Altibox Norway Chess: Firouzja grabs the lead

10/12/2020 – In the sixth round, Fabiano Caruana took down former leader Levon Aronian. The beneficiary of the defeat was Alireza Firouzja, who won against Aryan Tari and thus took the lead. Magnus Carlsen bounced back from his loss on Saturday and defeated Jan-Krzysztof Duda — the world champion is in third place. | Photos: Lennart Ootes

A video chat with Judit Polgar

10/12/2020 – On Saturday, October 10, the Global Chess Festival was celebrated! The woman behind this vibrant annual gala hardly needs any introduction. The strongest female chess player of all time is the only woman to have ever challenged male hegemony in the sport. Though everyone is familiar with Judit Polgar, the chess player, we thought the world would also do good to know Judit the wife and mother. At the end of last month, ChessBase India's Amruta Mokal conducted an exclusive interview with this remarkable lady. In this article we bring you the full transcript of this candid tête-à-tête. | Photo credit: globalchessfestival.com

Grandmaster Chef: Fabiano Caruana

10/11/2020 – Grandmaster Fabiano Caruana is the top-ranked chess player in the United States and is second in the world. He was the challenger for the World Chess Championship in 2018. To show appreciation for Caruana, National Master Mike Walder presents a recipe for a dish Caruana might like and annotates one of Caruana’s wins. WIM Alexey Root tells why Caruana is a Grandmaster Chef honoree. | Pictured: Caruana at the 2018 London Chess Classic | Photo: Lennart Ootes

Finding harmony in the endgame

10/11/2020 – Endgame expert Karsten Müller keeps finding interesting endgames at the Altibox Norway Chess Tournament. This time around, he looks at the rook and knight versus bishop and knight ending from the Levon Aronian v Fabiano Caruana game from round 5. Hidden tricks abound in these unbalanced positions! | Photo: Lennart Ootes

Norway Chess: Duda ends Carlsen’s streak, Aronian leads

10/11/2020 – Round 5 of the Norway Chess tournament saw tail-ender Jan-Krzysztof Duda defeating former sole leader Magnus Carlsen, thus ending a 125-game undefeated streak in classical chess that lasted over two years. In the meantime, Levon Aronian and Alireza Firouzja also collected 3 points each by winning their classical games — Aronian inflicted Caruana’s second straight loss while Firouzja defeated Tari with the white pieces. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

Connected pawns on the move

10/10/2020 – Round 4 of the Altibox Norway Chess tournament in Stavanger saw Levon Aronian and Alireza Firouzja playing an Armageddon tiebreaker after drawing their classical game. Karsten Müller assessed the final phase of the encounter as a “fascinating knight endgame”. The endgame specialist examined the sequence in detail and now shares it with all ChessBase readers. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

Russian Higher League kicks off in Sochi

10/10/2020 – The Russian city of Sochi will host the “Higher League” until October 17. Thanks to the large number of strong grandmasters in the country, this qualifying tournament to the Superfinal is heavily contested, so much so that it equals the level of the national championship in almost any other country in the world. Rating favourite Vladislav Artemiev (2716) already gave up a half point in the first two rounds. In the women’s tournament, Valentina Gunina is the rating favourite. | Photos: Eteri Kublashvili

"Dvoretsky's Endgame Manual": an interview with Karsten Müller

10/9/2020 – Many players believe that Mark Dvoretsky's "Endgame Manual" is one of the best chess books of all time. Recently, Russell Enterprises released the 5th edition of this legendary work. In an interview with Johannes Fischer, Karsten Müller, who edited and revised the 5th edition of the "Manual", talks about his passion for the endgame, why studying Dovretsky's manual is fun and worth the effort, and what makes this book so special.

Norway Chess: Carlsen beats Caruana to take the lead

10/9/2020 – Magnus Carlsen climbed to the top of the standings in the Norway Chess Tournament by beating former co-leader Fabiano Caruana with white in their classical encounter. Meanwhile, Alireza Firouzja and Aryan Tari won in Armageddon, defeating Levon Aronian and Jan-Krzysztof Duda respectively. A misunderstanding with the arbiter meant Firouzja arrived a couple of minutes late to his sudden-death game. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

AlphaZero/Kramnik: Torpedo pawns

10/9/2020 – Modifying the existing rules for chess to make it more dynamic or decisive, needs years of experience and a large numbers of games if we are to assess the quality and appeal of any new variant. The company DeepMind has used their AI technology to evaluate nine variants proposed by former World Champion Vladimir Kramnik in a much shorter period of time. Here are their findings for "Torpedo Chess", where pawns can move two squares forward from anywhere.

Norway Chess: Another instructive endgame

10/9/2020 – The first four rounds of the Altibox Norway Chess Tournament saw a number of instructive and interesting endgames. Karsten Müller is happy and took a close look at the textbook-endgame between Jan-Krzysztof Duda and Levon Aronian in round 3, which shows why it is sometimes better to have less.

King in the middle (3)

10/9/2020 – Grabbing the opponent's b-pawn in the opening by sending your queen on a killing spree is not always bad, as the Poisoned Pawn Variation in the Najdorf (1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 a6 6.Bg5 e6 7.f4 Qb6!?) shows. But in the diagram position, Black's greedy 9...Qxb2? is indeed bad. However, to refute the move, White needs to use many a piece. Have fun!

