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).
8/29/2019 – The 2019 Sinquefield Cup playoff ended up with Ding Liren beating world champion Magnus Carlsen to win the title and take home $82.500. After two draws in the rapid games, the Chinese star beat Carlsen in both blitz encounters. The commentators and the world champion deservedly praised Ding's performance. Express report. | Photo: Lennart Ootes / Grand Chess Tour
7/7/2019 – We saw history in the making, as Magnus Carlsen won his eighth tournament in a row at the second leg of the Grand Chess Tour in Zagreb. The world champion defeated Maxime Vachier-Lagrave from the white side of a Grüenfeld to finish in clear first place a full point ahead of his closest pursuer with a 'plus five' score. Carlsen's official rating in August will equal his own peak rating of 2882 points — the highest ever achieved. Wesley So finished in sole second place. Express report. | Photo: Lennart Ootes / Grand Chess Tour
8/30/2019 – Ding Liren carried the day in St. Louis, surprising spectators by winning a rapid and blitz tiebreak against World Champion Magnus Carlsen. Carlsen was consistently behind on the clock which proved a decisive factor, as a tentative move in the first blitz game actually resulted in his losing on time, despite the 3-second delay. After that Ding needed only a draw to secure his first Sinquefield Cup and a nearly certain ticket to the Grand Chess Tour final in London later this year. IM VENKATACHALAM SARAVANAN reports all action from the venue. | Photo: Lennart / Grand Chess Tour
9/24/2019 – Although it is not hard to pick out moves that Fat Fritz finds more easily than Stockfish, or vice versa, sometimes a move stands out that just begs to be shared. This happened to Fat Fritz creator, Albert Silver, while he was casually following the recent Sinquefield Cup won by Ding Liren. Enjoy this example of positional judgement and technique. | Photo: Lennart Ootes / Grand Chess Tour
7/24/2019 – Game one of the FIDE Grand Prix final in Riga finished surprisingly quickly, as Shakhriyar Mamedyarov took down Maxime Vachier-Lagrave from the white side of a Grünfeld Defence in 28 moves. In the second classical game MVL battled back to tie the score forcing a tiebreak, July 24th starting at 12:00 UTC (14:00 CEST, 8:00 AM EDT), with live games and commentary. | Photo: Niki Riga / World Chess
9/6/2019 – Hikaru Nakamura made a strong comeback in his match against Levon Aronian to score 6-2 and clinch his match with a margin of 14½:11½ in a remarkable comeback after a disastrous first day. Caruana and So completed the formalities in their matches against Kasparov and Topalov respectively to win with wide margins, while Peter Svidler too prevailed against Dominguez with a 4½:3½ margin. IM VENKATACHALAM SARAVANAN reports all action from Saint Louis. | Photo: Austin Fuller / Saint Louis Chess Club
9/5/2019 – Public appearances by Garry Kasparov are often notable, even more so at chess events and especially if the ex-world champion is coaxed into playing chess himself. At the "Champions Showdown" from the Saint Louis Chess Club, Kasparov faced Fabiano Caruana in a 'Fischer Random' match from Monday to Thursday. Although the final score is clearly one-sided in favour of Caruana, the world champion showed he still has what it takes to play against an active player of the elite. In the other match-ups Wesley So and Peter Svidler got comfortable wins over Veselin Topalov and Leinier Dominguez, while Hikaru Nakamura bounced back from a lousy start to finally beat Levon Aronian. | Photo: Lennart Ootes
9/5/2019 – The third day of the Champions Showdown Chess 9LX almost continued on the same lines of the previous two days. Fabiano Caruana has already defeated Garry Kasparov in their match with a day to go, with a score of 14½:3½, while Wesley So too has almost crossed the threshold against Veselin Topalov at 13:5. Leinier Dominguez showed a fightback against Peter Svidler to narrow the trailing margin to 7:11. Kudos to Hikaru Nakamura who narrowed Aronian's lead to a point before the last day of 8 blitz games. Aronian leads 9½:8½. IM VENKATACHALAM SARAVANAN reports. | Photo: Lennart Ootes / Saint Louis Chess Club
10/1/2019 – October will be yet another action-packed month in the chess world. The main attractions at the elite level will be the Grand Swiss Tournament — a new qualification event for the Candidates — and the European Team Championships. In the meantime, the World Youth and World Junior Championships will take place in India. Also, Hou Yifan will be playing in Cap d'Agde and Magnus Carlsen will face three other players at the newly minted Fischer Random World Championship. | You'll find all of these events and more covered in our live games broadcast area Live.ChessBase.com and we'll also be providing News coverage.
