LCC R03: The solid Berlin and the volatile Najdorf!

12/6/2015 – What a round! All five games began with 1.e4. Four players replied 1…e5 – two Berlins, one Anti Berlin and one Anti Marshall, and these four games ended in a draw. Topalov played the Najdorf and was beaten by MVL! We have some exclusive pictures of elite players on the roads of London, plus analysis from the British knockout championships, and also the FIDE Open which now has a sole leader. Big illustrated report.

Breaking news: Ilyumzhinov transfers powers

12/6/2015 – After the extremely surprising announcement that the US Treasury had placed FIDE president Kirsan Ilyumzhinov on the sanction list, forbidding US citizens from conducting business with him, today FIDE released a statement in which he withdraws from FIDE’s legal, financial and business operations, passing these powers to Deputy President Georgios Makropoulos.

London R02: All games drawn!

12/5/2015 – Maxime Vachier-Lagrave came closest to scoring the full point today. He had a winning position against Hikaru Nakamura but he failed to convert it. Magnus against Fabi was quite an interesting struggle, while the rest three were pretty dull draws. David Howell was able to beat Nick Pert to take the lead in the British Knockouts. We also have some pictures from the FIDE Open. Detailed illustrated report.

Chess enthusiasm in northern Norway

12/5/2015 – Thanks to Magnus Carlsen, chess is popular in Norway. Even in remote areas. As Thomas Robertson found out when he took a chess trip to the town of Gouvdageaidnu in Finnmark, Norway’s most north eastern county. After a long and demanding journey generous hosts, delicious foods, chess lectures, adventures in blitz, and Siegbert Tarrasch were waiting for them.

London R01: Giri beats Topalov with black

12/4/2015 – The London Chess Classic is a cornucopia of events held at one single place. The elite tournament, the British Knockout and the FIDE Open are all taking place at the same venue. It’s every chess lover’s paradise. In the elite section Anish Giri tricked Veselin Topalov to score the lone victory of the day. We have in-depth game analysis, beautiful pictures and exclusive videos.

Secret Championship in Ukraine

12/4/2015 – In March 2016 Women's World Champion Mariya Muzychuk will defend her title against Hou Yifan from China. Currently Muzychuk plays in the Ukranian Championship in Lviv, but the organisers do not want to give Hou Yifan any information about Muzychuk's play and therefore do not publish or relay the games. Many people think this serious secrecy is a joke.

The Chess Classic has started in London!

12/4/2015 – The main elite event with an average rating of 2784.2 has begun. Before the start World Champion Carlsen appeared on a prime time BBC, managing to checkmate his opponent in 17 seconds. Amruta Mokal of ChessBase India has sent us exclusive pictures of the preparation of the event. A new development: You can watch the games live in her news report!

The key to the position

12/4/2015 – 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.

Pert and Howell in British Knockout finals

12/4/2015 – In the inaugural British Knockout Championships, Nigel Short had to pull out at the last moment for health reasons. He was replaced by ChessBase author Nick Pert, who made the most of this golden opportunity as he beat Hawkins and McShane to reach the finals. David Howell now stands between him and the title. We have an illustrated report and analysis on the semi-finals.

ChessBase Account: Live database (part one)

12/3/2015 – With the introduction of the ChessBase Account service, granting a wide range of new options to Premium subscribers, not only were new web apps made available, but existing ones were completely revised and revamped. Among them is the Live Database, which evolved from mere searches to a powerful feature-rich tool. Here is a tutorial to teach how to use it.

An interview with Dronavalli Harika (2/2)

12/3/2015 – In the second part of her in-depth interview Dronavalli Harika, India's number two women player, who recently became the first Women World Champion in Online-Blitz, talks about her repertoire, her love of chess books, psychology in chess, how she would pay tribute to her coach, and her ambition to become number one on the women's ranking list.

7th London Chess Classic begins tomorrow

12/3/2015 – Friday, December 4th, 2015: the first round of the London Chess Classic starts at 16:00h local time, which translates to 17:00h CET, 11 a.m. New York, 9:30 p.m. New Delhi and 19:00h Moscow. On weekends the games start two hours earlier. We will bring live coverage on Playchess.com, with audio commentary by strong analysts and running evaluations by the world strongest computers.

