5/17/2020 – Russians Kateryna Lagno and Daniil Dubov have taken the lead at the women's and open sections of the FIDE Online Steinitz Memorial respectively. The sensation of the day was Dubov's win over Magnus Carlsen, leapfrogging the world champion atop the standings table. Carlsen kept up the pace with the Russian and is now in sole second place a half point back. | Photos: FIDE

5/16/2020 – Online chess has become very popular in the last couple of years and more and more people participate and try to win games and achieve a higher rating. Rating matters so much that it can turn into an obsession. Ratings appear to represent the value of the person. We take a closer look at how the ego can become the curse of the rating system and how we feel about it.

5/16/2020 – In round 12 of the tournament in New York Emanuel Lasker won again and he again won a bad position. In the course of his career Dawid Janowsky had a lot of promising positions against Lasker and he has spoilt most of them. In New York he continued this "tradition". For a long time Janowsky was clearly better but found no way to overcome Lasker's stubborn defense, and in the end he blundered and lost. Lasker now leads with 8½/11 and is 1½ ahead of Alekhine who drew with Capablanca and Reti, who won brilliantly against Bogoljubow.

5/16/2020 – The FIDE Online Steinitz Memorial kicked off Friday with six rounds played both in the open and women's sections. Alexandra Kosteniuk had the best performance overall, getting a commanding lead after scoring 5½ points on day one. In the open, Magnus Carlsen is the sole leader on 4 out of 6. Three players stand a half point back — Bu Xiangzhi, Daniil Dubov and Shakhriyar Mamedyarov. | Photos: FIDE

5/15/2020 – In this Power Play Show Grandmaster Daniel King takes a look at the King's Gambit and presents old and new games with this still fascinating opening. | 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.

5/15/2020 – At his peak Mir Sultan Khan was one of the best players in the world. He was a three-time British Champion, and beat top players like Capablanca, Rubinstein, Yates or Tartakower. However, FIDE has never made him a Grandmaster while many other players were given the title. A petition now asks FIDE to honour Mir Sultan Khan and his achievements with the grandmaster title.

5/15/2020 – Would you like to learn the art of chess training from the Russian national team coach, or from the coach of the former Women's World Champion? Or would you like to learn from a former World No. 3? How about all of them? Wouldn't it be too expensive? No! From 29th to 31st of May 2020 you can do it, online. The seminar is open to trainers, and players (!), world-wide. A great opportunity.

5/15/2020 – This is a pleasantly tricky position! After 19...Bxe4 20.fxe5 Black needs to calculate precisely: two key lines win for Black, two key lines win for White. Can you find these lines and do you see how Black can win?

5/15/2020 – After 11 of 22 rounds Emanuel Lasker leads the New York Tournament 1924 with 7½ points out of ten games. But the eleventh round was not a Lasker-round. Emanuel had some trouble against Frederick Yates and could be happy about a draw while Edward missed a trick against Frank Marshall and lost. Otherwise, everybody else here is talking politics. | Photo: Edward Lasker (with White) and Frank Marshall

5/15/2020 – Alexander Grischuk won the three-day online "Play for Russia" charity tournament after beating Vladimir Kramnik and Evgeny Tomashevsky in the knockout phase. Kramnik, the main initiator of the event, showed he still has what it takes to face strong active grandmasters by clearly winning the round-robin section and only losing to Grischuk in the Armageddon tiebreaker of the semi-final.

5/14/2020 – Take a look at the position in our picture. How can White draw? Impossible, of course: you capture the knight, the black king moves to d4 and then the pawns win the game. However, against early computers there was a way to save this position. In our first historical article, describing the early days of chess programming, you will learn how computers could fall into the horizon trap.

5/14/2020 – In a press release World Champion Magnus Carlsen today revealed his $1 million vision for a new online chess tour designed to cement the game’s future in the public eye. Four super-tournaments culminating in a Grand Final in August will become the new "majors" for online chess, the Magnus Carlsen Chess Tour. It follows the breakout success of the Magnus Carlsen Invitational which shattered all records for online viewership and now serves as the first leg of the Tour. Carlsen believes carrying the momentum into an online Tour presents the opportunity to establish chess permanently as a mass media sport.