6/25/2020 – The Offerspill Chess Club organized an over-the-board 9-round Swiss tournament as soon as the Norwegian coronavirus-related restrictions allowed them to do so. Four GMs and eight IMs participated in the 30-player closed event. IM Johannes Haug was the clear winner after scoring 7 points. IM Linus Johansson and GM Frode Urkedal finished second and third respectively. | Photo: Offerspill Sjakklubb

12/29/2019 – Another eventful chess year is behind us, with great events and tournaments, impressive personalities and fantastic chess games. Help us choose the player of the year, the female player of the year, the game of the year, the combination of the year and the endgame of the year in our annual ChessBase reader poll. And finally: Endgame of the Year...

9/30/2019 – Teimour Radjabov and Ding Liren signed a 33-move draw as the final match of the FIDE World Cup kicked off Monday in Khanty-Mansiysk. The players blitzed out no less than 26 moves of theory before simplifying into a completely drawn rook endgame. Meanwhile, a similar story was seen in the match-up for third place, as Yu Yangyi had the white pieces against Maxime Vachier-Lagrave — they played 36 moves of a sharp Grünfeld before splitting the point. IM LAWRENCE TRENT reviewed the highlights of the day. | Photo: FIDE

8/29/2019 – CBM 191 is out! Now available in the Shop | The sky is the limit! Will Magnus Carlsen break 2900? ChessBase Magazine is the most comprehensive and most sophisticated chess magazine there is. World class players analyze their brilliancies and explain the ideas behind the moves to you, opening specialists present the latest trends in opening theory and offer exciting ideas for your repertoire. Master trainers in the fields of tactics, strategy, and the endgame show you the tricks and techniques a successful tournament player needs!

8/20/2019 – For the second day in succession, it was six draws in Saint Louis at the Sinquefield Cup. That enabled Vishy Anand to continue to lead as the only winner from the first round. The story of the day was the players with white pieces getting good advantages only to fritter them away in a spate of carelessness. IM VENKATACHALAM SARAVANAN reports about all action from the venue. | Photo: Lennart Ootes / Grand Chess Tour

7/25/2019 – This episode IM Robert Ris will examine the exciting Gruenfeld Defence which remains a potent weapon for Black against 1.d4. The live show at 17:00 UTC (19:00 CEST / 1 PM EDT) is free to watch, and available on-demand for ChessBase Premium account holders (but FREE for a limited time!). To chat, please visit videos.chessbase.com/live or login via Playchess for Windows. In the diagram, it's White to play and win!

6/28/2019 – The Norwegian Chess Federation is facing a democratic dilemma. The betting company Kindred Group, registered in Malta and Gibraltar with offices in Stockholm, has offered the federation a sponsorship agreement worth about five million euros. The deal is controversial and the association wants to vote on the matter on July 7th. Magnus Carlsen is in favour of the deal and has now set up a chess club to gain direct influence on the vote.

6/27/2019 – Four players opened the Croatian leg of the Grand Chess Tour with a win. Most eyes were on World Champion Magnus Carlsen, who continued his astounding year with an inaugural win in Zagreb over Anish Giri. Carlsen's latest challenger, Fabiano Caruana, also won, after taking advantage of a blunder by Hikaru Nakamura, while Wesley So and Ian Nepomniachtchi got full points as well, with victories over Ding Liren and Vishy Anand. | Photo: Lennart Ootes / Grand Chess Tour

6/26/2019 – The Norway Chess tournament ended not only with a Carlsen win but with music. At the prize giving ceremony Jason Kouchak and Juga di Primo showed off their grandmaster-class musical skills. Both musicians have dramatized chess motifs in their compositions and are great chess fans themselves.

