November 2016 ratings: Nepo closes in on the Top 10

11/1/2016 – It was a busy month for the players, though less so than after Baku. This month the results for the Russian Championship, the Isle of Man, and the Tal Memorial were all computed. This brought Caruana to the no.2 spot at 2823, while Nepomniachtchi is at no.12 after his surprising win at the Tal Memorial. In the Women's list, Hou Yifan drop a few more points and 'only' 55 Elo ahead of the rest. Among the surprising results is Vladislav Artemiev who had two great blitz results and is now no.3 with 2850. Report, stats, and more.

Riazantsev and Kosteniuk are 2016 Russian champions

11/1/2016 – The finale of the Russian Superfinal was easily the most exciting phase of the event, with a marked increase in decisive games in the Men’s final, and more action overall. After a six-way tie (out of 12 players) for first after seven rounds, it was Alexander Riazantsev who broke away to take clear first. Alexandra Kosteniuk all but left her rivals in the dust taking clear first in the Women’s a round in advance. Read the report and enjoy the excellent games.

Queen in the corners

11/1/2016 – Every week ChessBase magazine author and renowned endgame expert Karsten Müller presents a remarkable or particularly instructive endgame in his blog. A click on the diagram opens a larger board. Test your endgame skills, improve and have fun!

CHESS Magazine November 2016: Studies with Stephenson

11/1/2016 – The World Problem conference is not just about solving. The chess composers present at the event are not idle but take part in one or more of the wide range of composing tourneys that these events always include. This year, for the first time, the Azerbaijanis ran a study composing tourney. First prize was won by Danish composer Steffen Slumstrup Nielsen. Problem expert Brian Stephenson explains the study and gives you another study to solve.

ChessBase Opening Encyclopedia 2016

10/31/2016 – This DVD is a mix of the old and the new. Players like Magnus Carlsen have blurred the borderline between the two and keep experimenting with new systems. You never know what they will play next. The Opening Encyclopedia 2016 has 5,629,050 games, of which more than 84,000 are annotated. There are 5,900 opening surveys by the finest opening specialists, and 931 theory databases. Review by Nagesh Havanur

Mark Dvoretsky's final interview - Part II

10/31/2016 – In Part II of our interview with Dvoretsky we go into more specifics. We ask Mark how can we improve at tactics and endgames. We ask for his opinion on famous authors like Jacob Aagaard and Karsten Müller, and also great trainers like Tukamkov and Chuchelov. He also narrates a funny incident about working with ChessBase software and reads out a passage written by Lev Psakhis that had him in splits. It's an interview from which you can learn a lot, and even though you might not agree with everything that Mark says, it's definitely food for thought.

Corsica Masters: Anand vs MVL in final

10/29/2016 – The surprising thing about Corsica is the inherent diversity of the small Mediterranean island, one of the regions under France. It is a bit like a game between two fighting chessplayers — glittering bays, relaxed beaches, dense forests, mountain peaks. The geography is never constant. Corsica is hosting a notable chess festival with the chief attraction being a rapid tournament featuring MVL and Anand. Illustrated report with analyses.

Zuckerberg and Gates to attend World Championship

10/29/2016 – FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov announced Wednesday that tech guru Bill Gates and social media mogul Mark Zuckerberg will attend the World Chess Championship in New York next month. “Gates and Zuckerberg have agreed to attend the match. I don’t know whether it will be at the opening or one of the later games,” he told TASS in an interview. This announcement emphasizes once more the widespread interest in the World Championship in New York.

Chess960: Instructive or just fun?

10/29/2016 – Bobby Fischer came up with the idea of Chess960 or Fischer Random Chess, where the pieces are placed in a random order on the last rank. Top grandmasters have dipped their feet in the ocean of Chess960, but the format hasn't really caught on. In this article Ganesh Dorairaj asks a very pertinent question (and seeks your feedback): is the study of Fischer Random games played by top grandmasters useful to improve our chess?

Carlsen beats Nakamura in 3-hour blitz battle

10/28/2016 – World Champion Magnus Carlsen and elite player, as well as renowned blitz specialist Hikaru Nakamura, played a three-hour blitz match online as the final of an online invitational tournament hosted by Chess.com. It was broadcast live at the online service Twitch where the two players could be seen via Skype connections as they played. Magnus Carlsen won the encounter 14.5 – 10.5. Report and games.

Hoogeveen controversy on final ratings

10/28/2016 – The Hoogeveen match between Nigel Short and Hou Yifan ended in a victory for the former World Championship challenger, who decided it after five of six games when he led 3.5-1.5. The sixth game was a contractual obligation, which Short played and lost. The organizers submitted all six games for rating, although the FIDE rules say that the last game should not count. That has led to a furious controversy, very aptly described in MalayMail by Peter Long.

Rank prank

10/28/2016 – Tactics can seem deceptively simple, particularly when seeing an engine analysing grandmaster games. Strange, however, how difficult it is to find the right move and to calculate variations properly when playing yourself. It is easier if you solve tactical puzzles regularly. In the ChessBase Magazine and his tactics column Oliver Reeh helps you to do so.

