Chess Player's Mating Guide Vol 1: Learn some lethal smacks

11/6/2017 – Pieces are tossed in like fuel to burning fire, a king’s pawn shelter ripped apart. One player sees bone-chilling nightmares; his opponent couldn’t hold his thumping heart. More pieces come marauding in, hacking off every defender. The king begins running for his life; in the end, it’s caught en prise. An aesthetic murder is engineered. It’s checkmate! For those romantics who crave for such excitement in their chess games, Robert Ris has selected examples from his professional coaching practice with the aim of helping them understand the method behind what seems madness. | Graphic: 4fingerprodigy

How to lose to a 9-year-old at chess

11/5/2017 – Gone are the days of old men smoking pipes, playing chess in silence in draughty church halls. There has been an influx of youth, especially since the rise of extremely strong computers that allow youngsters to learn and advance in the game much faster than previously. This is especially the case in the U.S., where there is a seemingly endless stream of young talent coming through, most of them wildly underrated and poisonous for your Elo standing. Steve Barrett writes about this in CHESS Magazine.

What does 2018 hold for the FIDE Presidency?

11/5/2017 – The election for the presidency of the World Chess Federation is a year away, but there is already intrigue swirling around whether Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, the current president, can or will run again. Though Mr. Ilyumzhinov recently lost a no-confidence vote by the executive board, it is not clear that will be enough to dissuade him, and the acting president, Georgios Makropoulos, has ducked repeated questions. Dylan McClain updates on the current situation.

5e Rencontres Internationales des Échecs francophones

11/5/2017 – Les 5e RIDEF ont eu lieu du 28 octobre au 04 novembre 2017 dans le cadre majestueux de Yasmine Hammamet. Nous y étions. Pour celles et ceux qui ne nous auraient pas suivi au quotidien sur facebook, voici notre reportage publié exceptionnellement sur le portail ChessBase en anglais, en attendant que s'inaugure très bientôt le portail de ChessBase en français!

Tiviakov in Capri

11/4/2017 – Between October 26th and 29th, 2017, the Italian island of Capri hosted the 3rd International Tournament "Isola di Capri Vladimir Lenin". During those three days, Sergei Tiviakov drew two conclusions: that the island is beautiful, and that his own skills have suffered a bit during the almost 10 months of total absence from the board, while he was dedicated to training the team of Turkmenistan. Although he had to yield first place to Aleksander Rakhmanov — the only player with 6 points — Tiviakov was sixth and returned with a fine collection of photos as consolation, which he now shares with you.

Study of the Month: November, 2017

11/4/2017 – As our readers will know, the Australian state Victoria was named for the British queen whose long-reign record was surpassed two years ago by Queen Elizabeth II. Being the most powerful person of the world, we can draw a parallel between her majesty and chess where queens also have great power — although not nearly such great one.

Mega Database 2018

11/3/2017 – The Mega Database is chess. With 7.1 million chess games, of which 71,000 are commented, the mega documents over 500 years of chess history and always has up-to-date opening knowledge for the preparation for the next game and the next opponent. A must for every chess player!

Euro Teams Women: Russia in front

11/3/2017 – The European Women's Team Championship tournament has familiar names at the top: Russia leads, but Georgia, Ukraine, Poland and Turkey are all close behind. Spanish board one Sabrina Vega was all smiles at the start of Round 5, and in fact held her opponent Alexandra Kosteniuk to a draw, but Russia took the match 3 : 1 to become the only team in either tournament with a perfect match record at the half. | Photo: www.euroteams2017.com

Hidden hitch

11/3/2017 – Friday Tactic: Following ...Qxa1 in the diagram position, White hopes to catch the opponent's queen with Bb2 and then start playing with his bishop pair. But Black has a way to thwart this. Can you see how?

Improve your Chess with Tania Sachdev

11/3/2017 – Passion and hard work are the secrets to chess success, if to these two ingredients one adds a Chessbase DVD created by a successful Indian IM, the result is nearly certain: big chess improvement! ChessBase contributor Davide Nastasio takes a deep dive into IM Tania Sachdev's general strategy DVD, in this review.

Croatia unlikely Euro Teams leader

11/2/2017 – Who would have guessed that Croatia would be in the sole lead at the European Team Championship heading into the rest day? They beat Germany, while Hungary and Armenia played to a 2-2 tie. Russian and Poland are also a point off the pace. Shakhriyar Mamedyarov turned in a scorching win over David Navara and broke 2800 on the live rating list. Highlights from Rounds 4 and 5 including extensive game annotations from GM Daniel Fernandez. | Photos: euroteams2017.com

The land of Gandhi invites you for World Youth (U-16) Olympiad 2017

11/2/2017 – The World Youth Olympiad (under-16) will be held in India in the city of Ahmedabad from the 10th to 19th of December 2017. Already 17 teams have registered for the event. India is fielding their strongest team which includes GM Aryan Chopra and two of the biggest talents R. Praggnanandhaa and Nihal Sarin. Will there be any team to stop the hosts? In this article you get all the information about the event and also get to know why from a tourist point of view, Gujarat is one of the most scenic destinations in the country. Thumbnail image: Lennart Ootes

