Grenke Classic Round 9 Round-up

4/29/2019 – The Grenke Chess Classic runs from April 20th to 29th. Magnus Carlsen, Fabiano Caruana, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Levon Aronian and Viswanathan Anand head the nine round-robin. Over 60 grandmasters participate in the A-Open tournament. Live games and commentary (from 13:00 UTC / 15:00 CEST / 9:00 AM EDT) with GM Peter Leko and GM Jan Gustafsson. Official site: grenkechessclassic.com

Endgame Magic with Karsten Mueller and Adrian Mikhalchishin

4/29/2019 – An "impromptu" Endgame Magic Monday! Karsten is joined by Grandmaster and renowned trainer Adrian Mikhalchishin. On-demand for ChessBase account holders. Don't have an account yet? You can register a free 90-day account to watch!

Hort stories: "Pricao mi Gliga..."

4/28/2019 – During the 1950s and 1960s Svetozar Gligoric was one of the world's best players and the Yugoslavian number one. Gligoric was also happily married, a successful journalist and writer, and had fought for the Yugoslavian partisans during World War II. Vlastimil Hort often met Gligoric and now shares his memories.

Grenke Classic: Carlsen mates Svidler

4/28/2019 – After scoring his fifth win of the tournament, Magnus Carlsen almost secured yet another super-tournament triumph. His round eight victim was Peter Svidler, who allowed the world champion to mate him on the board. The only player with chances to catch Magnus is Fabiano Caruana — the American remained one point behind the leader thanks to a win over Georg Meier. Sole third place was taken by Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, who defeated Vincent Keymer. | Photo: Georgios Souleidis

Grenke Classic: Wins for Carlsen, Caruana and Meier

4/28/2019 – A full point still separates Magnus Carlsen from his closest chaser, after the world champion beat Levon Aronian and Fabiano Caruana took down Arkadij Naiditsch in round seven of the GRENKE Chess Classic. Georg Meier also won — the German grandmaster recovered from a four-game losing streak to defeat Vishy Anand with the black pieces. Paco Vallejo and Vincent Keymer got good positions against higher-rated opponents but could not convert. | Photo: Georgios Souleidis

Hard work pays off

4/27/2019 – It's the last Saturday of the month, so time once again to enjoy some studies and compositions (plus some Eastern philosophy) curated by our expert SIEGFRIED HORNECKER, whose April subject is Iuri Akobia of the Georgian School of composition. Photos contributed by David Gurgenidze. | Image: Robbert van der Steeg [CC BY-SA 2.0] via Flickr

Grenke Classic: Carlsen widens the gap

4/27/2019 – The standings table at the 2019 GRENKE Chess Classic was seriously shaken up after Magnus Carlsen defeated Georg Meier and Vishy Anand lost against Arkadij Naiditsch in round six. Vishy gave up a pawn in the early middlegame and could never get enough compensation, while Magnus got a winning advantage before the time control but needed close to six hours to finally get the point. The rest of the games were drawn. | Photo: Georgios Souleidis

Shenzhen: Giri does it!

4/27/2019 – In Shenzehn, China, Pentala Harikrishna defeated Yu Yangyi in the penultimate round to retake a half point lead over Anish Giri. But he had Black in the final round while Giri was White. Could 'Hari' score his first super-tournament victory? It looked like he was headed for a tournament-clinching draw, but a slip-up gave Ding Liren a chance to turn the tables and Giri a golden opportunity to grab tournament victory. | Photo: cca.imsa.cn

FIDE updates and the World Championship cycle

4/26/2019 – Today FIDE has released new regulations for the upcoming World Championship cycle (both Open and Women). The overall championship match is being extended from 12 to 14 games, and draws will no longer be permitted before move 40. Players can qualify to the Candidates Tournament via the revised Grand Prix, now a series of knockout tournaments, and a new "Grand Swiss" to be held in October on the Isle of Man.

The Power Play Show: "Vladislav Artemiev"

4/26/2019 – Friday at 16:00 UTC (18:00 CEST, Noon EDT) Daniel King will go on air on playchess.com. You can watch the episode live for free! Today: "Vladislav Artemiev". All the usual puzzles, games and instruction will be on offer. Puzzle and the live video...

Two Indians play non-stop blitz for 53 hours!

4/26/2019 – Everyone loves to play blitz! But two guys from Himachal Pradesh in India Hansraj Thakur and Hitesh Azad decided to take this a notch higher. They played non stop blitz for 53 hours, 17 minutes and 49 seconds and 303 games to create a world record for the longest period of playing non stop blitz chess games. They bettered the total time of Jacek Gajewski and Wojciech Waruga who had played a total of 514 blitz games in 50 hours. In this article FI PRAFUL ZAVERI tells us all about this new world record. We also have all the 303 encounters, just in case you would like to check the quality of the games.

Candidates classic

4/26/2019 – Playing 14.Bb1! in the diagram position, White prepared to create a queen-bishop battery on the diagonal to the enemy king. Black rushed in to block it with 14...g5 15.Qc2 Ng6, and then it will be your turn. Enjoy!

