Vaishali wins Indian Women Challengers

7/20/2015 – Most of the strongest female players of the country took part in this beautifully staged event. The nine top finishers qualify for the National Premier Championship in October 2015. The winner – ahead of a host of experienced IMs and WGMs – was a 14-year-old girl from Chennai. R. Vaishali scored at 9.0/11, gaining 80 rating points. Big illustrated report with interview and game analysis.

Akshat Chandra wins 2015 US Junior Championship

7/19/2015 – The Championship is open to the best US juniors younger than 21 years. Previously it has been won by the likes of Fischer, Bisguier, Seirawan and Nakamura. This time the title went to 15-year-old Akshat Chandra, who scored 7.0/9 and a performance of 2688. Akshat is well known to our readers – he writes reports for us. Which led Garry Kasparov to refer to him as 'the journalist'.

Pal Benko's birthday problems

7/18/2015 – On July 14 Hungarian problem componist GM Pal Benkö turned 87. His wife Gisela is 78, his daughter Palma 45, son David 44 and his grandson Adam 12. Why are we telling you this so specifically? Because Pal is celebrating with some wonderful number problems: positions shaped like digits, to share with his family and with problem lovers all over the world. Now with solutions!

China vs Russia

7/17/2015 – The traditional match between China and Russia this year is played in Yinzhou, a precinct of the Chinese city Ningbo. A five board men's and a five board women's team play a five round match according to Scheveninger system. After three rounds the Chinese men lead with 9-6 while the Chinese women trail by 7-8. Results, pictures, games.

Sam Collins: Attack with the Schliemann

7/17/2015 – Some players like to sacrifice. They gambit pawns in the opening and later give their queen to mate the king. Others are more careful with their material and refuse to sacrifice even a pawn in the opening. But maybe they should once in a while. It leads to interesting chess and it helps to improve your rating - and your chess understanding.

Yes2Chess Grand Finals in London 2015

7/17/2015 – It was the second edition of an initiative to get children all over the world to play chess. 4,200 competitive games took place in a special Yes2Chess room on Playchess, and in person, and 40 finalists from the UK, Spain, Portugal, the US, Sweden, Germany, Denmark and Norway played the final matches of the international tournament in Hyde Park on 24th June to determine the overall winning school.

Dutch defence

7/17/2015 – 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.

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.