9/4/2019 – The Champions Showdown 9LX continued on the same lines as the first day, with Garry Kasparov and Hikaru Nakamura suffering more heartbreaks and continuing to trail their opponents with scores of 3:9 and 4:8 respectively. Peter Svidler and Wessley So gained further ground on their opponents. IM VENKATACHALAM SARAVAN reports all action from the venue. Photo: Lennart Ootes / Saint Louis Chess Club
8/29/2019 – The tense last round of the Sinquefield Cup ended in a dramatic way, with emotions and competitive tension taking centre-stage rather than skills. Magnus Carlsen completed his comeback in the tournament with yet another victory — with black pieces too — to jump to the top at the last minute and tie for the first place with 6½ points and force playoffs against Ding Liren for Thursday. Ding held his nerve to hold Shakhriyar Mamedyarov to a draw, while Karjakin missed a chance to finish at the top by not converting an advantageous ending against Caruana. IM VENKATACHALAM SARAVANAN reports all action from the venue. | Photo: Lennart Ootes / Grand Chess Tour
8/14/2019 – Levon Aronian won the Saint Louis Rapid & Blitz tournament despite losing his last round game against former leader Maxime Vachier-Lagrave. The French grandmaster ended up sharing second place with Yu Yangyi and Ding Liren — the Chinese duo had a strong showing at the blitz, as they got the best scores in the last two days of action (11½ out of 18, the same score obtained by Sergey Karjakin). World champion Magnus Carlsen finished in sixth place but still leads the overall GCT standings. Express report. | Photo: Austin Fuller / Grand Chess Tour
9/3/2019 – While those in the United States had an "unofficial end-of-summer" holiday during Labour Day, Garry Kasparov was back to work at the Champions Showdown event in Saint Louis. The former world champion had it rough, though, as he ended up losing his last three games against world number two Fabiano Caruana. Levon Aronian and Peter Svidler also racked up comfortable advantages over Hikaru Nakamura and Leinier Dominguez respectively, while Wesley So will kick off day two with a 4:2 lead over Veselin Topalov. | Photo: Lennart Ootes / Saint Louis Chess Club
7/8/2019 – We saw history in the making, as Magnus Carlsen won his eighth tournament in a row at the second leg of the Grand Chess Tour in Zagreb. The world champion defeated Maxime Vachier-Lagrave from the white side of a Grünfeld to finish in clear first place a full point ahead of his closest pursuer with a 'plus five' score. Carlsen's official rating in August will equal his own peak rating of 2882 points — the highest ever achieved. Wesley So finished in sole second place. | Photo: Lennart Ootes / Grand Chess Tour
5/29/2019 – Ian Nepomniachtchi took the second game of the rapid tiebreak to win the final match over fellow-Russian Alexander Grischuk. Both classical games were drawn. Game two on Tuesday was a Ruy Lopez Berlin, which remained level until the players agreed to a draw on move 23. Game 1 of the all-Russian final was also drawn on Monday. The match will therefore be decided in a rapid and blitz tiebreak on Wednesday at 12:00 UTC (14:00 CEST / 8:00 EDT).
8/27/2019 – Ding Liren and Ian Nepomniachtchi showed their guts to rise to the occasion and score crucial wins in the ninth round of the Sinquefield Cup, to jointly jump into the lead with 5½ points. Vishy Anand once again enjoyed a clear advantage against Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, who fought back admirably to draw the game. World Champion Magnus Carlsen failed to capitalise on chances offered to him by Aronian and drew yet again. IM VENKATACHALAM SARAVANAN reports all action from the venue. | Photo: Lennart Ootes / Grand Chess Tour
7/16/2019 – Maxime Vachier-Lagrave has already secured his spot in the semi-finals of the FIDE Grand Prix in Riga, as Veselin Topalov shocked everyone by offering a draw after merely twelve moves in a must-win situation. The rest of the match-ups are still tied and will be decided on tiebreaks — while Wesley So, Sergey Karjakin, Yu Yangyi and Alexander Grischuk played it safe, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov and Jan-Krzyztof Duda got into a real fight in Tuesday's round. | Photo: Niki Riga / World Chess
9/20/2019 – The new FIDE administration headed by Arkady Dvorkovich has made a number of organizational changes in its first year in charge. Some are more visible than others, and most have been generally regarded as positive. Now the FIDE website has received a fresh new look. What do you think?
