Clear plan, complicated tactics

6/3/2016 – 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.

French Top 12: Bischwiller and Clichy lead

6/3/2016 – France has one of the most comprehensive chess leagues anywhere, layered from top to bottom for players of all strengths and ages. At the very top is the suitably named Top12, which contrary to many leagues played out a few matches at a time over many months, is decided in a single round-robin between the teams. It is packed with grandmasters including MVL who is now world no. 4.

Scholastic chess in Russia

6/2/2016 – The White Rook tournament in Russia has a long tradition. Established in 1969 it aims to attract young players to chess and now is the oldest scholastic sports competition in Russia. In 2016 more than 6,500 pupils younger than 14 took part in the qualifying events that were played all over Russia. Now the finals began in Dagomys. With teams from Russia and other countries. | Photos: Vladimir Barsky

"Developing the Initiative" by Timur Gareyev

6/2/2016 – By now you have seen and read the reports on GM Timur Gareev and his blindfold chess exploits. Aside from his unique focus, and fashion sense, his chess is also very attractive with a disregard for material and talent for attack that make for very enjoyable viewing. Sharing his understanding, he recorded a 60-minute masterclass on the initiative.

European Women's Championship: Stefanova takes lead

6/2/2016 – The European Women's Championship 2016 is played from 27th May to 7th June in the Mamaia resort in Romania. After six of eleven rounds top seed Antonatea Stefanova from Bulgaria leads with 5.0/6. In round six Stefanova scored a crucial win against Yuliya Shvayger, sole leader after five rounds. Half a point behind Stefanova follow twelve players with 4.5/6 each.

Shamkir Rd7: Caruana lets Giri escape

6/2/2016 – It was a tough round with a strange twist. Among the decisive results was Mamedyarov's strong win over Safarli, while Eljanov defeated Hou in a long battle up a piece but with technical issues. The game of the round was between the leaders Caruana and Giri, and, just when Fabiano had reached a won position, he needed to find a brilliant coup de grace! Alas! Still, the tournament is not over.

Shamkir Round six: peace returns

6/1/2016 – It seems that the rest day fueled the fire for some interesting games, but somehow or another none of them finished in decisive results. Caruana was by the far the one with the best winning chances, as he had Safarli against the ropes right from the opening. Yifan also had an edge against Harikrishna but let him go. At the end of the day, we saw five draws.

Jon Speelman's Agony Column #4

6/1/2016 – Which piece should you exchange, which piece should stay on the board? Knowing the right answers to this question is important for good positional play "the bedrock on which everything else stands", as Jon Speelman puts it in his fourth "Agony Column", in which he shows two examples of positional play. And congratulates a famous grandmaster who turned 51 today!

King on the rim

6/1/2016 – 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!

Gareyev gives blindfold simul in Amsterdam

5/31/2016 – The Caissa Amsterdam chess club, the largest chess club in Amsterdam, just celebrated its 65th anniversary. In honor of the moment they organized a series of activities for both the youth as well as the adults in the club. One of thesewas a blindfold simul by Timur Gareyev on thirteen boards. Lennart Ootes was there and brought some excellent photos.

June 2016 ratings: Kramnik no.2; Inarkiev gains 43 Elo

5/31/2016 – While one must take one's hat off to Vladimir Kramnik, back to 2812 and world no. 2, the most amazing result of the month was by Ernesto Inarkiev who racked up 43 Elo after a near 2900 performance over 17 games, including a smashing 9.0/11 win of the European Championship. A special note also of 15-year-old Polina Shuvalova, who had a breakthrough this year.

Ilya Merenzon on the NY World Championship

5/31/2016 – In six months there will be a World Championship match (between Magnus Carlsen and Sergey Karjakin) in New York. Preparation for the mega-event in the news media center of the world is well under way. The CEO of the organising body, AGON, spoke about a new broadcasting system (and philosophy) which includes free and unlimited B-rolls for TV stations. Interview with Anastasiya Karlovich.

Zalakaros: A small town with a strong open

5/31/2016 – Zalakaros is a small town in Hungary but the traditional Zalakaros Open grows continually. This year 261 players - among them 29 GMs of which nine have a rating of 2600+ - and 38 IMs travelled to the spa town to take part in the A-Group of the 35th Zalakaros Open. After four rounds six players share the lead with 3.5/4. Report, pictures, highlights...

