11/20/2017 – What an exciting round it was! Round four not only saw a plethora of decisive games, but spectacular ones at that. Levon Aronian was once more his brilliant best as he defeated Anish Giri in a beautiful game with sacs coming from all directions. Ding Liren's imaginative attack against Ernesto Inarkiev was also a joy to watch, and even Hikaru Nakamura's endgame squeeze over Radjabov started with a sparkling queen sac. Report and analysis by GM Alex Yermolinsky. | Photo: Valerij Belobeev

11/19/2017 – Round three was mostly one of missed opportunities as many games failed to capitalize on the promise of their positions. The first and foremost was Maxime Vachier-Lagrave's excellent chances against co-leader Levon Aronian that fizzled out during the technical transition, while Rapport will regret his near-win not yielding its fruits. That said, Peter Svidler did deliver mate on the board against Jon Hammer! Report and analysis by GM Alex Yermolinsky | Photo: Valerij Belobeev

11/18/2017 – After a cautious game in round one, Teimour Radjabov roared like a lion as he unleashed a powerful King's Indian as only he, one of the world's foremost proponents, could do. It was a masterful game as he beat Vallejo Pons. Levon Aronian is another who scored a brilliant win, showing magnificent opening preparation that caught Inarkiev in his net. Here is the round two report with analysis by GM Alex Yermolinsky. | Photo: Agon

10/30/2017 – After rounds one and two, seven teams have won both matches in the open, with the overall leader Hungary winning 6½ of 8 possible board points. Among the leaders are Armenia who brought in Levon Aronian to face the host team of Greece (pictured). The women's tournament has eight teams, each with two wins. The leader is Israel with 6½ board points. England's new Grandmaster Daniel Fernandez annotates five games for our report. | Photo: ETCC on Instagram (www.instagram.com/etcc2017)

10/17/2017 – A detailed review from Prof. Nagesh Havanur. Among other things this issue includes all games from super tournaments, Altibox Norway Chess and FIDE Grand Prix tournaments with winners, Levon Aronian and Ding Liren annotating decisive battles. Our reviewer re-examines the Aronian-Carlsen encounter and also sets up a little test for young readers. The magazine offers a bonanza for lovers of rapid play. There are games from Norway, Paris and Leuven blitz events. 1968 games with 11 opening surveys from Spanish to Semi-Slav. Not to be missed.

10/16/2017 – World number two Levon Aronian and Arianne Caoili were married on September 30th, 2017, in Yerevan, Armenia. It was a Christian wedding ceremony held in one of the most ancient churches of the country. The most important guest at the wedding was Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan along with first lady Rita Sargsyan. We have official pictures of the wedding exclusively sent to ChessBase and also a few videos to give you a feel of the celebrations, including Levon singing! | Photo: Alisa Studios, Los Angeles

9/28/2017 – Every evening at 9 pm CEST we offer you a round-up show of the games played at the World Cup in Tbilisi. Yesterday Daniel King showed the highlights of the tiebreak between Ding Liren and Levon Aronian. Aronian did win the World Cup for the second time in his life. Have a look here...

9/28/2017 – Levon Aronian became the first person in the history of the game to twice win the 128 player knock-out World Cup. After the four classical games ended in draws, the action shifted to tiebreaks. Aronian was able to win both the 25'+ 10" rapids and thus clinched the World Cup title. The closing ceremony was held a few hours after the game was over. We have analysis of both the encounters, pictures from the games and closing ceremony and a huge list of videos that you can watch and feel as if you are in Tbilisi. | Photo: Amruta Mokal.

9/27/2017 – After four draws in Classical games, we are now down to the tiebreaks. It's going to be two games of 25+10 followed by 10+10 if required, and then 5+3 and finally armaggedon. Games kick off at 13:00 CEST (7:00 AM EST) with live commentary from Tbilisi by GMs Evgeny Miroshnichenko and WGM Keti Tsatsalashvili and live updates by our reporters Sagar Shah and Amruta Mokal.

9/27/2017 – It could all have ended today had it not been for some heroic defence by Ding Liren. After getting an extremely bad position out of opening, it seemed as if the Chinese player had no chances of survival. But he started to make his moves quickly and confidently and Levon Aronian who was clearly under pressure, couldn't find the best possible way to make most of his advantage. With all the four classical games ending in draws we are now going into the tiebreaks to decide who will win the World Cup 2017. | Photo: Amruta Mokal

9/25/2017 – Every evening at 9 pm CEST we offer you a round-up show of the games played at the World Cup in Tbilisi. Yesterday Daniel King showed the highlights of game 2 between Ding Liren and Levon Aronian. Who will win the World Cup in Tbilisi 2017? Have a look...

9/25/2017 – Game two of the World Cup 2017 Finals was a tense affair. Ding Liren's opening idea was swiftly neutralized by Aronian with black. It seemed as if the players would agree to a draw around move 30 mark, and call it a day. But Ding went wrong and the moment he did that Aronian started turning the screws on the position. Before you knew it, White had landed in a completely lost position. It was only through a miracle that Ding escaped. Detailed analysis of the game, photos, videos and more from Hotel Biltmore in Tbilisi.

