Out of necessity

12/1/2017 – Holding a gun to your opponent's head can be a double-edged thing — set under pressure, some players start to display unforeseen creativity, like for example Black following 37.Rb7 in the diagram position. What followed?

December 2017 FIDE Ratings: Records ready to fall

11/30/2017 – What an interesting month it was for ratings. At the top, there were a few changes and personal bests, but among the Girls and Juniors we saw significant leaps forward. Among the elite, the news was the win by Levon Aronian (again!) and Dmitri Jakovenko, but lower down among the youth, several records are getting ready to topple. Enjoy this review of the new ratings list. | Photo: Valerij Belobeev

From Saint Louis to Larsen: CBM 180

11/30/2017 – A detailed review of our recent ChessBase Magazine from Prof. Nagesh Havanur. Among other things this issue includes all games from Sinquefield Cup, FIDE Grand Prix Geneva, Biel Festival and Dortmund FIDE Grand Prix Tournaments. The icing on the cake is the set of games from Saint Louis Rapid & Blitz event with Kasparov’s participation. Our reviewer re-examines two of his games and also sets up a little test for young readers from the Carlsen-Aronian encounter at Sinquefield Cup. 955 games (several annotated) with 12 opening surveys from Sicilian to Semi-Slav. Not to be missed.

Kings Tournament honours its founder

11/30/2017 – The 11th Kings Tournament was the first edition held in memory of legendary Romanian player, organiser and teacher, Elisabeta Polihroniade, who helmed the event for its first nine years until her death in 2016 at age 80. A large scholastic event including a simul by Anatoly Karpov started the festivities last Friday in Bucharest. This year's tournament — a pair of four-player double round-robins — was won by Ukrainian's Vassily Ivanchuk and Anna Muzychuk, and was broadcast live on ChessBase with grandmaster commentary. | Photo: Macauley Peterson

Automatic game analysis in Playchess

11/30/2017 – Whether a pro or an amateur, after a blitz game online, we want to know where we went wrong. Was our attack right? Was the opponent’s? Did we miss a simple shot or defense? Sure we can stop and turn on an engine to analyze it, but that still takes time. Not anymore thanks to the new automatic analysis in Fritz 16. Read on to find out more!
More...
 8

World Championship 2018 to be in London

11/29/2017 – Magnus Carlsen will defend his World Championship title in a 12-game match to be held in London from November 9th to 28th, 2018, World Chess confirmed today. He will play the winner of the Candidates tournament to be held in Berlin in March.

The imprisoned king

11/29/2017 – Pawns are not particularly mobile: on the first move they can take two steps, after that only one. They know only one direction unless they capture enemy pawns or pieces. But sometimes the pawns are invisibly — and powerfully — connected.

Banff Open: Chess in the Mountains

11/29/2017 – If you yearn for the mountain air, outdoor activities such as skiing or hiking, and a chess tournament to boot, then the Banff Open is for you. Now in its second edition, it brought players coming to enjoy the untouched beauty of nature (you could see deer in the forest from the tournament hall window!) as well as some solid chess competition. Here is a lovely report by WIM Agnieszka Matras-Clement. | Photo: www.banffcentre.ca

The Hedgehog - a universal system against 1.Nf3 and 1.c4. Pelletier

11/29/2017 – The road to mastery is a difficult one, but one aspect everyone agrees on, is related to how mastering some pawn structures can help us grow as chess players. Here we have a repertoire to use against the usual frenemies we play against in tournament, and a pawn structure whose deep understanding will bring us to a new level. Davide Nastasio has the review...

Duchamp in Rio finishes in style

11/28/2017 – The Duchamp Festival in Rio de Janeiro was not only a welcome change in the chess landscape in the city, but lived up to its promise of a true international event with a multitude of competitions, activities, and more. The main competition, the Master, was won by GM Neuris Delgado a full round in advance. Here is the final report. | Photo: Albert Silver

DIY: How to use Mega Database 2018

11/28/2017 – It is one of the most important tools of chess professionals and amateurs alike: the flagship database of 7.8 high quality games, from 1560 to 2017, extensively classified, with direct access to players, tournaments, openings, middlegame and endgame themes. 71,000 games are annotated by top players. And best of all: the database is constantly updated, for a full year, with around 250,000 new games expected in 2018. How it all works and how you can use the Mega Database is explained in a very instructive video by IM Sagar Shah.
More...
 5

Trade mark

11/28/2017 – The attacked white knight c3 in the diagram must withdraw, but in view of Black's lurking bishops not all retreat squares are equally good. 25.Ne2 or 25.Nd1 — what would be your candidate?

