Chessable Masters: Aronian and Le climb to shared second place

8/2/2021 – Wesley So continues to top the standings of the preliminaries at the Chessable Masters after 10 rounds. Levon Aronian and Le Quang Liem had a great second day and climbed to shared second place, a half point behind So. The last 5 rounds of the preliminary stage will be played on Monday, with half the field set to advance to the quarterfinals. | Photo: Austin Fuller / Saint Louis Chess Club

FIDE ratings August 2021

8/2/2021 – After the long lockdown, the chess world is slowly returning to over-the-board FIDE-rated games. However, there are still only a few changes in the current world rankings list. Magnus Carlsen is still clear number one, a position he has been holding for more than ten years now, since July 2011. Number one on the women's list is Hou Yifan, who is 47 points ahead of Aleksandra Goryachkina. The two best juniors are Alireza Firouzja and Andrey Esipenko, number one on the "Girls"-list is Polina Shuvalova, number two Zhu Jiner.

World Cup: Kosteniuk wins rollercoaster game

8/2/2021 – Alexandra Kosteniuk took a huge step towards winning the Women’s World Cup, as she defeated Aleksandra Goryachkina with the black pieces on Sunday. The remaining three games played in Sochi — both semifinals in the open and the women’s match for third place — finished drawn. | Photo: Anastasiia Korolkova

Blood pudding

8/2/2021 – When you look at games by very strong positional players, you may get the impression that they don’t like tactics and are perhaps not corruscatingly good at them. But this is almost always a mirage. Star columnist Jon Speelman looks at three excellent attacking wins by world champion Magnus Carlsen. | Photo: Anastasiia Korolkova / FIDE World Cup

U.S. Open Chess Events: Masked and Spirited

8/1/2021 – Cherry Hill, New Jersey is the temporary gathering place of U.S. chess players. Already completed are the Third International Koltanowski Conference on Chess in Education, the Second Annual FM Sunil Weeramantry National Blitz Tournament of State Champions, and the first round of the tournaments of state champions and the traditional schedule of the U.S. Open. | Pictured: The playing hall during the Weeramantry National Blitz Tournament of State Champions

Understanding before Moving 38: The Critical Move (1)

8/1/2021 – 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 38th instalment of his ChessBase show "Understanding before Moving", Herman takes a look at critical moves. | Photo: Tommy Grooten

Biel: Nihal and Alekseenko the strongest in blitz

8/1/2021 – Nihal Sarin and Kirill Alekseenko had the strongest performances at the blitz tournament, one of three events that make up the Grandmaster Triathlon at the Biel Chess Festival. Gata Kamsky is still leading the overall standings, but is now only 1½ points ahead of Nihal and Alekseenko. | Photos and report: Official site

Chessable Masters: So leads, newcomers struggle

8/1/2021 – While players and enthusiasts took a day off from the highly tense World Cups in Sochi, the online Chessable Masters kicked off with an eye-catching lineup, as 12-year-old GM Abhimanyu Mishra, women’s world champion Ju Wenjun and Indian star Humpy Koneru join the likes of Wesley So and Levon Aronian in the 9-day event. After five rounds, So is the sole leader on 4 points, with a 3-player chasing pack a half point behind. | Pictured: Wesley So and Pentala Harikrishna at the 2019 Riga Grand Prix

Kaleidoscope II

7/31/2021 – In a multifaceted column, Siegfried Hornecker looks at a young Austrian chess player who went missing in the Alps and never returned, how geometry on the chessboard is vastly different from a Euclidean two-dimensional plane, a curious episode from the 1951 World Championship match between Botvinnik and Bronstein, and a couple of endgame studies created by women composers. | Pictured: Julius Perlis

World Cup: Russians prevail

7/31/2021 – Sergey Karjakin knocked out Sam Shankland in the only match of the quarterfinals that was decided in a rapid and blitz playoff at the open section of the FIDE World Cup in Sochi. Meanwhile, Alexandra Kosteniuk and Aleksandra Goryachkina (pictured) advanced to the final in the women’s section after knocking out Tan Zhongyi and Anna Muzychuk respectively. Saturday is a rest day for both categories. | Photo: Anastasiia Korolkova

Biel, Round 4: Kamsky and Gelfand draw

7/31/2021 – Two legends met yesterday at the Biel Chess Festival: Gata Kamsky and Boris Gelfand, both former World Championship runners-up and World Cup winners. With a draw, Kamsky defended his lead in the overall standings. Frenchman Maxime Lagarde is the new runner-up, as the Frenchman defeated Kirill Alekseenko in round 4. | Photos: Official site

Rollercoaster

7/31/2021 – Rarely was a headline more appropriate - this is a crucial position of one of the most exciting games I have seen recently. In the diagram position White continued with 25.Rxe6 Rxe6 26.exd5 which gave Black a chance to win. Enjoy!

