7/30/2119 – From July 20th to the 31st, the Swiss watch metropolis of Biel/Bienne will once again be a focus of chess activity in Europe. The festival features many interesting and young players as well as a new format that combines rapid, classical and blitz chess. Vidit won again with Black adding to his immpressive run. Shankland is second. Live games and commentary from 12:00 UTC (14:00 CEST / 8:00 AM EDT).

9/15/2020 – For many years, Germany's premier league, the "Bundesliga", has been one of the world's strongest team events, and players like Karpov, Kramnik, Anand or Carlsen have played in it. But Corona also hit the "Bundesliga" - the season 2019/2020 had to be interrupted and will continue in spring 2021. But now eight teams meet in Karlsruhe to play from September 16 to September 20 "live" for the title of German team champion 2020.

6/4/2020 – The preparations for the 53rd International Chess festival Biel continue and take into account the Corona requirements. In a press release the organisers said that they are preparing for the key event, the Grandmaster Tournament (GMT), a main tournament (C-HTO) and a youth tournament, including Swiss championships. However, some tournaments and events including the Master Open (MTO) will be cancelled. | Photo: Biel International Chess Festival 2019

4/13/2020 – ChessBase offers a window to the world of professional chess. The current issue offers a bird’s eye view of three major events, Jerusalem Grand Prix, London Grand Chess Tour and Wijk aan Zee 2020, including 1249 games, 11 opening surveys, demo lectures and exercises for training. Games annotated by Jan-Krzysztof Duda, Romain Edouard, David Navara, Alireza Firouzja, Anish Giri, Wesley So, Igor Stohl, Jorden van Foreest and Peter Heine Nielsen, to mention a few. PROF. NAGESH HAVANUR takes a look. | Photo: Alina l'Ami

8/24/2020 – In an open letter to the chess community, FIDE President Arkady Dvorkovich states, “I believe there is a consensus that computer-assisted cheating is a real plague of contemporary chess”. He then addresses the fact that the online chess boom has created new challenges for all involved, and presents the main questions regarding the sanctions that should be applied to the players that get caught cheating. You may answer the questions raised in this letter or simply submit your proposals to an official email account. | Photo: David Llada

9/8/2020 – The Candidates Tournament 2020 in Ekaterinburg was started when the corona pandemic had already spread around the world. However, after seven of 14 rounds it was interrupted and postponed to an indefinite date. In a press release FIDE now announced that the Candidates Tournament will resume on November 1, 2020, probably in Ekaterinburg, or alternatively in Tbilisi. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

9/27/2020 – Alexander Donchenko won the ACP-ChessBase Knockout Tournament, which took place in the Emanuel Lasker Arena of the PlayChess server a couple of months ago. In an interview with Bojana Bejatovic, the German grandmaster talked about online chess, the psychological factor in the game and his advice for aspiring players. “No matter how much or how little you trained, you must be able to show as much of it as you can when it matters most, during a tournament game”, says Donchenko. | Photo: Amruta Mokal

9/1/2020 – FIDE’s world ranking has mostly stagnated since the beginning of the corona crisis and the cessation of over-the-board tournaments, especially at the top level. The best in the world have been playing, but only unrated online rapid tournaments. Nevertheless, a few “real” tournaments have taken place lately. | Pictured: Luis Engel, winner of the German Individual Championship | Photo: Frank Hoppe

9/5/2020 – Alexei Shirov has been proclaimed the winner of the Gazprom Brilliancy Prize, a special trophy awarded by the General Partner of the Online Chess Olympiad. The game that earned Shirov this prize was his victory with the black pieces against Danyyil Dvirnyy, in which the Spaniard got to show a novelty in the Slav Defence and sacrificed his queen while attacking on the queenside. | Photo: FIDE

9/3/2020 – The 2022 World Chess Olympiad in Minsk (Belarus), as well as a number of side events, are at risk after the current organizers failed to comply with their obligations. Unless the Minsk organizers meet their obligations in the upcoming days, FIDE will be forced to change the hosting country for the 2022 World Chess Olympiad and related events.

