11/16/2019 – In the first game of the FIDE Grand Prix in Hamburg, Alexander Grischuk was the one missing a good chance to get ahead on the score board. The Russian got a promising position with White, but could not make the most of it, after both he and Jan-Krzysztof Duda survived a deep time trouble scramble. Another draw in game two will mean the final will be decided in Sunday's tiebreaks. | Photo: Official site

11/13/2019 – Alexander Grischuk knocked Maxime Vachier-Lagrave out of the Grand Prix in Hamburg by beating him in the second classical game of the semi-finals. Grischuk thus massively increased his chances to reach the 2020 Candidates Tournament through the series. Meanwhile, Daniil Dubov got a slight edge against Jan-Krzysztof Duda, but could not make much of it — their semi-final match-up will be decided in tiebreaks. | Photo: Valeria Gordienko

11/10/2019 – Only one match-up will be decided in tiebreaks at the second round of the FIDE Grand Prix in Hamburg, as Russians Peter Svidler and Daniil Dubov drew for a second day in a row and will be playing rapid and blitz on Sunday. Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Alexander Grischuk and Jan-Krzysztof Duda secured their spots in the semi-finals in the classical phase, thus getting one extra point at the overall GP standings. | Photo: Nadja Wittmann

11/8/2019 – A pair of rapid games were enough to decide three out of four tiebreaker match-ups at the third leg of the Grand Prix in Hambrug. Daniil Dubov eliminated Teimour Radjabov only when the blitz phase was reached, while David Navara, Alexander Grischuk and Yu Yangyi dispatched their opponents after playing two 25-minute games. Nikita Vitiugov, Radoslaw Wojtaszek and Dmitry Jakovenko were knocked out of the competition. | Photo: Valeria Gordienko

11/6/2019 – Four players kicked off the third leg of the FIDE Grand Prix Series with a win at the Theater Kehrwieder in Hamburg. The results of the day particularly favoured Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, as he beat Wei Yi with the white pieces, while Ian Nepomniachtchi — another big contender to get one of the two Candidates spots at stake — lost against Jan-Krzysztof Duda. Peter Svidler and Veselin Topalov also won their inaugural encounters. | Photo: Nadja Wittmann

10/18/2019 – In a round that only saw three decisive results on the top fifteen boards, Levon Aronian defeated Wang Hao to climb to shared first place at the FIDE chess.com Grand Swiss. The Armenian caught up with Fabiano Caruana, who signed a 42-move draw with Alexander Grischuk. Caruana will have the white pieces against Aronian in round eight, while Wang Hao will face world champion Magnus Carlsen on board two. GM SIMON WILLIAMS looked at the highlights of the day. | Photo: Maria Emelianova / chess.com

9/25/2019 – The World Cup is in focus, and IM Merign van Delft looks at Grischuk's win over Leinier Dominguez, before both said goodbye to Khanty-Mansiysk. The show 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. Merijn is live this week starting at 18:00 UTC (20:00 CEST / 2 PM EDT).

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

9/24/2019 – The scores of the four quarter-final matches at the FIDE World Cup are tied, as hard-fought draws were seen on all boards on Monday. Ding Liren and Yu Yangyi did not shy away from shedding material while playing Black against Alexander Grischuk and Nikita Vitiugov; Levon Aronian had a very slight edge in his white game against Maxime Vachier-Lagrave; while Jeffery Xiong and Teimour Radjabov signed a 'correct' draw after 30 moves. IM LAWRENCE TRENT reviewed the highlights of the day. | Photo: FIDE

9/23/2019 – The highlight of the round four play-offs at the World Cup in Khanty-Mansiysk was Jeffery Xiong's victory over Jan-Krzysztof Duda, in a match-up that was only decided in the blitz phase after the players repeatedly exchanged blows in riveting encounters. Ding Liren, Alexander Grischuk, Levon Aronian and Teimour Radjabov also advanced to the quarter-finals. The eight survivors need two more match wins to get a spot in the next Candidates Tournament. | Photo: FIDE

9/21/2019 – Half the match-ups had a winner in game one of the round of 16 at the World Cup in Khanty-Mansiysk. Coincidentally, all three Americans still in the race need a win on Saturday to force tiebreaks, as Nikita Vitiugov, Alexander Grischuk and Jan-Krzysztof Duda beat Wesley So, Leinier Dominguez and Jeffery Xiong respectively. In the other decisive encounter of the day, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave defeated Peter Svidler. Video review by IM LAWRENCE TRENT | Photo: FIDE

9/18/2019 – Half the matches of the round of 32 at the FIDE Grand Prix in Khanty-Mansiysk already have a winner, while the remaining eight encounters will be decided on tiebreaks. None of the players that lost the first game of the round managed to bounce back, and only Levon Aronian got a win after having drawn on Monday. The biggest upset of the round was given by Kirill Alekseenko, who got a 2:0 win over Pentala Harikrishna. GM ERWIN L'AMI recapped the action of the day. | Photo: FIDE

