Remembering Ennio Morricone (November 10, 1928 – July 6, 2020)

7/6/2020 – Initially, Ennio Morricone wanted to become a chess professional. But then he realized that his musical talent was much greater than his talent for chess and he became a composer, whose music added a special touch to many famous films. But Morricone was always passionate about chess. On July 6, 2020, he died in Rome at the age of 91. | Photo: Comune Turin

Bamberg 1968, Round 14: Keres wins tournament with one round to go

7/6/2020 – With an energetic win against Roman Toran Paul Keres also won the jubilee tournament in Bamberg. After 14 of 15 rounds Keres has 11.0/14 and is 1½ points ahead of World Champion Tigran Petrosian, who was lost against Jürgen Teufel but saved himself with a well-timed draw offer. The German players Wolfgang Unzicker, Lothar Schmid and Rudolf Teschner share places three to five.

An interview with Merijn van Delft

7/6/2020 – Merijn van Delft has been giving chess training for many years, and has a regular show at ChessBase. He now published an interesting book on "Positional Sacrifice". In an interview he talks about the book, his work and his passion for positional sacrifices.

Jon Speelman: “Play your own moves”

7/5/2020 – “The most important thing is to choose the moves you want to play — not somebody else, let alone an engine. They may not ‘theoretically’ be the best, but unless they can palpably be refuted you will do better with them than something ‘better’ which makes your stomach turn”, concludes star columnist Jon Speelman after exploring a number of instructional examples, including a couple of his games against Garry Kasparov!

Bamberg 1968, Round 13: Draws on top boards

7/5/2020 – In the thirteenth round of the Bamberg Jubilee Tournament, almost all games ended drawn — and some of them were very short. Only the Bulgarian grandmaster Milko Bobotsov (photo: Dutch National Archive) achieved a victory against Jürgen Teufel from Bamberg. But, since these two players are in the bottom half of the standings table, their decisive result had no influence on the fight for first place: with two rounds to go, Paul Keres still has a one-point lead over World Champion Tigran Petrosian.

East German programmers in Budapest

7/5/2020 – Looking back: in 1983 Frederic Friedel was in Budapest for the third Microcomputer World Chess Championship. There he made first acquaintance with the Polgar family, but also met the East German chess programming team. His description of this memorable encounter tells us what things were like in the fading years of Eastern European communism.

Dubov's Tarrasch

7/5/2020 – In the new ChessBase Magazine #196 eleven opening articles with exciting repertoire ideas are waiting for you. IM Robert Ris scrutinizes an almost forgotten line with which Daniil Dubov recently brought fresh wind into the Tarrasch Defence and tried at the highest level. Ris' conclusion: 7.cxd4 8.Nxd4 Bc5 is "very hot and deservedly so."
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Carlsen beats Giri, clinches Chessable Masters

7/5/2020 – Magnus Carlsen won the Chessable Masters online tournament by scoring a straight-set victory in the final against Anish Giri. In Saturday’s second set of the deciding match, Carlsen got an impressive win in the first game, while Giri missed chances to tie the score in games 2, 3 and 4. This was the third event of the Magnus Carlsen Tour — and the second one that sees the world champion taking first place! | Photo: Lennart Ootes

Bamberg 1968, Round 12: Teschner beats Ivkov!

7/4/2020 – The editor of the chess periodical “Deutsche Schachzeitung” Rudolf Teschner is an International Master and thus a strong chess player. Yesterday at the Bamberg Jubilee Tournament, Yugoslavian grandmaster Borislav Ivkov confirmed this was the case when he lost to Teschner — in fourth place, Teschner is now half a point ahead of Ivkov. At the top of the table, World Champion Petrosian and Bamberg’s Lothar Schmid have moved closer to Paul Keres: both won their games, while Keres signed a quick draw against Wolfgang Unzicker. | Pictured: A view of Bamberg from Michelsberg

Independence Day

7/4/2020 – In our review of the movie The Coldest Game in March we also mentioned the cult classic science-fiction film "Independence Day". What's a better time to take a look at the chess game played in that movie than the Fourth of July - Independence Day?

