9/24/2020 – October 2020 will mark an extraordinary chapter in American chess history, as due to the COVID-19 pandemic the Saint Louis Chess Club will host the 2020 US Chess Championships online for the first time. This unique combination of the five top national tournaments will showcase competitors that best represent the past, present, and future of American Chess. The events will take place on October 9-29. | Photo: Austin Fuller

9/22/2020 – "Before you move, take a deep breath to calm down," might be good advice for nervous players, but it was definitely good advice for the 13 chess players who took part in the first "Diving Chess" tournament of the Austrian Company Sports Organisation. After all, in this discipline of chess, you can think about as long about your move as you can hold your breath. | Photo: ÖBSV

9/20/2020 – The Bundesliga Championship Tournament was a round-robin, over-the-board(!) team event in which eight teams with eight players each played from September 16 to September 20 for the title of German Team Champion 2020. OSG Baden-Baden, the perennial favourites, won the event after beating second-placed SC Viernheim by the smallest of margins in an exciting final-round match. The immensely strong Baden-Baden included Fabiano Caruana, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Levon Aronian and Richard Rapport in their lineup, just to name a few of their 2700+ players. | Photo: Georgious Souleidis

9/19/2020 – The Saint Louis Rapid & Blitz is being held online and showcases some of the world’s top rapid and blitz players, including World Champion Magnus Carlsen and a few of the American favourites — Hikaru Nakamura, Wesley So, Leinier Dominguez and Jeffery Xiong. The ten players are competing for a $250,000 prize fund in nine rapid games and eighteen blitz games on September 15-19. Games start daily at 18:00 UTC (20:00 CET, 14:00 ET). Express report. | Images: Saint Louis Chess Club

9/13/2020 – On Sunday, 1 p.m. CDT (8 p.m. CEST), the Chess 9LX 2020 tournament goes into its final stage. The Chess 9LX tournament is a Chess960 round robin at rapid time controls (20+10) with ten top players: Magnus Carlsen, Hikaru Nakamura, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Fabiana Caruana, Wesley So, Levon Aronian, Leinier Dominguez, Peter Svidler, Alireza Firouzja and Garry Kasparov(!). Follow the event and the games live, with commentary – live transmission will begin about ten minutes before the start of round 7.

9/11/2020 – The Swiss Grandmaster Noel Studer convincingly won the Open Tournament of the 7th Chess Festival of Cattolica in Italy. Studer scored 8 out 9 and finished 1½ points ahead of IM Pierre Bailet and GM David Alberto. | Photo: Tournament page

9/10/2020 – From Friday on the St. Louis Chess Club will hold its Chess 9LX 2020 tournament, this year as an online tournament. Ten top players - Magnus Carlsen, Hikaru Nakamura, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Fabiana Caruana, Wesley So, Levon Aronian, Leinier Dominguez, Peter Svidler, Alireza Firouzja and Garry Kasparov(!) - play a Chess960 round robin at rapid time controls.

9/7/2020 – During the final of the FIDE Online Olympiad between Russia and India, the internet connection was not always stable, which affected the outcome of some games. FIDE President Arkady Dvorkovich intervened in a solomonic way and declared both teams, Russia and India, as winners of the event. At the semi-final between India and Armenia there had been similar problems but the verdict had been different, and Armenia withdrew under protest. In an open letter to FIDE President Arkady Dvorkovich, Serzh Sargsyan, President of the Armenian Chess Federation, addresses the issue.

9/6/2020 – In a chat with Times of India during the Online Olympiad, Samay Raina spoke on how the idea of YouTube streaming chess took shape during the lockdown this year, his dream of starting and Indian Chess League in the coming months and much more. “I had to find my own niche — something I really like which was chess. I never thought so many people will take to this and it all feels so surreal.”

9/5/2020 – Alexei Shirov has been proclaimed the winner of the Gazprom Brilliancy Prize, a special trophy awarded by the General Partner of the Online Chess Olympiad. The game that earned Shirov this prize was his victory with the black pieces against Danyyil Dvirnyy, in which the Spaniard got to show a novelty in the Slav Defence and sacrificed his queen while attacking on the queenside. | Photo: FIDE

9/4/2020 – The chess periodical SCHACH is one of the oldest and most prestigious in the German language. It appears once a month and usually includes an interview with a chess personality, who answers twenty set questions. In their September 2020 issue they turned their attention to ChessBase co-founder and editor emeritus Frederic Friedel, who had just turned 75. We reproduce the interview with kind permission of the publishers.

9/3/2020 – The 2022 World Chess Olympiad in Minsk (Belarus), as well as a number of side events, are at risk after the current organizers failed to comply with their obligations. Unless the Minsk organizers meet their obligations in the upcoming days, FIDE will be forced to change the hosting country for the 2022 World Chess Olympiad and related events.

9/1/2020 – In his weekly show IM Lawrence Trent talks about what has been going on in the chess world. Lawrence focuses on the Czech Championships, more specifically in a win by eventual champion David Navara, who obtained his tenth national title in Pilsen. | Lawrence’s show is available at 17:00 UTC (19:00 CEST, 13:00 EDT) on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here. | Photo: Official site

8/30/2020 – The quarterfinals, semifinals and final of the 2020 FIDE Online Olympiad scheduled to take place between Friday and Sunday (Augusto 28-30). After a draw in the first mini-match of the final between Russia and India, two Indian players lost connection to their games and forfeited on time in the second encounter. FIDE decided to declare both teams as joint winners! Follow the games live with commentary and computer analysis. | See the report on the semifinals!.

8/27/2020 – Besides the Biel Triathlon played in July, no elite over-the-board tournament has been organized after the coronavirus crisis prompted the chess world to focus on online events. In a little over a month, however, we will get to see a strong field fighting over the board. The Altibox Norway Chess Tournament with Magnus Carlsen, Fabiano Caruana, Levon Aronian, Jan-Krzysztof Duda, Alireza Firouzja and Aryan Tari kicks off October 5! | Photo: Lennart Ootes

8/25/2020 – In his weekly show IM Lawrence Trent recaps what has been going on in the chess world, and focuses on a game from the Charlotte GM Invitational — a win that helped IM Craig Hilby get his second GM norm, an encounter that featured attacking chess, tactical brilliancies and a tricky endgame. | Lawrence’s show is available at 17:00 UTC (19:00 CEST, 13:00 EDT) on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here. | Photo: Charlotte Chess Center & Scholastic Academy

8/24/2020 – In an open letter to the chess community, FIDE President Arkady Dvorkovich states, “I believe there is a consensus that computer-assisted cheating is a real plague of contemporary chess”. He then addresses the fact that the online chess boom has created new challenges for all involved, and presents the main questions regarding the sanctions that should be applied to the players that get caught cheating. You may answer the questions raised in this letter or simply submit your proposals to an official email account. | Photo: David Llada

8/22/2020 – The top international chess superstars are set to battle online from September 11-19 in two exciting tournaments hosted by the Saint Louis Chess Club — the Champions Showdown: Chess 9LX and the Saint Louis Rapid & Blitz. World champion Magnus Carlsen will play in both events, while living legend Garry Kasparov will be among the participants of the Fischer Random event. | Photo: Lennart Ootes / Grand Chess Tour