Karsten Müller: Olympiad Endgames

9/5/2014 – Today we start a special course, brought to you by one of the world's leading endgame experts, Dr. Karsten Müller, whom you all know from ChessBase Magazine. Even the strongest players study his didactic analyses. This course shows you how the endgame was handled by great players during the recent Chess Olympiad in Tromsø. And best of all: it's completely free!

Step by step

9/5/2014 – Sometimes you just feel that you have a winning position, a winning move, a winning continuation. Chess intuition simply tells you that the win must be there, somewhere, even if it is well hidden and you cannot see it yet. But how to find the winning move, the winning continuation? Well, practice helps. And Oliver Reeh helps you to practice.

Sinquefield 08: Streak stopped, Event clinched.

9/5/2014 – Caruana's streak has been stopped by Carlsen, though barely. The Norwegian was lucky to survive the position against the tournament leader.... well, the tournament winner now that mathematically it is impossible for anyone to catch up to him despite there being two more rounds! Aronian forgave MVL's mistakes while Topalov was ruthless in a Berlin endgame against the local legend.

Sharjah 09: Ju Wenjun leads, Hou Yifan wins GP

9/4/2014 – With a fantastic and risky game Ju Wenjun was able to vanquish Harika with the Black pieces, leaving her as the sole leader of the Sharjah Grand Prix. Hou Yifan drew against Danielian, which puts her three points ahead of Humpy and with two rounds to go this means that the World Champion is now also the 2013-2014 Grand Prix series Winner. Report of a very well fought round.

Legal Moves: Melekhina on Chess & Law (Part 2)

9/4/2014 – Upon transitioning from the chess world into the law school world, Alisa Melekhina, one of the top female players in the US, noticed her chess results declining. In the second part of her article Alisa attempts to identify the unexpected cause of her descent, and describes her unique solution to remaining competitive and balancing her many pursuits. Read on.

Sinquefield 07: "He's not making a mistake"

9/4/2014 – Those were Maxime Vachier-Lagrave's words when describing Fabiano Caruana's play in the 2014 Sinquefield Cup. "I've never seen this. I've never even seen Carlsen play so well." The Italian player severely punished MVL's mistakes and moves to a jaw-dropping 7-0. Carlsen is in "hot pursuit" three points behind him after beating Nakamura. Aronian and Topalov drew their game.

Huffington: Chess in the Time of War

9/3/2014 – Chess has often flourished under totalitarian regimes and in the middle of wars. How do chess players deal with that? Do they raise their voices or did they keep silent? Huffington Post chess columnist GM Lubomir Kavalek, who fled his native Czechoslovakia in 1968, ten days after the Soviet invasion, was only able to go back after 21 years. He writes about the current minacious situation.

Sinquefield 06: He cannot be stopped

9/3/2014 – His attacks are well timed, his novelties uncomfortable to play against, his technique exquisite. Fabiano Caruana (picture from 1995!) moves to a gorgeous 6-0 after blowing Veselin Topalov off the board with a great tactical sacrifice that destroyed the Bulgarian's king position. The other games were interesting, but some players are imprecise and difficult to recognize. Round six report.

Sharjah 08: Not many changes

9/2/2014 – The two Chinese leaders sat at the board and played a chess game, though not the most thrilling one. After 30 moves they had wiped out most of the pieces and it was obvious that a draw would be agreed. Tuvshintugs continues in hard pursuit and today she took advantage of a blunder of l'Ami when the Mongolian had a worse position. She is currently one point behind the leaders.

Magnus' mighty knight

9/2/2014 – Bobby Fischer's favorite piece was the white-squared bishop. However, given the opportunity, he did not mind to win a game or two with the help of his knights. Magnus Carlsen sure likes winning but does not seem to have a favorite piece. He treats all of them and the pawns equally well. But in the following example he made the knight shine.

Legal Moves: Melekhina on Chess & Law (Part one)

9/2/2014 – “Sorry you’re having a tough tournament, but you’re in law school now – it must be difficult to balance.” That’s essentially the mantra that Alisa Melekhina, one of the top US female players, has been hearing since she began at the University of Pennsylvania Law School. "In a way it’s a compliment," she says, "but in more ways it’s prognosticating defeat." Read her inspiring story.

Sharjah 07: They're unstoppable!

9/2/2014 – Both Ju Wenjun and Hou Yifan won their games to continue their streak in Sharjah. Ju Wenjun won cleanly against Muminova, and although the World Champion's game was far rockier she achieved her goal regardless. Tuvshintugs drew her game and is the closest to the leaders, but at 1.5 points away she isn't a a serious threat. The Chinese meet tomorrow for a decisive match..

