ETCC R06: Things heating up in Reykjavik

11/19/2015 – The most important match in the women’s section between Russia and Ukraine was drawn 2:2, and the Russian women team continues to lead by a full point. In the open section Russia beat Georgia and leads with 11.0/12 match points. France beat Ukraine and are in the sole second spot. Good news for Carlsen fans: he beat Leko with black. Extensive analysis, pictures and videos.

ACP Masters Rapid to be held in Ashdod, Israel

11/19/2015 – The strongest invitational tournament ever to be held in Israel will be hosted by the city of Ashdod, in collaboration with the Association of Chess Professionals (ACP) on December 7-10 during the Chanukah holiday. Twelve players will fight three stages of rapid games, in what promises to be a thrilling and intriguing event.

ETCC R05: Magnus goes down to 2832!

11/19/2015 – The Russian team maintained their lead in both the sections. The women team is in great form and have a perfect 10.0/10 score, while the men were held to a draw by Azerbaijan - yet with a score of 9.0/10 they have a point’s lead over the field. The biggest news was definitely Carlsen’s loss to Yannick Pelletier. The Norwegian is now down to 2832 on the live rating list. Round five report.

Victor Bologan: The Berlin Wall explained

11/18/2015 – As you can see in yesterday's European Team Championship report, it was raining Berlins in Reykjavik. For IM Nisha Mohota that used to be a problem: "I never understood what went on in these ‘boring’ positions." That all changed when she got hold of a Fritztrainer by GM Victor Bologan. Now she understands the ideas and plans – and has also generally become a better player!

European Team Championship R3+4: Russia!

11/17/2015 – The biggest news of round three was Aronian beating Carlsen. Eljanov played a sublime Catalan against Mamedyarov. In the fourth round top two seeds in both the open and women section faced off against each other. It was Russia who came out victorious! In the open they beat Ukraine 3:1, and in the women they thrashed Georgia 3.5:0.5. Lots of interesting games and analysis.

The story of a picture

11/17/2015 – One of the most famous chess photos is the picture "Duchamp Playing Chess with a Nude (Eve Babitz)". It was made in 1963 by Time photographer Julian Wasser in Pasadena and shows Dada artist and chessplayer Marcel Duchamp playing chess with a naked woman. The picture was supposed to celebrate Marcel Duchamp but in the end it made Eve Babitz an icon.

Rooks on the hunt

11/17/2015 – 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!

Pavel Eljanov: The Ruy Lopez Breyer Variation

11/17/2015 – How nice if one of the best players in the world explains an opening to you. Even nicer if it is a strategically rich opening that leads to interesting rich positions, and if it is an opening which you can play for a lifetime. Pavel Eljanov's DVD about the Ruy Lopez Breyer Variation offers all of this. Indian IM Narayanan Srinath felt inspired.

KCF Gala: 30-year celebration

11/16/2015 – It is hard to believe that already thirty years have passed since Kasparov's triumph over Karpov in their 1985 World Championship match. The elegance of Garry’s last game, including one of the most talked about rook maneuvers in any Sicilian, has inspired young players for more than a generation. This week, at the KCF annual gala, we had the opportunity to relive this triumph.

Showdown in STL: Fabi, Yifan winners

11/16/2015 – Blitz is a dangerous game. The balancing act of time pressure, putting aggression on your opponent and not blundering anything is extremely tricky. Fabiano Caruana, usually not considered one of the top players in the world in this modality, showed that he can hang on with the big boys, won the blitz and the match! Meanwhile, nothing went right for Negi, and Hou Yifan emerged victorious.

Vishy Anand: in pursuit of excellence (1)

11/16/2015 – Louis Philippe is a premier Indian men’s apparel brand, and has a show hosted by an Indian tennis legend, Vijay Amritraj. In it famous personalities across a varied number of fields discuss their journey to reach the top of their profession. Of special interest to us: a very profound interview with former World Chess Champion Viswanathan Anand. Definitely worth watching.

ETCC R02: France beats Armenia!

11/15/2015 – Maxime Vachier Lagrave beating Aronian was the big news of the day as France went on to win their match against Armenia. Spain beat Germany and the Italian team crushed Latvia. In the women’s section, the favourites Georgia, Ukraine and Russia all won their matches, although the Georgians faced a very serious scare from the Turkish team. Pictures and analysis.

