"I was winning!"

8/11/2023 – It can be very challenging to recognize one's mistakes much less own up to them with objectivity. We wiggle and we squirm as we seek to place the blame on outside factors, so imagine what it is like if you are asked to explain your 'crushing defeat' in front of a large audience. This is what happened to Mikhail Tal, but don't miss his priceless reply!

Robert Ris’ Fast and Furious: A model game in the Catalan

8/11/2023 – In his Fast & Furious show, Robert Ris looks at a model game in the Catalan, which Hakobyan and Bok played at the Summer Chess Classic-A 2023 in Saint Louis. | Fast & Furious is available on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here.

GM Aleksandar Matanovic dies at 93

8/10/2023 – The renowned Yugoslav/Serbian Grandmaster Aleksandar Matanovic passed away in Belgrade on August 9, two months after celebrating his 93rd birthday. Following the passing of Yuri Averbakh in May 2022, Matanovic was the world’s oldest living Grandmaster. A eulogy by Milan Dinic. | Pictured: Matanovic playing a tournament in Australia in 1970 / Matanovic with his wife Vesna in 1960. | Photos: Family Archive / Serbian Chess Federation
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World Cup: Caruana advances, Carlsen bounces back

8/10/2023 – Six players have already reached the round-of-16 in the open section of the FIDE World Cup, including Fabiano Caruana, who beat Ray Robson, and Alexey Sarana, who knocked out sixth seed Wesley So. The remaining ten spots will be decided in Friday’s tiebreaks, with Magnus Carlsen reaching that stage after bouncing back in his match against Vincent Keymer. In the women’s section, three players secured their spots in quarterfinals: Aleksandra Goryachkina, Tan Zhongyi and Polina Shuvalova. | Photo: FIDE / Anna Shtourman
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Game of the Week #580: L. Vrolijk vs M. Van Delft

8/10/2023 – In his Game of the Week show #580, Merijn Van Delft continues the tradition of presenting his losses and shows an interesting and highly tactical game he lost against GM Liam Vrolijk at the Bad Vlissingen tournament. A real slugfest. | Merijn’s show is available on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here.

Fantastic battles from the World Cup

8/10/2023 – One of the most exciting events in the chess calendar, the FIDE World Cup, is taking place in Baku. Players try to show their best as they fight for spots in the next edition of the Candidates Tournaments, both in the open and in the women’s section. Robert Ris, a successful coach and a fantastic analyst, has been publishing videos with highlights from the much-anticipated tournament. Not to be missed!
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World Cup: Keymer stuns Carlsen

8/10/2023 – Vincent Keymer beat Magnus Carlsen for the first time in his career and now only needs a draw on Thursday to knock the world number one out of the World Cup. The other big upset of the day saw Alexey Sarana brilliantly defeating Wesley So with the black pieces. In the women’s section, 7 out of 8 games finished drawn. Bella Khotenashvili scored the one win of the day, as she beat third seed Humpy Koneru. | Photo: FIDE / Stev Bonhage
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2023 U.S. Open: Grand Rapids, Grandmasters, and Grand Meetings

8/9/2023 – The 2023 U.S. Open ran from July 29 to August 6 in Grand Rapids, Michigan. It offered nine-day, six-day, and four-day schedules, which merged in round 7. The U.S. Open Champion is GM Andrew Tang. WIM Alexey Root attended meetings, visited the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum, and interviewed the U.S. Open Champion (and the champ’s father). | Photo: Daniel Day / U.S. Chess Federation
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Gauri chess puzzles

8/8/2023 – There are chess positions, puzzles, which are not just clever. They can be very entertaining. An expert in such positions is Gauri Shankar, a chess trainer from Chicago, who has a great talent for finding such positions, and for explaining the results in instructive style. Today we how you three positions, which you can try to solve, and let Gauri show you how, if you fail to work out how.

World Cup: Asabov and Santos leave Giri and Radjabov out

8/8/2023 – Two players from the top 10 rating-wise in Baku were eliminated in the tiebreaks of round 3 at the open section of the World Cup. Nijat Abasov knocked out Anish Giri, while Jaime Santos left Teimour Radjabov out of contention. Meanwhile, the lowest-rated player still going is Turkish GM Vahap Sanal, who got the better of Anton Korobov on Monday. In the women’s section, the one upset of the day saw Teodora Injac from Serbia knocking out Alexandra Kosteniuk. | Photo: chess.com / Maria Emelianova
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Istanbul ENKA High School and Velammal MHS Mogappair win FIDE WSTC

8/8/2023 – The big celebration of scholastic chess - the FIDE World Schools Team Championship 2023 - has ended. Istanbul ENKA High School (Turkey) in the U18 section and Velammal MHS Mogappair (India) in the U12 were unstoppable! Both winning teams won all eight matches and deservingly claimed gold medals.
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Game of the Week #579: M. Lagarde - Praggnanandhaa

8/8/2023 – In his Game of the Week show #579, Merijn van Delft looks at an amazing attacking game the young Indian Grandmaster Praggnanandhaa played in round 2 of the World Cup in Baku. | Merijn’s show is available on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here.
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Stalemate

8/8/2023 – Stalemates can often save the defender in endgames. However, they are difficult to spot. In the diagram position, it is Black to move and draw. What would you do?

