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

7/4/2019 – A big blunder by Ian Nepomniachtchi gave his round seven rival, Magnus Carlsen, a second straight win at the Croatian Grand Chess Tour in Zagreb. Thanks to this victory, Carlsen is now in sole first place on 5 out of 7. The rest of the games finished drawn — three of them were rather lifeless, while Fabiano Caruana and Anish Giri fought on until move 54 and Sergey Karjakin missed a simple chance to take down former co-leader Wesley So. | Photo: Lennart Ootes / Grand Chess Tour

7/1/2019 – A wild round was followed by a quieter one in Zagreb, as five games ended in draws, with most of them not living up to the level of excitement seen on Saturday. Only Ding Liren defeated Anish Giri to bounce back to 50% in the standings table. The other highlight of the day was Levon Aronian not managing to convert a big advantage — which emerged from brilliant play in the early stage of the game — against Shakhriyar Mamedyarov. Ian Nepomniachtchi defended well against Hikaru Nakamura and still leads. | Photo: Lennart Ootes / Grand Chess Tour

6/30/2019 – There were no decisive results in round four of the Croatian Grand Chess Tour, but not for a lack of trying. Most notably, Magnus Carlsen vs Shakhriyar Mamedyarov and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave vs Anish GIri were wild struggles which could have gone either way. Levon Aronian and Fabiano Caruana also fought hard, while fortune continues to smile on Ian Nepomniachtchi, who was in a difficult position against Sergey Karjakin but ended up taking home the half point and still commands the standings table. | Photo: Lennart Ootes / Grand Chess Tour

6/29/2019 – Ian Nepomniachtchi was the sole winner in Zagreb for a second day in a row, as he took down Shakhriyar Mamedyarov with the black pieces at the Croatian Grand Chess Tour. The Russian grandmaster now has a one-point lead over Wesley So and Magnus Carlsen, after the world champion finished on the bad side of a draw against world's number two Fabiano Caruana in the stellar match-up of the day. | Photo: Lennart Ootes / Grand Chess Tour

6/28/2019 – Round two of the Croatian Grand Chess Tour finished with only one decisive game, but there was no lack of excitement as some big misses led to unexpected results. Ian Nepomniachtchi defeated Fabiano Caruana from a clearly inferior position, Magnus Carlsen could not convert a knight endgame a pawn up against Vishy Anand and Ding Liren failed to make the most of his advantage against Sergey Karjakin. These results left Nepomniachtchi as the sole leader with 2 out of 2. | Photo: Lennart Ootes / Grand Chess Tour

6/20/2019 – World Chess has developed a new tournament format for Russian television, dubbed the World Chess Armageddon series. Eight players entered a virtual arena, donned branded clothing and played blitz for $50,000 in prize money. In the end, as if according to script, local hero Sergey Karjakin defeated Ian Nepomniachtchi. | Photos: World Chess

6/4/2019 – On the show today Lawrence will have a look at a class positional display in N. Dzagnidze vs M. Muzychuk - how to squeeze a positional advantage with the two bishops. Live beginning at 16:00 UTC (18:00 CEST, 12 Noon EDT) and free for a limited time, or forever on-demand with a ChessBase Basic Account. You can register a free 90-day account to watch.

5/28/2019 – On the show today, the Lindores Abbey tournament was a fun little show up in Scotland and Lawrence will have a look at a key game plus review the important chess action of the past week. Live beginning at 16:00 UTC (18:00 CEST, 12 Noon EDT) and free for a limited time, or forever on-demand with a ChessBase Basic Account. You can register a free 90-day account to watch.

5/27/2019 – Magnus Carlsen won the fifth tournament of the year 2019. But things were not so simple for the World Champion. He struggled quite a bit in this tournament and was losing against Karjakin as well as Ding Liren in rounds 5 and 6. Through sheer fighting spirit and hanging in there, he was able to win the first place with 3½/6. IM Sagar Shah who was present at the venue, brings you all the action.

5/9/2019 – Three rounds of Rapid were played on Wednesday at the Pullman Hotel in Abidjan to kick off the first leg of the 2019 Grand Chess Tour. World Champion Magnus Carlsen and Chinese prodigy Wei Yi are leading the ten-player field after getting two wins and a draw during the first day of action. GCT defending champion Hikaru Nakamura is the closest chaser and the only player to avoid a defeat against Carlsen. | Photo: Lennart Ootes / Grand Chess Tour

4/9/2019 – A third consecutive win in Shamkir meant Magnus Carlsen finished on 7 out of 9, two points ahead of his closer pursuers, with an out-of-this-world rating performance of 2988. His last victim was Alexander Grischuk, who was duly overrun both on the board and on the clock. The rest of the games finished drawn. LAWRENCE TRENT took a closer look at the final encounters of the sixth Gashimov Memorial. | Photo: Official site