The bodycheck

8/18/2020 – The "bodycheck" is the most important pattern in the endgame rook against pawn. The term, of course, is borrowed from the game of hockey and it describes the situation when one king takes away an important square from the other king.

MCT Finals: Carlsen bounces back again

8/18/2020 – Magnus Carlsen levelled the score of his tour’s final on Monday after getting a 2½:1½ victory over Hikaru Nakamura in the fourth set. The world champion won game three and drew the rest to even the overall score without needing tiebreaks. The match has now turned into a best-of-3 contest, with both players having obtained the exact same amount of points so far in the final. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

Logic Riddles for Chess Players (7)

8/17/2020 – The last logic riddle was really hard, and only a few readers were able to calculate all outcomes and find the correct solution. The riddle today is easier. You have to figure out how to adjust the odds in your favour. Keep in mind, you might not be able to solve the puzzle fully, but maybe your result is good enough to save the life of a grandmaster.

On the origins of chess (6/7)

8/17/2020 – Four theories regarding the origins of chess have been presented by Argentine researcher Sergio Negri — that the game came from India, China, Egypt and hypotheses based on myths, legends and the fictional world. Now he introduces theories that consider that chess was conceived by cultural syncretism, with different civilizations contributing to the development of the game. | Photo: Living and extinct chess variants, taken from “Chess – A living fossil” by Gerhard Josten

Top Division of the FIDE Online Olympiad kicks off on Friday

8/17/2020 – The FIDE Online Olympiad is taking place from July 25 to August 30. All the 163 registered teams were divided into 5 divisions ranked from “Base Division” to “Top Division”. The Top Division kicks off on Friday, with 25 seeded teams, including Russia, China, United States, etcetera, joined by the top three finishers of each pool (A to E) from Division 2.

MCT Finals: Nakamura grabs the lead

8/17/2020 – “Yesterday I should’ve won the match and today I should’ve lost the match, so I think all is right in the world”, said Hikaru Nakamura after winning set 3 of the final against Magnus Carlsen. The American is now leading 2:1 in the match played to the best of 7 sets. | Photo: Niki Riga / World Chess

The tower of time and motion

8/16/2020 – This is a two-part piece by star columnist Jon Speelman. First, inspired by a beautiful victory by Ian Nepomniachtchi, he looks at games which include the remarkable ...Bb1 manoeuvre (by Black). Then, he demonstrates the solution to a fantastic problem created by François Labelle: to construct a game ending in 7.Rc7 mate with the black king on d7!

MCT Finals: Carlsen wins thrilling set, evens the score

8/16/2020 – Magnus Carlsen obtained a 3½:2½ victory in set 2 of the final against Hikaru Nakamura to level the overall score in the match played to the best of 7. Nakamura won game 1, but both times he had the white pieces he implicitly offered a draw by playing a line that led to a triple repetition as early as move 14. It all came down to the blitz tiebreaks, which saw the American blundering in his game with white. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

Grandmaster Chef: Teimour Radjabov

8/15/2020 – Grandmaster Teimour Radjabov is the best chess player in Azerbaijan and ranks ninth in the world. To show appreciation for Radjabov, WGM Sabina Foişor provides a recipe for a dish that Radjabov might like and an analysis of one of his wins. WIM Alexey Root tells why Radjabov is a Grandmaster Chef honoree. | Photo: FIDE

MCT Finals: Nakamura wins first set

8/15/2020 – Hikaru Nakamura kicked off the final of the Magnus Carlsen Tour with a 2½:1½ victory over the world champion, after winning game 2 with the black pieces and drawing the remaining three encounters of the day. The match is played to the best of 7 sets and has no scheduled rest days. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

Daniel King: Powerplay 28: Tactic Toolbox King’s Gambit

8/14/2020 – The King's Gambit is a tactical opening, a very tactical opening. This is one reason why the opening was so popular in the past and why the opening is still attractive. On his new DVD Daniel King shows you typical tactical patterns of the King's Gambit that help you to understand the opening better and that will sharpen your tactical skills. Enjoy, have fun and get better!

Power Play Show: Crushing the King's Indian

8/14/2020 – In this Power Play Show, Grandmaster Daniel King takes a look at two fascinating games with the King's Indian. One was played very recently, the other was played 70 years ago. | 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: Tigran Petrosian

How to save a lost game

8/14/2020 – Dr. Emanuel Lasker, World Champion from 1894 to 1921, enjoyed the reputation of being a very "lucky" player. After all, time and again he managed to save bad and very bad positions. However, to quote Lasker's rival José Raúl Capablanca: "A good player is always lucky"! But what should a good player do in lost positions to let fortune smile on him? Stephan-Oliver Platz has some ideas. | Photo: Emanuel Lasker | Photo: Cleveland Public Library

Oldie-Parade I

8/14/2020 – In the diagram White threatens Rh3 with vicious intentions down the open h-file. Black to play: three lines, two results, one person to make all the difference - you!

