4/14/2019 – When asked how many Germans had the chance to play a match for the World Championship most chess players probably would name two: Dr. Siegbert Tarrasch and Dr. Emanuel Lasker. But there is a third: Efim Bogoljubov, who was born 130 years ago, on April 14, 1889 in Stanislavchyk, near Kiev, but in 1927 became German and in 1929 and 1934 played title matches against Alexander Alekhine. | Photo: Screenshot from a newsreel video by the German "Bundesarchiv" about the Bad Pyrmont tournament in 1951

4/5/2019 – There were three wins in Round 5. Vishy Anand won against Anish Giri with the help of his strong pawn centre, David Navara benefited from a tactical inaccuracy vs Ding Liren and Alexander Grischuk showed how strong the bishop pair can be against Veselin Topalov. Magnus Carlsen and Shakhriyar Mamedyarov drew as did Teimour Radjabov and Sergey Karjakin. With 3½ out of 5, Carlsen remains the sole leader. GM DANIEL FERNANDEZ examines all the games. | Photos: ShamkirChess.com

4/4/2019 – Five draws — that was the result of the fourth round of the "Gashimov Memorial" in Shamkir, Azerbaijan. As days go, there have been others more exciting. David Navara, who played Black against Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, had the best chance of winning. But after more than five hours of play, this game also ended in a draw, leaving Magnus Carlsen with 3 out of 4, as the sole leader. Report with analysis by GM DANIEL FERNANDEZ. | Photo: ShamkirChess.com

4/3/2019 – World Champion Magnus Carlsen looks determined and focused at the Vugar Gashimov Memorial in Shamkir. After defeating Viswanathan Anand in Round 2, he also won in Round 3, beating David Navara with Black through good technique and energetic play. He is now the sole leader with 2½ out of 3 alone. The second win of the day was provided by Anand who bounced back from his prior day's loss to beat Shakhriyar Mamedyarov. The remaining three games ended drawn. Report and analyses by GMs ARYAN TARI and DANIEL FERNANDEZ. | Photos: ShamkirChess.com

3/10/2019 – The Swiss Grandmaster Noel Studer confidently won the Accentus Young Masters, which took place from February 27th to March 7th at the Hotel Schloss in Bad Ragaz in Switzerland. He started with 5 out of 5 and finished with 7½ out of 9. One point behind was Lev Yankelevich and Nikita Petrov who shared places two and three, while Yankelevich also achieved a GM norm. | Photo: Alina l'Ami

2/27/2019 – In the 1930s and 1940s Arnold Denker (February 20, 1914 – January 2, 2005) was one of the strongest players in the US and in 1944 and 1946 he became US Champion. After the end of his chess career Denker became a successful businessman, chess promoter and chess official. He is also the co-author of "The Bobby Fischer I knew", a wonderful and charming collection of chess memories. On February 20, 2019 Denker would have celebrated his 105th birtday.

1/24/2019 – Round 10 had a lot to offer chess fans. Carlsen won a long endgame against Anand and with it, the World Champion surges to the top of the field. GM TIGER HILLARP-PERSSON analyses the marquee game of the round. We also saw exciting attacking victories from Vidit Gujrathi (against Vladimir Kramnik) and Jorden van Foreest (against Ian Nepomniachtchi). Giri won for the fourth time with Black and Rapport conjured up a fantastic move in his own Black win. | Photo: Tata Steel Chess Twitter

1/19/2019 – Anish Giri continued his strong run in the Tata Steel Chess Masters: he won with black against Jan-Krzysztof and extends his black winning streak to three games. The other Dutch player in the group scored as well — Jorden van Foreest even turned in a minor brilliancy. GM DANIEL FERNANDEZ looks at that plus all the games. Magnus Carlsen clinched his second successive win, beating Shakhriyar Mamedyarov in a long endgame — Carlsen, Nepomniachtchi, Giri and Ding Liren now share the lead with 4 out of 6 points each. | Photo: Alina l'Ami, Tata Steel Chess

1/17/2019 – World Champion Magnus Carlsen broke his long streak of consecutive draws in classical chess by beating the weakest player GM Jorden van Foreest in the "Chess on Tour" round in Alkmaar today. With the win, he climbs into a tie for third, a half point behind Ding Liren and Ian Nepomniachtchi. Grandmasterly analysis by GM DAVID HOWELL! Korobov and Kovalev lead in the Challengers group. | Pictured: The players outside the venue in Alkmaar, one of the Netherland's well-known cheese towns. | Photo: Alina l'Ami

