10/18/2020 – This issue offers coverage of three major events, Chessable Masters, Legends of Chess and Biel Chess Festival. 733 games, 11 opening surveys, demo lectures and exercises for training. It also includes games annotated by Boris Gelfand, Rustam Kasimdzhanov and Peter Heine Nielsen, just to mention a few. Our columnist Nagesh Havanur takes a look. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

10/18/2020 – Star columnist Jon Speelman explores the exchange sacrifice. Speelman shares five illustrative examples to explain in which conditions giving up a rook for a minor piece is a good trade. “As a general rule and in fact (almost all?) of the time you need other pieces on the board for an exchange sacrifice to work.” | Pictured: Mikhail Tal and Tigran Petrosian following a post-mortem analysis at the 1961 European Team Championship in Oberhausen | Photo: Gerhard Hund

10/18/2020 – The 2020 U.S. Senior Championship kicked off today with a field packed full of legends that includes five former U.S. Champions with a combined total of 13 national titles. Leading the field at the end of the first day is GM Igor Novikov and GM Joel Benjamin, who both finished the day on 2.5/3 points. GM Gregory Kaidanov and GM Patrick Wolff are a half-point behind with 2.0/3, while the rest of the players are surprisingly all tied with 1.0/3! | Pictured: Igor Novikov, Alex Yermolinsky, Alexander Shabalov, Joel Benjamin and Jaan Ehlvest

10/17/2020 – In 1988, eight Hollywood celebrities, including Erik Estrada and William Windom, played in a Los Angeles chess tournament. Although Michał Kanarkiewicz had never heard of that 1988 celebrity chess tournament, he created the 2019 “Chess Championship of the Stars” in Poland. WIM Alexey Root tells how both celebrity chess tournaments, 31 years and thousands of miles apart, promoted chess. | Pictured: Michał Kanarkiewicz with Anatoly Karpov at the airport in Warsaw

10/17/2020 – The 2020 Altibox Norway Chess tournament came to an end on Friday. Magnus Carlsen had secured tournament victory with a round to spare, but finished the event with a loss to Levon Aronian. 17-year-old Alireza Firouzja came in second place thanks to a final-round win over Jan-Krzysztof Duda. In the only matchup that went to Armageddon in round 10, Fabiano Caruana defeated Aryan Tari. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

10/16/2020 – The second leg of the Candidates Tournament was supposed to resume on November 1 in Yekaterinburg, but due to the “concern related to the well-being of the players in the midst of the second wave of the pandemic”, FIDE has decided to postpone the resumption of the event until the spring of 2021. “We understand this announcement might be a disappointment for the chess community. However, it is FIDE’s responsibility to ensure [...] the safety of the players and their general well-being during the tournament”. | Photo: FIDE

10/16/2020 – In this Power Play Show Grandmaster Daniel King looks at the game Fabiano Caruana and Magnus Carlsen played in round 7 of the Altibox Norway Chess tournament. Caruana came up with a strong novelty in the Rossolimo Sicilian (1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5) that put Carlsen under pressure. | Power Play is on air most Fridays at 17:00 UK (18:00 CEST, 11:00 EST) on playchess.com. All the usual puzzles, games and instruction will be on offer. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

10/16/2020 – World numbers one and two are both present at the over-the-board Altibox Norway Chess tournament taking place on October 5-16. Magnus Carlsen and Fabiano Caruana are joined by Armenian star Levon Aronian, Polish number one Jan-Krzysztof Duda, wunderkind Alireza Firouzja and local representative Aryan Tari. All rounds start at 15:00 UTC (17:00 CEST, 11:00 ET). Read the full report on Round 9. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

10/16/2020 – New on playchess.com: a Swiss team blitz tournament! Wednesday, October 21, on playchess! Teams of four play 8 rounds Swiss with a time limit of 3 minutes + 2 seconds increment per move. The winning team will be rewarded with an online training session with Yannick Pelletier or an online club blitz tournament with GM Nicholas Pert or other attractive prizes. Details…

10/16/2020 – Magnus Carlsen has secured first place at the Norway Chess Tournament with a round to spare after beating Alireza Firouzja in classical chess. The youngster first gave his opponent chances from what seemed to be destined to end in a draw; Carlsen then made a mistake and the position was balanced again; and finally Firouzja blundered horrible in a king and pawn endgame to lose the game. Levon Aronian and Fabiano Caruana won in Armageddon. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

10/16/2020 – With 18.Qb5 (diagram), White has just attacked the black pawn on d5. Can you work out why 18...Rfe8! is a very relaxed way of dealing with this threat?

10/16/2020 – In one of the most thrilling finishes ever, GM John Burke managed to win the 2020 U.S. Junior Championship after getting the best of GM Jeffery Xiong in an Armageddon playoff that ended with the U.S. #5 ranked player losing on time in a winning position. The final game took place after the players both finished with 6.5/9 points during the regular event, leading to a two-game rapid playoff match that was also tied. IM Kostya Kavutskiy reports.