Bangkok Open: Van Wely takes sole lead

4/13/2016 – Seven time Dutch Champion Loek Van Wely has become the sole leader of the Bangkok Chess Club Open, the strongest tournament ever held in Thailand, by beating the 17-year old Indian Grandmaster Narayanan Sunilduth with Black in round five. After five rounds Van Wely is the only player with 5.0/5. Half a point behind follow five players with 4.5/5 each.

International Chess Festival in Ortisei

4/13/2016 – The 3rd International Chess Festival of Ortisei will be held from 4th to 11th of June 2016 in the ‘Luis Trenker’ cultural center in Ortisei. Ortisei is located in the Valley of Gardena (‘Val Gardena’) situated between the peaks of the Dolomites in the south of the Alps. A good opportunity to play a strong tournament in idyllic surroundings.

Hopefully, breaking into the top five is a beginning

4/13/2016 – French Grandmaster Maxime Vachier-Lagrave achieved a personal milestone in March by breaking into the top five of world rankings for the first time. He continues to maintain his high ranking in the April Fide ratings. In an exclusive interview the 25-year-old speaks about his breakthrough to the top five, his prospects at Norway Chess and the Candidates tournament. | Photo: Pascal Simon

The overworked bishop

4/13/2016 – 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!

CBM 171: an arsenal for aspiring tournament players

4/12/2016 – "The chess world is (arguably!) divided into two camps,", writes Nagesh Havanur, "those who love Magnus and those who don’t." He himself belongs to neither of these camp and has to avoid being caught in the crossfire. In issue #171 of ChessBase Magazine we have reports on three major events, one won by Magnus, two by Nakamura. Prof Havanur gives us a comprehensive review of the contents.

ChessBase Account — How-to video of Cloud (2)

4/12/2016 – Continuing the series of video tutorials on the various apps in ChessBase Account, here is the second part on MyGames Cloud, an app that has it all: creating private databases online, annotating games in detail, and more. Here you will learn how to manage databases and move games from one to the next in ChessBase 13 or entirely from your browser!

An interview with Daniel Gormally (2/2)

4/12/2016 – In part two of his interview with WIM Alexey Root, English Grandmaster Daniel Gormally talks again about his recently published book Insanity, passion and addiction: A year inside the chess world, speaks about the magic of chess, alcohol and chess, work ethics, why he wants to leave the past behind, and remembers the worst and the best moments of his chess career.

The Philidor Position: turning point of Moscow

4/11/2016 – In the 2016 Candidates tournament round thirteen, Fabiano Caruana - Peter Svidler reached a position with Rook + Bishop vs Rook. During play, Svidler drifted into a losing position (at one point exactly within the 50 move rule) and Caruana was unable to win. The position is the Philidor Position, known since 1749. In the following article you will learn all you need to know about it.

A pilgrimage to Moscow: The Aeroflot Open

4/11/2016 – If you are a chess lover then you will love it at the Aeroflot Open in Moscow. Strong players, hard-fought games, good prize money, relaxed schedule and an excellent playing venue are some of the best things about the event. In this article we recap few of the most important things related to the Aeroflot Open 2016, which ended a month ago, and give you reasons why you should seriously consider adding this tournament to your calendar in 2017.

Speelman: Karjakin’s decision-making in Moscow

4/10/2016 – Sergey Karjakin’s emergence as Magnus Carlsen’s challenger has sparked an intense debate of his chances, which Jon Speelman was delighted to stoke a week ago with an article here. Even though he agrees that Carlsen is a favorite, he presents here some analysis of Karjakin's key moments and just how good his decision-making was in Moscow, under pressure. Fascinating analysis.

Elo Rating System: how underrated are the kids?

4/10/2016 – An interesting phenomenon of the ELO rating system is that when examining game outcomes for a group of lower rated players, higher rated players tend to underperform relative to the theoretical ELO probability, and lower-rated players overperform. What are the causal factors explaining the inability of the ELO system to predict results? A study by Ganesh Viswanath.

Chess movie 'Queen of Katwe' is announced

4/9/2016 – Chess is on the rise, even in the world of motion pictures. Based on the true story of Phiona Mutesi, a starving Ugandan girl living in the streets who learned chess at age nine while looking for food handouts and became the Ugandan Open junior champion (defeating the boys) at age 16, Disney will be releasing a film on her later this year starring Oscar winner Lupita Nyong'o.

I am not afraid of Magnus!

