FIDE World Cup: Dominguez and Xiong win on demand

9/22/2019 – It was an action-packed day in Khanty-Mansiysk, as Leinier Dominguez and Jeffery Xiong bounced back from losses; Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and Nikita Vitiugov drew to get 1½:½ victories in their matches; and Yu Yangyi managed to win after having drawn game one, thus reaching the quarter-finals. Also noteworthy was Ding Liren's stubborn defence against Kirill Alekseenko — the top seed drew the underdog, which means the match will be decided on tiebreaks. IM LAWRENCE TRENT recapped the action of the day. | Photo: FIDE

Advantage Humpy at the Women's Grand Prix

9/21/2019 – Women's World Champion Ju Wenjun faced her World Championship rival Aleksandra Goryachkina today in Skolkovo at the FIDE Women's Grand Prix. A long battle ended in a draw, leaving Humpy Koneru alone at the top of the standings heading into Sunday's final round. But Ju has her fate in her hands as she's Humpy's opponent in what could be a thrilling finale. | Photo: David Llada / FIDE

FIDE World Cup: A bad day for the U.S.

9/21/2019 – Half the match-ups had a winner in game one of the round of 16 at the World Cup in Khanty-Mansiysk. Coincidentally, all three Americans still in the race need a win on Saturday to force tiebreaks, as Nikita Vitiugov, Alexander Grischuk and Jan-Krzysztof Duda beat Wesley So, Leinier Dominguez and Jeffery Xiong respectively. In the other decisive encounter of the day, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave defeated Peter Svidler. Video review by IM LAWRENCE TRENT | Photo: FIDE

FIDE.com gets a facelift

9/20/2019 – The new FIDE administration headed by Arkady Dvorkovich has made a number of organizational changes in its first year in charge. Some are more visible than others, and most have been generally regarded as positive. Now the FIDE website has received a fresh new look. What do you think?

The Power Play Show: World Cup

9/20/2019 – On the show today: GM Daniel King takes you through games from the World Cup. 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...

Solving with Nunn

9/20/2019 – Problem solving is a challenging field, with young participants generally dominating. There is one exception. Year after year a British mathematician, grandmaster and chess writer gives the strongest and brightest a run for their money. This year 64-year-old John Nunn finished a close second, behind the youthful Polish solver Piotr Górski. John has sent us a full report with examples of the tasks that the solvers faced. You can match your wits against them. | Photo Petra Nunn

Hot Scotch

9/20/2019 – In the diagram White played 17.Qh5+ Kg8 18.Be5 forking queen and rook. Good for Black: he has a move which does not lose instantly. Bad: it will be a very short-lived success. Enjoy!

Bobby Fischer 1970: The forgotten simul

9/19/2019 – In 1970 Bobby Fischer played his last Olympiad — in Siegen, Germany. After the Olympiad he gave two simuls in Germany, one in Solingen, one in Münster. Now the score sheets of the games, unknown pictures of Fischer and newspaper articles about the simul in Münster were rediscoved. A remarkable find! | Photos: Norbert Rauch

Endgame Magic with Karsten Mueller and Alexey Shirov

9/19/2019 – Today's guest in Karsten Mueller's Endgame Show is the famous Alexey "Fire on Board" Shirov. We suspect Shirov has some surprising ideas to spark your endgame play. Live at 13:00 UTC (15:30 CEST, 9:00 AM EDT) and on-demand for ChessBase account holders. Don't have an account yet? You can register a free 90-day account to watch!

FIDE World Cup: Xiong knocks out Giri

9/19/2019 – Eight players reached round four of the FIDE World Cup after Wednesday's tiebreaks. The biggest surprise was given by Jeffery Xiong, who knocked out second seed Anish Giri in the 10'+10" rapid phase. The other underdog to go through was Le Quang Liem, who eliminated Vladislav Artemiev. Ding Liren, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Leinier Dominguez, Yu Yangyi and Peter Svidler also went through. GM DANNY KING recapped the action of the play-offs. | Photo: FIDE

Game of the Week: Alekseenko vs Harikrishna

9/18/2019 – P. Harikrishna is again the focus of IM Merijn van Delft for his live game of the week, this time from the ongoing World Cup in Khanty-Mansiysk. The show 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. Merijn is live this week starting at 18:00 UTC (20:00 CEST / 2 PM EDT). | Photo (Alekseenko): Lars OA Hedlund

Standing on the shoulders of giants

9/18/2019 – The expression is used to convey the idea that someone’s work and achievements were only possible thanks to the predecessors they build upon, and this is unquestionably true of Fat Fritz. You may think you know when or where the tale starts, but what if we told you that it all really started with a visionary computer scientist 60 years ago in 1959? | Photo: IBM