Ask Wesley, a special live webcast

11/28/2017 – Wesley So is in Hamburg and paying the ChessBase headquarters a visit before he's playing the London Chess Classic. In a special webcast Wesley will do a Q&A on Tuesday november 28. Get your questions into the comment section which will be picked up in the live broadcast.
More...
 16

Kings Tournament LIVE

11/28/2017 – Vassily Ivanchuk was impressive on his way to winning the blitz tournament and at one point was leading by three full points. He finished two points clear of Sergey Karjakin. Anna Muzychuk lead the women's tournament from start to finish, ultimately scoring 1½ points more than her nearest rival Elisabeth Paehtz. The tournament (November 24th-29th) was held in memory of Elisabeta Polihroniade who helmed the event for its first nine years until her death in 2016 at age 80. Ivanchuk and Muzychuk also won their respective rapid tournaments for a clean sweep!

The man who was Dr. Zhivago: Fedor Bohatirchuk

11/27/2017 – Even chess players hardly remember Fedor Bohatirchuk although the Ukrainian-Canadian doctor and chess master led a life worth remembering. He lived in turbulent times, and he was a strong chess player with a life-time score of 3½-½ against Mikhail Botvinnik. He also inspired Boris Pasternak to the character of "Doctor Zhivago". Today, Bohatirchuk would celebrate his 125th birthday.

Building a $500 chess machine

11/27/2017 – We recently published an article on the ultimate PC for chess, designed for the pro on the road, or the enthusiast seeking the best, setting a budget ceiling of $2000-$2500. The question many asked was what about those who cannot spend so much? The size of the budget isn’t everything, and here is a full PC with eight cores of chess processing power for just $500!
More...
 10

Simon says: New ideas from new games

11/27/2017 – In this Simon Says Simon Williams takes a look at new ideas from new games that have been played recently. Expect lots of crazy sacrifices! Watch live from 18:00 CEST (12 Noon EDT).

Norway and Kazakhstan win gold at World Junior Championship

11/27/2017 – Norway has a second World Champion: in Tarvisio, Italy, Aryan Tari won the World Junior Championship with 8½/11. He shared first place with Manuel Petrosyan from Armenia and the Indian Aravindh Chithambaram Vr. but had the best tiebreak. At the World Junior Championship for Girls Zhansaya Abdumalik took clear first with 9½/11. | Photo: Bernd Vökler

"Ask Magnus" winner

11/27/2017 – Magnus Carlsen added his name to his esteemed predecessors on a very special Fritz 15 DVD on the eve of the Fritz 16 release. We've finally picked the winner to our "Ask Magnus" Q&A webcast contest. Plus our next very special on Tuesday will be Wesley So!

Speelman's Agony #65

11/26/2017 – Trefor relates a heart-felt love for our game, and does Jon a small Caïssaic mitzvah to boot! Fancy Jon taking a look at your games? Send them in! If you appear in 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!

5th International Chess Meeting of the Francophone Countries

11/26/2017 – The Fifth International Chess Meeting of the Francophone Countries took place from October 28th to November 4th, in Yasmine Hammamet in Tunisia. Here is a report about the tournament which was played throughout the Meeting. A French version is available for our French speaking readers.

FIDE GP in Palma: Jakovenko and Aronian share first!

11/26/2017 – What an astonishing event Palma turned out to be. From the get-go, the question was on what both Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and Teimour Radjabov needed to earn a spot in the Candidates. However, in spite of promising starts and chances at the end for both, neither made it and the spots will go to Mamedyarov and Grischuk. Enjoy this final report with analysis by GM Moradiabadi. | Photo: World Chess

Endgame Magic 100, live with Wesley So!

11/25/2017 – The 100th episode of Endgame Magic is airing on Monday. We have a special guest for this jubilee: None other than Wesley So. He joins Karsten to look at some fascinating endgame from recent tournament praxis! Live at 15:00 CET (9:00 AM EST)!

FIDE Grand Prix in Palma de Mallorca, Round 9 Live!

11/25/2017 – Levon Aronian survived the pressure from Hikaru Nakamura, making a draw that ensured him a share of first place. He was somewhat surprisingly joined by Dmitry Jakovenko, who beat Maxime Vachier-Lagrave with the black pieces. MVL was in a must win situation, so had to go for broke. All other games ended in draws including the remaining key game for the Candidates qualification: Teimour Radjabov vs. Richard Rapport. In the end Shakhriyar Mamedyarov and Alexander Grischuk maintained their lead in the overall Grand Prix standings and secured the final two Candidates tournament spots.