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.

Missing a chance?

8/29/2014 – Some people like the excitement of time trouble, most people do not. They simply do not enjoy spotting a good idea but lacking the time to calculate its consequences properly. There's always the feeling of a missed chance. Things look easier without the pressure of the clock. But still - can you find the right move in this complicated position?

Sinquefield 02: Exciting games all around

8/29/2014 – It's a good day in chess when the least shocking game of the day was the duel between Carlsen and Nakamura, a game that was hard-fought and ended in a perpetual check! Caruana wins his second game in a row with great preparation against an unlucky MVL, while Aronian's exchange 'sacrifice' was too much for Topalov to handle; without the initiative the Bulgarian simply collapsed.

Sharjah 04: And then there was one

8/28/2014 – The level of play varied widely in today's round. Impressive was Hou Yifan's game, as she meticulously nursed a tiny advantage against Koneru Humpy and ended up winning a very important game. On the other side of the spectrum, the game between Ju Wenjun and Danielian went from winning for White, to the contrary, back to a White win, and with this the Chinese is sole leader.

Sinquefield Cup starts with a Splash!

8/28/2014 – You could not have asked for more exciting games to kick off the Sinquefield Cup, the strongest chess tournament in history! One solid draw between Levon Aronian and Hikaru Nakamura was more than compensated by a wild and indescribable game between MVL and Magnus Carlsen. However, the early leader is Caruana, after taking the Ice Bucket challenge and crushing Veselin Topalov!

Sharjah 03: Two at the Top

8/27/2014 – With round three over two early leaders have emerged. Harika keeps good pace by drawing Hou Yifan, though to be fair she should have pressed harder in the final position. Ju Wenjun had a lot of patience and defeated Zhao Xue in a long opposite colored bishop endgame. The other boards saw some nice fights, especially Tatiana Kosintseva's sacrificial win against Alina l'Ami.

Trouble brewing for World Championship 2014

8/27/2014 – The match between Magnus Carlsen and Viswanathan Anand is scheduled to start in a little more than ten weeks from today. The champion is unhappy with the venue and the financial arrangements and has requested a postponement – which FIDE has rejected. Now he has until Sunday to sign the contract, otherwise we may just see a title match between Anand and Karjakin.

Chess in the digital age

8/27/2014 – Using a single software package, Former US Correspondence Champion Edwards tells us, he is now able to accomplish in an hour more than he did as a chess youngster in ten. He should know: he has just published an ultimate guide to the program ChessBase, 356 pages long and illustrated with hundreds of screen shots. Don't miss it: this is the ultimate guide to ChessBase.

2014 Sinquefield Cup starts today

8/27/2014 – It is billed as the strongest chess tournament in history: the world's numbers 1, 2, 3, 5, 8 and 9 are playing a double round robin in Chess Club and Scholastic Center, Saint Louis, USA. Their average rating is 2801, making it a Category XXIII event. Total prize fund: US $315,000. The first round starts at 2 p.m. local time today. Playchess has live coverage and commentary.

Sharjah 02: Distances appear

8/26/2014 – Already after round two it is clear that some players are fighting to win the tournament and others are fighting to stay afloat. All of the Chinese players (the ones that still play for China, at least) are on 1.5/2, a strong score shared by Tuvshintugs and Ushenina. The race is being led by Harika with 2/2, and she faces an important game tomorrow against Hou Yifan.

15-year-old leads Abu Dhabi Masters

8/26/2014 – The Abu Dhabi Chess Festival is now in its 21st edition, and shows no sign of losing steam, with great conditions. The festival is comprised of a wide variety of tournaments for all strengths and groups, including tournaments for the military and police, or Media and Journalists. After six rounds, 15-year-old IM Murali leads over 32 grandmasters. Report, pictures and videos.

Good knight, bad bishop

8/26/2014 – Every week ChessBase magazine author and renowned endgame expert Karsten Müller presents a remarkable or particularly instructive endgame in his blog. This week he chose the game Halkias-Tate. A click on the diagram opens a larger board. Test your endgame skills, improve and have fun!

Last women's GP under way

8/26/2014 – The final Grand Prix in the 2013-14 series is now under way in Sharjah, United Arab Emirates. The tournament is a strong round robin and two players come into the tournament with chances of winning the series: Koneru Humpy and Hou Yifan. It will all come down to who scores more points in this tournament to determine who wins the series, and a very, very nice trophy.

Spanish Blitz in the streets

8/25/2014 – In the small, and picturesque village of Sabiote, Spain, the 2014 Spanish Blitz Championship was held... in the streets. Indeed, with a small population of 4300 inhabitants, counting on spectators to come and see the chess made little sense, so instead the organizers brought the chess to the people, and it was a great success. Rising star David Anton Guijarra took first. An illustrated report.

Hrant Melkumyan wins in Riga

8/24/2014 – GM Hrant Melkumyan started the strong Technical University Open in Riga with 6 out of 6. Then the European Blitz Champion of 2011 decided to slow down and finished the tournament with three draws. Enough to win the tournament, but only because he had half a tie-break point more than Hungarian opening iconoclast Richard Rapport. Report and Games...

89th French Championship gets started

8/23/2014 – In its 89th edition, the French Championship starts in Nimes with all the stars present. Among the more than 700 participants playing in the championship event and six opens is the local legend Roger Ferry who is playing his 55th consecutive championship! Leading the men's event is Laurent Fressinet and in the women Maisuradze and Safranska. It has seen over two thirds decisive games!

Stalemate: the long and the Short of it (2)

8/23/2014 – Recently English GM Nigel Short expressed the view that we should abandon the "stupid rule" of stalemate, where the attacking side has completely immobilized the enemy but does not win the game. Paul Lillebo believes that the possibility of stalemate adds a valuable dimension to chess, leading to complex theory that is not mechanical. He illustrates this with some interesting examples.

Norwegian TV and the Chess Olympiad

8/22/2014 – With the chess explosion in Norway, and the Chess Olympiad just around the corner, NRK, the largest TV network in Norway was stuck wondering how they would approach the idea of live broadcasts for multiple boards, since what is fine in a browser might not be suitable for national TV. Solve it they did, broadcast it they did, and they published a detailed article on how they did it.

Short and sweet

8/22/2014 – Short games are often not particularly attractive. One side blunders or runs into an opening trap and the other side wins without much effort. However, some short games display many surprising ideas and tactics. The following game is an example. It was one of the shortest games from the Olympiad 2014 but contains a number of sweet tactical moments.

World University Championships underway

8/22/2014 – The World University Championships (WUC) are underway at Katowice, Poland, and have existed since 1963. Chess was introduced in 1990, and since then, it regularly attracts players from around the world, from Japan to Brazil, to participate in a unique event. With live grandmaster video commentary, multiple video promos, and so much more, it is an event that should not be missed.