April 1st entertainment — the solution

4/26/2019 – As in the previous year we decided to abandon our decades-long tradition of tricking our readers with false stories on April 1st. For those who are disappointed by this decision we brought you a really fun (and fully genuine) task proposed by Pal Benko for this auspicious day. Initially there was an error in the task, but after we corrected that we received valid solutions. The best came from Mihály Berkics from Hungary, who receives a special prize.

Carlsen at 2861 Elo, but further progress is tough

4/25/2019 – After winning in Shamkir, Carlsen’s live rating was up to 2861, his best since June 2015. After five rounds in Grenke, that's exactly where he remains today (well 2861.6 to be precise!). IM SAGAR SHAH recently took a look at how he's climbing back towards his all-time peak. | Photo: Georgios Souleidis (author of The Open Games - A detailed overview)

NEW: ChessBase Magazine #189

4/25/2019 – Enjoy top class training and the new layout! ChessBase Magazine is the most comprehensive and most sophisticated chess magazine there is. World class players analyse their brilliancies and explain the ideas behind the moves to you, opening specialists present the latest trends in opening theory and offer exciting ideas for your repertoire. Master trainers in the fields of tactics, strategy, and the endgame show you the tricks and techniques a successful tournament player needs! DVD with several hours of video + booklet.

Tactics training with the ChessBase Magazine

4/25/2019 – Most games are decided by tactics and the better you are tactically, the more points you make. The ChessBase Magazine helps you to sharpen and improve your tactical abilities. With a regular tactics column and with interactive games with training tasks. Here's a brief guide on the tools available to help you improve your tactical acumen. | Drawing: ChessBase
More...
 6

Over 1000 chess lovers in Katowice

4/25/2019 – A chess bonanza in Poland, the Katowice Chess Festival, anchored by the Polish-Hungarian Friendship Chess Tournament attracted players from many countries and 20 grandmasters, over 1000 in attendance in all. Side events included Polish Individual and Team Championship in blitz. PRESS RELEASE | Pictured: One of the most memorable moments of the Festival | Photo: M. Walusza

Grenke Classic: A first win for Keymer

4/25/2019 – Vishy Anand and Magnus Carlsen drew games of very different nature to maintain the lead at the 2019 GRENKE Chess Classic; Peter Svidler could not make the most of an opening edge against Paco Vallejo; while Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and Levon Aronian repeated the position three times in the early middlegame. In the meantime, after having lost four games in a row, Vincent Keymer got his first super-tournament victory, a welcomed reward for his uncompromising play so far in Karlsruhe. | Photo: Georgios Souleidis

Game of the Week: Giri-Harikrishna

4/24/2019 – Ideas and strategies in Grandmaster games can be quite instructive. IM Merijn van Delft presents games like these every Wednesday at 18:00 UTC (20:00 CEST / 2 PM EDT). On this week's show: Giri vs Harikrishna from the ongoing Shenzhen Masters. The live 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.

A lifetime love for the English

4/24/2019 – For a player who wants to learn a wide range of different middlegame positions, the English should definitely be high on the list. Flexibility in move orders can mean the difference between quiet or aggressive play. Reviewer DAVIDE NASTASIO takes a deep dive into the new FritzTrainer by GM Mihal Marin, who previously authored one of the biggest literary works on the English opening and has now brought his experience to the video format in a new, updated repertoire. Glimpse his deep knowledge, acquired through years of practice, in order to gain confidence in this new opening weapon suitable in every type of setting, from long time control tournaments to online blitz.

Endgame Magic with Karsten Mueller and D. Gukesh

4/24/2019 – Karsten is joined by the second youngest grandmaster ever, the Indian prodigy D. Gukesh who's fresh off a phenomenal result at the Grenke Open. Join Karsten and Gukesh live at 14:00 UTC (16:00 CEST, 10:00 AM EDT) and FREE to watch on-demand (for a limited time)!

Grenke Classic: Anand joins Carlsen in the lead

4/24/2019 – Four out of five games saw the higher-rated player getting a win in round four of the GRENKE Chess Classic. Only Fabiano Caruana and Magnus Carlsen drew, after continuing the theoretical battle in the Sicilian Sveshnikov that began last year during their match in London. Meanwhile, Vishy Anand defeated Paco Vallejo and joined Magnus in the lead. Arkadij Naiditsch, Levon Aronian and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave also won. | Photo: Georgios Souleidis

'Hurricane Hari' leads in Shenzhen

4/23/2019 – There's a whole lot of chess going on in Europe at the moment, but we shouldn't forget about the double round-robin tournament taking place to the Far East in Shenzehn, China. Pentala Harikrishna leads the field with 4½ points after his fourth consecutive win in today's sixth round. Anish Giri trails a half a point behind. IM Sagar Shah annotates Harikrishna's latest exploits. | Photos: cca.imsa.cn

Daniel Fridman wins Grenke Open

4/23/2019 – Daniel Fridman won the Grenke Open 2019 thanks to having the best tiebreak score among eight players finishing with 7½/9. Three other German grandmasters shared the same score as did the 12-year-old Indian phenom D. Gukesh. Yuliya Shvayger was the top scoring woman. | Photo: Georgios Souleidis