World Cup: Sindarov knocks out MVL, Ju escapes and wins

8/7/2023 – Magnus Carlsen, Hikaru Nakamura and Dommaraju Gukesh were among the players who advanced to round 4 after two classical games at the FIDE World Cup in Baku. The biggest upset of the round was achieved by Javokhir Sindarov, who knocked out Maxime Vachier-Lagrave by winning with black on Sunday. In the women’s section, world champion Ju Wenjun was inches away from being eliminated — however, she not only survived, but ended up winning against Ulviyya Fataliyeva. | Photo: chess.com / Maria Emelianova
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Geometric nightmares

8/6/2023 – IM Brandon Clarke found a remarkable winning blow in one of his games from the Major Open in Leicester. The blow was a cross pin, a geometric nightmare for the victim — and surely a worthy topic for a Sunday column! | Photo: John Upham
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Helmut Pfleger turns 80

8/6/2023 – He is one of our earliest friends in chess, a personality that has done more for German chess than anyone we know. He started as the country's most talented young player, became a grandmaster, a medical doctor, but continued to promote the game in numerous chess columns and TV shows. Today he turns eighty, and is still going strong. In our article we also include some unique problems that another octogenarian composed for his coeval colleague. | Photo Nadja Wittmann

Understanding before Moving 137: Chess history in a nutshell (19)

8/6/2023 – Herman Grooten is an International Master, a renowned trainer and the author of several highly acclaimed books about chess training and chess strategy. In the 137th instalment of his ChessBase show "Understanding before Moving", Herman continues his series "Chess history in a nutshell" and takes another look at the groundbreaking positional ideas of Aron Nimzowitsch. | Photo: Pascal Simon
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World Cup: Svidler crushes Van Foreest’s Najdorf

8/6/2023 – Magnus Carlsen, Leinier Dominguez and Parham Maghsoodloo were the three 2700+ players who kicked off with a win in round 3 of the FIDE World Cup. Meanwhile, Daniele Vocaturo and Ivan Schitco upset higher-rated opponents, and Peter Svidler obtained a good-looking, 27-move win over Jorden van Foreest. Among the women, there were no big upsets, as the Muzychuk sisters had a good day — Mariya won and Anna escaped with a draw. | Photo: FIDE / Stev Bonhage
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Endgames from the Global Chess League: A Pragg & Carlsen special

8/5/2023 – The inaugural edition of the Global Chess League took place last month in Dubai. The Triveni Continental Kings, led by Levon Aronian, emerged victorious. GM Karsten Müller followed the games closely, looking for interesting positions to analyse. Find here four instructive endings, two featuring rising star Praggnanandhaa and two featuring endgame wizard Magnus Carlsen! | Photo: Maria Emelianova

Double exclam

8/5/2023 – From the diagram position White embarked on a brilliant idea to triumph on the dark squares. Will you be able to crack this tough nut?

Svitlana's Smart Moves - The most exciting tactics of the World Cup

8/5/2023 – The FIDE World Cup is up and running. Svitlana took her time to find some of the most exciting tactics of the first rounds. For us, it is the challenge to not only find "one move" solutions, but actually think about the path to get to the actual tactics!
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World Cup: Daneshvar knocks out Grischuk, Naka wins thrilling match

8/5/2023 – Top grandmasters continue to be left out of contention at the FIDE World Cup in Baku. In the open, Alexander Grischuk and David Anton were knocked out by Bardiya Daneshvar and Abdulla Gadimbayli in Friday’s tiebreaks. Among the women, Mary Ann Gomes defeated Kateryna Lagno, while Klaudia Kulon got the better of Nana Dzagnidze. | Photo: FIDE / Stev Bonhage
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Insights from the first KCF European Trainers Conference

8/4/2023 – The inaugural KCF European Trainers Conference brought together around 150 trainers from more than 25 countries. The distinguished speakers, including Michael Khodarkovsky, Ivan Sokolov, Adrian Mikhalchishin, and Garry Kasparov, shared their expertise, enriching the conference with valuable insights and experiences. | Photos: Lennart Ootes / Anastasiya Karlovich / Kasparov Chess Foundation
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Robert Ris’ Fast and Furious: New ideas in the Sicilian Sveshnikov

8/4/2023 – In his Fast & Furious show, Robert Ris looks at two fascinating games from the World Cup, in which White and Black tried new ideas in the Sicilian Sveshnikov with 7.Nd5. | Fast & Furious is available on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here.