1/5/2019 – Sixty years ago, on January 4th 1959, 15-year-old Bobby Fischer won his second US Championship with a draw against Robert Byrne. A year before, Fischer had won his first US championship at the age of 14. In defending the title, the eventual world champion showed excellent opening knowledge and endgame skills, but above all, fighting spirit. | Photo: Bobby Fischer in Portoroz 1958, tournament book

12/19/2018 – 12 games, 12 draws - there was not a single win in the World Championship match between Magnus Carlsen and Fabiano Caruana. However, the players more than once came close. In game 1 Carlsen missed the win, in game 6 Caruana could have won - in a very complicated and difficult endgame. Karsten Müller took a closer look and shows how Caruana missed a big chance. | Photos: Nikolai Dunaevsky (Agon)

12/14/2018 – Hikaru Nakamura (pictured) and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave are considered two of the best rapid chess and blitz chess players in the world. In rapid Nakamura is rated number two and Vachier-Lagrave number six, while in blitz, 'MVL' is now number one — surpassing Magnus Carlsen — and Nakamura is number three. They will meet in the London Chess Classic finals after defeating Fabiano Caruana and Levon Aronian respectively. Here's how day 3 unfolded. | Photo: Lennart Ootes / Grand Chess Tour

12/11/2018 – The 10th London Chess Classic is underway with the semifinal played at the headquarters of Google's DeepMind. Demis Hassibis (pictured in the background) joined tournament director Malcolm Pein and a schoolgirl — learning chess under the Chess in Schools and Communities umbrella — on stage at the start of the first classical game. Yesterday, at the London Pro-Biz Cup, chess-loving business people or celebrities joined grandmasters taking turns in a tandem chess team tournament. Garry Kasparov was among the professionals, but it was the team of Roiko Vujatovic and David Howell that won. | Photos: Lennart Ootes

11/30/2018 – Today, on November 30th, 2018, Magnus Carlsen celebrates his 28th birthday, carefree, as World Champion, after successfully defending his title two days earlier in a match against Fabiano Caruana by a 3-0 win in the rapid tiebreak. Carlsen is already considered one of the best players of all time, but a few numbers show how impressive his career has been, and provide a handy gateway into the ChessBase archives. | Pictured: Magnus Carlsen in the ChessBase office in October 2017 | Photo: Nadja Wittman

11/16/2018 – Defending champion Ju Wenjun (pictured) qualified for the final at the 2018 Women's World Championship knockout. With a safe draw in the second game of the semi-final, the current World Champion won her mini-match 1½-½ over Alexandra Kosteniuk. In the second match of the semi-final, Kateryna Lagno and Mariya Muzychuk also drew and therefore have to play a tiebreak match Saturday for the remaining spot in the final. | Photos: Official site

11/9/2018 – Mikhail Tal was born on November 9th, 1936 in Riga, and died June 27, 1992 in Moscow. He probably would have been happy to know that the World Championship match between Carlsen and Caruana begins on his birthday. Tal loved chess and chess fans loved him for his bold, enterprising play and his stunning combinations. He had a very keen eye for tactics — which sometimes best showed in more light-hearted events. Here are two examples to commemorate the birthday of this great player and tactician. | Photo: Ron Kroon / Anefo [CC0], via Wikimedia Commons

10/16/2018 – 110 years ago, on October 16th, 1908, the Soviet Master and famous opening theoretician Vsevolod Rauzer was born in Kiev, Ukraine. Rauzer died in 1941 but during his short career, he discovered a number of new ideas in the opening and the endgame. Rauzer was convinced that 1.e4 is better than 1.d4 and wanted to prove that with all his might. | Diagram: The starting position of the Richter-Rauzer Attack

10/12/2018 – Kings that go walkabout on a full board are rare but charming. At the Chess Olympiad 2018 in Batumi such wandering kings could be admired in two interesting games. In Mamedov vs Shankland (pictured) the voyage of the king was defensive, in the game Hillarp Persson vs Laurusas, which won the brilliancy prize in Batumi, the white king joined a mating attack against the black king. Both games have historical predecessors. | Photo: Lennart Ootes