Azlan Iqbal: Studies and a Decade in Development

5/31/2016 – Chesthetica, a computationally creative chess problem composer, has added studies to its repertoire. Dr. Azlan Iqbal shows us examples and looks back upon a decade of its development. He also describes the challenges he faced in trying to introduce the technology in the field of protein folding which might have yielded cures to diabetes, cancer and other deadly diseases. From chess to computers to medicine.

If you want to get better in chess...

5/30/2016 – The new ChessBase Magazine (#172) is out and again contains a wealth of material. One focus of this issue is the Candidates Tournament in Moscow - top players analyse the most exciting games. The magazine also contains lots of detailed opening surveys which help you to study, deepen and broaden your opening repertoire. To get better and to score more points.

Shamkir Round five: The Steamrollers

5/30/2016 – On a normal day, we would be reporting on Anish Giri's fabulous performance: He is on 4.0/5, is gaining enough rating points to put him back to fourth in the world now, yet today is not a normal day. Fabiano Caruana has even more points as he has won again, this time against Radjabov, and has now climbed back to World numero dos!

Asian Continental starts with dreams and hopes

5/30/2016 – The Uzbekistan Chess Federation on behalf of Asian Chess Federation and FIDE is hosting the Asian Continental Chess Championships. Atstake are five places in the World Cup for the Open section, and one spot in the Women World Championship. Top seeds are Le Quang Liem, Rustam Kasimdzhanov, and Wei Yi, but the field is chock full of prodigies ready to make waves. An illustrated report.

Praggnanandhaa – youngest chess IM in history!

5/29/2016 – Houston, we have an IM – and he is ten years and nine months of age! Better learn to pronounce his name: Praggnanandhaa, Pragg-na-nan-dhaa. A couple of hours ago he won his ninth round game at the KiiT International Chess Festival in Bhubaneswar, India, and made his third IM norm (after norms in Cannes and Moscow). We congratulate Praggu on this historical achievement.

2016 Shamkir Rd4: Caruana storms to 3.5/4

5/29/2016 – After four rounds, it is beginning to look like a one-man show, with yet another win for Fabiano Caruana as he defeated Rauf Mamedov with black, taking his score to 3.5/4 and his live rating to world no.2 at 2814. Pentala Harikrishna was outplayed by Anish Giri and lost in 27 moves. We bring you a full report of an incredibly important fourth round.

2016 Shamkir Rd3: Powerplay round gives Caruana lead

5/28/2016 – Round three was a display of powerplay, with the quickest scored by Caruana as he demolished Hou taking him to sole first with 2.5/3. Harikrishna played an astonishing(ly bad) 12...h6 that was punished very quickly, and though he had to work for it, Karjakin reeled in the point. As to Mamedyarov, he outplayed Eljanov in a queenless middlegame in impressive fashion. The tournament is red hot!

Panama Papers – it wasn't the RCF President!

5/28/2016 – We recently reported that a British newspaper had named Russian Chess Federation President Andrey Filatov in connection with the Panama Papers scandal that was rocking the financial world. Hefty rebuttals by the RCF and the threat of legal action were heeded by the Telegraph, which published a retraction: apparently the person mentioned in the company was a completely different Andrey Filatov.

2016 Shamkir Rd2: From lukewarm to scalding

5/27/2016 – There was nothing tepid about the second round with three decisive games and hard battles. The first to win, and the cleanest, was Indian Harikrishna who beat Mamedyarov. Eljanov and Caruana had a balanced battle, but Fabi pressed until Pavel blundered and lost. Karjakin blundered his queen to Giri, and in spite of heroic efforts, lost. All wins annotated!

A beautiful study explained

5/27/2016 – "One of the prettiest studies I have seen in recent times!" wrote Indian GM Abhijeet Gupta when he posted it on Twitter. Sagar Shah tried his hand at solving the position and gave it to a number of his students. The reaction was the same – everyone who was able to find the solution had a feeling of unadulterated joy. Here’s the study with a detailed explanation, including why King Leonidas is on the thumbnail!

Super idea

5/27/2016 – 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.