10/11/2018 – Tomorrow an impressive team tournament gets underway — this year's European Cup — and among those in action will be World Champion Magnus Carlsen who plays for the "Valerenga Sjakklubb" from Oslo. The Elo favourite is the team of "Alkaloid" with an average rating of 2741 and Ding Liren among the players. Another 2800 player, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov leads the Azerbaijani team Odlar Yurdu. | Photo: European Chess Union

10/9/2018 – Many will know the name of Viacheslav Ragozin above all as the eponym of the Ragozin variation of the Queen's Gambit Declined. Ragozin was a successful tournament player in the 1930s to 1950s, becoming the second correspondence chess World Champion in 1958 and was active as a journalist, arbiter and official. Yesterday was the 110th anniversary of his birth. | Photo: Public domain via Wikimedia Commons

10/5/2018 – Vladimir Petrovs had a tragic life. He was born in 1907 and became one of the strongest players in Latvia. His biggest success was the international tournament in Kemeri 1937 where he finished joint first with Reshevsky and Flohr, ahead of Alekhine and Keres. When Germany occupied Latvia in WW II he fled to Moscow but after critical remarks about the commuist regime he was arrested and in August 1943 he died in a Soviet labour camp. | Photo: Vladimir Petrovs with his wife Galina (Russkije.lv)

9/13/2018 – After two days of Chess960 in St. Louis, Wesley So established the largest lead in his match against Anish Giri. Perhaps that why So says he prefers the variant over "normal chess". Or is it the other way around — preference breeds success? Garry Kasparov, on the other hand, is well behind in his match against Veselin Topalov. Elsewhere the rating favourites all lead, with the exception of Hikaru Nakamura vs Peter Svidler, which is tied at 6 points apiece. | Photo: Saint Louis Chess Club/ Lennart Ootes, Austin Fuller

8/24/2018 – One of the most famous chess scenes in a film is the game between the knight Antonius Block and Death from Ingmar Bergman's "The Seventh Seal" (1957). Bergman's film inspired the German director Margarethe von Trotta to become a director herself, and as a homage to Bergman she now made a documentary about her idol: "Searching for Ingmar Bergman", a film in which the chess scene from "The Seventh Seal" also plays a role.

8/16/2018 – Sestao Xake Taldea's team narrowly won the Spanish team championship in Linares with one point lead, relegating Cac Beniajan Duochess and Solvay A. Elisabeth Pähtz was the best player of the tournament. | Photos: FEDA

8/9/2018 – Lubomir Kavalek was born in Prague, but left his country in 1968 and found a new home in the USA. In the 1970s, he was one of the world's best players and also successful as a second and coach, including Bobby Fischer, and a prolific writer with dozens of columns shared on ChessBase over the years. Today he celebrates his 75th birthday. | Photo: (left) Kavalek and (right) World Chess Hall of Fame

8/9/2018 – In Sweden there is currently "Extremadura" (it's been a hot dry summer) and so the T-shirt of Aleyey Shirov was very suitable for the Cellavision Cup in Lund. The recently re-Spaniard played all eight decisive games and won the tournament thanks to better tiebreak score over tied Jonny Hector. Both scored 7.0 / 8. | Photos: Lars OA Hedlund

8/2/2018 – Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, who secured tournament victory in the penultimate round, finished the Accentus Biel GM Tournament with a draw. Meanwhile, Nico Georgiadis blundered in one move to lose against Magnus Carlsen and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave obtained a nice attacking win over David Navara. Analysis by GM MIKHAIL GOLUBEV | Photos: Lennart Ootes / Biel International Chess Festival

8/1/2018 – The Lithuanian grandmaster Aloyzas Kveinys died suddenly at the age of 56. He was a multiple Lithuanian national champion and represented his country at eight chess Olympiads. From 1992 to 2007 he played for the Godesberger SK in the second Bundesliga West and in the Bundesliga. | Photo: Waldemar Rydzewski

8/1/2018 – Magnus Carlsen needed a win over Shakhriyar Mamedyarov in the ninth round to have a realistic chance of finishing first at the Accentus Biel GM Tournament. He played ambitiously and the game eventually escaped his control completely. Mamedyarov kept a cool head and took advantage of the World Champion's mistakes to win the game and secure tournament victory with a round to spare. MIKHAIL GOLUBEV analysed the key match-up and the two draws from round nine. | Photos: Lennart Ootes / Simon Bohnenblust / Biel International Chess Festival

7/31/2018 – The fighting chess continues in Biel. Despite all games finishing in draws, we enjoyed three very interesting clashes on the eighth round. Svidler used an advanced passed pawn to draw Carlsen, Vachier-Lagrave and Mamedyarov explored an old variation in the Open Defence, while Georgiadis missed sharp tactics that could have given him the win against Navara. MIKHAIL GOLUBEV provided a thorough analysis of each game. | Photos: Lennart Ootes / Simon Bohnenblust / Biel International Chess Festival