Vanishing Act

7/27/2019 – Study of the Month columnist SIEGFRIED HORNECKER outdoes himself this month with a tour de force including eight studies! You can truly spend the entire month with this one. Featured first is Sergiy Didukh (pictured), a Ukrainian studies composer who invented the term “thematic wrong try”. Enjoy! | Photo: Arves.org

Biel Masters: Brkic and Donchenko blaze out of the blocks with 4½/5!

7/27/2019 – The Biel Grandmaster tournament has entered its only rest day, after five gruelling days of chess. Along with this flagship event, a nine-round Masters Tournament is being organized for players above 2000 Elo. The top seed is newly minted member of the 2700 club Jeffery Xiong, who faces stiff competition from fellow American Gata Kamsky and Israeli Tamir Nabaty. With 34 GMs and 22 IMs there are a lot of norm chances as well! After five rounds, Croatian surprise package Ante Brkic and German Alexander Donchenko lead the tournament with 4½ out of 5, followed by a host of players on 4 points. | Photo: Simon Bohnenblust / Biel Chess Festival

64 squares in a kaleidoscope

7/27/2019 – “If it ain't broke, don't fix it” is a false statement in Indonesia. Improvement is always possible for the JAPFA GM & WGM round robin tournaments, traditionally held in Jakarta. The wind of change began to breeze last year in Solo City, where the chess events were relocated, and carried on whiffing towards the latest edition organized this June in Yogyakarta (or Jogja for short) where, IM ALINA L'AMI witnessed some interesting methods to get to the game on time...

Eduardo Iturrizaga wins American Continental

7/27/2019 – The 2019 American Continental Championship ran from the 5th to the 13th of July in Sao Paulo, Brazil. The eleven-round open tournament served as a qualifier to the World Cup, with four players getting tickets to the event scheduled for September in Khanty-Mansiysk. Coincidentally, four players — from four different countries — finished on 8½ out of 11, with Venezuelan Eduardo Iturrizaga winning the event on tiebreak criteria. | Photo: Elana de Souza

Boris Johnson, chess and Brexit metaphors

7/26/2019 – Boris Johnson has completed an improbable rise to the top of British politics. After the resignation of Theresa May as the United Kingdom's Prime Minister, Johnson is next in line to unravel the Gordian knot of the so-called "Brexit". Back in 2014, as the Mayor of London, he was a guest at the London Chess Classic and spoke clever things about the game of chess. But is his game up to the task ahead?

The Power Play Show: Alekhine miniatures

7/26/2019 – On the show today: GM Daniel King will be examining Alekhine miniatures. 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...

Biel: A missed 'Game of the Year' candidate

7/26/2019 – Really? Game of the year? You heard it right! After an opening mistake from Vidit Gujrathi, Nico Georgiadis turned on beast mode and made it to an endgame a pawn up. However, instead of a routine piece capture, he had a chance to end the game with a spectacular piece sacrifice! Vidit survived by the scruff of his neck, and is now joined at the top by Sam Shankland, who produced a Sicilian miniature consisting of temporary piece and exchange sacrifices to down Maghsoodloo in only 26 moves. Friday is the tournament's rest day, so play resumes on Saturday with blitz!

Light summer mate V

7/26/2019 – In the diagram position White played 31.Qb8+!, but then after 31...Kg7 failed to find the right defensive continuation, and three moves later it was over. Can you see the whole picture?

Le Quang Liem on a winning streak

7/26/2019 – GM Le Quang Liem won his maiden Asian Continental for the very first time in his career, becoming the first Vietnamese player to do so. But he did not stop there and continued his momentum going on to win two more strong tournaments consecutively — the Saint Louis Summer Classic and World Open in Philadelphia — all in just a little over three weeks. Shahid Ahmed investigates how he maintains strong composure in such difficult fields? | Photo: Austin Fuller / Saint Louis Chess Club

Nielsen surveys the FIDE landscape

7/25/2019 – FIDE continues to encourage public participation in its wide-ranging survey with research firm Nielsen and the survey closes this weekend. Now is your last chance to participate! Meanwhile, another Nielsen, Magnus Carlsen's second Peter Heine Nielsen, continues to engage FIDE leadership in a public discussion around financial transparency and leadership.

Fast and Furious: New ideas in the Gruenfeld

7/25/2019 – This episode IM Robert Ris will examine the exciting Gruenfeld Defence which remains a potent weapon for Black against 1.d4. The live show at 17:00 UTC (19:00 CEST / 1 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. In the diagram, it's White to play and win!

Biel: Vidit beats Leko for sole lead

7/25/2019 – Vidit Gujrathi didn't play perfect chess, but his slow and steady build-up was too much for Peter Leko to take, and the Indian GM now takes over sole lead in the tournament. Nodirbek Abdusattorov handed Sam Shankland a defeat in the 4.d3 Anti-Berlin after the 2018 US Champion lost his objectivity and overextended his queenside. Parham Maghsoodloo's loss of form turned worrying, as an overestimation cost him a sure draw, with Jorge Cori being the lucky beneficiary. | Photos: Simon Bohnenblust / Biel Chess Festival

Shakhriyar Mamedyarov wins Riga GP in thrilling finale

7/25/2019 – Shakhriyar Mamedyarov won the second leg of the FIDE Grand Prix series in Riga after defeating Maxime Vachier-Lagrave with Black in Armageddon. The contenders showed great fighting spirit throughout their final match-up, with Vachier-Lagrave twice stepping up to get wins on demand. Thanks to this triumph, Mamedyarov now shares first place with Alexander Grischuk in the GP overall standings table. | Photo: World Chess

Game of the Week: Shakhriyar Mamedyarov vs Wesley So

7/24/2019 – The FIDE Grand Prix has just ended and IM Merijn van Delft has flagged the semi-final Catalan of Shakhriyar Mamedyarov as his Game of the Week. 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. Merijn is on-demand this week starting at 18:00 UTC (20:00 CEST / 2 PM EDT).

