LCC-R4: You've just been spacebarred

12/14/2014 – That means, in ChessBase-speak, ‘to play the analysis engine's first choice move’ by pressing the space bar. Anish Giri, who speaks fluent Russian, Dutch and English, used this expression to Hikaru Nakamura. The latter won the only decisive game of the day. Read about two Italian boys who travelled all the way to London to see their hero Fabiano Caruana in our round four report.

Daniel King: Test your Attacking Chess!

12/14/2014 – Mating the king ends the game, attacking the king is fun. And it is something you can learn. GM Daniel King shows you how. On his Powerplay 20 DVD he uses deeply annotated games to show how to conduct an attack, then he invites you to take over and find the moves of the masters. Priyadarshan Banjan looked at the DVD and liked that hard work promises fun.

Carlsen and a Parade of Chess Champions (1)

12/14/2014 – Every world championship evokes the names of previous champions. The most recent saw Anand better prepared, and posing more problems for his younger opponent. Game 2 revealed that the the Berlin Defense would be his main weapon with the black pieces – echoing Kramnik's strategy against Kasparov in 2000. Huffington Post columnist Lubomir Kavalek analyses the results.

Blitz in Bejing: Day One

12/13/2014 – The marathon has begun! The best of the best are battling it out in China and it is time for the blitz portion of the event. A massive 30 blitz games will be played per player in a span of three days. After day one there is a tie for the lead in the open section between Leko, Ivanchuk and Aronian. Meanwhile in the women's Hou Yifan took a little revenge on Gunina.

New York Times on cool young grandmasters

12/13/2014 – In the days of Fischer and Spassky chess stars had national celebrity. In the years since it has flourished in schools and clubs, but interest has languished at the highest levels. It is just a tough sell as a spectator sport, and champions are perceived as esoteric talents without much relevance in the real world. But that may be changing, because of two young GMs. Interesting read.

ChessBase 13 from a club trainer’s perspective (2)

12/13/2014 – Prathamesh Mokal is an International Master and FIDE Trainer from India. In his work with the brightest young talents in the country he uses ChessBase extensively, and is especially delighted with the new features of the latest version 13. We asked him to share his experiences with the program and show us the methods he uses.

LCC-R3: Thank heavens for the Evans

12/13/2014 – Perhaps as a gesture to the hosts Hikaru Nakamura played a "British opening" against Viswanathan Anand. His novelty on move nine did not set the pulse racing, and the game ended in a draw. The other two were Berlins: "not the most exciting of games", which is British understatement for "mind-numbingly tedious", as John Saunders puts it. Round three report.

Double Russian Gold in Beijing

12/13/2014 – A fantastic day for two Russians, and it all came down to the sprint! In the Open section Grischuk caught up to Wang Hao in the penultimate round. The Russian drew his game, but Wang Hao fell to Aronian, giving Grischuk first place! In the ladies' section Gunina scored a smashing 3.0/3, including a victory with Black against Hou Yifan, to secure her own gold medal.

Jiangsu wins Chinese League

12/12/2014 – The Chinese League competition is long and tough: 12 teams play an 11 double-round-robin. The final three rounds took place from 6. to 8. December and Jiangsu emerged as winner. They won 16 of their 22 matches, drew four and lost two. Top scorers on the team were 15-year old GM Wei Yi with 15.5/19 and IM Shen Yang, who scored 17.0/22 on the women's board.

Knight issues

12/12/2014 – 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.

The World Mind Games begin

12/12/2014 – On 11th December the World Mind Games began in Beijing, China. One week some of the word's best players compete in Chess, Go, Draughts, Chinese Chess, (Xiangqi), and Bridge. In chess 16 top men and women play rapid, blitz and basque chess. After four rounds of rapid Nana Dzagnidze, Wang Yue, Wang Hao and Alexander Grischuk are the leading mind acrobats.

ChessBase 13 from a club trainer’s perspective (1)

12/12/2014 – If you want to play good “chess” you got to have a strong “base” of knowledge, and that’s where “ChessBase” comes in! The program is well known worldwide as the best chess database management tool. Prathamesh Mokal, an International Master and a top class FIDE Trainer from India, takes us on a trip down the main functions of ChessBase 13. The first part is fairly elementary.

