11/21/2017 – Tuesdays at 5pm UK time Lawrence Trent goes on air on Playchess.com. In his show Lawrence Trent will be dealing with the latest trends, games and combinations from the elite chess tournaments. This week features games from the World Junior Championships!

11/21/2017 – Usually it is good and fun to snatch the pawns of the opponent in an endgame. But sometimes the pawns of your opponents are your biggest help. Then you should think twice before snatching them!

11/21/2017 – After the tempestuous round the day before, round five was an understandable anticlimax with draws on all boards. For the top two boards in particular, this was quite expected, as it pitted the leaders against each other. Lions don't attack other lions for the 'challenge', they wait for easier prey. Still, it was not all dull games or lack of theoretical ideas as shown by GM Alex Yermolinsky in his round five report. | Photo: Valerij Belobeev

11/21/2017 – Emanuel Lasker, World Champion from 1894 to 1921, was a strong defender who kept his cool in bad positions and always seemed to find ways to pose his opponents problems. But Lasker was also an excellent attacker and tactician. Lasker's perhaps most brilliant attacking game is his victory against Harry Nelson Pillsbury, played at the St. Petersburg tournament 1895/1896. A brilliancy in a crucial moment. | Photo: Cleveland Public Library

11/21/2017 – "Welcome to the Sniper" – officially created in 2010, it has now been tested with success against top grandmasters and computer programs and still manages to ensure new and creative opening situations full of imbalance, and hence winning prospects for Black. DVD author Charlie Storey has used the Sniper, in conjunction with deep computer analysis, to help gain 145 UK Open victories and has seen his students employ it successfully in European Youth Championships.

11/20/2017 – In this Simon Says Simon Williams takes a look at some crazy games that he has recently played. Expect lots of crazy sacrifices! Watch live from 18:00 CEST (12 Noon EDT).

11/16/2017 – Most parents want their children to reach their academic potential, and they’re willing to go through great effort and expense to help them achieve that goal. In recent years, a number of researchers have offered evidence suggesting that two activities in particular are especially effective at improving children’s cognitive abilities. These are playing chess and learning a musical instrument. But before sending your kid to chess club or band camp, please read on.

11/16/2017 – The Grand Prix series until now was not the most exciting string of tournaments held, mainly because of the high number of draws in the past events. But the last leg held at Palma De Mallorca, Spain, which will begin November 16th, is extremely exciting, because two spots from the Candidates 2018 will be decided from here! Two players who have the best chance to make it are Teimour Radjabov and MVL. We have the pictures from the grand opening ceremony that was held in a Gothic Castle.

11/15/2017 – The last day of the match between Magnus Carlsen and Ding Liren continued the trend of the previous days: Ding had chances but failed to realise them. Carlsen, however, was able to exploit chances he did not really seem to have. No wonder Carlsen won the blitz-match by a huge margin. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

11/15/2017 – It's taking place in the north Italian town of Acqui Terme, a place where ancient Romans went to take sulphur baths. 282 players are gathered to play the open and women's Senior World Championship, in the +50 and +65 sections. GMs Granda Zuniga and Zurab Sturua lead in the +50 Open, with 5.0/7 each. On the sidelines there is an initiative to establish a new FIDE Seniors' Commission, to help address future policy, a range of existing issues.

11/15/2017 – Passed pawns often lead to exciting tactics. They invite sacrifices and can lead to mating attacks that have to be calculated carefully. But sometimes the tactical possibilities are even more sophisticated.

11/15/2017 – DeepMind is a neuroscience-inspired AI company which develops general-purpose learning algorithms and uses them to help tackle some of the world’s most pressing challenges. The company's groundbreaking work includes the development of AlphaGo. This Deep Learning program defeated Go world champion Lee Sedol in 2016 — a breakthrough experts proclaimed to have arrived a decade ahead of its time. Demis Hassabis, Co-Founder and CEO of DeepMind, visited UCL Academy in Camden, UK, and took students on a journey through his career from chess prodigy to scientist and business leader and into the complex world of artificial intelligence.