction to the Fritz 15 engine.

Best of 2015: Best Endgame

1/4/2016 – The year 2015 is over now, so we thought it's time to let you vote for the highlights of the past year. Today we want you to vote for the best endgame of the year 2015. The following article features a selection of six endgames picked by GM Karsten Müller. Which, do you think, is the best endgame of 2015?

Groningen Festival won by Jorden van Foreest

1/4/2016 – The traditional Groningen Chess Festival, now in its 53rd edition, was won by 16-year-old IM Jorden van Foreest, a Dutch player on the rise. He and Indian GM Shyam Sundar both finished with 7.5/9, but as van Foreest had won their individual encounter, he took the title. With plenty of activities, and plenty of chess, it was very enjoyable event. Report, pictures, and video.

Sagar Shah: Learn from the Classics (2)

1/4/2016 – This is clearly sound advice – play through the games of Alekhine, Botvinnik and Capablanca to improve your understanding of chess. But just sitting back and enjoying them does not do much for your own playing strength. Sagar Shah tells us how to actually absorb the classics, as he did, and use the ideas in one's own games. His DVD contains a wealth of historical and training material.

US master Steve Brandwein passes away at 73

1/3/2016 – Unless you are intimately familiar with the American chess scene, you will be forgiven for not knowing who Steve Brandwein is. He did not challenge for the world title, nor did he invent an opening. Rather he was one of those memorable characters that one never forgets. A chess monk, as many described him, who had his own encounters with Miguel Najdorf and Bobby Fischer.

Huffington: Great chess minds think alike

1/3/2016 – Magnus Carlsen finished the year with a victory at the Qatar Masters Open in Doha on last Tuesday. The World Champion played more sharply and created a masterpiece that was reminiscent of chess history. The same moves and similar middlegame ideas that occurred in the past suddenly reappeared in Carlsen's game against Li Chao. Huffington Post chess correspondent GM Lubomir Kavalek elaborates.

2015 Al Ain Classic: Wang Hao wins in style

1/2/2016 – Wang Hao of China dominated the Al Ain Chess Classic and achieved the remarkable feat of winning it with a round to spare! He beat Indian GM Abhijeet Gupta in the eighth round to take his tally to 7.5/8, one and a half points over his nearest rivals, thus guaranteeing sole first. A draw with the top-seed and he finished with a 2944 performance. Report with commented games.

Garry Kasparov: Winter is Coming

1/2/2016 – One thing one cannot say about the 13th World Chess Champion: that he is timid and reserved. In an interview with SPIEGEL, Europe's most influential news magazine, Garry Kasparov calls Vladimir Putin a dictator and accuses the West of capitulating in the face of the Kremlin's aggressive foreign policy. This and hundreds of stories in the broadsheets were sparked by the release of his latest book.

ChessBase New Year's Puzzle 2016

1/2/2016 – First of all a very Happy New Year to all our faithful readers, and best wishes for happiness and success in the year 2016. To celebrate and to close our Christmas puzzle week we bring you a final problem, one that is easy to formulate but is seriously difficult to solve. This is your chance to compete with some of the world's strongest players and problem experts. And to win a prize with historical significance.

January 2016 ratings: Magnus Carlsen is no.1

1/1/2016 – The headline might seem a tad obvious, but it should be noted that he is not only no. 1 in classical chess, he once more holds the no. 1 positions in rapid and blitz as well. Vladimir Kramnik regains the world no. 2 spot, and rejoins the 2800 club. However, a note should be made of Iranian FM Alireza Firouzja, who is 2455 and only 12 years old.

Qatar Masters Rd9: Magnus supreme in Qatar

1/1/2016 – As you know from our Express report Magnus Carlsen won the Qatar Masters in a thrilling tiebreak finish with last year's winner Yu Yangyi. After the event was over our reporters in Doha had to take a flight home and got stuck in Bahrain. Thus the description of the final day comes a little late, but it is full of didactic analysis that will make you stronger, and exclusive pictures and videos.