8/2/2020 – The virus is not gone, but here and there chess players have ventured out of domestic isolation and played a few games “over the board”. The International Chess Festival in Biel/Bienne only ended a few days ago. The changes in the world ratings list published by FIDE on August 1st compared to the one published on April 1st are nevertheless still minimal - but they do exist! Pentala Harikrishna [pictured] gained 13 points, while Alexander Donchenko is now the higest-rated German player. | Photo: Simon Bohnenblust

7/1/2020 – The International Chess Federation just announced the FIDE Online Olympiad 2020. The international team event, in which all federations affiliated to FIDE, have the right to participate will be held between July 22nd and August 30th, 2020.

7/18/2020 – International Chess Day will be celebrated next week, on July 20th, a date that also marks FIDE’s 96th anniversary. The International Chess Federation has a simple but ambitious plan: we want to make an appeal to the members of our chess community and ask you to teach someone how to play chess to mark this day.

4/19/2020 – Want to know an expert statistical opinion about which FIDE-strength players you should avoid facing? The Elo system is supposed to be fair toward players of all strengths, but Jeff Sonas sees major problems with the current state of the FIDE Elo rating pool, and it's getting worse each year. It will take multiple articles to walk you through the analysis, but here is chapter one of the story.

7/17/2020 – To celebrate the International Chess Day, on 20 July (10:00-12:00 EST), top chess personalities, including the FIDE President Arkady Dvorkovich (pictured), Viswanathan Anand, Vladimir Kramnik, Levon Aronian, and Hou Yifan, will take part in a high-level virtual event - "Chess for Recovering Better".

7/21/2020 – The virtual meeting between the United Nations and FIDE on the occasion of the International Chess Day was held on July 20. Top chess personalities and representatives of the U.N. gathered to exchange views and insights to strengthen the productive collaboration. Top chess grandmasters present at the meeting, Viswanathan Anand, Hou Yifan, Vladimir Kramnik and Levon Aronian, shared the valuable insights into the abilities and life lessons that chess taught them.

6/30/2020 – In an interview with the Russian news agency TASS, FIDE President Arkady Dvorkovich has announced that the match for the World Chess Championship will be postponed until 2021. Originally it was supposed to take place in Dubai at the end of the year. | Photo: FIDE/ Alexander Scherbak (TASS)

5/16/2020 – Online chess has become very popular in the last couple of years and more and more people participate and try to win games and achieve a higher rating. Rating matters so much that it can turn into an obsession. Ratings appear to represent the value of the person. We take a closer look at how the ego can become the curse of the rating system and how we feel about it.

5/15/2020 – Would you like to learn the art of chess training from the Russian national team coach, or from the coach of the former Women's World Champion? Or would you like to learn from a former World No. 3? How about all of them? Wouldn't it be too expensive? No! From 29th to 31st of May 2020 you can do it, online. The seminar is open to trainers, and players (!), world-wide. A great opportunity.

5/1/2020 – The lockdowns prompted by the coronavirus outbreak have created a sense of timelessness for those staying at home day in and day out. Time does go on, however, and FIDE continues to update the ratings lists every first day of the month. We will keep sharing the lists as they are published.

4/23/2020 – In a press release the International Chess Federation FIDE and Chess.com just announced the Online Nations Cup, a team competition held May 5-10, 2020. Six teams are due to take part in this competition: Russia, USA, Europe, China, India, plus a team representing the "Rest of the World." Garry Kasparov will be the captain for the European team, Vishy Anand will defend the first board of the Indian team.

4/29/2020 – Covid-19 has changed the world of chess drastically. All over-the-board tournaments have been cancelled and the action has shifted to the online format of the game. But what is FIDE's online policy for the next few months? ChessBase India got in touch with FIDE Director General Emil Sutovsky for an exclusive interview about the current situation and FIDE's response to it, the Candidates Tournament 2020, the Radjabov conundrum, the World Championship Match 2020, and much more.

