7/5/2020 – In the thirteenth round of the Bamberg Jubilee Tournament, almost all games ended drawn — and some of them were very short. Only the Bulgarian grandmaster Milko Bobotsov (photo: Dutch National Archive) achieved a victory against Jürgen Teufel from Bamberg. But, since these two players are in the bottom half of the standings table, their decisive result had no influence on the fight for first place: with two rounds to go, Paul Keres still has a one-point lead over World Champion Tigran Petrosian.

7/4/2020 – The editor of the chess periodical “Deutsche Schachzeitung” Rudolf Teschner is an International Master and thus a strong chess player. Yesterday at the Bamberg Jubilee Tournament, Yugoslavian grandmaster Borislav Ivkov confirmed this was the case when he lost to Teschner — in fourth place, Teschner is now half a point ahead of Ivkov. At the top of the table, World Champion Petrosian and Bamberg’s Lothar Schmid have moved closer to Paul Keres: both won their games, while Keres signed a quick draw against Wolfgang Unzicker. | Pictured: A view of Bamberg from Michelsberg

6/28/2020 – At the Bamberg Jubilee Tournament, Hans-Günther Kestler could not repeat his surprise success from two days earlier when he drew world champion Tigran Petrosian: the local hero was literally overrun by Paul Keres’ central pawn mass in the 6th round. Keres remains the sole leader of the standings with 5/6. Petrosian and Borislav Ivkov are merely a half point behind. | Photo: The town hall of Bamberg (Pixabay)

6/27/2020 – In the 5th round of the International Jubilee Tournament in Bamberg, Paul Keres took the sole lead with a victory over the Austrian Andreas Dückstein — the Estonian has collected 4 points so far. World Champion Tigran Petrosian from the Soviet Union and Borislav Ivkov from Yugoslavia, who had previously been level with Keres, drew their games and are now sharing second place with Jan Hein Donner.

6/14/2020 – After his brilliant win over Capablanca, Mikhail Botvinnik certainly hoped to win the AVRO tournament in the Netherlands, but just one round later the 27-year-old turned in an inexplicably weak performance against Max Euwe (the other ex-world champion in the tournament, left in the picture) and lost a short game. With all the other games of round twelve drawn, Paul Keres remains at the top of the standings table a half point ahead of Reuben Fine, while Botvinnik, with two rounds left to play, is a full point behind the leader.

6/13/2020 – The victory of Mikhail Botvinnik (photo) over José Raúl Capablanca in the eleventh round of the AVRO tournament will be enjoyed by many generations of chess players to come. At the outset of the game, the 27-year-old single-mindedly implemented a crystal-clear strategy against the former world champion, based on a central advance; then, he launched the final attack on the king with two brilliant piece sacrifices. In the shadow of this brilliant game, the most important development was almost ignored: Paul Keres secured the sole lead after Reuben Fine conceded yet another defeat.

6/7/2020 – At the AVRO tournament in the Netherlands, the lead of the young American Reuben Fine over his closest rivals has increased further. Now that about a third of the games have been played, Fine has collected 4½ points, while World Champions Alexander Alekhine and Paul Keres are lagging behind with 3 points apiece in second place. In round five, Fine was the only one to score a win, while the game between Alekhine and Keres was drawn. | Pictured: Studios of the broadcasting company "AVRO" in Hilversum

6/6/2020 – After another win in the fourth round, this time against former world champion Max Euwe, 24-year-old Reuben Fine from New York (pictured) is still leading the standings table of the AVRO tournament in the Netherlands. Fine has collected 3½ points, and thus has a full-point advantage over World Champion Alexander Alekhine and Paul Keres.

