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.

10/15/2020 – In this week's show, well-known Dutch trainer Robert Ris takes a look at the Armageddon game between Levon Aronian and Magnus Carlsen from round 1 of the Altibox Norway Chess Tournament. Against Aronian's Queen's Gambit Carlsen tried the Janowski variation, 4...a6!?, which led to a sharp fight and theoretically interesting complications. | "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.

10/15/2020 – The less pieces on the board, the more complicated it is. Queen endings are especially complicated. On day 3 of their rapid match in Prague, Dai Van Nguyen and Nigel Short had to play a complicated queen ending, and with limited time they did not always find the best moves. Karsten Müller had more time and analysed this tricky and instructive endgame in more detail.

10/15/2020 – The Saint Louis Chess Club organises the U.S. Championships 2020, but due to the COVID-19 pandemic all events are played online, and this year the U.S. Junior Championship is a 10-player round-robin rapid tournament. After six of nine rounds John Burke and Jeffery Xiong (pictured) share the lead with 4.0/6. In a press release of the Saint Louis Chess Club IM Kostya Kavutskiy recaps the action of day 2. | Photo: Lennart Ootes (Archive)

10/15/2020 – If you want to compare chess achievements between men and women, writes Professor Wei Ji Ma of NYU, given their vastly unequal numbers, it is a very bad idea to focus on the top male and female players. If you do you will need to account for the participation gap using an analysis similar to the one he presents. Prof. Ma supplies the tools needed to refute the theory of female inferiority.

10/15/2020 – "Chess in Art" is a large-format illustrated volume for all chess enthusiasts with a penchant for art. The book takes its reader on a journey through time, exploring the world of art and showing its connection with chess on over 300 colourful pages. And every single image has a story to tell.

10/14/2020 – Before the last day of his match against Nigel Short, the 18-year old Czech Grandmaster Dai Van Nguyen was trailing in the match, but a strong finish and two wins helped him to decide the match in his favour. The event was organised by the Prague Chess Society.

10/14/2020 – In his "Game of the Week" show, Merijn van Delft takes a look at a highlight from the Altibox Norway Chess Tournament: Magnus Carlsen's strategic textbook win against Aryan Tari in round eight. | 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

10/14/2020 – With two rounds to go after the rest day, two players still have realistic chances to win the tournament — Magnus Carlsen and Alireza Firouzja. Firouzja was leading the tournament before round 7, but lost in Armageddon against Fabiano Caruana on Tuesday, while the world champion collected 3 points by beating Aryan Tari in classical chess. Carlsen now has a one-point lead over his 17-year-old colleague. Firouzja and Carlsen will face each other on Thursday. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

10/14/2020 – English Grandmaster Chris Ward is an expert in the Sicilian Dragon, and wants to share his knowledge, debuting as a Fritztrainer. The British Championship Master's fun, entertaining spirit, and his soothing voice, keeps us hooked to his first part on how to play the Sicilian Dragon with plenty of current variations. The popular opening was recently played by Hikaru Nakamura, but also Veselin Topalov has used the powerful system in his best times with his very own variation. GM Ward doesn't want to dissect the variations too much, but rather give interesting new ideas for strong attacking play, creative moves and solid defending.

10/14/2020 – "Grandmaster Chess" is a series by ChessBase India in which a top GM shows his best game and asks four chess loving stand-up comedians to guess the moves in critical positions. The playing level of the comedians is between 1200-1600, and hence they always come up with moves that amateurs and viewers can relate to. The explanation of the grandmaster helps them to understand the game better. You can watch the show live on Wednesday, 10:30 a.m. European time, or later in full on YouTube | Photo: Maya Gelfand