November 2017 FIDE Ratings: Magnus Carlsen supreme again

11/1/2017 – Never has the Top Ten looked so crowded with so little to separate one from the other. In fact, every single player has been world number two at least once, if only for a day. One constant has re-established itself, and that is Magnus Carlsen's domination, as he opened the gap to 36 Elo points after a win at the Isle of Man. Of note also is Egyptian GM Amin Bassem who became the first African to crack 2700. | Photo: Alina L'Ami

Remembering Alexander Alekhine

11/1/2017 – Alexander Alekhine himself thought that he was born on November 1, 1892, but historians checked again and concluded that he was born on October 31. The confusion seems to be due to an error in the conversion of the Julian to the Gregorian calendar. All the same, we celebrate the fourth World Champion's birthday — reason enough to look back on his life and career. | Photos: Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons

Endgame Magic with guest Steve Berger

11/1/2017 – Steve Berger is an International Master from Germany. He grew up in Hamburg, but spent 22 years living in Berlin before returning to Hamburg. He has previously recorded an "Opening Recipes" live show in German for ChessBase, and is a professional chess trainer and author. He joins Karsten to look at some of his own endgame exploits full of tactical tricks! Live at 15:00 CET (10:00 AM EDT)!

Yermo's Travels: the 2017 Spice Cup

11/1/2017 – Recently, the 2017 Spice Cup was held in St. Louis, Missouri, and won by Lazaro Bruzon Batista, Yunieska Quesada, and Dariusz Swiercz. This traditional event is organised by Webster University, also home to the strongest collegiate team in the US. It brought players from around the globe, including a field rich in titled players. Among them was our correspondent Alex Yermolinsky, who performed well, and brings his report with some fantastic games and notes. Not to be missed! | Photo: Paul Truong

Announcing GAMMA Reykjavik 2018

10/31/2017 – The organisers of the annual Reykjavik Open have recently announced information on the March, 2018 edition, which will be extra special, as it will commemorate Bobby Fischer himself. Fischer would have turned 75 years old during the event, if not for his untimely death in 2008. They have sent us the key details.

Pawn barriers

10/31/2017 – Bishops like to have free diagonals, pawns like to be protected. However, sometimes it is difficult to combine both. But you should know what is more important.

Speelman's Agony #63

10/30/2017 – This week GM Jon Speelman takes a break from amateur games to look at a new theme: when your engines let you down. Two famous examples from World Championship history — Kasparov vs. Anand (1995) and Kramnik vs. Leko (2004), plus two recent ones from the Isle of Man and the European Club Cup. Want Jon to take a look at your games? Send them in, and if selected, 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! | Photo: Chess.com / Maria Emelianova

ETCC: Highlights from first two rounds

10/30/2017 – After rounds one and two, seven teams have won both matches in the open, with the overall leader Hungary winning 6½ of 8 possible board points. Among the leaders are Armenia who brought in Levon Aronian to face the host team of Greece (pictured). The women's tournament has eight teams, each with two wins. The leader is Israel with 6½ board points. England's new Grandmaster Daniel Fernandez annotates five games for our report. | Photo: ETCC on Instagram (www.instagram.com/etcc2017)

Kramnik to play 2018 Candidates

10/30/2017 – Vladimir Kramnik has received the organiser's wild card for the March, 2018 Candidates tournament in Berlin, according to an official release by Agon Ltd. Only two spots remain to be filled via the FIDE Grand Prix. As of now the players will be Sergey Karjakin as the previous World Championship runner-up, Levon Aronian and Ding Liren via the World Cup and Wesley So and Fabiano Caruana thanks to rating qualification. | Photos: Amruta Mokal

Abdusattorov second youngest GM ever

10/29/2017 – Nodirbek Abdusattorov has GM norms from last year's Chigorin Memorial and from Abu Dhabi 2017. And now he's added a third in the Chigorin Memorial in St. Petersburg this weekend. Combined with a rating over 2500 he has met the qualifications for the GM title several months ahead of the previous record held by Parimarjan Negi. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

A chess tournament at sea (2)

10/29/2017 – On its way from Copenhagen to Miami the cruiser Norwegian Getaway stopped at the Azores, nine islands that formed by volcanic eruptions. The landscape seemed to have inspired the players who produced tense and exciting games. | Photo: Beltz

"It's chaotic": An interview with Kiril Georgiev

10/28/2017 – What is going on with chess in Bulgaria? Currently the country has no fewer than three chess federations but none of them is recognised by the ministry of sports in Bulgaria or FIDE. In an interview with Vera Jürgens the Bulgarian grandmaster and top player Kiril Georgiev gives insights into this mess, and speaks about his chess career and life as a chess professional.