9/17/2019 – The round of 32 of the FIDE World Cup began on Monday, with seven players getting the lead in their mini-matches. The three biggest underdogs — all with ratings in the 2500s — are amongst those needing a win to bounce back after a loss, as Alexander Grischuk, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov and Teimour Radjabov defeated Xu Xiangyu, Eltaj Safarli and Daniil Yuffa respectively. IM LAWRENCE TRENT recapped the action of the day. | Photo: FIDE

8/5/2019 – Eight top grandmasters are currently playing in Amsterdam a rapid and blitz chess tournament, invited to honour the 40th birthday of the former Executive Director of the Russian Chess Federation, Ilya Levitov. Among them is Vladimir Kramnik, who retired from the tournament chess in January. He and Viswanathan Anand won the blitz tournament which was held on Saturday. | Photo: Peter Doggers / chess.com

8/2/2019 – The Paris leg of the Grand Chess Tour had a final day full of ups and downs, as Maxime Vachier-Lagrave kept the lead all throughout despite a topsy-turvy performance. No player had a long-enough winning streak to overcome the Frenchman, with Ian Nepomniachtchi and Alexander Grischuk missing chances to catch up repeatedly. In the end, it was Vishy Anand who surged ahead to second place after scoring four wins in the last six rounds. | Photo: Lennart Ootes / Grand Chess Tour

8/1/2019 – Day four of the Paris Grand Chess Tour finished with Vachier-Lagrave still in the lead, two points ahead of Alexander Grischuk and Ian Nepomniachtchi, with the latter collecting 5½ points on Tuesday. The best player in the first nine rounds of Blitz, however, was Hikaru Nakamura, who scored 'plus four' to bridge the gap with those atop the standings table. The current US champion is tied in fourth place with Fabiano Caruana and Vishy Anand. | Photo: Justin Kellar / Grand Chess Tour

7/30/2019 – The rapid section of the Paris Grand Chess Tour was won by Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, who drew twice and beat Jan-Krzysztof Duda on day three. Alexander Grischuk ascended to sole second place, and stands a full point behind the leader before the eighteen rounds of Blitz kick off on Wednesday — the participants will get a rest day before the tempo speeds up in the French capital. | Photo: Lennart Ootes / Grand Chess Tour

7/22/2019 – In this Simon Says, Grandmaster Simon Williams, himself a great fan of 'Harry the h-pawn' examines the modern theoretical trend of launching h2-h4 earlier and earlier in the opening. Watch live for free (for a limited time) starting at the usual hour: 16:00 UTC (18:00 CEST / 12 Noon EDT).

7/19/2019 – On the show today: GM Daniel King will be examining Grischuk vs Vitiugov 2019 — a classic attack from the Russian maestro. Power Play is live most Fridays at 16:00 UTC (18:00 CEST, Noon EDT) on playchess.com. You can watch the episode live for free! All the usual puzzles, games and instruction will be on offer. Puzzle and the live video...

7/18/2019 – In the first game of the semi-finals at the FIDE Grand Prix in Riga we saw a couple of elite chess battles, as Shakhriyar Mamedyarov surprised Wesley So to get a quick win and Alexander Grischuk got himself in trouble out of a Berlin Defence against Maxime Vachier-Lagrave. Grischuk and So will have the white pieces in Friday's rematch encounters. | Photo: World Chess

7/18/2019 – Alexander Grischuk and Shakhriyar Mamedyarov knocked out Yu Yangyi and Jan-Krzysztof Duda in the first two games of the quarter-finals tiebreaks at the FIDE Grand Prix in Riga. Meanwhile, Sergey Karjakin and Wesley So drew all their 25'+10" and 10'+10" games — in the end, So emerged the winner after turning around a sharp tactical position in the first 5'+3" encounter and saving a draw in a roller-coaster of a rematch game. | Photo: Niki Riga / World Chess

7/16/2019 – Much like in round one of the FIDE Grand Prix in Riga, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave kicked off the quarter-finals with a win in classical chess, this time over Veselin Topalov. In the meantime, Wesley So had the black pieces and signed a 17-move draw with Sergey Karjakin, Jan-Krzysztof Duda had a good position but could not make much of it against Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, and Alexander Grischuk did not make the most of his game with White against Yu Yangyi. | Photo: Niki Riga / World Chess

7/15/2019 – On the first round of tiebreaks at the FIDE Grand Prix in Riga, Jan-Krzysztof Duda, Alexander Grischuk, Wesley So and Veselin Topalov needed merely two rapid games to move on to the quarter-finals. Meanwhile, Sergey Karjakin and Yu Yangyi played seven games each, as they only managed to knock out Anish Giri and Levon Aronian in Armageddon. | Photo: Niki Riga / World Chess

7/13/2019 – The second leg of the FIDE Grand Prix kicked off with plenty of fighting chess. Only Maxime Vachier-Lagrave managed to score a full point, however, as he took down David Navara in 19 moves out of a sharp Caro-Kann. Wesley So, Alexander Grischuk and Shakhriyar Mamedyarov had big chances but failed to join Vachier-Lagrave as the winners of round one, while Peter Svidler and Jan-Krzysztof Duda played a sharp, entertaining game. | Photo: Niki Riga / World Chess