Speelman's Agony: A clash of Sveshnikovs

12/1/2019 – The Sicilian Sveshnikov is on tap for this penultimate column of 2019 as GM JON SPEELMAN tackles a pair of clashes from "clashkid". Pictured: Evgeny Sveshnikov by GFHund (CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons) | Send in your own games! Jon welcomes submissions from readers. If your games are selected for the Agony column, not only will you get free detailed commentary of your games by one of chess’s great authors and instructors, and former world no. 4 player, but you also win a free three-month ChessBase Premium Account!

December ratings: Carlsen retakes rapid #1

12/1/2019 – The December rating list is out, with Magnus Carlsen back at number one in rapid, in addition to classical chess. Hikaru Nakamura, however, remains atop the world blitz rankings. They pair will have a chance to clash in both rapid and blitz formats later this month in Moscow. Alexander Grischuk (pictured) is now nearly sure of a 2020 Candidates qualification spot after his win in the Hamburg Grand Prix tournament. | Photo: Valeria Gordienko

The Modern Magic of Mario Matouš

11/30/2019 – The enjoyment to be gained from solving a well-crafted chess composition can be seen from the sentiment that closes this Study of the Month column. After a long day of work at the board, what does a hungry chess player require? "Something to eat from the pub and something to solve from Matouš". Study of the Month columnist SIEGFRIED HORNECKER dives into the live and work of Mario Matouš.

Ding Liren through the microscope

11/30/2019 – Grandmaster Ding Liren needs no introduction. The young, unassuming talent from China has fans all over the world. He particularly distinguishes himself in blitz games. In the just concluded Tata Steel India Tournament, he beat Carlsen twice and came third after Nakamura and the world champion in the blitz event. PROF NAGESH HAVANUR takes a closer look at some of his games. | Photo: Lennart Ootes / Grand Chess Tour

Who is Evgeny Shtembuliak?

11/30/2019 – He started as the seventh seed, but finished as the winner with a rating performance of 2752, gaining 23 Elo points and scoring 9.0/11 to become the World Junior Champion 2019. His name is Evgeny Shtembuliak. Originally from Ukraine, the youngster now lives in the United States and is studying on a full scholarship at the Texas Tech University. His feel for positional chess is outstanding and at the age of 20, he is already rated 2600. Being the World Junior Champion, we are sure to see him in action in many important events in the coming months. IM SAGAR SHAH got in touch with Evgeny after his World Juniors victory in Delhi for an interview. In this article you get to know everything you wanted to about this genial champion.

Friday Fluff: Chess password cracked after four decades

11/29/2019 – A good password paired with strong encryption protects data against unexpected loss. No password is unbreakable, but some can last for quote a long time. After 39 years, recently a few old Unix passwords were cracked. Computer pioneer Ken Thompson had hidden his access behind a chess opening. | Photo: Bell Labs

Five leaders after first German League weekend

11/29/2019 – Last weekend the new season of the German League began with team matches in Bremen, Deizisau, Augsburg and Speyer-Schwegenheim. In the top match, Bremen Werder met Solingen. Perennial favourites OSG Baden-Baden played their season openers against Berlin and Dresden, winning both matches easily. Results, games and video. | Photo: Grenke Chess YouTube

The missing h-pawn

11/29/2019 – The missing h-pawn in the diagram position spells trouble for the black king, but in order to access it White needs to display some creativity. Be my guest!

Adventures in Bucharest: the World Senior Championship 2019

11/29/2019 – The World Senior Championships in Bucharest came to an end and with Vadim Shishkin (50+), Rafael Vaganian (65+), Elvira Berend (w50+), and Nona Gaprindashvili (w65+) the chess world now has four more World Champions. Thorsten Cmiel played in the 50+ Open and in his report talks about the tournament, what brilliancy prizes have to do with taste, and the dangers of taking a cab in Bucharest. | Photo: Rafael Vaganian | Tournament page | All other photos: Thorsten Cmiel

"Prestigious University Chess Invitational" taking place in Tianjin

11/28/2019 – Twelve prestigious universities from the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Japan and China have sent chess squads to Tianjin. Nankai University is hosting the event as part of the celebrations of its 100-year anniversary. WGM QIYU ZHOU is in the coastal metropolis representing the University of Toronto. She sent us a pictorial report of her experience so far. | Pictured: Representatives of each university during the opening ceremony. | Photo: Liu Yi

Saunders: Is chess becoming faster?

11/28/2019 – In his latest opinion piece, published in the December issue of CHESS Magazine, associate editor John Saunders reflects on the changing face of top-level competition chess as we enter the third decade of the 21st century, with particular emphasis on the way world champions such as Botvinnik, Kasparov and Carlsen have influenced competition formats. Official recognition of the Fischer-Random chess variant and the demographic of the next Wijk ann Zee A tournament — with not a single player aged in their 30s or 40s — show that this evolutionary process has never been stronger.