Wolfram Runkel – the passing of a friend

7/24/2019 – Wolfram Runkel (1937-2019) was a journalist and writer of the prestigious Hamburg weekly "Die Zeit". In this role he was the founder of the tradition of chess reporting in a mainstream outlet. He was also a pioneer in bringing the subject of computer chess to the attention of the German public and, notably, of a young journalist who went on to co-found a large chess software company. Runkel died last Friday after a long illness. Read Frederic Friedel's personal eulogy. | Photo: Hans Walter Schmitt

Riga FIDE GP Finals - Mamedyarov wins in Armageddon

7/24/2019 – Game one of the FIDE Grand Prix final in Riga finished surprisingly quickly, as Shakhriyar Mamedyarov took down Maxime Vachier-Lagrave from the white side of a Grünfeld Defence in 28 moves. In the second classical game MVL battled back to tie the score forcing a tiebreak, July 24th starting at 12:00 UTC (14:00 CEST, 8:00 AM EDT), with live games and commentary. | Photo: Niki Riga / World Chess

Biel: Bogner's redemption and Leko's metamorphosis

7/24/2019 – One doesn't lose forever! Sebastian Bogner, the current Swiss Champion, taught us all how to get out of a rut by clinically destroying Parham Maghsoodloo's weak opening play to get himself back into contention. Sam Shankland had the (missed) chance of the round against Vidit, but the American failed to assess properly the best continuation available to him. Peter Leko continued his remarkable fable by turning over a new leaf yet again — his game against Georgiadis lasted an epic 101 moves!

Stefanova's travels in Maribor, Slovenia and China

7/24/2019 – The Slovenian city of Maribor celebrated the 100th anniversary of the founding of the first chess club in the city this year. A number of well-known grandmasters took this opportunity to participate in this year's chess festival, among them, Antoaneta Stefanova, women's world champion from 2004 to 2006. From there she won the strong Women's Open in Shaoxing, China, scoring 7 points from 9 games. The Bulgarian, born in 1979 and the mother of a nine-month-old girl, remained undefeated and ended up one point ahead of China's Guo Qi, Harika Dronavalli of India and Munguntuul Batkhuyag from Mongolia, who shared places two to four.

Riga GP Final: Immediate retaliation

7/23/2019 – After a quick loss in game one, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave evened the score of the final with a 32-move win out of an Italian Opening at the Grand Prix in Riga. Shakhriyar Mamedyarov did not react well to his opponent's unhurried approach, which provoked his position to collapse rapidly. The winner of the event will be decided on Wednesday's tiebreaks, starting at 12:00 UTC (14:00 CEST, 8:00 AM EDT). | Photo: Niki Riga / World Chess

The Weekly Show: Two fantastic games

7/23/2019 – With so many events going on it must be hard for IM Lawrence Trent to choose. This week he's decided on two "fantastic attacking games" from ongoing events. Free for a limited time, or forever on-demand with a ChessBase Basic Account. You can register a free 90-day account to watch.

Biel: A bloodbath in first classical round

7/23/2019 – With the prestigious title of Biel Champion on the line, the players produced one of the most energetic rounds of classical chess in recent times, and produced a decisive result on all four boards in round one of the Biel GM 2019! Peter Leko and Vidit Gujarathi channelled their inner Karpovs and slowly squeezed the life out of Bogner and Cori respectively, while Shankland and Maghsoodloo beat back their opponents, Georgiadis and Abdusattorov, in contrasting Sicilian victories to maintain their spots in the standings.

Where (in New York) did they live?

7/23/2019 – Today, in the times of data gathering, data security and strict privacy rules, it is hard to imagine but in the 1960s chess yearbooks could and did publish the addresses of famous chess players. Which now allows you to virtually visit the houses in which Fischer, Fine, Denker and other chess players had lived in New York in 1966. | Photo: World Chess Hall of Fame, St. Louis

A harmonious couple

7/23/2019 – Mating attacks are always possible, even in the endgame with only a few pieces left on the board.

Riga GP Final: Mamedyarov's tour de force

7/22/2019 – Game one of the FIDE Grand Prix final in Riga finished surprisingly quickly, as Shakhriyar Mamedyarov took down Maxime Vachier-Lagrave from the white side of a Grünfeld Defence in 28 moves. The second classical game of the finals will be played on Tuesday, July 23rd, starting at 12:00 UTC (14:00 CEST, 8:00 AM EDT), with Vachier-Lagrave in need of a win to take the match-up to tiebreaks. | Photo: Niki Riga / World Chess