10/7/2019 – An editorial from CHESS Magazine's executive editor IM MALCOLM PEIN announcing the 11th London Chess Classic, the latest news from Chess in Schools and Communities, thoughts on the FIDE calendar, and the standings of the Grand Chess Tour.
7/25/2019 – FIDE continues to encourage public participation in its wide-ranging survey with research firm Nielsen and the survey closes this weekend. Now is your last chance to participate! Meanwhile, another Nielsen, Magnus Carlsen's second Peter Heine Nielsen, continues to engage FIDE leadership in a public discussion around financial transparency and leadership.
7/12/2019 – No, not Carlsen-second Peter Heine Nielsen, but rather the global measurement and data analytics company which has been contracted by FIDE to evaluate the chess market. Chess players of all levels from casual fans to grandmasters are encouraged to participate in a survey, and the international chess federation is offering an incentive in the form of two hours of training with none other than the 14th World Champion, Vladimir Kramnik.
4/26/2019 – Today FIDE has released new regulations for the upcoming World Championship cycle (both Open and Women). The overall championship match is being extended from 12 to 14 games, and draws will no longer be permitted before move 40. Players can qualify to the Candidates Tournament via the revised Grand Prix, now a series of knockout tournaments, and a new "Grand Swiss" to be held in October on the Isle of Man.
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
10/5/2019 – Azerbaijani Grandmaster Teimour Radjabov defeated rating favourite Ding Liren in tiebreaks at the final match of the FIDE World Cup in Khanty-Mansiysk. After draws in all four rapid games, Radjabov got victories in both blitz encounters to take home the title and USD 110,000. Maxime Vachier-Lagrave prevailed in the match for third place with a commanding 2:0 victory over Yu Yangyi. IM LAWRENCE TRENT sent a video recap of the play-offs. | Photo: FIDE
9/25/2019 – Alexander Grischuk and Ding Liren sat opposite each other in the fifth round of the World Cup 2019. The game was followed with great excitement by chess players all across the world. In their first game, after 13 moves, Grischuk made a move that led the engines to give an evaluation of nearly -3 points. Online kibitzers went wild, criticizing the players. IM SAGAR SHAH reflects on whether this is an unfortunate trend. | Photo: FIDE
8/6/2019 – At the Lindores Abbey tournament in Scotland in May 2019, IM SAGAR SHAH travelled from India to cover the tournament. Apart from doing the daily reports, he was able to interview Henrik Carlsen — father of the World Champion Magnus Carlsen. Henrik has been by Magnus' side right from the time he was a beginner to him becoming a World Champion. Their journey is a story worth sharing with the chess community.
9/19/2019 – In 1970 Bobby Fischer played his last Olympiad — in Siegen, Germany. After the Olympiad he gave two simuls in Germany, one in Solingen, one in Münster. Now the score sheets of the games, unknown pictures of Fischer and newspaper articles about the simul in Münster were rediscoved. A remarkable find! | Photos: Norbert Rauch
8/30/2019 – Ding Liren carried the day in St. Louis, surprising spectators by winning a rapid and blitz tiebreak against World Champion Magnus Carlsen. Carlsen was consistently behind on the clock which proved a decisive factor, as a tentative move in the first blitz game actually resulted in his losing on time, despite the 3-second delay. After that Ding needed only a draw to secure his first Sinquefield Cup and a nearly certain ticket to the Grand Chess Tour final in London later this year. IM VENKATACHALAM SARAVANAN reports all action from the venue. | Photo: Lennart / Grand Chess Tour
9/27/2019 – The Ruy Lopez is a perennially popular opening and all World Champions have played it, with White or with Black or with both colours. Studying it will improve your chess understanding — and your results! On three new FritzTrainer DVDs Fabiano Caruana, World Championship Challenger 2018, now explains the intricacies and attractions of this opening, offering White a complete repertoire. These FritzTrainers also impress with a technical novelty: they run on Macs, iPad, Android, and Windows!
