5/12/2019 – The Kan Variation, also known as Paulsen Variation, is a popular line of the Sicilian. It is named after Ilya Kan, a Russian player who was born 110 years ago last week, on May 4, 1909. He lived most of his life in Moscow where he worked as a lawyer. Kan played in ten Soviet Championships and helped Botvinnik to prepare for his World Championship matches against Smyslov but outside of Russia he is still rather unknown.

5/12/2019 – After scoring five wins on the final day of action at the first leg of the Grand Chess Tour in Abidjan, Magnus Carlsen won yet another event, this time by a margin of three and a half points. | The first stop of the Grand Chess Tour 2019 is the Côte d'Ivoire Rapid & Blitz. It's the first time the GCT has held an event in Africa. World Champion Magnus Carlsen heads a field of ten top GMs competing for a prize fund of USD $150,000. Live games and commentary from 14:00 UTC (16:00 CEST / 10:00 EDT) with GM Yannick Pelletier, IM Tania Sachdev, GM Alejandro Ramirez & GM Maurice Ashley. | Photos: Lennart Ootes / Grand Chess Tour

5/12/2019 – Despite confessing at the end of the day that his play was below his expectations, Magnus Carlsen still leads the Côte d'Ivoire leg of the Grand Chess Tour by two and a half points. His closest chaser is Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, who started the blitz section with five straight wins and is currently the number one player in the live blitz ratings list. The Frenchman took down Carlsen in what was the world champion's first loss since December. | Photo: Lennart Ootes / Grand Chess Tour

5/11/2019 – The great German chess composer Dieter Kutzborski passed away on April 27th 2019 at the age of 72. He was one of the foremost specialists of modern directmates in the style of Logical-New German school, whose productions have brought countless hours of joy to many a problem enthusiasts. SATANICK MUKHUTY been an ardent admirer of Kutzborski's work. His problems, especially the longer ones, are simply sensational; their strategic richness and adventurous play can for sure captivate any solver no matter how strong. | Photos: SSZ 1968 and Martin Minski

5/11/2019 – Anish Giri is one of the more extroverted Grandmasters on the professional circuit. He can be quite witty, and always has something interesting to say. He's also one of the more proactive social media presences on "chess Twitter" where he can be biting at times. He's been making the interview rounds following his win in the Shenzhen Masters in China last month. A few months ago he gave an entertaining blindfold simultaneous at his sponsor's office, Optiver in Amsterdam, which has recently published video of the event.

5/11/2019 – Magnus Carlsen finished all three days of rapid chess in Abidjan with the same result — two wins and a draw. Now he goes into the blitz section with a three-point advantage over Hikaru Nakamura, although each game will now be worth only a point. Besides Naka, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and Wesley So threaten to take down the Norwegian, as both had a great run on Friday — MVL won all three games, while So got two wins and drew Nakamura. | Photo: Lennart Ootes / Grand Chess Tour

5/7/2019 – Far advanced passed pawns can be really powerful and sometimes they are even more powerful than a rook.

5/7/2019 – Saint Petersburg's "Bronze Horsemen" won all five matches so far at the Russian Team Championship to take a two-point lead over Sima-Land and Molodezhka — the leaders have not faced either of the chasing teams yet. In the women's section, SShOR — also from Saint Petersburg — defeated Yugra in round four and are now in clear first place. Monday was a rest day in Sochi. | Pictured: Gata Kamsky (Ladya) | Photo: Irina Chibikova

5/6/2019 – Last time our columnist wrote on the life and career of Oleg Pervakov. This week he offers a glimpse of the eminent composer’s work from a recently published collection of endgame studies. He also sets a challenge for readers to solve three of them. Your move! | Photo: ChessPro.ru

5/6/2019 – In this Simon Says we have a mixed bag of goodies. First up we take a look in at the recent gambit mentioned in Jonathan Speelman's latest column, 'The Bryntse Gambit'. Then pawns, puzzles and more. On-demand starting at the usual time: 16:00 UTC (18:00 CEST / 12 Noon EDT).

5/6/2019 – Maxime Vachier-Lagrave would have remained undefeated in the recently concluded Grenke Chess Classic tournament had it not been for the final round loss against Magnus Carlsen. One of the most talked about points of their encounter was the French grandmaster's move 10...b5, a move that left many puzzled. In an exclusive interview with DHANANJAY KHADILKAR for ChessBase, the 28-year-old speaks on a variety of subjects from playing against Carlsen to his hopes of qualifying for next year's Candidates tournament. And, he also explains why he made that particular move.

5/5/2019 – After three rounds, two players co-lead the TePe Sigeman & Co Tournament in Sweden's third largest city, Malmö. Top seeds Gawain Jones and Pentala Harikrishna drew two and won one to position themselves ahead of the field on 2/3. Meanwhile, Nihal Sarin wasted a big chance to take down Ivan Saric in round one — still, the 14-year-old Indian became the youngest 2600+ rated player in the world (in the live ratings). SAGAR SHAH analysed two of Nihal's games. | Photo: Official site