Showdown in STL: Big Rapid Results

11/15/2015 – Big results from Saint Louis! In the marquee event, Nakamura was unable to match Caruana's wits in the rapid and fell 3-1. This gives the #2 player in America a full point lead going into the decisive blitz games. However, the big winner of the day was Hou Yifan. A miracle in game three and a solid win in game four gave her a 3-1 for the day, and 6.5-3.5 for current standings.

ETCC R01: Top seeds have it easy

11/14/2015 – The European Team Championships 2015 is underway and all the top European players are in Reykjavik to fight for the title of the best nation in Europe. In the first round all the top teams had it easy, although when there are so many games going on there are bound to be a few upsets. We have some nice pictures from the tournament and analysis of five highly interesting battles.

International Chess Festival Aeroflot Open 2016

11/14/2015 – This Open Chess Festival, which is popular throughout the world, will be held in Moscow from February 29 (date of arrival) to March 11, 2016 (date of departure). The event is open to chess players of varied qualification: from unrated amateurs to world class grandmasters. As in the previous twelve events the festival will be held under the wings of Aeroflot – Russian Airlines.

Showdown in STL: Chess 960 chaos

11/14/2015 – In many ways, this was the phase of the exhibition matches that promised the biggest surprises. Not so much in results, but the positions, as Chess 960 was on the menu today. While still chess at its core, it meant shuffled pieces, unorthodox castling and no opening preparation of any kind. While Nakamura and Caruana had a tight match, Hou all but wiped Negi off the board.

The king's best friend

11/13/2015 – 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.

Showdown in STL: World class Basque Chess

11/13/2015 – The first day of the very exotic exhibition matches in St. Louis began with elite level Basque Chess. Basque chess is when two players play two games against each other at the exact same time, one with white, the other with black. In the top pairing between Nakamura and Caruana, there were great games that ended sadly in draws. On the other hand, Negi handed Hou two defeats.

"Human Chess" - an event to teach children chess

11/12/2015 – In 1988 Vishy Anand became India's first grandmaster. Now, 27 years later, India has 39 grandmasters and at the World Youth Chess Championship in Porto Carras that just ended, India won more medals than any other nation. This chess boom relies on chess teachers like Niklesh Jain who again and again have new ideas to teach children the game.

NY Times: Caruana awaiting his turn on bigger stage

11/12/2015 – As its newest arrival on the top teams, Fabiano Caruana is making the rounds to do his part to promote chess in the United States. He has been impressed by the improvements he has seen since he left it as a teenager. He was recently in new York where he visited schools and met with children for exhibition events and there to cover it was the New York Times.

Nakamura vs Caruana match starts today

11/12/2015 – Today two exciting exhibition matches will take place, and should not be missed. The first is Hikaru Nakamura against Fabiano Caruana, and will be games played in rapid, blitz and even Fischer Random 960! The second, along the same model, will pit top female Hou Yifan against GM Parimarjan Negi. In an innovative step, the readers and fans are invited to vote on the starting positions!

Announcing ChessBase Account – Access everywhere!

11/11/2015 – ChessBase is proud to announce the newest expansion of its online services, ChessBase Account. With it, you can now access a vast library of hundreds of training videos, from openings, to the middlegame, to the endgame, and including complete courses. Furthermore you will enjoy a brand new Openings Trainer to help you memorize your repertoire, and much much more!

Chess Pro-Biz Cup 2015 in London

11/11/2015 – This event, staged for a third time on Monday 14 December, at the conclusion to the 7th London Chess Classic, offers leading business minds the opportunity to team up with the world's best chess players in a fun rapid knock-out tournament. All money raised by this event goes to the Chess in Schools and Communities (CSC) charity. Best pairing: with World Champion Magnus Carlsen.

Nine years of history

11/11/2015 – The Romanian Kings Tournament has a long tradition. The first edition was played in 2007. After nine years of prestige and a string of changes, the 2015 event faced rather challenging times from an international perspective. Alina l'Ami is stepping in and brings you an inspiring retrospective with annotations by Carlsen, Caruana, puzzles, photos and more.