6/14/2019 – The 2019 Altibox Norway Chess Tournament is a ten-player single round robin taking place on June 3rd-15th in Stavanger. Every single match will have a winner: if the classical game ends in a draw Armageddon will follow, White has ten minutes, Black seven, but White needs to win. Magnus Carlsen won the tournament with one round to spare but there is still money and prestige stake. In the ninth and final round Carlsen will play against Caruana. The last round starts Friday at 17:00 CEST (15:00 UTC, 11:00 EDT). Follow the games live, with commentary by Judit Polgar and Anna Rudolf. | Photo: Lennart Ootes / norwaychess.no

6/14/2019 – After beating Yu Yangyi in their classical encounter of round eight, Magnus Carlsen secured his second Norway Chess title with a round to spare. Before the day's action, Levon Aronian was trailing Magnus by two points, but the Armenian lost — also in Classical — against Fabiano Caruana...and nonetheless remained in second place. Meanwhile, Vishy Anand, Wesley So and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave won their mini-matches in Armageddon. | Photo: Lennart Ootes / norwaychess.no

6/13/2019 – Ding Liren beat Shakhriyar Mamedyarov in the classical phase of round seven at the 2019 Altibox Norway Chess Tournament. The rest of the games went to Armageddon. Magnus Carlsen drew Wesley So with Black to get his sixth win of the event in sudden death, while Levon Aronian also drew Yu Yangyi with Black to get the mini-match win — the Armenian is now in sole second place, two points behind the world champion. Round-up show by GM DANIEL KING. | Photo: Lennart Ootes / norwaychess.no

6/11/2019 – The sixth round of the Altibox Norway Chess Tournament saw all match-ups decided on Armageddon, as all the "slow" encounters finished drawn. Magnus Carlsen was close to lost in both his games against Ding Liren, but eventually managed to defeat the Chinese nonetheless. Meanwhile, Yu Yangyi and Levon Aronian also won their match-ups, thus staying in sole second and third places, respectively. Round recap by GM ERWIN L'AMI. | Photo: Lennart Ootes / norwaychess.no

6/10/2019 – In the fifth round of the Altibox Norway Chess Tournament in Stavanger, Magnus Carlsen has secured another 1½ points thanks to a couple of safe draws with Black against Maxime Vachier-Lagrave. Given the fact that Wesley So only drew with White in his Armageddon match-up against Viswanathan Anand, Carlsen now has a 1½-point lead in the standings table. In second place is Yu Yangyi, who benefited from a mistake by Fabiano Caruana in a pawn endgame. Round-up show by YANNICK PELLETIER. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

6/9/2019 – In the fourth round of the Altibox Norway Chess Tournament in Stavanger, only one of the five duels was decided in the classical phase: Yu Yangyi won with Black against Alexander Grischuk and is now in third place in the standings table. At the top is Magnus Carlsen — after a draw in classical chess, the world champion (with White) won his Armageddon encounter against Shakhriyar Mamedyarov. Wesley So is in sole second place, after drawing the Armageddon game against Caruana with Black, thus securing 1½ points for the overall standings. | Photo: Lennart Ootes / norwaychess.no

6/6/2019 – Plenty of fighting chess was seen in (almost) all the classical games of round two at the Altibox Norway Chess Tournament. Shakhriyar Mamedyarov and Fabiano Caruana were the first ones to pick up two points by winning "slow" games in Stavanger. Meanwhile, Magnus Carlsen barely saved a draw against Levon Aronian in the Classical, but then went on to win in Armageddon. Wesley So and Yu Yangyi also got 1½ points after winning in sudden death. | Photo: Lennart Ootes / Altibox Norway Chess

6/5/2019 – The experiment has started. If two players draw their classical game at the Altibox Norway Chess tournament in Stavanger they have to go into Armageddon-overtime: White has ten minutes, Black has seven, no increment before move 60, and White has to win. Round 1 of the Altibox tournament brought five fine draws in classical chess, five exciting Armageddon games and a wild blitz battle. | Picture: Alexander Grischuk | Photo: Lennart Ootes

6/4/2019 – The 2019 Altibox Norway Chess Tournament officially kicked off Monday in Stavanger. The traditional Blitz Tournament, which takes place in lieu of the drawing of lots, was won by Maxime Vachier-Lagrave. The Frenchman overpowered Magnus Carlsen in their final round deciding match-up and became the highest-rated player in the blitz ratings list. Levon Aronian and Carlsen shared second place. | Photo: Lennart Ootes / norwaychess.no