The life story of Vladimir Akopian (2/2)

11/28/2019 – Vladimir Akopian had almost all the ingredients to become one of the best players in the world. He was fearless, he had phenomenal talent, he understood the game excellently. But he lacked one ingredient: the will to work hard. And that's what stopped him at the final hurdle. This is the story of the life of one of the finest grandmasters in the world. Welcome to Part 2 of the interview with Vladimir Akopian. | Photo: Amruta Mokal

Carlsen wins Tata Steel Chess India 2019

11/27/2019 – Tata Steel Chess India, the penultimate event of the Grand Chess Tour 2019, came to an end with Magnus Carlsen showing his best ever GCT performance, scoring 27 points out of a total 36. He will be joined by Ding Liren, Levon Aronian and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave in the tour's final event the London Chess Classic starting next week. IM SAGAR SHAH brings you the detailed report of the action on the final day from Kolkata.

Game of the Week: Papp vs Svane

11/27/2019 – The new season of the German League caught the attention of IM Merijn van Delft, who this week shows a nice win from the young German GM Rasmus Svane. The live show is free to watch, and available on-demand for ChessBase Premium account holders (but FREE for a limited time!). Merijn is on-demand this week starting at 19:00 UTC (20:00 CET / 4 PM EST).

Opening training with Fritz 17: two "My Moves" video tutorials

11/27/2019 – Fritz 17 is your personal opening trainer and it offers a lot of new, exciting and innovative functions! "My Moves" makes it easy to create an opening repertoire and helps to learn and memorize opening variations in a playful way! In two video tutorials ChessBase founder and developer Matthias Wüllenweber shows how!

NEW: Correspondence Database 2020

11/26/2019 – Get insights from the pioneers of chess opening novelties and update your repertoire with games from the new 2020 edition of the Correspondence Database. Grandmaster Erwin l'Ami says, "these are the best games out there, there are no chess games of a higher level".

The Weekly Show: New season of the German League

11/26/2019 – This week IM Lawrence Trent delves into the opening weekend of the new season of the German League (the Bundesliga) | Puzzle time: In the diagram, it's White to move! | Lawrence is on-demand this week beginning at 17:00 UTC (18:00 CET / Noon EST) and free for a limited time, or forever on-demand with a ChessBase Basic Account. You can register a free 90-day account to watch.

Scandinavian and brilliancy at Tata Steel Chess India Blitz

11/26/2019 – The blitz event is much more intense than the rapid. You have to play nine games in four and a half hours. It was fairly obvious that the players were quite tired, thus they made a lot of errors. However, you could also see a lot of brilliant moves being played. Magnus Carlsen once again set the tone with a 6½/9 performance. He is now the overall leader by a gap of five points over the nearest contender. For Indian fans the main goal would be to see Vishy Anand qualifying for the Grand Chess Tour Finals to be held from November 28th in London. In this report we bring you some of the best and most interesting games, selected tactical positions and mating attacks!

Tata Steel Rapid & Blitz: Live

11/26/2019 – The penultimate tournament of the Grand Chess Tour, the Tata Steel Rapid & Blitz in Kolkata, features World Champion Magnus Carlsen and some of the world's best chess players. Live games and commentary from 7:30 UTC (8:30 CET / 2:30 EST). | Photos: Grand Chess Tour

Bodycheck

11/26/2019 – In pawn endings it is often crucial to stop the enemy king from getting to good squares. Here, the "bodycheck" is an important device that is good to know and to remember.

Alexei Shirov and Sabrina Vega are the 2019 Spanish Champions

11/26/2019 – Seven players tied for first at the Spanish Championship in Marbella. The first tiebreaker criterion left Alexei Shirov, Paco Vallejo and Iván Salgado on the podium, in that order. Among the women, Sabrina Vega obtained her sixth national title, while Liudmila Kolotilina and Mónica Calzetta got second and third places respectively. | Photo: Spanish Chess Federation

Simon Says: Morphy's Magic 2

11/25/2019 – Paul Morphy is an eternal source of fascination, and this week GM Simon Williams continues his look at some of Morphy's "magical" games. Watch live for free (or on-demand for a limited time) starting at the usual hour: 17:00 UTC (18:00 CET / 12 Noon EST).

Carlsen's 3027 performance at the Tata Steel India Rapid 2019

11/25/2019 – Magnus Carlsen performed at an astronomical Elo of 3027 at the Tata Steel Chess India 2019 Rapid. He scored 15.0/18, with six wins and three draws. According to Magnus, this was his best performance ever in rapid format. He gained 36.8 Elo points, taking his rapid rating to 2885. He also overtook MVL and thus became World no.1 in rapid. Hikaru Nakamura took the second spot with 11.0/18 and Wesley So was third. The tournament has not yet ended of course — we've moved to the blitz section with 18 more rounds to be played. The cumulative score of both the formats will determine the winner. A detailed day three report from the National Library in Kolkata.

World Champion against amateurs

11/24/2019 – Magnus Carlsen recently resigned from the Norwegian Chess Federation, but continues to play in the Second Norwegian League for his newly founded club Offerspill. So far, the world champion has played twice and — not surprisingly — won twice. Both games were one-sided, but still interesting. | Photo: Lennart Ootes (archive)