8/27/2019 – He was a world-class grandmaster, twice World Champion candidate, friend of Bobby Fischer (whose participation in the 1972 World Championship match he directly enabled), inventor of the eponymous Benko Gambit and the 1.g3 Benko Opening (which he used to beat Fischer and Tal). He is also known as the composer of some of the finest endgame studies and chess problems we have ever seen. Pál was also a loyal friend who provided us with countless articles over the last decade. He will be deeply missed. | Photo Diana Mihajlova.
10/4/2019 – Fabiano Caruana is already qualified for the Candidates Tournament 2020 and Ding Liren too de facto. They should now be joined by two World Cup finalists. Instead, the situation is less clear. Anish Giri is banking on a rating spot freed up by Ding's new qualification. Radjabov is also in, if he wants it, but that is very much an open question. CONRAD SCHORMANN explains. | Photos: FIDE
9/12/2019 – Bobby Fischer is a legend, so much so that even people who knew him sometimes find it difficult to distinguish between fact and fiction when they hear stories about Fischer. Vlastimil Hort knew Fischer and played against him. Recently, Hort rediscovered a letter Fischer had sent him and this letter evoked memories of the controversial chess genius. | Photos: Wolfgang Betzen (Schachclub Wangen)
9/29/2019 – Ding Liren arrived in Khanty-Mansiysk as the top seed and is now set to face Teimour Radjabov in the final match of the 2019 FIDE World Cup. Ding beat his compatriot Yu Yangyi on tiebreaks by drawing game one and getting a win with White in the second 25-minute encounter. Both the final and the match for third place will kick off Monday — the deciding match-ups consist of four classical games and tiebreaks, if necessary. | Photo: FIDE
10/11/2019 – Formerly known as the Isle of Man Open, the FIDE chess.com Grand Swiss kicked off Thursday at the COMIS Hotel and Golf Resort in Douglas. A total 154 players are participating, with no less than 110 of them rated above 2600. The biggest upset of day one was Evgeniy Najer's 30-move victory over Vishy Anand. Youngsters Nodirbek Abdusattorov (b. 2004) and Raunak Sadhwani (b. 2005) also upset higher-rated opponents. | Photos: Maria Emelianova / chess.com
10/21/2019 – The FIDE chess.com Grand Swiss is coming to an end and the tension continues to rise as those fighting for the Candidates spot have assumed a do-or-die attitude in Douglas. Seven out of the eight top games finished decisively in round ten. After the mayhem, Fabiano Caruana emerged as sole leader, while wins by Magnus Carlsen, Wang Hao, Kirill Alekseenko, David Howell and Nikita Vitiugov left them still with chances to take first place. The other two contenders are Hikaru Nakamura and Levon Aronian, who drew their direct encounter. Round-up show by GM SIMON WILLIAMS. | Photo: John Saunders
10/20/2019 – With two rounds to got at the FIDE chess.com Grand Swiss, four players are tied atop the standings on 6½ out of 9. The last one joining the group of co-leaders was Hikaru Nakamura, who defeated Vladislav Kovalev on Saturday. The ever-changing pack of chasers now consists of eleven players, still including world champion Magnus Carlsen. Meanwhile, Vincent Keymer, Jonas Buhl Bjerre and Raunak Sadhwani completed their third and final grandmaster norms. Daily highlights with IM LAWRENCE TRENT. | Photos: John Saunders
9/24/2019 – Although it is not hard to pick out moves that Fat Fritz finds more easily than Stockfish, or vice versa, sometimes a move stands out that just begs to be shared. This happened to Fat Fritz creator, Albert Silver, while he was casually following the recent Sinquefield Cup won by Ding Liren. Enjoy this example of positional judgement and technique. | Photo: Lennart Ootes / Grand Chess Tour
10/9/2019 – Sometimes seemingly innocuous questions can lead to the most interesting discoveries, and such was the case after deep analysis by ChessBase 15's “Tactical Analysis” with Fat Fritz on one of the best games from the World Cup. The positional masterpiece played by Nikita Vitiugov over Wesley So was compared to Karpov at his best. While the analysis was without question excellent, it was what was not explained that led to fascinating explorations and beautiful moves. | Photo: Kirill Merkuryev, khantymansiysk2019.fide.com
10/19/2019 – Three players are sharing the lead at the FIDE chess.com Grand Swiss, as David Anton joined Fabiano Caruana and Levon Aronian after beating Alexander Grischuk. Much like the leading pack, the group of chasers grew in size on Friday. Ten players are at a half point distance from the leaders, with some big names joining after round eight — Vishy Anand, Sergey Karjakin, Hikaru Nakamura and Boris Gelfand. Also among the chasers is Vladislav Kovalev, who upset Radoslaw Wojtaszek on board nine. IM LAWRENCE TRENT recapped the highlights of the day. | Photo: John Saunders
