9/19/2020 – Zhansaya Abdumalik is one of the most promising young talents of our time. She is from Kazakhstan, a country which has experienced a huge boom in women's chess, especially in recent years. She is a multiple youth and junior world champion, known for a very aggressive and dynamic playing style. "With her lively and open manner it didn't take too long before I took her into my heart," writes IM Elisabeth Pähtz in this personal portrait. | Photo Kazinform

9/19/2020 – Magnus Carlsen reclaimed the lead at the Saint Louis Rapid & Blitz online event after scoring 6½ points in the first nine rounds of the blitz section. Wesley So, who obtained the highest score in the rapid, is a half point behind. With the second half of the blitz left to go, it is very unlikely for any player other than Carlsen or So to win the event, as Ian Nepomniachtchi currently stands no fewer than 3½ points behind the leader in sole third place. | Photo: Lennart Ootes / Saint Louis Chess Club

9/18/2020 – A few weeks ago we offered a number of great Fritztrainers in a summer special for reduced prices. If you bought one of the offered bundles, you had the chance to win DVDs, signed by famous players such as like Garry Kasparov, Magnus Carlsen, Viswanathan Anand, Fabiano Caruana, Levon Aronian, Nihal Sarin, etc. But we haven't announced all winners yet. Until now.

9/18/2020 – The OSG Baden-Baden is the clear favourite to win the Bundesliga Championship 2020, and they score better and better: in round 1 they won 6½-1½ against Deizisau, in round 2 they scored a 7-1 win against Bavaria Munich, which they followed up with a 7½-½ victory against SF Berlin in round 3. The only other team that could win all three matches is the SC Viernheim. | Photos: Christian Bossert

9/18/2020 – In the diagram position Black would like to close the position, while White wants just the opposite - he would like to open the position to give his pieces space. But it is White to move! How would you continue?

9/18/2020 – On Saturday September 19, 2020, there will be another big tournament on Playchess, organised by ChessBase India, with a Rs.50,000 ($ 680 or €575) prize fund. Time control: 3 mins + 0 second increment, number of rounds: 10. Expect strong GM and IM participation – highest rated GM so far: 2611. Entry is FREE for all, irrespective of title, rating or location, but you can donate to a worthy cause – to help a well-loved coach who is fighting for his life.

9/18/2020 – Wesley So, the only player to finish the rapid section undefeated, took the sole lead at the Saint Louis Rapid & Blitz online tournament on Thursday. So obtained back-to-back victories over Levon Aronian and Pentala Harikrishna in rounds 8 and 9 to go into the blitz section atop the standings table. Former leader Magnus Carlsen is now in sole second place, after having finished the day with a loss against Alexander Grischuk. | Photo: Justin Kellar / Saint Louis Chess Club

9/17/2020 – With 7.0/9 Nikita Vitiugov and Steven Zierk shared first at the strong Pacific Northwest Chess Center Artist Point tournament, a 9-round Swiss online tournament with an almost classical time-control of 60 minutes for the whole game and a 5-second increment per move. Awonder Liang reports and takes a close look at interesting games. | Photos: Xuhao He

9/17/2020 – The Bundesliga Championship in Karlsruhe is an over-the-board team tournament, in which eight teams with eight players each play for the title of German Team Champion 2020. Clear favourite is the team of OSG Baden-Baden which has no less than seven +2700 players in its line-up. In round 1 the OSG showed how determined they are to win this event. | Photos: Christian Bossert

9/17/2020 – World champion Magnus Carlsen took the sole lead of the Saint Louis Rapid & Blitz tournament after winning all three of his games on the second day of action. Wesley So and Ian Nepomniachtchi share second place a point behind — So repeated his formula from day one, winning a game and drawing the remaining two, while Nepomniachtchi won two and lost against Jeffery Xiong on Wednesday. Three more rapid games will be played on Thursday, before 18 rounds of blitz on Friday and Saturday decide the winner of the online event. | Photo: Crystal Fuller / Saint Louis Chess Club

9/16/2020 – CBM? It is the ChessBase Magazine! A postscript? A company magazine? A catalogue? All wrong! The ChessBase Magazine has come to life in 1987, when the first issue contained an incredible 1000 games on floppy disk. Now, ChessBase Magazine evolved with training material for club players at every level. All this is highly topical with the latest analyses of several titled players. Plus popular and recurring formats, tournament reports, opening innovations and traps, strategy training, endgame training and top coaches covering a highlight. All information is available on the new ChessBase magazine website and here in the article.

9/16/2020 – In his "Game of the Week" show, Merijn van Delft takes a look at a game from the Champions Showdown Chess 9LX Online Tournament: Garry Kasparov's win against Alireza Firouzja, the encounter between the oldest and the youngest participant of that tournament. | Merijn's show is freely available at 15.00 UTC (17:00 CEST, 11:00 EDT) for a limited time, and on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here. | Photo: Garry Kasparov playing Chess960 in Saint Louis 2018 | Photo: Lennart Ootes