New York 1924, Round 22: Success for Dr. Lasker!

5/26/2020 – Former World Champion Dr. Emanuel Lasker had won the tournament in New York with one round to spare, and current World Champion José Raúl Capablanca was certain to finish second. But the final round of the top-tournament was still fiercely fought and four of the five games ended with a decision - and in all four games it was White who won.| Photo: The Statue of Liberty in New York (Source: Library of Congress)

The Silkway Cup - A top-class online blitz tournament at playchess.com

5/26/2020 – The Silkway Cup is an online Blitz Tournament to celebrate Azerbaijan's Republic Day and Independence Day in Georgia. Top players such as Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, Ivan Cheparinov, Rauf Mamedov, Baadur Jobava and many others start in this event that takes place on May 26. The first round starts at 13:00 CEST (Central European Summer Time).

Lindores Abbey QF: Nakamura into the semis

5/26/2020 – Speed chess king Hikaru Nakamura bulldozed his way into the semi-finals — the world's top blitz player made short work of Levon Aronian as he crushed the Armenian 3:1 in their Lindores Abbey Rapid Challenge mini-match and 2:0 overall. Nakamura, already ahead in the tie after winning on Saturday, raced into the lead with a first game win in today's second best-of-three rubber. | Photos: Lennart Ootes / FIDE

Simon Says: Recent Games

5/25/2020 – In this Simon Says we will look at some recent games. The focus is on another stunning idea by Daniil Dubov! | Watch for free and on-demand (for a limited time, or forever with a ChessBase Premium account). (Normally 16:00 UTC (18:00 CEST / 12 Noon EST).

New York 1924, Round 22: Live

5/25/2020 – Today, the last round of the New York 1924 will be played. Dr. Emanuel Lasker leads with 15.0/19 and is certain to win the tournament because he is 1½ ahead of Capablanca who is certain to finish second. However, as each player receives extra money for a win a peaceful last round is unlikely. All rounds begin at 15:00 UK (16:00 CEST, 09:00 EST). | The photo shows the eleven participants. Seated (from left to right): F. Yates, J.R. Capablanca, D. Janowsky, Edward Lasker, Emanuel Lasker. Standing (from left to right): F. Marshall, S. Tartakower, G. Maroczy, A. Alekhine, R. Reti, E. Bogoljubow

Riddle solved: Fischer could have won!

5/25/2020 – The 1962 Chess Olympiad took place in in Varna, Bulgaria. In round ten the 19-year-old American grandmaster Bobby Fischer faced World Champion Mikhail Botvinnik – with the black pieces. At adjournment Fischer had a clear advantage, but he had simplified too quickly and fell into a "Botvinnik trap." The game was a draw, and experts have puzzled over it ever since: could Black have won? Now we know the answer, thanks to our very diligent readers. Two of them won a prize.

New York 1924, Round 21: Lasker wins the tournament!

5/25/2020 – With one round to spare former World Champion Dr. Emanuel Lasker (pictured) won the New York Tournament 1924. In the 21st and penultimate round, the 55-year-old Lasker won against Dr. Savielly Tartakower with fine defensive play. With 15 points from 19 games (+12, =6, -1) Lasker is now 1½ points ahead of World Champion José Raúl Capablanca, who, after a nice endgame victory against Richard Reti, is now on 13½/19 and certain to finish second.

Lindores Abbey: Carlsen and Dubov win convincingly

5/25/2020 – The second pair of mini-matches in the quarter-finals of the Lindores Abbey Rapid Challenge finished much more quickly than Saturday's encounters. Magnus Carlsen and Daniil Dubov needed only three games to defeat Wesley So and Sergey Karjakin respectively. Dubov in fact won all three games, while Carlsen survived a scare in the second game and saw his opponent agreeing to a quick draw in the third. | Photos: Lennart Ootes / V. Saravanan

Darkness on the Horizon (2)

5/24/2020 – Back in the 1980s some program authors tried to avoid the problems of the horizon effect by following suspicious lines a few half moves deeper. It became ever more difficult to use the horizon trap on them. The authors were not always forthcoming about their progress, so Frederic Friedel devised a number of test positions to find out more and to find how individual programs worked.

New York 1924, Round 20: Fortune favours the brave

5/24/2020 – Former World Champion Dr. Emanuel Lasker and reigning World Champion José Raúl Capablanca lead at the New York Tournament 1924. However, in round 20 they both were lucky not to lose. But while Lasker managed to win a bad position against Geza Maroczy, Capablanca "only" drew a bad position against Frederick Yates which allowed Lasker to extend his lead. With two rounds to go Lasker is now almost certain to win the tournament: he leads with 14.0/18 and is 1½ points ahead of Capablanca who is sole second with 12½/18. | Photo: Emanuel Lasker

Fast and Furious: Anti-Meran 6...a5!?

5/24/2020 – This week Robert Ris takes a look at another fascinating new idea by opening expert Daniil Dubov. This time the innovative Russian top GM came up with a novelty on move 6 in the Anti-Meran. The amazing resource is 6...a5!? which gives a new dynamical touch to this heavily investigated opening. "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: Lennart Ootes

Mastering Pattern recognition in the Opening.

5/24/2020 – Tests with chess players of various strengths found the "secret" of the good players: the more chess patterns you know the stronger you are. No wonder that studying chess helps you to improve! On his DVD "Mastering Pattern Recognition in the Opening" Robert Ris deals with important patterns in the opening. Davide Nastasio had a look at the DVD.

