11/20/2018 – Rarely do we get to see the thought process of a player of the very highest caliber. How does a 2765 rated player actually think? When Wesley So, whose highest rating was 2822, was in India for the Tata Steel Chess India 2018, IM Sagar Shah gave him three studies to solve. The catch? Wesley had to work everything out in his mind, without a board. Sagar had a camera rolling while he did this! The video discussion gives us a unique insight into the mind of a world class grandmaster. We invite you to perform a similar experiment on yourself.

11/19/2018 – Today, November 19th, José Raúl Capablanca, would have celebrated his 130th birthday. After World War I the Cuban was the world's best player and World Champion from 1921 to 1927. During his career, he played more than 500 tournament games but lost only 36 of them. | Photo: Screenshot from the movie "Chess Fever"

11/19/2018 – For a change, Simon takes a look at some of his own recent games in this episode, including highlights from the Isle of Man open and 4NCL tournament. Simon is on-demand this week for ChessBase account holders. Don't have an account? You can register a free 90-day account to watch!

11/19/2018 – Another day, another draw. The long-awaited 2018 World Championship has seen the players hold their own with the black pieces, and even get the upper hand — once Caruana and once Carlsen — when having to move second. The seventh game was a Queen's Gambit Declined where Fabiano unleashed the first surprise and ended up getting a rather comfortable half point. DANIEL FERNANDEZ and YANNICK PELLETIER took a closer look at what happened over the board | Photos: Nikolai Dunaevsky / World Chess

11/18/2018 – This week, in honour of the Carlsen vs Caruana match, GM JON SPEELMAN examines eight blunders from World Championship history. One of them features Magnus himself! But, dear regular column readers, do continue sending 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!

11/18/2018 – With the long-awaited World Championship match between World Champion Magnus Carlsen and his Challenger Fabiano Caruana finally underway, GM LARS BO HANSEN was inspired to revisit some analyses from the previous World Championship match in New York between Carlsen and Sergey Karjakin in November 2016. As most readers will recall, the reigning World Champion survived a scare in the regular games before eventually dominating the rapid playoff. What conclusions can we draw and how might that impact the 2018 contest? | Photo: Albert Silver

11/14/2018 – The four semi-finalists of the 2018 Women's World Championship — all of which qualified to an upcoming Candidates tournament — have been decided. Ju Wenjun and Kateryna Lagno got their tickets in the classical portion, Alexandra Kosteniuk defeated Anna Muzychuk in a tense 25+30 rapid phase, and Mariya Muzychuk (pictured) eliminated Zhansaya Abudmalik in the second 5+3 blitz game, after the players traded blows all throughout the match. | Photos: Official site

11/14/2018 – As tournaments go, this was an odd one: with nine draws and one win, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave took the Shenzhen Masters with a mere 5½ points from 10 games. Since Ding Liren and Anish Giri both also scored 5½, but 'MVL' beat Ding in their direct encounter, the Frenchman had the better tiebreak. Giri earned a notable first victory in the final round against Radoslaw Wojtaszek. GM ALEX YERMOLINSKY sends his final thoughts. | Photo: qipai.org.cn

11/14/2018 – Ideas and strategies in Grandmaster games can be quite instructive. IM Merijn van Delft presents games like these every Wednesday at 20:00 CET (19:00 UT, 2 pm EDT). On this week's show: How Ding's 100 games undefeated came to an end. The live show is free to watch, and available on-demand for ChessBase Premium account holders. To chat, please visit videos.chessbase.com/live or login via Playchess for Windows.

11/14/2018 – The Tata Steel Chess India 2018 Rapid came to an end on November 11th with American GM Hikaru Nakamura taking home the first prize with 6.0/9. Nakamura played the event as per the demands of the situation — calm on first and third days and three victories on day two! It was excellent news for Indian fans that Harikrishna managed to fight back with two wins against Levon Aronian and Vidit Gujrathi in last two rounds to finish second. Levon Aronian had to settle for the third spot. IM SAGAR SHAH brings you six things that happened on the last day of the rapid and reflections on the first super tournament held in his native India! Of course, one mustn't forget the small sensation — Vishy Anand was beaten by his former second Surya Sekhar Ganguly in the final round.

11/14/2018 – The Tata Steel India blitz tournament has started in Kolkata. From Tuesday, November 13th to Wednesday the 14th you can get warmed up for the World Championship by watching blitz chess with former Candidates: Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, Levon Aronian, Wesley So, former World Champion Viswanathan Anand and India's top talent, Harikrishna, Vidit, Sarin and Ganguly. Live commentary with IM Lawrence Trent and IM Tania Sachdev. | Photo: Lennart Ootes / TataSteelChess.in

11/14/2018 – The fourth game of the World Chess Championship in London between Magnus Carlsen and Fabiano Caruana also ended without a winner. With White, the World Champion did not get anything out of the English opening and on the 34th move, he offered to draw. That left spectators pondering over the potential ramifications of a video promoting Caruana which may have inadvertently provided the Carlsen camp with insights into the Challenger's opening preparation. | Pictured: Ellisiv Reppen makes the ceremonial first move for Carlsen | Photos: Nadia Panteleeva / World Chess