Bob Dylan: star, chess player, Nobel Prize laureate

10/27/2016 – To say that 2016 has been an unusual year, would be an understatement, and that would be true even without making any mention of US politics. The most recent and startling announcement was without a doubt when just two weeks ago, the famous Folk Rock singer, Bob Dylan, was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. Dylan’s work has spanned decades and was the voice of a generation, and he was also a well-known chess fan. Here is a look at the icon with some tales you may not know.

Jon Speelman's Agony Column #25

10/26/2016 – This week's pair of games are by Davide Nastasio, who is 50 and lives in Atlanta, Georgia. A nurse who has worked in various roles including medical-surgical oncology and emergency nursing, Davide got interested in chess in 2011 when he was looking after his then one-year-old son, who used to fall asleep on him. Immobilised lest he wake him, he one day saw an advertisement for a chess site. Thus began his chess career. Oh yes, and he grows orchids.

Chigorin Memorial: Alekseenko wins; Abdusattorov shines

10/26/2016 – While the Chigorin Memorial may no longer have the luster of other top international events, its long tradition and list of world class players who participated and won mean it can never lose its shine. For the second consecutive year, Kirill Alekseenko came ahead of the field of 372 strong, taking clear first with 8.0/9 and beating out 26 players higher rated. Nevertheless, this superb result was almost overshadowed by the GM norm with 2673 performance by 11-year-old Nodirbek Abdusattorov.

Looking back at the Isle of Man (2/2)

10/25/2016 – Observing the top players, our intrepid photographer/report/player Alina L'Ami began to ponder how it was they managed to deal with the stress of performing at the highest level and manage the great stress this can put on the players. After all, it is a constant fight to play as well as possible and bring home the bacon. How do they do it? These were some of the questions asked and speculated upon in this photographic essay with games and positions.

Shak wins Amir Timur Rapid 2016

10/25/2016 – The Amir Timur Rapid Round Robin Tournament was held from 18th to 21st October at Hotel Miran International in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. The event was a tribute to Amir Timur, a famous conqueror who would be celebrating his 680 birthday. The 12-round quadruple tournament had an average rating of 2726 with elite players Mamedyarov, Gelfand, Ponomariov and local hero Kasimdzhanov making up the field. We have pictures, history lessons, and tactics for you to solve.

Leonard Barden still going strong – at 87

10/25/2016 – He has been writing his weekly chess column in The Guardian uninterrupted for sixty-one years now, breaking all records for this area of publication. Leonard's observations on the contemporary chess scene are well written and meticulously researched, and each column contains a game and, very enticingly, an entertaining and instructive chess puzzle. Visit the Guardian chess page on Friday – you will never regret it.

Mark Dvoretsky's final interview - Part I

10/25/2016 – It was a huge shock for the entire chess world when, on September 26th 2016 Mark Dvoretsky passed away at the age of 68 years. At the Candidates tournament, which were held in Moscow in March 2016, ChessBase editor Sagar Shah and his wife Amruta Mokal met Mark at his home in Tallinskaya. In an interview that lasted well over two hours you get to know a lot about the legend's personality. This is Dvoretsky's last in-depth interview which deals with his life as a player, trainer and an author. Mark is no more but his teachings live on.

The rook outfoxes the bishop

10/25/2016 – Every week ChessBase magazine author and renowned endgame expert Karsten Müller presents a remarkable or particularly instructive endgame in his blog. A click on the diagram opens a larger board. Test your endgame skills, improve and have fun!

SPICE Cup won by Samuel Sevian

10/24/2016 – Held in St. Louis, Missouri, the 2016 SPICE Cup was held from Oct 17-22 with a strong and attractive field of players that included Le Quang Liem (2723 FIDE) as top seed, as well as a number of GMs and top US juniors such as Jeffery Xiong, Samuel Sevian, and more. The event saw a strong fight right to the end when Sevian and Robson were left equal first which was decided by a tiebreak game won by Sevian. Report, photos, and games.

Hoogeveen 2016: Short, Sokolov and Gupta are the stars

10/24/2016 – Abhijeet Gupta won the 2016 Hoogeveen Open after scoring a comfortable 7.5/9. Lalith Babu, who had been leading with Gupta after seven rounds suffered an unfortunate accident to end on the third spot. Sandipan Chanda jumped in with a strong finish to take the runners up position. Lucas van Foreest performed excellently and ended on the fifth spot. The matches saw vistories by both Short and Sokolov respectively. We have pictures, tactics, stories and much more – in our final report from the Hoogeveen Festival 2016.

Russian Superfinal Rd3-7: The excitement continues

10/23/2016 – … in the Women’s event at least. The men’s competition is now led by six players out of twelve on plus one after a full seven rounds with a massive 76% draws. It is milkmaid chess at its best. The women on the other hand have shown who is wearing the pants in the event as they go all-out at each other every round setting an example of combativeness. Nevertheless, it hasn't all been the chess equivalent of watching paint dry as there has also been a fair share of fascinating positions.

Looking back at the Isle of Man (1/2)

10/22/2016 – The recently finished Isle of Man tournament was one more piece of evidence of how much the professional chess landscape has changed. No longer can one describe Opens as events a top player will shun, and the Isle of Man was one of those 'super' opens where one might find the world's elite playing just a table or two away, toiling at the board no different than the rest of us. Bringing us this retrospective is Alina L'Ami with her photos and comments.