Lindores Abbey QF: Nakamura and Yu win in Armageddon

5/23/2020 – The first mini-matches of the Lindores Abbey quarter-finals went down to the wire, as Hikaru Nakamura and Yu Yangyi got wins over Levon Aronian and Ding Liren in Armageddon tiebreakers. While Yu and Ding drew all four rapid games prior to the sudden-death decider, Nakamura came back from behind to tie the score in the fourth game of regulation. Aronian and Ding will get a chance to bounce back on Monday, when the second pair of mini-matches will take place. | Photos: Lennart Ootes

Logic Riddles for Chess Players (4)

5/23/2020 – In our fourth logic riddle for chess players we have to deal with a pawn who is not very good with numbers. Similar to the previous logic riddles, the chess theme again carries the logic riddle and should not be taken too seriously. You are more than welcome to write the answer to the riddle and to detail your approach to find the solution in the comments.

Getting the most out of ChessBase 15: a step-by-step guide #3 – Layout

5/23/2020 – You've installed Chessbase 15, it's activated and updated. What next? How does a beginner to ChessBase 15 know where to start, or how to access the functions and features of the most sophisticated chess program on the planet. It's actually remarkably simple. Here, Nick Murphy shows you how.

New York 1924, Round 19: Dr. Lasker defends his lead

5/23/2020 – After 19 of 22 rounds Emanuel Lasker, José Raúl Capablanca and Alexander Alekhine lead at the New York Tournament 1924. All three won in round 19: Emanuel Lasker won with Black against Edward Lasker, Capablanca refuted Tartakowers dubious King's Gambit and Alekhine defeated Dawid Janowsky. Lasker now leads with 13.0/17, followed by Capablanca with 12.0/17 and Alekhine with 11.0/18. | Photo: Capablanca (left) and Emanuel Lasker (Archive)

Daniel King's Power Play Show: Jan Hein Donner

5/23/2020 – In this Power Play Show Grandmaster Daniel King takes a look at some games of the legendary Dutch Grandmaster and writer Jan Hein Donner (1927-1988). | 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.

Sam Shankland: My most memorable game

5/22/2020 – In this new series, we ask professional chess players to share the most memorable game from their careers. Anybody who has ever participated in a competitive event knows that the emotional value attached to each contest is vastly more relevant than the pure sportive achievement. In the first instalment, Sam Shankland shares his first-ever victory over a grandmaster, ten years before winning the US Championship. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

New York 1924, Round 18: Capablanca defends, Marshall attacks

5/22/2020 – In round 18 of the New York Tournament 1924 World Champion José Raúl Capablanca once again showed why he is so hard to beat. After a bad opening he still managed to win against Edward Lasker with strong positional play. Frank Marshall defeated Efim Bogoljubow with a fantastic attack, sacrificing a number of pieces on his way to victory. | Photo: José Raúl Capablanca (Archive)

Attacking with opposite-coloured bishops

5/22/2020 – There are a few rules of thumb about opposite-coloured bishops, e.g. "in the middlegame, they favour the attacker" or "endgames with opposite-coloured bishops are difficult to win". But there are also guidelines how to attack in a middlegame with opposite-coloured bishops. In ChessBase Magazine #195 Mihail Marin shows how strong players handle opposite-coloured bishops in complex positions. Have a look!
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Fischer Random tournament on 23rd May 2020 on Playchess

5/22/2020 – After the successful online event on Playchess in April the Buddhibal Kreeda Trust (BKT) is back with another tournament. The tournament has a prize fund of ₹35000 and is a Fischer Random (Chess960) tournament. The first prize is ₹11000. With rating category prizes and prizes for women, it's a tournament you cannot afford to miss. It will take place on Saturday 23rd of May at 8 p.m. Indian Standard Time (16:30 CEST, 14:30 UTC, 09:30 EST) in Chess960 Tournaments in the "Thematic Chess" room on Playchess.com. Entry is FREE for GMs, IMs, WGMs and WIMs. For everyone else the entry fee is ₹300. Registration is on.

Lindores Abbey: On to the quarter-finals

5/21/2020 – Four players dropped out of the Lindores Abbey Rapid Challenge after the preliminary single round robin finished on Thursday. Alexander Grischuk was eliminated on tiebreaks despite getting a last-round win over Wei Yi. Wei, Alireza Firouzja and Jan-Krzysztof Duda are also out of contention. The round robin was won by Hikaru Nakamura, who collected 7½ points in 11 games. The quarter-finals kick off on Saturday. | Photos: Lennart Ootes / Vladimir Jagr

Disaster

5/21/2020 – In the diagram position White's bishop a2 fires against the knight e6. The intermediate exchange 31...Rxd1 32.Rxd1 is still okay for Black, however, offering a second rook trade with 32...Rd8?? leads to disaster. Can you see why?

Your chess tutor with a double major in Economics and Statistics!

5/21/2020 – The biggest two problems that every beginner faces in a game of chess are - starting out right and not blundering pieces! Openings and Tactics are truly the two most essential cornerstones of becoming better at chess. And there is no one better than WGM Qiyu Zhou to be your trainer! Qiyu is not just a WGM and a former World Under-14 champion, she is also doing her double major in Economics and Statistics, with a minor in Mathematics from the University of Toronto. Zhou is an intelligent and charming presenter and if you are a beginner then these two DVDs are just what you need to improve at chess!