8/18/2021 – At the height of his career Akiba Rubinstein (1 December 1880 - 15 March 1961) was considered a possible challenger for World Champion Dr. Emanuel Lasker, but the two never played a World Championship match. Rubinstein was considered to be particularly strong in the endgame, and Rubinstein's victory over Richard Reti in the tournament in Gothenburg 1920 is regarded as a typical example of his endgame skills. Karsten Müller has now taken a closer look at this endgame to find out whether and when the position was actually won for Black. And invites ChessBase readers to join him in his search for the truth about this fascinating endgame. | Photo: Deutsche Schachzeitung 1908

8/18/2021 – Exciting chess continues to be the norm in Saint Louis, as the Sinquefield Cup kicked off with a number of thrilling games on Tuesday. Fabiano Caruana, Leinier Dominguez and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave won their first-round games and are the early leaders of the event. Caruana’s victory over Sam Shankland was particularly attractive. | Photo: Crystal Fuller

8/18/2021 – The Semi-Slav, the Chebanenko system and the Slav triangle are solid and flexible weapons for Black against 1.d4. On this DVD Mihail Marin offers players with White a repertoire that meets these systems in a provocative way that promises White the initiative and a lot of play.

8/18/2021 – In his "Weekly Show" IM Lawrence Trent will take a look at the action from the St Louis Rapid and Blitz. The featured game will be Caruana-Svidler from round 19. | Lawrence's show is available on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here

8/17/2021 – The John G. White Collection of Chess and Checkers is the largest and most comprehensive collection of printed material on chess. While its physical location is Cleveland, Ohio, chess researchers and aficionados may also view parts of the collection online. On July 21, 2021, Woman International Master Alexey Root visited the Cleveland Public Library, which houses the collection. | Photos: Alexey Root

8/17/2021 – In the diagram position White is a pawn down and Black's king is threatening to enter White's position. However, White can hope to save a draw if he manages to build a solid fortress. In the diagram position it is White to move - what would you play?

8/17/2021 – The final event of the Grand Chess Tour’s sixth edition, the Sinquefield Cup, will begin on August 17th, immediately following the conclusion of the 2021 Saint Louis Rapid & Blitz. The event will feature ten top-ranked international players competing for a total prize fund of $325,000, and will determine the winner of the 2021 Grand Chess Tour, who will take home the additional $100,000 prize. | Pictured: Jeffery Xiong at the opening ceremony | Photo: Austin Fuller

8/16/2021 – Two wins and a draw on the fourth day of action granted Vincent Keymer tournament victory at the Kramnik Challenge for young stars. Most importantly, Keymer beat Awonder Liang in the penultimate round — Keymer and Liang would end the event tied in points, and the result in their direct encounter was the tiebreak decider that gave the German prodigy first place.

8/16/2021 – Svitlana and Karsten discuss endgames and Svitlana's forthcoming ChessBase products. Svitlana also presents endgames from her own games and solves a study by Karsten. | "Endgame Magic" is on air most Mondays. Watch it on-demand with a ChessBase Premium account.

8/16/2021 – In a remarkable exhibition of speed and control, Hikaru Nakamura won the Saint Louis Rapid and Blitz Tournament with three rounds to spare, going through 27 rounds undefeated against a field completely made up of 2700+ rated players. Fabiano Caruana and Richard Rapport finished second and third respectively. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

8/16/2021 – A win with black over Igor Kovalenko in round 9 gave Alexander Donchenko tournament victory at the RTU Open in Riga. In the end, Donchenko was the only player to score 7½ points, so he did not even need to bother with tiebreak-criteria calculations. After losing in round 3 against a lower-rated opponent, Donchenko sensationally won six games in a row to win the event! | Photo: Anna Shtourman

8/15/2021 – In this week’s column, Jon Speelman looks at the dichotomy between energy and matter in chess. While some players choose material, others go for dynamism. To illustrate his points, Speelman analyses two recent wins by Magnus Carlsen and an early game by Mikhail Tal, in which he was able to recover and win from a material disadvantage “of a mere two knights”! | Pictured: Tal at the 1964 Amsterdam Interzonal | Photo: Harry Pot / Anefo