News Review - Fedoseev's winning gesture, Karjakin's GM title and Niemann's GM privilege

7/30/2021 – In the summer, "ChessBase News Review" with Lawrence Trent will have a couple of breaks here and there. One of them was last week. Back on time, IM Trent takes a more profound look at the Arkhangelsk Ruy Lopez game between Vidit and Duda. Furthermore, Lawrence and Arne talk about The beautiful Fontainebleau chess festival, and the tournament in Biel. They also mention the "winning fist gesture" of Fedoseev, the New York Post article about Karjakin's GM title, and the behaviour of Niemann as a GM.

Daniel King’s Power Play Show: World Cup action and an answer to the London System

7/30/2021 – In this Power Play Show, GM Daniel King takes a look at games from the World Cup, including a a decent answer to the London System, and offers tactics and endgames. | Power Play is on air most Fridays. Watch it on-demand with a ChessBase Premium account. All the usual puzzles, games and instruction will be on offer.

Texas Chess Champions at National Invitationals

7/30/2021 – Alongside the U.S. Open are five tournaments of state chess champions, for different age and grade categories. Each state affiliate may nominate one player for each tournament. Participants in the five tournaments compete together in blitz. Woman International Master Alexey Root previews the state champions tournaments from a Texas perspective. | Photos: Niki Riga / Texas Chess Association

New: CBM Extra #202

7/30/2021 – The new ChessBase Magazine Extra #202 again contains a wealth of material, e.g. opening videos presenting new ideas in the Sicilian Four Knights and in the English Opening (almost an hour total playing time), plus 29 extensive analyses by Peter Heine Nielsen, Praggnanandhaa, Mariya Muzychuk, Elisabeth Pähtz, Michal Krasenkow, Igor Stohl and others. ChessBase Magazine Extra is available on DVD or for download – as a single issue or as an annual subscription (6 issues per year).
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Biel, Round 3: Keymer loses against Gelfand

7/30/2021 – Three years ago Vincent Keymer defeated Boris Gelfand at the Isle of Man Open in a sensational game. In round 3 of the Grandmaster Tournament in Biel Gelfand, Vice World Champion 2012, now took a form of revenge and outplayed the young German Grandmaster. In the second decisive game of the round Noel Studer won against Maxime Lagarde. | Photos: Biel Chess Festival

World Cup: Duda knocks out Vidit

7/30/2021 – Jan-Krzysztof Duda will face Magnus Carlsen in the semifinals of the FIDE World Cup. The Polish grandmaster knocked out Vidit after the latter erred in a sharp endgame. Russian GMs Vladimir Fedoseev and Sergey Karjakin also won on Thursday — the former moved on to the semis, while the latter levelled the score in his match against Sam Shankland. In the women’s section, both semifinal encounters finished drawn. | Photo: Eric Rosen

Robert Ris’ Fast and Furious: Fighting the King's Indian with 3.h4!?

7/29/2021 – This week, well-known Dutch trainer Robert Ris takes a look at Sam Shankland's spectacular victory against Peter Svidler at the World Cup. After 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 Shankland played 3.h4!?, a move that discourages Black from playing the Grunfeld. Svidler tried a King's Indian setup instead but without much success. | "Fast and Furious" is available on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here.

Biel, Round 2: Four draws, long games, lots of fight

7/29/2021 – All four games of the Grandmaster Tournament in Biel ended with a draw, but Noel Studer and Alan Pichot played for almost eight hours and made 138 moves before they agreed to share the point. The young German Grandmaster Vincent Keymer had no easy task against Kirill Alekseenko, but solved it. In the Open, Salem Saleh and Surya Ganguly share the lead with 3.0/3 each. | Photos: Biel Chess Festival

Chess in Education: 3rd International Koltanowski Conference

7/29/2021 – The International Koltanowski Conference on Chess in Education is being held July 29 – 30, 2021 at the Crowne Plaza Philadelphia Cherry Hill. Audience will attend in person and online. The Conference will be streamed and available for later viewing. With panelists and speakers active in their specialties, the conference emphasizes praxis. | Official site

World Cup: Carlsen and Shankland strike

7/28/2021 – Magnus Carlsen and Sam Shankland made a big step towards reaching the semifinals of the 2021 FIDE World Cup in Sochi, as they kicked off their matches against Etienne Bacrot and Sergey Karjakin with victories. While Carlsen displayed excellent dynamic feel for the position to win with the black pieces, it was Shankland’s endgame technique which allowed him to make the most of an unlikely blunder by his opponent. | Expert analysis by GM Karsten Müller. | Photo: Eric Rosen

Game of the Week 474: M. Carlsen - R. Wojtaszek

7/28/2021 – This week, Merijn van Delft takes a close look at the encounter between Magnus Carlsen and Radoslaw Wojtaszek at the FIDE World Cup 2021 - a game full of tactical blows and surprises. | Merijn's show is available on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here.

World Cup: Carlsen’s close call

7/28/2021 – Only after an extremely tense struggle did Magnus Carlsen manage to knock out Andrey Esipenko to reach the quarterfinals of the FIDE World Cup in Sochi, where he will face Etienne Bacrot. Jan-Krzysztof Duda, Vladimir Fedoseev, Amin Tabatabaei and Sergey Karjakin also went through. In the women’s section, Anna Muzychuk knocked out Nana Dzagnidze and qualified to the Candidates. | Photo: Eric Rosen