6/17/2019 – The penultimate round of the 2019 Women's Candidates Tournament was played on Sunday in Kazan. Aleksandra Goryachkina had already secured first place on Friday, but the rest of the players showed they are still in the mood to fight for the remaining prizes. Anna Muzychuk defeated Valentina Gunina and practically secured second place, while Aleksandra Kosteniuk got a third win with White in the tournament, over Mariya Muzychuk. | Photo: Eteri Kublashvili

6/16/2019 – In the 100th edition of his Agony column, grandmaster JON SPEELMAN takes a look at three games from Ph.D. in Computer Science and race car driver Guy Argo, a player who "is happiest at the chess board when hacking". | Send in your own games! Jon can always use more material 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!

6/16/2019 – AlphaZero changed the chess world and the way chess players think. But how does the program think and what makes its chess so special? In their book "Game Changer" Matthew Sadler and Natasha Regan give answers and present a lot of games by AlphaZero. Carl Portman liked the book so much that he invited Sadler and Regan for a simul and a lecture about AlphaZero. Which was instructive and fun. | Carl Portman

6/15/2019 – After a 14-year tournament hiatus, Grandmaster Patrick Wolff recently played several rated games at the Mechanics’ Institute Chess Club, where he had been serving as Interim Director until June 14. In an extensive interview he tells WIM Alexey Root about updating his best-selling book, being a second to then-World Championship challenger Vishy Anand, winning two U.S. Championships, and making chess more appealing to corporate sponsors. | Photos: Courtesy of Patrick Wolff

6/15/2019 – The Altibox Norway Chess Tournament ended with a rematch of the 2018 World Championship duel in London: Fabiano Caruana against Magnus Carlsen. But this time Caruana won. In the classical game, Caruana missed the win in a complicated position but in the Armageddon game he outplayed the world champion. Carlsen had already won the tournament on Thursday and in the end finished with 13½ out of 18 points. Levon Aronian and Yu Yangyi followed with 10½ points each, but thanks to a better tie-break Aronian finished second. | Photo: Lennart Ootes / norwaychess.no

6/14/2019 – Aleksandra Goryachkina had a winning position against Tan Zhongyi in round twelve of the Women's Candidates Tournament, but decided to go for perpetual check and sign a draw, as this secured her first place in Kazan. The 20-year-old will play Ju Wenjun in the next Women's World Championship match. Meanwhile, Anna Muzychuk, Valentina Gunina and Nana Dzagnidze won their round twelve games. | Photo: Anastasiya Karlovich

6/14/2019 – On the show today: GM Daniel King be looking through the Caruana-Anand classical game from Norway Chess in detail - there are some beautiful variations. 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...

6/14/2019 – The 2019 Altibox Norway Chess Tournament is a ten-player single round robin taking place on June 3rd-15th in Stavanger. Every single match will have a winner: if the classical game ends in a draw Armageddon will follow, White has ten minutes, Black seven, but White needs to win. Magnus Carlsen won the tournament with one round to spare but there is still money and prestige stake. In the ninth and final round Carlsen will play against Caruana. The last round starts Friday at 17:00 CEST (15:00 UTC, 11:00 EDT). Follow the games live, with commentary by Judit Polgar and Anna Rudolf. | Photo: Lennart Ootes / norwaychess.no

6/14/2019 – On the show Lawrence had a look at the Women's Candidates tournament in general and the performance of Goryachkina in particular. Free for a limited time, or forever on-demand with a ChessBase Basic Account. You can register a free 90-day account to watch.

6/14/2019 – After beating Yu Yangyi in their classical encounter of round eight, Magnus Carlsen secured his second Norway Chess title with a round to spare. Before the day's action, Levon Aronian was trailing Magnus by two points, but the Armenian lost — also in Classical — against Fabiano Caruana...and nonetheless remained in second place. Meanwhile, Vishy Anand, Wesley So and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave won their mini-matches in Armageddon. | Photo: Lennart Ootes / norwaychess.no

6/14/2019 – With 14...0-0-0 in the diagram position Black parries the threat Nc7+, but White's continuation shows that it's not only about material on the queenside. Five moves later it was "Game Over". But what did White play after 14...0-0-0?

6/13/2019 – Today IM Robert Ris tackles Sicilians from Poikovsky on his Fast & Furious Show! The live show at 17:00 UTC (19:00 CEST / 2 PM EDT) 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.