11/19/2119 – When Magnus Carlsen decides to leave the Norwegian Chess Federation or gives interviews in Norway or plays for his new club in Norway's second league it is usually Tarjei Svensen who shares the news with the world, via his twitter account @TarjeiJS, which has thousands of ardent followers. STEFAN LOEFFLER spoke with the Norwegian chess journalist about Carlsen, chess in Norway and his wish to be always up-to-date. | Photos: Lennart Ootes

9/22/2119 – The 2019-2020 FIDE Women's Grand Prix, part of the Women's World Championship cycle, takes place in Skolkovo, a business centre in Moscow also known as the Russian Silicon Valley. Twelve players are competing in the first of four single round-robin events that will grant two spots at the next Women's Candidates Tournament. In the final round, Humpy Koneru earned the final half point needed to clinch victory ahead of Ju Wenjun. | Photo: Official site

8/13/2020 – How far away are you from the World Champion, in terms of handshakes, we asked our readers? At least one traced his handshake route all the way back to Philidor. Now we have a new challenge: have you beaten someone who has beaten someone who has beaten a World Champion? Prof. Christian Hesse describes the idea. You are invited to participate.

8/18/2020 – In 1983 rookie chess journalist Frederic Friedel wrote an article for a German magazine, defining and celebrating "Super Grandmasters" – players who were rated 2600 or higher. There were 13 such players, and they were led by World Champion Anatoly Karpov, with a young upstart named Garry Kasparov hard at his heels. The top female player in the world, Pia Cramling, was rated 2355. Today things have changed somewhat – to put it mildly.

9/18/2020 – Wesley So, the only player to finish the rapid section undefeated, took the sole lead at the Saint Louis Rapid & Blitz online tournament on Thursday. So obtained back-to-back victories over Levon Aronian and Pentala Harikrishna in rounds 8 and 9 to go into the blitz section atop the standings table. Former leader Magnus Carlsen is now in sole second place, after having finished the day with a loss against Alexander Grischuk. | Photo: Justin Kellar / Saint Louis Chess Club

9/10/2020 – From Friday on the St. Louis Chess Club will hold its Chess 9LX 2020 tournament, this year as an online tournament. Ten top players - Magnus Carlsen, Hikaru Nakamura, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Fabiana Caruana, Wesley So, Levon Aronian, Leinier Dominguez, Peter Svidler, Alireza Firouzja and Garry Kasparov(!) - play a Chess960 round robin at rapid time controls.

9/9/2020 – On September 9, 2010, ten years ago, the Danish Grandmaster Bent Larsen died in Argentina where he lived with his wife Laura Benediz Benedini, a lawyer, whom he had met in 1980. Larsen was born on March 4, 1935, and in the 1960s he was arguably the most successful tournament player and definitely one of the best players in the world. He is famous for his fighting spirit, his optimism, his original play and his entertaining writing. | Photo: Bent Larsen © Hans Peters

9/8/2020 – The Candidates Tournament 2020 in Ekaterinburg was started when the corona pandemic had already spread around the world. However, after seven of 14 rounds it was interrupted and postponed to an indefinite date. In a press release FIDE now announced that the Candidates Tournament will resume on November 1, 2020, probably in Ekaterinburg, or alternatively in Tbilisi. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

6/15/2020 – The final match of the Clutch Chess International was as exciting as can be! Out of the last six games, five were decisive, with Magnus Carlsen getting a clutch win in game 12 to defeat Fabiano Caruana. Caruana only needed a draw in the last encounter to win the event, as he came from scoring an impressive victory in the previous clutch game, but it was not meant to be. Carlsen bagged US$ 75,000 for his efforts. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

9/20/2020 – Grandmaster Peter Svidler is an eight-time Russian chess champion. Svidler’s peak rating placed him fourth in the world. National Master Mike Walder annotates one of Svidler’s wins and has a recipe for a dish that Svidler likes. WIM Alexey Root tells why Svidler is a Grandmaster Chef honoree. | Photo: Eteri Kublashvili

9/20/2020 – In an appropriate turn of events, given how the tournament had developed, Magnus Carlsen and Wesley So tied for first place at the Saint Lous Rapid & Blitz online tournament. Carlsen beat the American in their direct encounter and had a one-point lead with three rounds to go, but So was not discouraged as he won his final three games to catch up with the world champion. Hikaru Nakamura was undefeated on day five and finihsed in clear third place. | Photos: Lennart Ootes / Saint Louis Chess Club

9/13/2020 – With a run of three consecutive wins Levon Aronian has taken the lead on the second day of the 20+10 online tournament "Champions Showdown Chess 9LX". At this tournament, organized by the Saint Louis Chess Club, the Armenian grandmaster, with his now 4.5/6, has a half-point-lead on Magnus Carlsen, Wesley So and Hikaru Nakamura. Former world champion Garry Kasparov, on the other hand, is towards the bottom of the standings after an underwhelming second matchday.

