10/18/2022 – Nine out of fourteen games finished decisively in round 11 of the U.S. Championships. In the open, Fabiano Caruana continues to lead, with Ray Robson a half point back, while Leinier Dominguez and Sam Sevian both won to climb to shared third place. In the women’s event, Jennifer Yu leads Irina Krush by a half point after both contenders for first place won their games with the black pieces. Yu will have white against Krush in their round-12 direct encounter. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

10/18/2022 – After six of eleven rounds, Frederik Svane leads the field in the Junior World Championship. The only German player in the open has the best tiebreak in a group of four players with 5.0/6. | Photo: Tournament page

10/18/2022 – One of the most surprising discoveries in the 6-piece tablebase concerned the endgame Q+g+h pawn vs queen, which often is a theoretical draw when the defender is well placed. However, in a practical game with limited time, the endgame is usually too difficult to hold. The diagrammed position occurred in a game between M. Carlsen and G. Meier, played at the Chess Olympiad 2022. Black lost, but he could have drawn. How?

10/18/2022 – The final three rounds of the Aimchess Rapid preliminaries were played on Monday. Eight out of sixteen players moved on to the knockout, with Jan-Krzysztof Duda the top scorer in the single round-robin. Suspense regarding who would make it through was limited to two players, as Anish Giri and Vidit Gujrathi entered the fifteenth round with chances of getting the coveted eighth spot in the knockout. In the end, it was Vidit who advanced to the quarterfinals, mainly thanks to Arjun Erigaisi’s victory over Giri.

10/17/2022 – The 1927 World Championship match in Buenos Aires between challenger Alexander Alekhine and World Champion José Raúl Capablanca ended with a surprise: Capablanca had gone into the match as the clear favourite, but after 34 games he had lost 3-6 (draws did not count). The decisive and interesting 34th game featured a theoretically and practically important endgame. Karsten Müller took a closer look at the game and the endgame and invites readers to analyze both. | Photo: Capablanca (right) and Alekhine at the World Championship 1927, the man in the middle is the arbiter Carlos Augusto Querencio | Source: Wikipedia

10/17/2022 – There are several ways to check a player's performance using an engine. One is to simply ask an engine to analyze every move and highlight every disagreement however small. Another is to use the tool in ChessBase and Fritz known as Let's Check. Here are the results from the recent Sinquefield Cup including a 100% match and the curiously high results by...

10/16/2022 – A day after Arjun Erigaisi beat Magnus Carlsen for the first time in his career, another (even younger) Indian prodigy managed to beat the world number one at the Aimchess Rapid online event. Gukesh Dommaraju defeated Carlsen with white to become the youngest-ever player to beat the Norwegian during his reign as world champion. Meanwhile, Jan-Krzysztof Duda had a great day and climbed to the sole lead. | Photo: Niki Riga / Gibraltar Chess Festival

10/16/2022 – Leinier Dominguez won his round-7 game in the U.S. Championship after only ten moves. The opening debacle prompted Jon Speelman to locate similar examples both in a book by Yakov Neishtadt and in the database of his own games. And he also remembered to give the solution of the proof game from last week!

10/16/2022 – The one decisive result in round 10 of the U.S. Championship saw Hans Niemann beating Elshan Moradiabadi with the black pieces. Fabiano Caruana continues to be the sole leader going into the second rest day of the 13-round tournament. In the women’s section, Thalia Cervantes and Gulrukhbegim Tokhirjonova both scored with the black pieces. Jennifer Yu is still topping the standings. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

10/16/2022 – 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 95th instalment of his ChessBase show "Understanding before Moving", Herman discusses structures that are typical for the Queen's Gambit Declined. | Photo: Pascal Simon

10/16/2022 – Today we want to know from Lilit what is happening one day before a tournament. When should you arrive? What happens if you had a bad sleep? Once you know your first opponent, how to prepare? The Armenian IM shows us the steps on how to do so, of course. We end the episode with a full analysis of her first game against the young, talented Filipa Pipiras, and how Lilit's plan to surprise her nicely succeeded.

10/16/2022 – Arjun Erigaisi was the top scorer on day 2 of the Aimchess Rapid. The Indian prodigy collected three wins and a draw and, in round 7, achieved his first-ever victory over world champion Magnus Carlsen. Thanks to his performance on Saturday, Arjun climbed to shared fourth place, two points behind sole leader Nodirbek Abdusattorov. Carlsen and Shakhriyar Mamedyarov are sharing second place a point behind the young Uzbek. | Photo: Amruta Mokal / 2022 Chess Olympiad