What is your Fischer number?

8/13/2020 – How far away are you from the World Champion, in terms of handshakes, we asked our readers? At least one traced his handshake route all the way back to Philidor. Now we have a new challenge: have you beaten someone who has beaten someone who has beaten a World Champion? Prof. Christian Hesse describes the idea. You are invited to participate.

Robert Ris' Fast and Furious: Queen's Fianchetto Defence (1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 b6)

8/13/2020 – In this week's show, well-known Dutch trainer Robert Ris presents a spectacular game by Luke Leon Mendonca, one of the most promising Indian talents. | "Fast and Furious" is available from 17:00 UTC (19:00 CEST / 15:00 EDT) on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here. | Photo: ChessBase India

Power Play with Daniel King: Mate ends the game!

8/13/2020 – In his match against Magnus Carlsen in the semi-finals of the Magnus Carlsen Chess Tour Ding Liren lacked fortune, and lost the match 1-3 after missing a number of good opportunities, especially in the fourth set. But Ding arguably played most the spectacular game of the entire match and had the rare pleasure to mate Carlsen's king in the middle of the board. Daniel King took a closer look.

Karina Cyfka is Polish Women's Champion!

8/13/2020 – The Polish Women's Championship in Ostrów Wielkopolski ended yesterday. Karina Cyfka and Klaudia Kulon both drew in the last round and thus shared first with 6.0/9. But Cyfka won the two-game tiebreak and became new Polish Women's Champion 2020. Joanna Majdan won bronze. | Photos: Wojciech Zawadzki (Polish Chess Federation)

Watching videos, getting better: 400,000 minutes of ChessBase training and entertainment!

8/13/2020 – If you are logged on with your ChessBase Premium account and if you have a moment: click on the video button on the right side of your screen! It's worth it: We have filled up the video portal massively, with fresh training videos for openings, middlegames and endgames! You don't know the video portal yet? In a short video we explain everything. There are more than 13,000 training videos to discover! Enjoy!

MCT Finals: Carlsen escapes, advances to final

8/13/2020 – The fourth set of the semifinal match between Magnus Carlsen and Ding Liren saw the Chinese grandmaster missing one opportunity after another to level the score and force a fifth set. Magnus Carlsen kept his cool while under heavy pressure and managed to win the match and get a spot in the final. The world champion will face Hikaru Nakamura in a best-of-7 final showdown starting Friday. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

Cowboy Adhiban trains tactics!

8/12/2020 – Grandmaster Adhiban Baskaran tested his skills with the ChessBase tactics training, and did so while streaming with a cowboy hat on his head. But he didn't need a gun to be explosive. Adhiban made upper-cuts, flying kicks and used his Five Point Palm Exploding Heart Technique combos, because every correct move you make in the ChessBase tactic-training is accompanied by "punching sounds". It is a pleasure to watch a Grandmaster making beautiful tactical moves in split seconds. In his stream Adhiban shows us all the moves.

The ChessBase Master Class Bundle 1-12

8/12/2020 – The ChessBase Master Class deserves its name. On twelve DVDs our top experts had a close look at some of the best players in the history of chess. You now have the opportunity to get these twelve DVDs with lessons about the world's best chess players per download - and for a short while you can buy the complete "Master Class Bundle" for a reduced price! Per download, right to your computer. And whoever buys the bundle, automatically takes part in a raffle!

Game of the Week: Carlsen vs Ding Liren

8/12/2020 – In his "Game of the Week" show Merijn van Delft takes a look at a game in which Magnus Carlsen once again showed his phenomenal class against Ding Liren in the finals of the Magnus Carlsen Chess Tour. | 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: Lennart Ootes

A trendy system against the King's Indian

8/12/2020 – With 5.h3 and 6.Be3 Fabiano Caruana hat set a new trend against the King's Indian. "A challenging positional setup, which has the further advantage of still being relatively fresh, uncharted and not overanalysed yet", writes Igor Stohl in ChessBase Magazine #196 - the current issue. In his article about this promising setup Stohl explains, among other things, why the typical King's Indian move 6...e5 here plays into White's hands.
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