8/4/2020 – After sensationally winning the Interzonal Tournament 1962 in Stockholm Bobby Fischer travelled to Copenhagen to play a TV exhibition game against Bent Larsen - which was relatively easy - and a simul against 41 Danish players - which was difficult. Tom Skovgaard knows more. | Photo: Jørgen Hvenekilde

9/19/2020 – Magnus Carlsen reclaimed the lead at the Saint Louis Rapid & Blitz online event after scoring 6½ points in the first nine rounds of the blitz section. Wesley So, who obtained the highest score in the rapid, is a half point behind. With the second half of the blitz left to go, it is very unlikely for any player other than Carlsen or So to win the event, as Ian Nepomniachtchi currently stands no fewer than 3½ points behind the leader in sole third place. | Photo: Lennart Ootes / Saint Louis Chess Club

9/17/2020 – World champion Magnus Carlsen took the sole lead of the Saint Louis Rapid & Blitz tournament after winning all three of his games on the second day of action. Wesley So and Ian Nepomniachtchi share second place a point behind — So repeated his formula from day one, winning a game and drawing the remaining two, while Nepomniachtchi won two and lost against Jeffery Xiong on Wednesday. Three more rapid games will be played on Thursday, before 18 rounds of blitz on Friday and Saturday decide the winner of the online event. | Photo: Crystal Fuller / Saint Louis Chess Club

9/14/2020 – Before the third and final day of the Champions Showdown Chess 9LX Online Tournament Levon Aronian was sole first but he scored only 1.0/3 from his last three games, and that allowed Magnus Carlsen and Hikaru Nakamura to pass the Armenian and to share first place. On Tuesday, September 15, Nakamura and Carlsen will continue they rivalry in the Rapid & Blitz tournament.

9/25/2020 – In this Power Play Show Grandmaster Daniel King looks at a provocative, dangerous and entertaining line of the King's Gambit: 1.e4 e5 2.f4 exf4 3.Nc3!? Qh4+ 4.Ke2 which Steinitz, Keres (pictured) and King himself used to play. The march of the king looks crazy but the whole line is surprisingly powerful and dangerous. | Power Play is on air most Fridays at 17:00 UK (18:00 CEST, 11:00 EST) on playchess.com. All the usual puzzles, games and instruction will be on offer. | Photo: Valter Heuer (Archive)

9/23/2020 – In his "Game of the Week" show, Merijn van Delft takes a look at a game from the Bundesliga Championship Tournament: Erwin l'Ami's fascinating win against Fabiano Caruana. | Merijn's show is freely available at 15.00 UTC (17:00 CEST, 11:00 EDT) for a limited time, and on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here. | Photo:

9/27/2020 – After diving into a philosophical puzzle, we are back on track with our logic riddles for chess players. In our ninth part of the series, we have two chess engines competing against each other. Funnily enough, they seem to be exactly equally strong, and the championship cannot find a decisive winner until someone is able to find a solution to this problem.

9/11/2020 – In the diagram position, the black queen on e3 and the black knight on g4 need the help of the 'heavy guys' to hunt down the white king who is living on the edge at h3. One key move and two mate lines - enjoy!

9/23/2020 – Who is better, the bishop or the knight? It depends. In the endgame, when both sides fight on both wings, the bishop is usually better than the knight. But not always. One such exception is the diagram position. Here, the knight is better than the bishop. But how does Black win?

9/25/2020 – In the diagram position Black just played the provocative 8...Bd6 - but his real mistake after 9.Kh1! was 9...Ne7??. But why is this developing move a serious error?

9/29/2020 – This middlegame-guideline also applies in the endgame if not only the bishops remain on the board. However, attacking the enemy king with only a few pieces can be tricky. How does White win in the diagram positon?

