Baku Rd4 TB: Pure adrenaline

9/22/2015 – The title really says it all. Karjakin and Andreikin saved the excitement for the tiebreaks, and ended in Karjakin's favor. Anish Giri had little trouble stamping his authority on Wojtaszek, while Eljanov continued his great form and beat Jakovenko cleanly. The most exciting match by far was Wei Yi against Ding Liren with wild complications and playing with only one second on the clock!

Komodo 9 odds matches against GMs

9/22/2015 – Mismatches make great spectacles if done right. Watching Harry Houdini trapped underwater, wrapped in chains and fighting for his life to escape is thrilling. Will he escape or drown? It's a riveting question, because the odds are well-balanced and the great Houdini’s powers are pushed to the limit. In a similar vein, Komodo gave material odds to grandmasters.

Beautiful chess pieces

9/22/2015 – For centuries artisans have used chess pieces to show their craft and to portray people and events from history. Chess pieces reflect the history, culture and thought of the times they were made in. They also show the skills of the artists who created them. When Yamil Duba visited a museum in Paraguay he met Don Quixote, Christoph Columbus, and others.

When a queen is not stronger than a pawn

9/22/2015 – 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 Victor Bologan!

St. Louis University offers chess scholarships

9/21/2015 – Rolling on the crest of the wave of chess in the United States, Saint Louis University partners with the St. Louis Chess Club to announce the university's first-ever collegiate chess program. For the first time in its nearly 200-year history, SLU will offer competitive scholarships and recruit top-tier chess players from around the globe.

World Cup 4.2: Giants sent home

9/21/2015 – Three of the top-10 players in the World were sent home today as they lost their matches in Baku. Svidler knocked out Topalov, giving a draw in a probably winning position after the Bulgarian made a series of mistakes. Caruana was unable to win against Mamedyarov and the tournament is over for him. Wesley So was also elminated: a big mistake led to a difficult endgame that MVL converted.

Chess in the clouds

9/21/2015 – Today it is easy to play chess in the cloud. At least, in the virtual world. But chess organiser Pavel Matocha who again and again comes up with ideas for unusual and attractive chess events had something more old-fashioned in mind and organised a chess match in a balloon. Martin Petr and Petr Neuman decided to take their game to new heights.

Antipov and Buksa are World Junior Champions

9/21/2015 – The prestigious World Junior Championships 2015 witnessed intense fights right to the end. Duda and Abdumalik were leading in the open and girls section respectively for majority of the tournament, but thanks to a dramatic finish Mikhail Antipov and Nataliya Buksa snatched the titles. We have an interview with Antipov, and he also sent us a meticulously annotated game.

Baku 4.1: Eight battles, Four winners

9/20/2015 – Already four players are in serious danger of going home: they must win tomorrow to keep their chances alive! In the Chinese derby, Ding Liren overtook Wei Yi. Nakamura outplayed Adams in fine positional style. After a series of mutual mistakes, Svidler checkmated Topalov. Finally, the news of the day for the Azerbaijanis is that Caruana was blown off the board by Mamedyarov!

Eight battles, tough predictions!

9/20/2015 – Our predictions in round three of the World Cup 2015 were a mixed bag - eleven out of the sixteen were correct. Some of the double edged forecasts which were accurate: Andreikin beating Kramnik, Jakovenko defeating Ivanchuk, Tomashevsky losing to Vachier-Lagrave, and Karjakin defeating Yu Yangyi. We continue predicting the outcomes of this extremely unpredictable format.

Nepomniachtchi cries foul on Armageddon

9/19/2015 – It was the final match of the day, and the cliffhanger of cliffhangers. After tying their standard and rapid games, Nakamura and Nepomniachtchi each survived must-win situations to push the match to sudden death. After a dramatic game, the American prevailed and it was all over. Or was it? To the astonishment of all, the Russian filed an appeal demanding the result be nullified.

Baku 3.TB: Nail biters!

9/19/2015 – Another exciting round of tiebreaks. Several of today's matches actually finished during the rapid portion of the tiebreak. Andreikin got his sweet revenge on Kramnik, while MVL, Svidler, and Topalov passed. Le Quang Liem was unfortunate enough to mate himself against So. Adams and Dominguez went all the way to 5+3, where the Brit prevailed. Meanwhile Naka-Nepo ended in Armageddon!

