1/1/2023 – There are currently 40 female chess players worldwide who have been awarded the grandmaster title. Nine of them are Capricorn! Then there were the two legendary elite players Paul Keres, and world champion Emanuel Lasker. Capricorn doesn't mess around, works hard and never gives up. That's why his strategy seems easy to see through, but there's a lot more to it than that. | Photo: Pixabay

1/11/2022 – Paul Keres (January 7, 1916 – June 5, 1975) was the clear favourite in the 1942 Estonian Championship in Tallinn. At the time he was considered a possible challenger to World Champion Alexander Alekhine and was the only world-class player in the field. Nevertheless, it is astonishing how clearly Keres dominated the tournament: he won all 15 games without conceding a single draw. | Photo: Valter Heuer (Archive)

2/17/2021 – The ChessBase Magazine offers a window to the world of professional chess, and it provides arsenal for the tournament player. CBM #199 offers games from the Altibox Norway Chess Tournament and the Russian Team Championship and others. 440 games, 11 opening surveys, demo lectures and exercises for training. It also includes games annotated by Alireza Firouzja, Jan-Krzysztof Duda and Anish Giri, to mention a few. Prof. Nagesh Havanur takes a look and also offers a challenge or two to our young readers. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

1/11/2021 – 105 years ago, on January 7, 1916, Paul Keres, one of the best chess players of all time, was born. On the occasion of the anniversary, the new ChessBase Magazine #199 dedicates a "special" to the Estonian grandmaster: 18 players present and annotate their favourite Paul Keres games - 18 wonderful games and 18 stories that show how chess players from all over the world still admire this extraordinary player and personality.

1/7/2021 – 105 years ago today, on January 7, 1916, Paul Keres was born. For more than 30 years, Keres was one of the world's best players, but although he finished second in four Candidates Tournaments, he never played a match for the World Championship. 105 years is not a round anniversary, but an occasion to look at a highlight of a long career. At the 1954 Chess Olympiad, Keres won gold with the Soviet Union team, and scored 13½/14 on board 4 - one of the best results ever achieved at Olympiads.

10/16/2020 – In this Power Play Show Grandmaster Daniel King looks at the game Fabiano Caruana and Magnus Carlsen played in round 7 of the Altibox Norway Chess tournament. Caruana came up with a strong novelty in the Rossolimo Sicilian (1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5) that put Carlsen under pressure. | Power Play is on air most Fridays at 17:00 UK (18:00 CEST, 11:00 EST) on playchess.com. All the usual puzzles, games and instruction will be on offer. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

9/25/2020 – In this Power Play Show Grandmaster Daniel King looks at a provocative, dangerous and entertaining line of the King's Gambit: 1.e4 e5 2.f4 exf4 3.Nc3!? Qh4+ 4.Ke2 which Steinitz, Keres (pictured) and King himself used to play. The march of the king looks crazy but the whole line is surprisingly powerful and dangerous. | Power Play is on air most Fridays at 17:00 UK (18:00 CEST, 11:00 EST) on playchess.com. All the usual puzzles, games and instruction will be on offer. | Photo: Valter Heuer (Archive)

7/6/2020 – With an energetic win against Roman Toran Paul Keres also won the jubilee tournament in Bamberg. After 14 of 15 rounds Keres has 11.0/14 and is 1½ points ahead of World Champion Tigran Petrosian, who was lost against Jürgen Teufel but saved himself with a well-timed draw offer. The German players Wolfgang Unzicker, Lothar Schmid and Rudolf Teschner share places three to five.

7/2/2020 – Paul Keres continues to dominate the Bamberg tournament. In round 10 he defeated Heikki Westerinen in the endgame, while World Champion Tigran Petrosian was lucky to get a draw against Lothar Schmid. With five rounds to go, Keres is now on 8.5 out of 10, 1.5 points ahead of Borislav Ivkov and Petrosian.

6/28/2020 – At the Bamberg Jubilee Tournament, Hans-Günther Kestler could not repeat his surprise success from two days earlier when he drew world champion Tigran Petrosian: the local hero was literally overrun by Paul Keres’ central pawn mass in the 6th round. Keres remains the sole leader of the standings with 5/6. Petrosian and Borislav Ivkov are merely a half point behind. | Photo: The town hall of Bamberg (Pixabay)

6/27/2020 – In the 5th round of the International Jubilee Tournament in Bamberg, Paul Keres took the sole lead with a victory over the Austrian Andreas Dückstein — the Estonian has collected 4 points so far. World Champion Tigran Petrosian from the Soviet Union and Borislav Ivkov from Yugoslavia, who had previously been level with Keres, drew their games and are now sharing second place with Jan Hein Donner.