4/9/2016 – On 29th of March, one day after the Candidates tournament came to an end, our editor Sagar Shah along with two other journalists met Sergey Karjakin at the Four Seasons Hotel for an interview. The Russian had hardly slept the night before, but looked fresh as a daisy! In this interview Sergey throws light on what helped him to win the Candidates and how he doesn't fear Magnus Carlsen. All this and much more in this Q&A session.

Fighting spirit at Accentus Young Masters

4/9/2016 – From 6th to 14th April the Swiss spa Bad Ragaz hosts the Accentus Young Masters tournament, a ten player round-robin with young talents from Switzerland, Germany, Austria, and Hungary. Top seeds are M. Blübaum (2628) and I. Hera (2622), at the end of the ranking list are V. Keymer (2352) and G. Gähwiler (2359). In the first three rounds only one game was drawn.

Li Chao replaces Karjakin at the Norway Chess 2016

4/9/2016 – One of the strongest elite tournament for the year Norway Chess 2016 is scheduled to begin from the 18th of April. Just 12 days before the start of the event Sergey Karjakin withdrew his name, citing tiredness and preparation as reasons for his inavailability. Two days later the organizers have found a replacement in the form of world number 15 and China number two, Li Chao. Addendum to the Karjakin's withdrawal article.

2016 Asian Nations Cup: The Tiger and the Dragon

4/9/2016 – Organized by the UAE Chess Federation, the Asian Nations Cup 2016 was held at the Novotel Abu Dhabi Al Bustan hotel with 20 countries competing for the right to represent Asia in the World Team Championship. The top two nations were China and India, dominating the top places and medals, and ChessBase India provided daily in-depth coverage. Here is a report with analysis.

Two ideas

4/8/2016 – 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.

Historical Chess Ratings – dynamically presented

4/8/2016 – There is always a certain fascination with comparisons between strengths of chess players. Who was the greatest of them all? Was Rubinstein in his day the equal of Korchnoi in his? Rod Edwards, Professor of Mathematics, has developed a rating theory based on a network of interactions between chess players over time. His results are remarkable, and a presentation made by youthful California programmer Cary Huang is truly mesmerizing.

Grand Chess Tour announces field for 2016

4/8/2016 – The Grand Chess Tour announced that the world’s top-ten ranked players will compete in the 2016 Tour. Nine of the top-ten will compete in all four tournaments: Rapid and Blitz in Paris and Brussels-Leuven, the Sinquefield Cup and the London Chess Classic. World Champion Magnus Carlsen will compete as a wildcard in both the Paris and Brussels-Leuven stops. Press Release...

Wojtaszek and Socko win Polish Championships

4/7/2016 – Radoslaw Wojtaszek and Monika Socko were the rating favorites at the Polish Championships in Poznan and they both lived up to their roles. Wojtaszek won the "Lotto Men's Championship" with 6.5/9, half a point ahead of Kacper Piorun. Monika Socko won the "Budimex Women's Championship" with 7.0/9, a full point ahead of her closest rival Jolanta Zawadzka.

Asian Nations Cup: Gold for India and China

4/7/2016 – The Asian Nations Cup was played from 28th March to 5th April in Abu Dhabi, in the United Arab Emirates. India won the gold medal in the open tournament, silver went to China, bronze to Kazakhstan. In the women's tournament top favorite China won gold despite some setbacks while Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan won silver and bronze. Games and results...

NEW: ChessBase Magazine #171 (April/May)

4/7/2016 – The best moments from Wijk aan Zee, Gibraltar and Zurich with high-class analysis, e.g. from Carlsen and Caruana. Plus 13 opening surveys with various ideas to enhance and improve your repertoire, e.g. Bronznik: Enormous potential of the Chigorin Defence (1.d4 d5 2.c4 Nc6 3.Nf3 Bg4 4.Nc3 e6). Have a look at Karsten Müller's intro video of the new issue! More...

2016 Arnold Classic Brasil: bonanza of fun (2/2)

4/7/2016 – The Arnold Classic is nothing if not democratic. All sports are welcome, and participation is encouraged to all. Efforts were visibly made to promote Arnold Schwarzenegger's vision of inclusion of everyone into a sports and fitness lifestyle, starting from the very young. With sports events galore, fitness models and companies, here is a massive pictorial.

Chess Festival Le Marais

4/6/2016 – Le Marais is one of the oldest quarters in Paris, combining old world charm with modern day functionality. Over the Easter weekend, from 26th to 28th March, it also was host to a charming chess festival, played in the elegant City Hall of the fourth Parisian district. 400 players took part to enjoy the tournament and the unique atmosphere of this part of Paris.