5/24/2020 – Former World Champion Dr. Emanuel Lasker and reigning World Champion José Raúl Capablanca lead at the New York Tournament 1924. However, in round 20 they both were lucky not to lose. But while Lasker managed to win a bad position against Geza Maroczy, Capablanca "only" drew a bad position against Frederick Yates which allowed Lasker to extend his lead. With two rounds to go Lasker is now almost certain to win the tournament: he leads with 14.0/18 and is 1½ points ahead of Capablanca who is sole second with 12½/18. | Photo: Emanuel Lasker

5/23/2020 – After 19 of 22 rounds Emanuel Lasker, José Raúl Capablanca and Alexander Alekhine lead at the New York Tournament 1924. All three won in round 19: Emanuel Lasker won with Black against Edward Lasker, Capablanca refuted Tartakowers dubious King's Gambit and Alekhine defeated Dawid Janowsky. Lasker now leads with 13.0/17, followed by Capablanca with 12.0/17 and Alekhine with 11.0/18. | Photo: Capablanca (left) and Emanuel Lasker (Archive)

5/16/2020 – In round 12 of the tournament in New York Emanuel Lasker won again and he again won a bad position. In the course of his career Dawid Janowsky had a lot of promising positions against Lasker and he has spoilt most of them. In New York he continued this "tradition". For a long time Janowsky was clearly better but found no way to overcome Lasker's stubborn defense, and in the end he blundered and lost. Lasker now leads with 8½/11 and is 1½ ahead of Alekhine who drew with Capablanca and Reti, who won brilliantly against Bogoljubow.

5/12/2020 – The German Chess Internet Championship 2020 (DSIM) on the Playchess server ended this weekend with the victory of Grandmaster Daniel Fridman (2nd from right). After a total of four preliminary rounds and one intermediate round, 14 players had qualified for the final round, which was played as a round robin tournament with 3+2 Blitz games. After an exciting tournament, Fridman won with 10.5/13, ahead of Vincent Keymer (9.5/13) and Georg Meier (9/13).

4/26/2020 – After long seventeen rounds, the second edition of the "Tournament of Peace" in Zagreb finished with a clear winner, American grandmaster Bobby Fischer. The standings table sees Fischer no fewer than two full points ahead of a four-player chasing pack, formed by Vlastimil Hort, Svetozar Gligoric, Vasily Smyslov and Viktor Korchnoi.

4/25/2020 – After 15 of 17 rounds Bobby Fischer was certain to win the 2. Tournament of Peace but he still had to fight in round 16 when Viktor Kortschnoi put pressure on him. But after a long and tenacious defense the game ended in a draw. But some of the players seemed to be tired after the long tournament and committed uncharacteristic blunders.

4/19/2020 – After his surprising loss against Vlatko Kovacevic in round 8 of the Tournament of Peace in Rovinj/Zagreb Bobby Fischer is back on track. After a draw against Vassily Smyslov in round 9 he convincingly defeated Svetozar Gligoric, his closest rival, in round 10 and now leads with 8.0/10. Gligoric, Vlastimil Hort, Viktor Kortschnoi and Tigran Petrosian are all one and half point behind and share places two to five with 6½/10.

12/6/2019 – The winner of the "Peace Tournament" in the Croatian capital Zagreb was Ukrainian grandmaster Vassily Ivanchuk, who finished with a half-point more than his rivals Marin Bosiocic (Croatia), Etienne Bacrot (France) and Hrant Melkumyan (Armenia) with 7½ points. | Photos: Tournament page

11/29/2019 – Last weekend the new season of the German League began with team matches in Bremen, Deizisau, Augsburg and Speyer-Schwegenheim. In the top match, Bremen Werder met Solingen. Perennial favourites OSG Baden-Baden played their season openers against Berlin and Dresden, winning both matches easily. Results, games and video. | Photo: Grenke Chess YouTube

8/28/2019 – In Macau (China) the "Chess Events" of the International Computer Games Association (ICGA) came to an end last week. In fact, behind this prosaic name are world championships in three disciplines: the World Computer Chess Championship (WCCC), the World Chess Software Championship (WCSC) and the Speed ​​Championship. At the start were six teams with their programs, including Komodo 13, which won in each of the two main disciplines WCCC and WCSC. | Photos: Erdogan Günes