Baku 3.2: Plenty of results

9/18/2015 – Just a bit over half of the matches today finished in a victory for one of the players. The biggest name to go home is Grischuk, as he lost again to Eljanov. The Ukrainian now has an amazing 6-0 score in classical games in the World Cup! Ding Liren and Wei Yi are through and will guarantee a Chinese in the quarter finals... they play each other!

"Bundesliga": The new season begins

9/18/2015 – Club chess is strong in Germany. About 90.000 players are organised in the German Chess Federation and play from autumn to spring in various leagues for their clubs. The best teams start in the first league, the so-called Bundesliga. It is very strong, very traditional, and very international. This weekend the new season begins but the favorite remains the same.

Thinking further

9/18/2015 – 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.

Rogoff on the Fischer movie "Pawn Sacrifice"

9/18/2015 – Harvard professor Kenneth Rogoff is a world famous economist – and a chess grandmaster. He thinks that in the Hollywood movie actor Toby Maguire portrays Fischer with remarkable authenticity "indeed, pitch-perfect for those of us who met Bobby in his prime" (as Rogoff did). In his review Ken speculates how Fischer would not be Fischer in today's world.

Baku 3.1: Couple of Miracles, Many draws

9/17/2015 – 4/16 of the games today finished in decisive results, but a few of the games did see very tense drama unfold, especially close to time pressure. Lu Shanglei can count his lucky stars as he survived against Topalov basically down a piece. In Grischuk's topsy-turvy time trouble against Eljanov, it was complicated, then totally winning, then lost. And now he must win with black tomorrow to survive.

Predictions for round three

9/17/2015 – We are now down to 32 players, 16 encounters, and as the rounds progress the match-ups keep getting closer and tighter. Some of the opponents are so evenly matched that it is no longer easy to choose a favourite. But in this article we do exactly that – give you a description of each pairing and predictions for all 16 matches. Do your views concur with or differ from ours?

Baku 2.TB: Only two upsets

9/16/2015 – It was a slugfest in many of the matches, and several were very close affairs, but at the end of the day out of the fifteen tiebreaks only two ended in victories for the underdog. Both Le Quang Liem (VIE) and Alexander Areschenko (UKR) triumphed over Nikita Vitiugov (RUS) and Levon Aronian (ARM) to go into round three. One of the matches made it all the way to Armageddon: Adams-Laznicka.

Moscow Blitz bonanza

9/16/2015 – The Moscow Blitz Championship was held last week after a long series of qualifying events, to culminate in an incredibly strong twenty-player final who fought for the gold in a giant round-robin. Names such as Nepomniachtchi, world no.4 in blitz, Morozevich and many more took part. The women’s event fared no worse and was won by Valentina Gunina, also among the world’s best.

Baku 2.2: Many tiebreaks

9/15/2015 – Fifteen of the thirty-two matches played in round two of the World Cup in Baku resulted in 1.0-1.0 ties and will be going into tiebreaks tomorrow. Three more 2700s have been sent home: Lu Shanglei got rid of his compatriot Wang Hao by securing a draw today, Harikrishna blundered a piece against his teammate Sethuraman while Navara could not tie the series vs. Guseinov. Round two.

Another case of cheating?

9/15/2015 – Smartphones, mini cameras, strong chess programs - the better the technology, the more cheaters rejoice. But how to explain your new playing strength? Or your strange behavior at the board? Or (when discovered) the hidden electronic devices? At the Imperia Chess Festival in Italy one player raised a lot of suspicion and left many questions unanswered.

Knight-check-shadow

9/15/2015 – 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!

Baku 2.1: Fights continue!

9/14/2015 – Despite eight short draws in today's round the remaining games were full of excitement. The combination of the day was played by Ding Liren, but even some "quiet draws" like Hou Yifan-Mamedyarov were full of interest. We have seen a couple of heartbreakers in Baku, but nothing worse than Bruzon losing R+BvsR against Kramnik... ten moves away from a draw!