Dresden Open 2014 - the winner's account (part 2/2)

9/2/2014 – After a very unexpected win, ahead of fourteen grandmasters, IM Sagar Shah has detailed the entire experience for the readers, recounting the moments worth cheering, to the scares of his life. It wasn't all smooth sailing, as he recounts the harrowing experience of nearly losing a won game against top seed Ferenc Berkes due to a finger fehler! Find out what happened.

World University concludes in style

9/1/2014 – Held in Katowice, Poland, the World University Championship concluded after great showings by the competitors, with Sanan Sjugirov taking the men's title on tiebreak, while WIM Klaudia Kulon stormed her field with 8.5/9 and a 2699 performance. The organizers also held a Kids Challenge among the many activities, and GM Olszewski explains his revolutionary method of calculation.

September 2014 ratings: Chinese Gold

9/1/2014 – To describe August as having been a busy month for ratings would be a huge understatement. The Olympiads at Tromso ensured a massive amount of games for almost all the top players, and the few who were not representing their countries, kept busy otherwise. The Chinese Gold for the men was historic, and was thanks to incredible results by Ding Liren and Yu Yangyi. Read the summaries.

Sinquefield 05: Is he human!?

9/1/2014 – He must be, because Caruana finally made his first mistake of the tournament - but not one that mattered. His position was so crushing against Nakamura that the Italian won his fifth game in a row anyways and goes into half-time with a 2.5 point lead, +25 rating points, and an incalculable performance. Topalov beat MVL to join Carlsen in second as he beat Aronian.

Fressinet and Maisuradze win 2014 French Ch

8/31/2014 – After five rounds, it had been a dominating performance by Laurent Fressinet, followed closely by Etienne Bacrot trying to catch up. They met in the final round, but Bacrot could not break him, and Fressinet won his second title. Nino Maisuradze was neck-and-neck with rival Safranska, but defeated her and went on to win the title for a second consecutive year. Final report.

Sharjah 06: Chinese increase Lead

8/31/2014 – With two very clean games Ju Wenjun, who defeated l'Ami, and Hou Yifan, who did the same with Ushenina, have extended their share lead to a full point over clear third, Tuvshintugs. Also important is that Humpy lost against Zhao Xue, which means that the Indian player is a full three points behind Hou Yifan. This makes it almost certain that Hou Yifan will win the GP series.

Sinquefield 04: Fight for second already?

8/31/2014 – The leader of the tournament is not saying it, but it is in everybody's mind: has the Sinquefield Cup 2014 turned into a battle for second place? Caruana continues to crush the opposition, today playing a beautiful game against Aronian, inflicting the Armenian's second loss in a row. Second place is currently held by Vachier-Lagrave half a point ahead of the rest.

Abu Dhabi ends in dramatic flurry

8/30/2014 – After an astonishing mid-tournament lead by 15-year-old IM Karthikeyan with 5.0/6, the young Indian proceeded to compound his lead with a win over co-leader Sergey Volkov in round seven, but now he had new challengers from his home country, and the game was afoot. It all came down to the last round where drama took place at the top. Final report with videos and GM analysis.

Sharjah 05: Battles after the Penguins

8/30/2014 – The players were treated to a wonderful surprise in the rest day in Sharjah. Despite the blistering heat of UAE, with temperatures reaching well over 40 degrees, the participants were taken to see... penguins! Some of the players definitely gained some inspiration from these encounters. At the end of round five, Ju Wenjun and Hou Yifan again lead a Grand Prix. Pictorial report.

Dresden Open 2014 - the winner's account (part 1/2)

8/30/2014 – Usually reporters don't win tournaments. That is left to the strong grandmasters who spend their time studying deep opening novelties or extremely complicated endgames. The job of the writer is to contact them and interview them after the games. But sometimes the reporters themselves will actually win, and when they do you get an incomparable personalized report.

Sinquefield 03: Couldn't be better!

8/30/2014 – The Sinquefield Cup simply could not be better... at least this is true for both the spectators and for Fabiano Caruana! With three decisive and exciting games today the action over the board was thrilling in every board. MVL cleanly beat Aronian, Topalov's game against Nakamura could have swung either way at any point while Carlsen's piece sacrifice against Caruana backfired!

Their proudest moment in Chess Olympiad history

8/29/2014 – China won Gold, India Bronze – who can doubt that these are the super-powers of chess in the coming decades? India, which started as 19th seed, won their first ever medal, which led to national celebrations. Niklesh Jain caught up with the players back home and did short interviews with each of them. You will enjoy his big pictorial report – appropriately in English and in Hindi.