6/14/2020 – Neural network (NN) engines – Leela Chess Zero, Fat Fritz – have become superbly strong, and provide fascinating positional analysis. However, in order to unleash the full power of the NN algorithms, we must use some kind of GPU accelerator device. The problem is that a compact laptop often can’t sustain the running NN engines and will crash. Here is a super elegant solution to this problem!

9/18/2020 – In the diagram position Black would like to close the position, while White wants just the opposite - he would like to open the position to give his pieces space. But it is White to move! How would you continue?

9/8/2020 – Endings with opposite coloured bishops are often drawish but can also be very exciting because material is less important. This again and again leads to surprising and aesthetically pleasing sacrifices.

9/9/2020 – The Ragozin Defence (1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 d5 4.Nc3 Bb4) has become more and more popular in recent years. Many top Grandmasters play it these days. But how do Grandmasters fight the Ragozin at top level? Peter Svidler brought 5.cxd5 exd5 6.Bf4 into play. Ding Liren, Caruana and others took up the idea, and Carlsen has also tested the bishop move. In the new ChessBase Magazine, CBM #197, Alexey Kuzmin checks the latest trends.

9/4/2020 – The diagram shows the starting position of the aggressive Löwenfisch Variation. After the natural 6...Bg7 Black already must be very careful not to be crushed. Are you in a Dragon slayer mood today?

9/15/2020 – Rook endings have drawish tendencies, and sometimes being one or even two pawns up is not enough to win. But despite their drawish tendencies rook endings can be very sharp and full of hidden tactics. Especially, if both sides have far advanced passed pawns.

8/28/2020 – If it weren’t for the bishop on h6, White could give checkmate with Qxh8++ in the diagram. But the attempt to remove this piece with 21.Bf8? would actually backfire. Happy countering!

9/3/2020 – It is not clear when we will get to play over-the-board team tournaments again. Online competitions are the only alternative. But where can you play serious team matches using a classical formats? On PlayChess! For example at the DSOL (German Online Chess League), in which 246 teams are participating. You do not need to play at the DSOL to play with your team though — anyone can do it! You can set up a round-robin event with a fixed board order or use the Scheveningen system. As in over-the-board tournaments, the players can concentrate exclusively on their games and do not have to worry about the pairings or how to challenge others. Only the team captains have to put in some more work, just like in “normal” team matches.

9/1/2020 – Usually passed pawns should be pushed, but there is no rule without exception! What is Black’s best move in the diagram? Endgame specialist Karsten Müller demonstrates why one should always calculate carefully not to spoil a winning position in the final stages of the game.

8/30/2020 – Many users have comfortable — one could almost say “huge” — computer screens. So it is not surprising that texts in our databases and also those of ChessBase Magazine look almost “ridiculously small”. But that does not have to be the case! Solution: in the latest versions there is a zoom function which becomes available after you update your software online!

8/26/2020 – Online chess is most fun when you know your opponents: less anonymity means less cheating! In the virtual club room on PlayChess, clubs can meet and play blitz tournaments among themselves. To improve your playing experience we now present the video function! All players can log in with their webcam and you can hear and see each other! Suddenly you experience a blitz chess evening almost like in the old days: trash-talk, noises from the next board, cheering, frustration — it all feels more real because you see and hear each other. And everything starts with 2 mouse clicks. Just try it out: create a virtual room with one mouse click, activate the video function with another mouse click, and off you go! The only requirement: to have a premium account!

8/25/2020 – A bishop is often much stronger than a knight when passed pawns are trying to promote on two different flanks of the board. Endgame specialist Karsten Müller demonstrates the winning technique to convert this position into a win, and shows how reacting wrongly to a ‘spite check’ can completely change the evaluation in a single move.

9/3/2020 – The new ChessBase Magazine # 197 comes with two exciting "Specials". The first is the exclusive contribution by Anish Giri: the current number 10 in the world shows you his nine best games with the Italian. Top games with a cutting-edge opening, commented in detail by one of the strongest grandmasters in the world! Today, we offer you one of these nine analyses as a reading sample. Enjoy!