Awonder Liang is youngest ever IM in US

12/2/2015 – Records come and go, and US chess has seen an explosion in interest among young players in the past decade. Until a week ago, the record for the youngest IM in the US was held by Samuel Sevian, but it was just broken by IM-elect Awonder Liang, beating him by three months. Except his record of youngest national master was also just broken.

Fire on board

12/2/2015 – The 7th London Chess Classic started yesterday with the inaugurual British Knockout Championships. In the quarterfinal the favorites Luke McShane, Gawain Jones and David Howell all won their two-game mini-matches. But Nicholas Pert and Jonathan Hawkins had to play a tie-break. Pert won thanks to a win in the Armageddon-Blitz and in a wild and messy game.

Mighty Indians at the World Youth 2015!

12/2/2015 – India sent fifty young and talented kids to participate in the World Youth Championships 2015 in Greece. They returned with a massive tally of eleven medals – five gold, three silver and three bronze. We got in touch with these young kids – the medal winners sent us annotated games. We also have opinions of five-time World Champion Vishy Anand and the coach behind the WYCC success: GM R.B. Ramesh.

December 2015 ratings: Carlsen slumps, Muzychuk rises

12/1/2015 – To say that Magnus Carlsen's year has been a flop would be an understatement. After a poor result in the European Team Championship, he has dropped to his lowest rating since 2011. On the flip side, Mariya Muzychuk, who has been envigorated by her win at the World Women Championship, has risen non-stop, and is now the world no. 3. Here are the numbers in all their glory.

Ilyumzhinov: Only chess connects me to Syria!

12/1/2015 – He was intending to go to the US last weekend, but after sanctions were imposed FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov instead took part in a TV interview in Moscow. "I don't sell any ISIL oil to Syria," he states. "We supplied them with a thousand chess sets and three thousand chess books for children." He also opened chess clubs in Aleppo and Damascus, but they were bombed by "the terrorists". Chess-News reports.

Wei Yi wins brilliancy

12/1/2015 – China's greatest talent, 16-year old Wei Yi, won the strong 1. China Kings Match in Taizhou, an eight player knockout event. Tan Zhongyi won the Queens Match by defeating Ju Wenjun in a blitz-tie-break. Wei Yi did not need a tie-break to create drama in the final against Bu Xiangzhi. After a draw in the first game he decided the match with a brilliant combination.

The sting of the scorpion

12/1/2015 – 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!

1st FIDE World Online Women Blitz Ch.

12/1/2015 – Flying in from all over the world, the top female online blitz players came to Rome, Italy to fight for the final prize: the title of the First FIDE World Online Women Blitz Championship (Gesundheit!). At stake was also a top prize of US$3000, with names such as Harika Dronavalli, who took gold, Alexandra Kosteniuk, Valentina Gunina and more. Illustrated report by Alina L'Ami.

ChessBase Account: Become an opening expert

11/30/2015 – Memorizing humongous amount of opening theory is one of the biggest problems faced by chess players at all levels. But in the ChessBase Account there is a new web based application called Openings Trainer which can help you overcome the difficulty. In this article we explain you the features of this app, with step by step screen grabs. There is also a video you should watch.

Shipwrecked in the Benoni

11/30/2015 – The Canadian grandmaster Eric Hansen (Elo 2577) was favorite to win the Cultural Village tournament in Wijk aan Zee and to get invited to play in the Tata Steel Challenger tournament in January 2016. Hansen started with 5.5/6 but then something went wrong in his game against the young Georgian Nino Khomeriki. Now Nijat Abasov will play the Challengers in Wijk.

NEW: ChessBase Magazine #169

11/30/2015 – Enjoy highlights of the FIDE World Cup and the European Club Cup, analysed and commented by top players such as Vladimir Kramnik and Pavel Eljanov. Let Erwin l'Ami show you a practical repertoire against the Dutch (2.Nc3 d5 3.Bg5 d5 4.e3) or join Karsten Müller to find a spectacular draw in an opposite-colored bishop ending from the World Cup final.

London calling

11/30/2015 – So far, 2015 has not been a particularly good year for World Champion Magnus Carlsen. From a rating of 2862 in January 2015 he dropped to a current live-rating of 2834. Carlsen will hope to regain some points in the London Chess Classic 2015, the final leg of the Grand Chess Tour. The tournament will begin on 4th December, the pairings are out now.