Chess Connects for the 5th time at the Global Chess Festival

11/2/2019 – The Global Chess Festival 2019 returned to the Hungarian National Gallery and featured all the usual events for children, including simuls and appearances by all three Polgar sisters — Judit, Sofia and Susan. Singer/songwriter Juga performed and Vladimir Kramnik gave a simul and was Judit's guest for a live question and answer session. ALINA L'AMI reports in exquisite detail from Budapest. | Photos: Alina l'Ami

European Team Championship - Round 9 - Russia wins twice

11/2/2019 – The Ukrainian team was unable to fend off the Russians as they regained 1st place in the final round at the European Teams in Batumi. Russia led the Women's tournament from start to finish and thus took double-gold. Games and live commentary of Round 9.

Fischer Random Final: So beats Carlsen twice in a day

11/2/2019 – Wesley So impressed during day two of the finals at the Fischer Random World Championship as he defeated Magnus Carlsen twice to get a whopping 10½:1½ lead, which means he only needs two more points to take the title. In the match for third place, Ian Nepomniachtchi beat Fabiano Caruana once to get a three-point edge before Saturday's 'fast rapid' and blitz games. | Photo: Lennart Ootes / frchess.com

Chess calendar: November 2019

11/1/2019 – November will kick off with the third leg of the Grand Prix in Hamburg, the penultimate stage of the FIDE series that awards two spots for the 2020 Candidates Tournament. This month will also feature the last two rapid and blitz events of the Grand Chess Tour, which will decide who will join Magnus Carlsen in the London finale. In the midst of all that elite action, the European Club Cup will take place in Montenegro. | You'll find all of these events and more covered in our live games broadcast area Live.ChessBase.com and we'll also be providing News coverage.

European Teams: Ukraine catches Russia

11/1/2019 – With one round to go at the European Team Championships in Batumi, Russia and Ukraine are sharing the lead on 13 match points in the open section. The deciding final day of action will see Ukraine facing Croatia and Russia playing against the third seeds from Poland. Meanwhile, among the women, Russia did manage to reach the final round in the sole lead, which means a victory over Turkey will be enough to secure the gold. The final round starts four hours earlier than usual. | Photo: Official site

The Power Play Show: Fischer Random World Championship

11/1/2019 – Power Play is back! On the show today: GM Daniel King takes you through games from the FIDE Fischer Random World Championship. Power Play is live most Fridays at 16:00 UTC (18:00 CEST, Noon EDT) on playchess.com. You can watch the episode live for free! All the usual puzzles, games and instruction will be on offer. Puzzle and the live video...

Fischer Random Final: Wesley So leads

11/1/2019 – Wesley So has a 4½:1½ lead over Magnus Carlsen after day one of the finals at the Fischer Random World Championship in Norway. The Filipino-born grandmaster and the world champion played two remarkable games, but only So made the most of the time he had a better position. Fabiano Caruana and Ian Nepomniachtchi, in the meantime, traded wins and go into day two with the score tied in the match for third place. | Photo: Lennart Ootes / frchess.com

A Maroczy unbound

11/1/2019 – In the diagram position the central pawns c4 and e4 guarantee White a typical space plus. But if he wants to play for an advantage, 12.b3 is not the way to go. Why?

November ratings: World Cup and Grand Swiss

11/1/2019 – The November rating list is out and reflects the performances of two of the most important tournaments on the calendar this year: The World Cup and the Grand Swiss, both qualifying events for the 2020 Candidates tournament which attracted a massive turnout of elite players. Every member of the top 40 was in action in the rating period except for the retired Vladimir Kramnik, Richard Rapport and Veselin Topalov. | Pictured: World Cup winner Teimour Radjabov, runner-up Ding Liren, third place finisher Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and fourth placed Yu Yangyi at the close of the Khanty-Mansiysk festivities. | Photo: FIDE

Fast and Furious Firouzja

10/31/2019 – The traditional chess festival in Hoogeveen concluded last weekend and IM Robert Ris was impressed by Iranian super-talent Alireza Firouzja. Tune into the live show at 18:00 UTC (19:00 CET / 2 PM EDT) which is free to watch, and available on-demand for ChessBase Premium account holders (but FREE for a limited time!). To chat, please visit videos.chessbase.com/live or login via Playchess for Windows. In the diagram, it's White to play and win!

European Teams: Russia take the sole lead

10/31/2019 – The Russian teams are alone atop the standings table both at the open and women's sections of the European Team Championships in Batumi. In round six, Dmitry Andreikin defeated Vassily Ivanchuk in the only decisive game of the key Russia v Ukraine match-up, while Germany upset Azerbaijan to take sole second place. Among the women, Russia failed to win a match for the first time in the tournament, as Azerbaijan held them to a draw. | Photo: Official site

The race for the last Candidates spots

10/30/2019 – In Candidates Tournament 2020, eight players will compete to determine the challenger for the current World Champion, Magnus Carlsen. Four participants have been confirmed and four more are still being sought. Two of them will be determined by the FIDE Grand Prix, the third stage of which will take place from November 5th to 17th in Hamburg, with the first round less than a week away!