FIDE World Cup: He who hits first, hits twice

9/18/2019 – Half the matches of the round of 32 at the FIDE Grand Prix in Khanty-Mansiysk already have a winner, while the remaining eight encounters will be decided on tiebreaks. None of the players that lost the first game of the round managed to bounce back, and only Levon Aronian got a win after having drawn on Monday. The biggest upset of the round was given by Kirill Alekseenko, who got a 2:0 win over Pentala Harikrishna. GM ERWIN L'AMI recapped the action of the day. | Photo: FIDE

Half-time at the Women's Grand Prix

9/17/2019 – Women's world champion Ju Wenjun is the sole leader of the Skolkovo Grand Prix after six rounds. A three-player chasing group is close behind though, with Kateryna Lagno, Humpy Koneru and World Championship challenger Aleksandra Goryachkina all standing at a half-point distance. The twelve participants are having a rest day, before the final five rounds take place through next Monday. | Photo: David Llada / FIDE

The Weekly Show: The Women's Grand Prix

9/17/2019 – IM Lawrence Trent turns his attention to another high-profile event going on in Russia for today's show . Lawrence is live and free 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.

A strong and tricky knight

9/17/2019 – This wild endgame features a pawn race full of twists and turns that is as fun to watch as it is to win (or draw if you're playing White)!

FIDE World Cup: Grischuk's sharp win

9/17/2019 – The round of 32 of the FIDE World Cup began on Monday, with seven players getting the lead in their mini-matches. The three biggest underdogs — all with ratings in the 2500s — are amongst those needing a win to bounce back after a loss, as Alexander Grischuk, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov and Teimour Radjabov defeated Xu Xiangyu, Eltaj Safarli and Daniil Yuffa respectively. IM LAWRENCE TRENT recapped the action of the day. | Photo: FIDE

Krush and Wang top Berkeley IM tournament

9/16/2019 – The Berkeley Chess School, in Berkeley, California, hosted an unusual (by USA standards) International Master Norm Tournament (August 16th-20th). Unusual because it was for women only. GM Irina Krush won the tournament after a playoff with IM-elect Annie Wang. WIM AGNIESZKA MATRAS-CLEMENT was among the contenders and sent us this first-hand review. | Photos: Berkley Chess School

Simon Says: More under-promotion and the World Cup

9/16/2019 – GM Simon Williams selects key moments from the World Cup so far, plus a few more puzzles on the theme of under-promotion. Watch for free (for a limited time) starting at the usual hour: 16:00 UTC (18:00 CEST / 12 Noon EDT).

FIDE World Cup: Giri beats Najer in Armageddon

9/16/2019 – The pairings for round three of the FIDE World Cup are set, as the last fifteen (out of thirty-two) spots were decided on Sunday's tiebreaks. The rapid and blitz play-offs saw the first Armageddon battle of the event: the score in Anish Giri vs Evgeniy Najer remained tied after eight games — Giri got the black pieces and won the sudden-death encounter to get his pass to the next round. The other lengthy match-up of round two saw Daniil Yuffa knocking out Luke McShane. Round-up show by GM ERWIN L'AMI. | Photo: FIDE

Hans Ree: A veteran turns 75

9/15/2019 – Hans Ree was the fourth chess player born in the Netherlands to receive the Grandmaster title from FIDE after Max Euwe, Jan Hein Donner and Jan Timman. Following his active years as a player, he became one of the most important chess journalists. Today Ree celebrates his 75th birthday. | Photo: Dutch National Archive

FIDE World Cup: Two underdogs go through

9/15/2019 – Hikaru Nakamura and Ernesto Inarkiev were knocked out by nominally weaker players — Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu and Xu Xiangyu respectively — after game two of the second round at the FIDE World Cup in Khanty-Mansiysk. Besides these two underdogs, fifteen other participants secured their place in round three. Meanwhile, Wei Yi and Eltaj Safarli bounced back with wins after having lost on Friday to reach the tiebreaks. IM LAWRENCE TRENT recapped the action of the day. | Photo: FIDE

Do chess players live longer?

9/14/2019 – An ongoing topic of scientific inquire of interest to chess fans is whether and to what extent chess can delay or mitigate the effects of aging. An Australian study aimed to prove that chess champions have a higher life expectancy than the average population. Grandmasters from Eastern Europe should therefore have a life expectancy of up to 14 years. PETER MUENDER dealt critically with the study results.

A new chess pair

9/14/2019 – The chess world has a new power couple: Last Friday, the Hungarian Grandmaster Gabor Papp and the German national player WGM Sarah Hoolt tied the knot. Congratulations! | Photo: Georgios Souleidis