5/7/2020 – Pippin Barr and Jonathan Lessard are the makers of the unique chess variant "Chogue". It combines the normal chess game with a rogue-like theme. After you have played your first move with the white pieces, the black king escapes into a deep dungeon, where you have to follow and check-mate him. We had a chance to interview the makers about their game idea, intention and future projects.

5/7/2020 – The top game of the third round of the New York tournament in the Alamac Hotel was the clash between the 31-year-old Alexander Alekhine and the 55-year-old former World Champion Emanuel Lasker. Alekhine has good chances to become the next challenger of World Champion Capablanca and is famous for his dynamic play and ferocious attack but against Lasker's magic he was helpless. | Photo: Emanuel Lasker

5/7/2020 – Europe had a tough first day, losing to China and drawing Russia, but are now well in the fight for first place after winning both their matches on Wednesday at the FIDE chess.com Nations Cup. Levon Aronian was the star of the Europeans, as he got impressive back-to-back wins over Vidit Gujrathi and Leinier Dominguez. China remain in the sole lead nevertheless, two match points ahead of chasers Europe and United States. | Photos: FIDE

5/6/2020 – Merijn van Delft takes a look at the dramatic final of the Magnus Carlsen Invitational match where Magnus Carlsen and Hikaru Nakamura showed their skills in rapid chess. | 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.

5/6/2020 – The Fischer-Petrosian Candidates match of 1971 in Buenos Aires was the third and final round in the eliminations to determine the challenger for the World Championship. Former World Champion Tigran Petrosian was considered undefeatable, and the match started 2½-2½. Then in game six Fischer scored a superb win that turned the match. Since then chess experts have discussed the question: could Petrosian have defended the game to a fateful draw? No conclusive answer was reached. Now endgame expert GM Karsten Müller – together with our readers – made a new attempt – has made a new attempt. And: we have a solution!

5/6/2020 – The second round of the Grandmaster Tournament New York 1924 saw only one decisive game. After a bold opening experiment Alexander Alekhine won with Black against Geza Maroczy, and with 2 out of 2 he is now sole first. The duel of the World Champions between Emanuel Lasker and José Raúl Capablanca ended in a bloodless draw but the game between Edward Lasker and Efim Bogoljubow was an interesting fight and gave Edward Lasker the opportunity to show why even the best players in the world make mistakes. | Photo: Alexander Alekhine (Archive)

5/6/2020 – Day one of the FIDE chess.com Nations Cup saw China getting the sole lead after winning both his matches, over Rest of the World and Europe. The Chinese squad got 3:1 wins in both matches, with Yu Yangyi scoring full points both times. United States are in second place on 3 match points, after drawing India and beating Europe. Fabiano Caruana led the American team by getting two victories in close to equal endgames. | Photos: FIDE

5/5/2020 – In his weekly show IM Lawrence Trent talks about New York 1924, recaps the Magnus Carlsen Invitational, and looks forward to the Online Nations Cup. | Lawrence' show is available at 16:00 UTC (18:00 CEST, 12 Noon EDT) on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here. | Photo: Lennart Ootes (Archive)

5/5/2020 – Usually in endgames rooks are much better than knights - a rook is as mobile as a bishop and unlike the bishop it can go to squares of both colours. But believe it or not, sometimes the defending side can build a fortress.

5/5/2020 – Before the era of digital boards and computers, the only way to keep a game safe was to save the physical score sheet. While most of the games are available on Mega Database, there are a few games of strong players which are not published anywhere. Some of the games of Nigel Short were discovered by the man himself. We decided to compile all games of the former World Championship finalist and current FIDE Vice-President which are unpublished in Mega Database along with a few photos of his score sheets. | Pictured: Short playing Tigran Petrosian in a simul. | Photo: Ottawa Chess Club

5/5/2020 – The Grandmaster Tournament in New York, one of the strongest tournaments in the history of chess, has started. Favourites are the current World Champion José Raúl Capablanca, the former World Champion Emanuel Lasker, and the young Russian Alexander Alekhine. In the first round, two of the five games ended with a decision: Alekhine won against Frederick Yates after Yates missed a golden opportunity, and Savielly Tartakower won against Efim Bogoljubow with an unusual line of the King's Gambit: 1.e4 e5 2.f4 exf4 3.Be2!?. | Photo: Alexander Alekhine

5/4/2020 – In this Simon Says we will look at how you can improve your game by incorporating concepts that you notice in games, puzzles, analyses or anywhere else into your own play. Come and see how you get on! | 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).