Judit Polgar's Global Chess Festival goes online - on October 10!

10/9/2020 – The Global Chess Festival, initiated and organised by Judit Polgar, is a treat for chess players all over the world. Traditionally, the festival takes place on the second Saturday of October, which this year falls on October 10, and this year the festival goes online - with a fantastic program and an amazing choice of events, all for free! "Chess Connects Us" is the slogan of the Global Chess Festival, and chess fans all over the world are invited to join the fun!

Robert Ris' Fast and Furious: Attacking with Black against the Slow Slav

10/8/2020 – In this week's show, well-known Dutch trainer Robert Ris shows how Black can mix things up against the Slow Slav. | "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.

The Penrose Family: Scientists and Chess Players

10/8/2020 – The Penrose family's passion for chess can be traced back to Lionel Penrose, a famous professor of genetics, whose legacy also includes a number of chess problems and studies. Of his four children, Jonathan Penrose showed the greatest talent for chess: he was ten-time British Champion, an International Master, a Grandmaster of Correspondence Chess, and in 1993 the FIDE made him an Honorary Grandmaster. On October 6, his brother Roger Penrose won the Nobel Prize in Physics. | Image: Pioneer Works (Screenshot)

Matthew Lunn: Opening Surprises

10/8/2020 – In order to improve your tournament results you can focus on (i) endings; (ii) tactics; or (iii) openings. "I am an adherent of the third option," writes Matthew Lunn in CHESS Magazine, "not because I think it's the best way to improve my chess, but because I enjoy it." You too may share this approach after replaying some of the examples Matthew provides.

Norway Chess: Aronian in the shared lead as Firouzja stops Caruana

10/8/2020 – Levon Aronian beat Jan-Krzysztof Duda from an equal rook endgame to catch Fabiano Caruana in the lead of the Altibox Norway Chess tournament. Caruana lost against Alireza Firouzja in Armageddon. Meanwhile, Magnus Carlsen was worse in a complicated position against Aryan Tari, but ended up getting a win after his young opponent mishandled his advantage. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

Norway Chess: a tricky endgame - Caruana vs Duda

10/7/2020 – The players at the Altibox Norway Chess Tournament seem to enjoy playing "live" again, and the fighting spirit is high. The current tournament leader Fabiano Caruana started with two wins, and he won both games in the endgame. But was his endgame against Jan-Krzysztof Duda in round 2 really won? Karsten Müller is not sure and took a deeper look. | Photos: Lennart Ootes

Growing with golf and chess

10/7/2020 – The Mechanics’ Institute’s Judit Sztaray discusses how her daughter Reka is growing from golf and chess. Reka outlines developing as a golfer thanks to her teammates and videos of golf pros. WIM Alexey Root compares Reka’s golf advice to learning from world chess champions’ games. College golfer Alex Chin and his chess opponent, National Master Mike Walder, annotate their game. | Pictured: Paul Whitehead teaching at Mechanics’ Institute in the summer of 2019 | All photos: Judit Sztaray

Game of the Week: Aryan Tari vs Fabiano Caruana

10/7/2020 – In his "Game of the Week" show, Merijn van Delft takes a look at a game from the first round of the Altibox Norway Chess Tournament: Fabiano Caruana's win with Black against Aryan Tari. | 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:

Blohberger and Happala win 1. Austrian Internet Championships

10/7/2020 – The 1. Austrian Internet Championship turned into a race between Stefan Kindermann and Felix Blohberger and was only decided in the last round - by a mouse slip. Blohberger became champion. Elisabeth Happala smoothly won the women's tournament. | Photos: Chess.at

Norway Chess: Caruana remains perfect, Carlsen wins on time

10/7/2020 – Fabiano Caruana took the sole lead of the Altibox Norway Chess tournament by beating Jan-Krzysztof Duda with the white pieces to reach a perfect 6/6 score. Meanwhile, on his 38th birthday, Levon Aronian inflicted Aryan Tari’s second loss, and Magnus Carlsen defeated Alireza Firouzja in Armageddon after the latter failed to make the most of a very favourable position and lost on time. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

Fedoseev wins Jackpot Blitz Tournament

10/6/2020 – The Pacific Northwest Chess Center (PNWCC) is a very active, Seattle based club that organised a couple of strong online events during the COVID-19 pandemic. One of these events was the so-called Jackpot Blitz, a series of blitz tournaments. The excellent conditions and the attractive prizes attracted some of the world's best players, but a few weeks ago the Jackpot series ended with the 20th and last Jackpot Blitz. It was won by GM Vladimir Fedoseev, who sends a report and annotates games.

The Weekly Show: Jan-Krzysztof Duda vs Alireza Firouzja

10/6/2020 – In round 1 of the Altibox Norway Chess Tournament Alireza Firouzja (pictured), the world's best junior, won a nice game against Jan-Krzysztof Duda, who is also an extraordinary talent. In his weekly show IM Lawrence Trent takes a closer look at the action. | Lawrence’s show is available at 17:00 UTC (19:00 CEST, 13:00 EDT) on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here. | Photo: Official site | Photo: Amruta Mokal (Archive)