10/3/2017 – Or a 'maths' break if you will. Try this on for size: 1+2+3+3 …. =-1/12 (the sum of all natural numbers equals -1/12). Wait what? Sounds like a joke, yet it is actually mathematical practise. How and why this is possible is explained in a fun video by mathematician Brady Haran.

10/3/2017 – Rooks should go behind passed pawns! In rook endings this is a popular and helpful rule of thumb. After all, in most cases this is indeed where the rook should go. But unfortunately - or fortunately - there are exceptions.

10/3/2017 – Ten days ago we proposed a contest to "fix" the cover of New Scientist magazine's September 23rd issue, which featured a fictitious illustration of President Trump squaring off against North Korea's Kim Jong Un, in what was dubbed 'Endgame'. The position was nonsensical. Of the many creative suggestions, here are our favourites. | Illustration: Robert Carter (crackedhat.com)

10/2/2017 – Have you heard of the City of Smiles? When a crippling economic depression hits your region, how do you recover? Would you just cry for aid or would you start a tradition called the Masskara festival to rouse the masses? When GM Srinath Narayanan was invited to Bacolod to take part in the Negros International Open, he felt inspired by the spirit of the Negrenses and decided he had to pay this wonderful place a visit. Read on to find out more!

10/2/2017 – Inspired by the image of endgame expert Alexey Troitzky sitting in a Siberian forest, analyzing night after night whether king plus four knights can always beat king plus queen, Prof Azlan Iqbal set his AI composer Chesthetica on finding a nice 4N-Q chess problem. It took his program a week, and the result was deemed not aesthetically perfect. So we issued a challenge to our readers: come up with a better problem of four knights vs queen. Here are the results.

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