10/2/2017 – It was a much awaited return to form for Magnus Carlsen, who dominated the Chess.com Isle of Man Open from start to finish, defeating his nearest challengers one after the other. His final game against Hikaru Nakamura was expected to be a quick draw, and it was. Among the challengers who might join Nakamura for a share of second was none other than Vishy Anand who played a superb game to beat Hou Yifan in the last round. | Photo: John Saunders

10/1/2017 – 2017 has been literally the Year of the Levon, with an amazing series of major wins, now culminating in the second World Cup title, guaranteeing him a place in the next Candidates tournament. Perhaps one of the most noteworthy things is a change in the balance of power, since now the Top 20 contains four Russian players... and four Chinese players, the oldest being 28. Enjoy this report on the latest lists and results. | Photo: Amruta Mokal

10/1/2017 – The organisers of the FIDE World Cup 2017 invited a local freelance journalist named Ioseb Qipshidze to look into the circumstances surrounding the abrupt departure of Canadian GM Anton Kovalyov at the start of the third round, and shared his reporting with ChessBase. We publish the key portions of it and link to the full version. Although Qipshidze did not reach Kovalyov himself for comment, we did, and will include his response in an editorial postscript to follow shortly. | Photos: Amruta Mokal / ChessBase India (except where noted)

10/1/2017 – Magnus Carlsen has only one obstacle between him and his first tournament victory in over a year: Hikaru Nakamura. Carlsen's a clear favourite with white and a half point edge in Isle of Man. His eighth round win over Caruana, with the black pieces was extremely impressive, and he has only lost a classical game to Nakamura (with any colour) once (in Bilbao, 2016)! Hou Yifan, since taking a bye in round 5 has one three in a row and faces Anand on board 2! Watch games from the ninth and final round live... | Photos: Alina l'Ami

10/1/2017 – It was a much awaited clash, as Magnus Carlsen faced Fabiano Caruana in round eight of the Chess.com Isle of Man Open on the top board. Caruana unleashed the novelty, but then got cold feet and was soon swept away by the Carlsen tsunami. Hikaru Nakamura dispatched Emil Sutovsky and set up a final duel with the World Champion for gold. Hou Yifan scored her third straight win over GMs and is now tied for third. | Photo: Chess.com / Maria Emelianova

9/30/2017 – World Cup runner-up, Ding Liren, the chess player, is well known to everyone. But what about Ding Liren the person. Not much is known about his personal life, his education, his likes, dislikes, hobbies, his girlfriend, daily routine, future aims and so on. It was with the aim to fill this void that IM Sagar Shah met with Ding after his World Cup 2017 journey and interviewed him. The answers of Chinese player show you the kind of person he is. To put it succinctly: his feet are firmly secured to the ground, but his mind thinks big and he aims high — very high! | Photo: Ding Liren's archives

9/30/2017 – With so many great players, it is little wonder the tournament has had so many great clashes, and rounds six and seven were that in the spades. The sole leader is now Magnus Carlsen, after smashing Pavel Eljanov in round six, but only by the thinnest of margins, and will meet Fabiano Caruana in round eight. After Hou Yifan returned to action, she scored two convincing wins. Enjoy this report plush with GM analysis and great photos! | Analysis: Elshan Moradiabadi; Photo: Chess.com / Maria Emelianova

9/29/2017 – Yes, it's a real thing! Yesterday was National Poetry Day, an annual celebration of poetry in the United Kingdom, and it reminded us of a unusual chess connection involving Jennifer Shahade playing blindfold while a computer "ChessBard" generated live poetry based on the moves played. Shahade has pioneered events combining chess and art, and annotated games for the book Marcel Duchamp: The Art of Chess. A new book on Duchamp, coming out next week, is a collection of his games as reimagined by the "ChessBard". You can compose your own works of art on chesspoetry.com. | Photo: Tony Yueh

9/29/2017 – When you finally bought a new computer you probably would love to immediately install ChessBase and Fritz to test the new machine. But you should take care to deactivate your ChessBase programs and Fritztrainers on your old computer. This helps to let the programs run smoothly on the new system. Here's how to go about it.

9/29/2017 – A solid tactical understanding is sure to help any chess player in critical situations. Whether it is a simple exchange or a mating attack, tactics are ubiquitous. Take advantage of the opportunity to develop your tactical understanding in this series with IM Oliver Reeh and Pascal Simon! Friday at 3.30 pm CEST it's all about checkmate against 0-0-0!

9/29/2017 – It might seem odd to write a tribute to Hugh Hefner, founder of the legendary Playboy magazine, who died now at the ripe age of 91. However, in its own way, Playboy magazine has had a significant impact on chess and some of its big names. Famed chess figures to mark their presence are Bobby Fischer, Garry Kasparov, Veselin Topalov, and even Judit Polgar. | Photo: Jeff Rayner / Mirror.co.uk

9/29/2017 – Following 24.e5 Bc5+ 25.Kh1 in the diagram, the draught in White's king position becomes a hurricane. Black wins on the spot. Can you see how — or maybe even remember this spectacular game played 25 years ago?