Game of the Week: Banikas vs Meier

10/30/2019 – The European Team Championship is a fantastic source of fascinating battles and theoretical developments. Today IM Merijn van Delft highlights the game between GMs Banikas and Meier. The 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 / 3 PM EDT).

New: ChessBase Magazine #192

10/30/2019 – Fan and financier: The chess world needs more personalities like Rex Sinquefield. Star analyses: Annotated games by Anand, Giri, Vidit, Vitiugov, Tomashevsky among others. Benoni forever! Tanmay Srinath’s active recipe vs. the Four Pawns Attack. The Chinese Dragon — Igor Stohl proves Black is fine after 10…Rb8!? Who surprises whom first? Niclas Huschenbeth dissects his World Cup victory over Naiditsch. Attacking ideas vs. the Italian Game — Mihail Marin shows how White succeeds on the kingside...and much more!

Magnus Carlsen and Wesley So reach Fischer Random final

10/30/2019 – The semi-finals of the Fischer Random World Chess Championship came to an end on Tuesday. Wesley So and Magnus Carlsen advanced to the final match with categorical victories over Ian Nepomniachtchi and Fabiano Caruana respectively. So surpassed the 12½ points mark needed to win after three of the eight games scheduled for day three, while Carlsen played one more encounter before being declared the winner. | Photo: Lennart Ootes / frchess.com

A look back at CBM #191

10/29/2019 – This previous edition of ChessBase Magazine offers games from Altibox Norway and GCT Zagreb (both won by Carlsen) and FIDE Candidates’ Tournament for Women’s World Championship (won by Goryachkina). 1324 OTB games in the Main Database and several others annotated in the DVD. Commentators include Fabiano Caruana, Boris Gelfand, Evgeny Postny and Mihail Marin. A review from NAGESH HAVANUR: "Not to be missed."

The Weekly Show: Euro Teams and others

10/29/2019 – The European Team Champs has seen a number of interesting games. IM Lawrence Trent checks out one from Anish Giri. | Puzzle time: In the diagram below, it's Black to move! | Lawrence is live for free and on-demand for a limited time, or forever on-demand with a ChessBase Basic Account. You can register a free 90-day account to watch.

Fischer Random World Chess Championship - Day 3

10/29/2019 – World Champion Magnus Carlsen finished off Fabiano Caruana and Wesley So got the better of Ian Nepomniachtchi in the two semi-final matches which ended Tuesday. The Final match begins on Thursday. Live game commentary from 16:30 UTC (17:30 CET / 12:30 EDT) Note: Europe has already switched to Winter time! | Photo: Lennart Ootes

A knight that changes sides

10/29/2019 – Knights are versatile and often cover surprisingly large areas of the board.

European Teams: Russian squads climb to the top

10/29/2019 – After five rounds at the European Team Championships in Batumi, Russia and Ukraine are sharing the lead in the open section, while the Russian female squad is in sole first place with a perfect score in the women's category. Slovenia and Germany are one match point behind the leaders in the Open, while Georgia, Azerbaijan and Serbia are sharing second place among the women. Tuesday is the sole rest day of the tournament. | Photo: Official site

Simon Says: A look at the European Team Championship

10/28/2019 – With the European Team Championship in full swing, GM Simon Williams brings you his top highlight so far in today's show. Watch live for free (or on-demand for a limited time) starting at the usual hour: 17:00 UTC (18:00 CET / 11 EDT). Note: Europe is now on winter time!

World Junior norm makers and closing ceremony

10/28/2019 – Wrapping up our coverage of the World Junior Championship, we bring you all the pictures from the closing ceremony as well as photos of the 17 norm makers. Reporting from one last time are the intrepid team of Sagar Shah and Amruta Mokal. | Pictured: Volodar Murzin and Praggnanandhaa — future world title contenders? | Photo: Amruta Mokal

Exploring the history of world chess composition tournaments

10/27/2019 – Closing our three-parter about the most important official chess composition contests (for composers, i.e. solving tourneys would require a separate article), we will need to have a look at the World Chess Composition Tourneys, but mainly from the perspective of endgame studies. Pictured: Genrikh Kasparyan (Soviet Union) composed the 1st place study in the first WCCT (1972-1975): White to move and draw.

Evgeny Shtembuliak and Polina Shuvalova are World Junior Champions 2019

10/27/2019 – The World Junior Championships officially came to an end on October 26th 2019 when players from over 50 countries left for home. Two new World Champions were crowned: Evgeny Shtembuliak in the Open section and Polina Shuvalova in the Girls' section. The silver and the bronze medal in the Open section went to the Armenians, Shant Sargsyan and Aram Hakobyan respectively. In the Girls' section it was Mobina Alinasab from Iran who won the silver and Elizaveta Solozhenkina who won the bronze. We take you to the moments of the final rounds where the six medals were decided in a huge report from New Delhi by Sagar Shah, Amruta Mokal, Niklesh Jain and Angela Franco. | Photo: Niklesh Jain