LCC-R2: Kramnik and Giri score

12/12/2014 – Today the number of decisive results doubled, as Vladimir Kramnik played what at least one of the spectating GMs described as ‘the perfect game’ to defeat Hikaru Nakamura, and Anish Giri opened his Olympia account at the expense of the overnight leader. Birthday celebrant Vishy Anand had another fairly uneventful draw, this time with Fabiano Caruana. Round two report.

Qatar Masters and the amazing Doha (2/2)

12/12/2014 – In spite of the overwhelming wealth of Doha, the luxuriousness manages to sidestep any feelings of arrogance as described by Alina L'Ami in the second part of her report. However the conditions were superb attracting an incredibly strong lineup featuring world-class players who rarely step outside the circuit of round robins. That they did made possible the thrilling finish.

London Classic Rd1: Adams fells Caruana

12/11/2014 – When asked about the player he thought would win, Nigel Short hemmed and hawed and admitted he could not point to a favorite. Not only are all the players long-standing members of the elite, but all could point to great runs of form recently. If any seemed unlikely it was lowest rated Michael Adams, but he defied even that expectation as he beat Caruana in round one.

Vishy Anand: a passionate portrait

12/11/2014 – On 11th December Vishy Anand celebrates his 45th birthday. Still very active he is already a chess legend, and since 25 years has been part of the world's elite. In India, nowadays one of the strongest chess nations in the world, he is a national hero and turned chess into a popular sport. Priyadarshan Banjan takes a passionate look at an incredible career.

ChessBase 13 from a club player’s perspective

12/10/2014 – Are you tempted to add ChessBase 13 to their Christmas list but are still undecided. Let’s be honest, people have ChessBase for many different reasons. Some want it just to analyse their own games, some to search for new ideas, some just to enjoy all the games and others want it because it is ‘the latest thing’. But is that a good enough reason? Carl Portman gives us his opinion.

London Classic: Pro-Biz cup, Kasparov, schools

12/10/2014 – Day four of the London Chess Classic featured various various events, involving the super-GMs and personalities from the business community in a novelty event, a Kasparov simul in Westminster, schoolchildren playing a transatlantic match with schools in Florida, USA, and the second round of the festival events, includings the FIDE Open. Big pictorial report.

Qatar Masters and the amazing Doha (1/2)

12/10/2014 – Though the Qatar Masters Open was assuredly covered in detail, and well, a post-scriptum report was sent by our dear globetrotting Alina L'Ami, who sent her impressions of not only the event, but above all Doha, Qatar, and a city that is hotter than hot in more ways than one. It was a festival of exotic markets and boundless luxury cars, such as Lamborghinis and pink Rolls-Royces.

The magic rook and its apprentice

12/9/2014 – 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!

LCC: Adams wins Elite Blitz tournament

12/9/2014 – On Monday all six elite entrants to the London Classic proper took part in a double-cycle round-robin to decide the draw order for the main tournament. The Blitz, which was scored on the 3-1-0 basis, ended in a three-way tie for first between Mickey Adams, Hikaru Nakamura and Vladimir Kramnik on 17/30. The three got the starting numbers 1-3, which means they get an extra white.

Closing Ceremony in Kazan

12/9/2014 – After nine tough rounds, Lysyj took the gold. He led the event most of the way, though he was far from the pre-tournament favorite. In the women's section one of the favorites, Gunina, started the tournament on the wrong foot, but she turned things around and won the tournament. Eteri Kublashvili brings us her impressions of the final round and the closing ceremony from Kazan.

Nakamura wins LCC Super Rapid Play

12/8/2014 – In the final round of the London Chess Classic Super Rapid Hikaru Nakamura had the white pieces against Vishy Anand. They were the only players left who could win the £8,000 first prize. Hikaru opened with 1.b3 – and a fateful excursion to snaffle Hikaru’s h-pawn proved Anand's undoing. The American won first prize with an outstanding score of 9½/10. Report by John Saunders.

Gunina, Lysyj, Russian Champions

12/8/2014 – They took very different routes to get there, but Gunina and Lysyj are the new Russian Champions! Gunina recovered from a bad start, played an incredibly topsy-turvy game in the final round against Galliamova, won and took the title. Meanwhile Lysyj led since the early stages of the tournament, played a solid game and became champion. Analysis of a hard-fought last round.