7/18/2016 – “Professional chess is demanding and success eludes the best. If you study the games in this issue you will know how battles are won and lost at this level.” Those are the thoughts of Prof. Nagesh Havanur on Volume #172 of ChessBase Magazine, which has become the essential study tool of ambitious players. The current issue has 837 OTB games, 115 of which are annotated (by Kasimdzhanov, Marin, Krasenkow, Ftacnik and others). The Telechess section includes 20147 correspondence games, 29 games annotated. And 14 exemplary openings surveys.

7/17/2016 – Like it or not, Magnus Carlsen is the player who provides the greatest entertainment in Bilbao. In round five he played with Black against Anish Giri and managed to create winning chances from an equal position. However, Giri's tenacious defense allowed him to draw. Sergey Karjakin and Hikaru Nakamura played an old line of the Queen's Gambit Declined and after an improvement by White Black quickly forced a draw. Wesley So tried hard to win against Wei Yi but had no success. After five of ten rounds Carlsen leads with 10.0/15.

7/17/2016 – The game between Magnus Carlsen and Wesley So from the fourth round of the "Masters" in Bilbao is puzzling. Carlsen, who had White, opted for a solid Anti-Berlin and showed no particular aggression in the opening. But then his knights suddenly started to dance and Black was in trouble. Carlsen won in 26 moves. Daniel King takes a look at the mysteries of this game.

7/17/2016 – The World Senior Team Championship is a relatively recent addition to the chess calendar. Starting just three years ago, it has grown rapidly and the 2016 edition attracted over 500 players to Radebeul, a suburb of Dresden. A few years ago, FIDE changed the age limits for senior events from a single category of 60+ to two categories of 50+ and 65+. John Nunn, who played on board one for England (and got a silver medal for his 2600+ performance), describes the action, including a remarkable combination spotted by an 83-year-old.

7/17/2016 – With a fine game against Ruslan Ponomariov Maxime Vachier-Lagrave won the Sparkassen Chess-Meeting in Dortmund with one round to go. He leads with 5.0/6 and is 1.5 points ahead of his closest rivals Leinier Dominguez Perez and Fabiano Caruana. The other decisive game of round six was Caruana's smooth victory against Rainer Buhmann. Evgeniy Najer and Dominguez Perez drew after 54 moves, Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu and Vladimir Kramnik after 146 moves.

7/16/2016 – With each round of the "Masters" in Bilbao World Champion Magnus Carlsen seems to get better. After his first round loss against Hikaru Nakamura he won three games in a row - in round four he defeated Wesley So in just 26 moves after a seemingly innocuous opening. It was the only decisive game of the round. Hikaru Nakamura drew against Anish Giri and Wei Yi drew against Sergey Karjakin. Carlsen now leads with 9.0/12.

7/16/2016 – For weeks chessfans had been waiting for the encounter between Magnus Carlsen and Sergey Karjakin in the Bilbao "Masters", the prelude of their World Championship match in November. But their third round game turned out to be a pretty one-sided affair in which Carlsen worked his magic again. After a quiet opening he "simply" attacked on the kingside and came to a seemingly effortless win. Daniel King takes a closer look at this crucial encounter.

7/15/2016 – After a long fight the top game between Vladimir Kramnik and Fabiano Caruana in the fifth round of the Sparkassen Chess-Meeting in Dortmund ended in a draw. But Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and Ruslan Ponomariov could win. Vachier-Lagrave played against Najer and showed how well he knows the Najdorf. Ponomariov won against Buhmann. Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu and Leinier Dominguez drew. With two rounds to go Vachier-Lagrave leads with 4.0/5.

7/15/2016 – If the encounter between Magnus Carlsen and Sergey Karjakin in the third round of the "Masters" in Bilbao is anything to go by Karjakin will not have an easy time in the World Championship match against Carlsen in November. But maybe this was only a final rehearsal that went wrong. At any rate, their game was a rather one-sided affair in which Carlsen smashed Karjakin in a smooth attack. With this victory Carlsen took the sole lead in the tournament.

7/15/2016 – He is the second of World Champion Magnus Carlsen, and considered one of the greatest opening experts of our time. On this new ChessBase DVD he invites club and tournament players to try one of the most fascinating and richest opening systems in modern chess: the Semi-Slav. It is an opening that has fascinated countless top players. Peter Heine guides you through the often dauntingly complex systems and offers detailed analyses of the critical lines. Don't miss it!

7/15/2016 – Wei Yi vs Magnus Carlsen, potential World Champion against reigning World Champion, was the highlight of the second round of the "Masters" in Bilbao. After his first round loss against Hikaru Nakamura the World Champion obviously wanted to win but was careful to avoid undue risks. This led to an interesting game with lots of tactical moments in the endgame. Daniel King takes a closer look.

7/15/2016 – This year the Norwegian Championships celebrate a jubilee: 100 years ago, in 2016, the first Norwegian Championship was played in Christiana, which later became Oslo. But the tournament is still very much alive and every year about 400 people take part in the various events. This year a lot of talented juniors, three Grandmasters and nine International Masters came to in Tromsø to play for various national titles.