10/15/2019 – Round five of the FIDE chess.com Grand Swiss was as exciting as could be, with the game on board one lasting almost seven hours and seeing world number two Fabiano Caruana miraculously saving a half point against Luke McShane. The point was also split in Wang Hao v Parham Maghsoodloo on board two, while Alexander Grischuk, Vladimir Fedoseev and Alexei Shirov won with White to join the leading pack. | Photo: Maria Emelianova / chess.com
9/27/2019 – The Ruy Lopez is a perennially popular opening and all World Champions have played it, with White or with Black or with both colours. Studying it will improve your chess understanding — and your results! On three new FritzTrainer DVDs Fabiano Caruana, World Championship Challenger 2018, now explains the intricacies and attractions of this opening, offering White a complete repertoire. These FritzTrainers also impress with a technical novelty: they run on Macs, iPad, Android, and Windows!
9/2/2019 – While the idea of Fat Fritz as a self-taught chess AI is tantalizing, many players may wonder why this impacts them if they already have a good engine and they are not grandmasters seeking nearly ineffable edges in their preparation. In the following article, we let a strong amateur study with it for some hours and compare notes with analysis he had made from other engines.
9/30/2019 – The way we play and improve our chess has increased in complexity. The game is the same, but the information overload from video streaming channels, hundreds of books published yearly, and online sites vying for our attention can be overwhelming to an average chess player. ChessBase Magazine, with its holistic format based on training different parts of the game and its sophisticated interactive Fritz trainer tools, allows every player to learn while having fun. DAVIDE NASTASIO reviews the content of the latest issue and some fundamental positions and games everyone should play, learn from and enjoy.
8/26/2019 – While the title may sound like the name of the latest spaghetti western, it is actually a look at how Fat Fritz may change the way players view the King's Indian Defense, notably the Classical Main Line, long maligned by generations of engines. See how it compares to the latest Stockfish on it, and why its unique development gives it such a broad outlook on openings in general.
10/8/2019 – The duel rook against bishop and knight is often fascinating and full of hidden details. In the diagram position White can use the bad position of Black's knight.
10/11/2019 – The diagram (after 23...b3!) shows a parade example for a Sicilian position with opposite castlings and both sides using their "battering ram" (g-pawn/b-pawn) to open lines against the enemy king. No matter how White plays, Black's attack will come first. Enjoy!
10/4/2019 – After 23...exd4 in the diagram, White is never going to recapture this pawn in the game — he just has better things to do! Have you spotted his leitmotif?
10/1/2019 – Usually, in the endgame rooks are much better than a knight. However, if only a few pawns remain on the board the defender might try to build a fortress. To crack such fortresses rooks often need support.
9/6/2019 – If you play an opening, it is advisable not just to know the moves, but also the plan that is behind them. The ChessBase 15 Plan Explorer is able to show us these plans. It evaluates the games that have been played in different openings and shows how the players continued their development. Unlike the reference search it is not about next move, but about the further development. The Plan Explorer is a tool that helps us not only to remember the moves, but also to understand them. We will show you some practical examples and explain how it works. | Graphic: ChessBase
9/9/2019 – We often hear that in order to make chess more interesting we need to shorten the time controls, as it would magically shift the interest of the masses from sports like soccer, football, basketball or tennis, while at the same time it will increase their chess understanding! But this new FritzTrainer proves there is a side of chess that cannot be appreciated and consumed like fast food, as we witness the development of a fluid repertoire in which each master put his personal fingerprint. The goal is to disorient the opponent and bring him out of his comfort zone.
9/20/2019 – In the diagram White played 17.Qh5+ Kg8 18.Be5 forking queen and rook. Good for Black: he has a move which does not lose instantly. Bad: it will be a very short-lived success. Enjoy!
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