9/24/2017 – Grand! That's what the setting for the finals of the World Cup 2017 is! The venue is in the Biltmore Hotel, which is right in the heart of the Tbilisi. The playing arena is arguably the most exquisite that you will ever see. A lot of chess fans turned up to watch the first game. Levon Aronian and Ding Liren provided a good fight, but the Chinese player who had the black pieces hardly had any problems to hold the draw. He showed some solid opening preparation and surprised Aronian. Analysis, photos and interesting videos from the capital city of Georgia. | Photo: Amruta Mokal

9/22/2017 – Every evening at 9 pm CEST we offer you a round-up show of the games played at the World Cup in Tbilisi. Yesterday Lawrence Trent showed the highlights and upsets of tiebreaks of the semifinals. Who will go through to the final and qualify for the candidates? Have a look...

9/21/2017 – Every evening at 9 pm CEST we offer you a round-up show of the games played at the World Cup in Tbilisi. Yesterday Daniel King showed the highlights and upsets of game 2 of the semifinals. Who will go through to the final and qualify for the candidates? Have a look...

9/21/2017 – In the semifinals of the World Cup 2017 we are witnessing two extremely different kind of matches. While Wesley So and Ding Liren fought until their very last drop of blood was left, Levon Aronian and MVL have hardly sat beyond an hour in their two games combined. In the end the result of both the matches was same: two draws and the action shifts to the tiebreaks. Today, however, Ding Liren missed a clear opportunity to win the game and the match and advance to the finals. We bring you detailed coverage.

9/15/2017 – It was a day of three draws and one brilliant game. The two draws between Fedoseev-So and Rapport-Ding were very short. The fight between Svidler and MVL was intense, but at the end they also decided to split the point. It was Levon Aronian who stole the show with a very nice pawn sacrifice in the opening followed by purposeful and dynamic play. Ivanchuk looked completely off-colour and had to resign in 24 moves. We have pictures, Aronian's video explaining his win and in-depth analysis. | Photo: Amruta Mokal

9/11/2017 – Magnus Carlsen made the bold decision to play in this unpredictable knock out format of the World Cup, and on Sunday he was eliminated by world number 35 Bu Xiangzhi of China. Along with Magnus, also Kramnik and Nakamura have had to book their return tickets. Out of the top ten players in the world that were playing at this event, only one has qualified to round four. Five have been knocked out and four will play the tiebreaks. We have a huge round three, game two, report from Tbilisi. | Photos: Amruta Mokal

9/10/2017 – Round three of the World Cup 2017 witnessed the biggest upset of the tournament — World Champion Magnus Carlsen was outplayed and defeated by China's Bu Xiangzhi. Carlsen's task of making a comeback is further complicated by the fact that he will be black on September 10th. Bu would require only a draw to make it to the next round. In the other results of the day, Wesley So managed to beat Francesco Vallejo Pons and Levon Aronian showed some of his class to get the better of Maxim Matlakov. We have analysis of all three of these encounters, plus some interesting posts about the "shorts incident" involving Anton Kovalyov. | Photos: Amruta Mokal

8/22/2017 – Maxime Vachier-Lagrave won the Sinquefield 2017 convincingly. In a very strong field he won three games, drew six and became sole winner with 6.0/9, half a point ahead of Magnus Carlsen and Levon Aronian. But what distinguished his play, why was he so successful? Venkatachalam Saravanan took a close at his games and tries an answer. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

8/21/2017 – Defending champion Wesley So went through a rough patch at the Sinquefield Cup 2017, scoring just 3.0 / 9 and tying for dead last (with Nepomniachtchi). There is no doubt about his potential and he's shown his tremendous playing strength in the past. We take a deep dive into his tournament to try to understand what went wrong | Photos: Lennart Ootes

8/20/2017 – The thrills and spills from Day 4 continued into the final round-robin. Karjakin's surge faded, and he ended in a tie for second with Hikaru Nakamura. But neither player could catch Levon Aronian, who stayed one step ahead in the combined standings, to clinch first place overall with two rounds to spare. Garry Kasparov finally hit his stride, scoring 5½ / 9 on the final day. If the blitz were a standalone tournament, Kasparov would have been fifth. Here are some of Friday's highlights. | Photos: Lennart Ootes

8/19/2017 – The live action continued Saturday featuring the now-traditional trash-talk filled blitz bonanza known as Ultimate Moves. "Team Rex" squeaked out the victory after a 3/3 tie sparked an wild impromptu tiebreak game (not planned in advance), which was unceremoniously concluded by an illegal move made by Randy Sinquefield!

8/19/2017 – Following on the heels of the Sinquefield Cup, the Saint Louis Blitz and Rapid lasted just five days, with each webcast lasting about 4½ hours. Most player interviews took place at the end of the day, after the rapid or blitz games concluded. For posterity, we've once again compiled quick links to all those post-game chats with Maurice Ashley and Cristian Chirila. | Photos: Lennart Ootes