Chessable Masters Final: Carlsen clinches

7/4/2020 – Magnus Carlsen won the Chessable Masters online tournament by scoring a third consecutive straight-set victory in the final against Anish Giri. In Saturday’s second set of the deciding matchup, Carlsen got an impressive win in the first game, while Giri missed chances to tie the score in games 2, 3 and 4. This was the third event of the Magnus Carlsen Tour — and the second one that sees the world champion taking first place. Full report to follow shortly. | Photo: FIDE

Chessable Masters Final: Carlsen wins close first set

7/4/2020 – A thrilling first set of the Chessable Masters Final saw Magnus Carlsen clinching a crucial win by defeating Anish Giri in the second blitz game of tiebreaks. Giri played enterprising chess throughout, getting what at some point seemed to be an unlikely win in game 4 to tie the score and take the set to 5-minute games and a potential Armageddon. The Dutchman now needs to win on demand on Saturday to keep his chances alive. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

Bamberg 1968, Round 11: Miss Mar del Plata and a bank robbery

7/3/2020 – At the Bamberg jubilee tournament, the arrival of Boris Ivkov's wife Olga Kesic (pictured), Miss Mar del Plata 1955, and a bank robbery in nearby Nürnberg provided opportunities for conversation. The bank robbers in Nürnberg were soon caught but Ivkov lost his game. Lothar Schmid fared better.

Daniel King's Power Play Show: Magnus Carlsen and the King's Indian

7/3/2020 – In this Power Play Show Grandmaster Daniel King takes a look at some tricky pawn endgames but the main focus of the show is on the remarkable King's Indian that Carlsen played against Ding Liren in the Chessable Masters. | 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, Archive

Create your Virtual Room on Playchess.com in seconds

7/3/2020 – It is possible to create your personal room on Playchess.com in just a couple of seconds. With your Virtual Room you are able to organise your own chess tournaments, have club events, give teaching courses and play simuls. In a short video we show you how easy it is to create the room.

Checkmate in seven moves!

7/3/2020 – This is the second part of Stuart Rachels' constructed puzzles which include all four solutions from the first part. Checkmate in six moves! took off with over 50 analyses, ideas, approaches and solutions in the comment section so far. Jonathan Speelman for example made a live stream with all of his constructed solutions and was even able to "cook" one of the puzzles by half a move!

Queens as targets

7/3/2020 – White's 16.Ng5 in the diagram position threatens 17.Bd5+ and doesn't look too bad, but Black ... is Tal! Can you shine like the 8th World Champion?

Chessable Masters: Giri takes down Nepomniachtchi

7/3/2020 – Anish Giri defeated Ian Nepomniachtchi in three sets to reach the final of the Chessable Masters. Giri and Nepomniachtchi traded wins in the rapid phase of the third set, but the Dutchman was stronger in the blitz tiebreakers. The final, in which Giri will face world champion Magnus Carlsen, starts on Friday. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

Bamberg 1968, round 10: Keres dominates, Petrosian is lucky

7/2/2020 – Paul Keres continues to dominate the Bamberg tournament. In round 10 he defeated Heikki Westerinen in the endgame, while World Champion Tigran Petrosian was lucky to get a draw against Lothar Schmid. With five rounds to go, Keres is now on 8.5 out of 10, 1.5 points ahead of Borislav Ivkov and Petrosian.

Martinovic wins Croatian Championship

7/2/2020 – Sasa Martinovic is the new Croatian national champion. He won the championship - the first national championship since the coronavirus lockdown to be held as a "real" chess tournament - with 7.0/11, ahead of Zdenko Kozul, Robert Zelcic, Hrvoje Stevic and Ante Brkic who all finished on 6.5/11. | Photo: Tournament Website

Chessable Masters: Carlsen in the final, Nepomniachtchi bounces back

7/2/2020 – Magnus Carlsen beat Ding Liren twice with black on Wednesday to secure a spot in the final match of the Chessable Masters. Meanwhile, Ian Nepomniachtchi levelled the score in his matchup against Anish Giri thanks to a 2½:1½ win in the second set. Carlsen’s opponent in the final will be decided on Thursday. | Photo: Crystal Fuller

Game of the Week: Ding vs Nakamura

7/1/2020 – The quarterfinals of the Chessable Masters were very exciting, with Carlsen knocking out Caruana, Nepomniachtchi beating Artemiev and Giri eliminating Grischuk. Ding Liren won his match against Nakamura and in his "Game of the Week" show Merijn van Delft will study Ding Liren's phenomenal handling of White's side of the King's Indian. | Merijn's show is available at 15.00 UTC (17:00 CEST, 11:00 EDT) on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

FIDE announces Online Olympiad 2020

7/1/2020 – The International Chess Federation just announced the FIDE Online Olympiad 2020. The international team event, in which all federations affiliated to FIDE, have the right to participate will be held between July 22nd and August 30th, 2020.

Bamberg 1968, Round 9: Unzicker wins brilliantly, Ivkov could have won brilliantly

7/1/2020 – Round 9 of the Jubilee Tournament in Bamberg brought a number of exciting games. Wolfgang Unzicker played the move of the day against Laszlo Szabo, and Borislav Ivkov could have played the game of the day if he had found a hidden tactical possibility against World Champion Tigran Petrosian. | Photo: Wolfgang Unzicker | Photo: Roger Rössing, Deutsche Fotothek.