6/25/2020 – Tigran Petrosian and Paul Keres are the favourites at the jubilee tournament of the SC Bamberg and after three rounds the two Soviet players have indeed taken the lead. In round 3 Petrosian won with a fine exchange sacrifice against Andreas Dückstein, while Keres won a long, technical but basically unproblematic game against Jürgen Teufel, who blundered in the opening. Keres and Petrosian thus share first place with 2½/3 each, while Milko Bobotsov, Borislav Ivkov and Jan Hein Donner follow half a point behind with 2.0/0 each. | Photo: Tigran Petrosian (Archive)

6/23/2020 – World Champion Tigran Petrosian and Paul Keres, since more than thirty years one of the world's best players, are favourites to win in Bamberg. Both started well: in round one Petrosian won with Black against Laszlo Szabo while Keres won with White against Lothar Schmid, for many a secret favourite to win the event. | Photo: The town hall of Bamberg (Pixabay)

6/16/2020 – Before the 14th and final round of the AVRO tournament, Paul Keres and Reuben Fine shared first place with 8.0/13 each. And as chance would have it, they had to play against each other in the final round. However, their game was not particularly exciting but ended in a draw after only 19 moves – which was good for Keres who won the tournament on tiebreak. After this outstanding success, the 22-year-old Estonian can hope for a World Championship match against Alexander Alekhine. | Photo: Valter Heuer (Archive)

6/15/2020 – Reuben Fine started the AVRO Tournament with 5½/6, but then suffered a setback and scored only 1½ points in the next six rounds. But at the end of the tournament Fine seems to have found his form again and in round 13 he outplayed Alexander Alekhine with amazing ease. The other three games of the round ended in a draw and with one round to go Fine and Keres now share the lead with 8.0/13 each, and will decide the tournament winner in their direct duel in the last round. | Photo: Alekhine and Fine during their game in round 6

6/12/2020 – Four draws, no win - that was the outcome of the tenth round of the AVRO Tournament 1938, which was played in the Dutch city of Breda. But despite the four draws the spectators in Breda got their money's worth as they could watch two fascinating tactical duels: Samuel Reshevsky (pictured) used hidden tactics to attack Mikhail Botvinnik, Reuben Fine used hidden tactics to defend against José Raúl Capablanca. Of course, nothing has changed in the standings. After 10 of 14 rounds Fine and Keres share the lead with 6½/10, Botvinnik follows with 5½/10. | Photo: Samuel Reshevsky (Archive)

6/11/2020 – Round 9 of AVRO tournament 1938 was played in Arnhem, in the south of the Netherlands, and saw a clash of old rivals: for the first time in his career Alexander Alekhine won a tournament game against José Raúl Capablanca, while Reuben Fine lost in a strange way against Samuel Reshevsky. Mikhail Botvinnik and Paul Keres drew after an exciting fight, Salo Flohr and Max Euwe drew without much excitement. After nine of 14 rounds, Keres and Fine share first with 6.0/9 each. | Photo: Alexander Alekhine and José Raúl Capablanca

6/9/2020 – In the first six rounds of the AVRO Tournament Reuben Fine was the dominating player and scored a whopping 5½/6. But in round 7 he lost against Paul Keres who now has 5.0/7 and is only half a point behind Fine. The other games of the round were also interesting and they all ended decisively: Mikhail Botvinnik won against Alexander Alekhine, Samuel Reshevsky defeated Salo Flohr and José Raúl Capablanca beat Max Euwe. | Photo: Amsterdam

6/8/2020 – Three World Champions are competing in the 1938 AVRO tournament: José Raúl Capablanca, Max Euwe and Alexander Alekhine, the reigning World Champion. But in round 6 all three lost. Capablanca was outplayed by Paul Keres (pictured), Alekhine found no remedy against Reuben Fine's stubborn defense and lost in the endgame while Euwe was too optimistic against Samuel Reshevsky. Salo Flohr and Mikhail Botvinnik drew. With 5,5 out of 6, Fine is still the sole leader. | Photo: Paul Keres | Photo: Valter Heuer (Archive)

6/6/2020 – After another win in the fourth round, this time against former world champion Max Euwe, 24-year-old Reuben Fine from New York (pictured) is still leading the standings table of the AVRO tournament in the Netherlands. Fine has collected 3½ points, and thus has a full-point advantage over World Champion Alexander Alekhine and Paul Keres.

6/3/2020 – The first round of the AVRO Tournament 1938 brought the first surprise: Reuben Fine outplayed and defeated Mikhail Botvinnik. The games Euwe vs Keres, Flohr vs Capablanca and Alekhine vs Reshevsky were all drawn but Euwe and Alekhine missed good chances. | Photo: The first official move of the tournament

6/27/2019 – With Falkbeer's Countergambit (1.e4 e5 2.f4 d5 3.exd5 e4!?) Black tries to spoil the fun White wants to have in the King's Gambit. A number of top players have tried this countergambit which led to entertaining games. Today, the line is only rarely seen but today, June 27, 2019, Ernst Karl Falkbeer, who gave the countergambit its name, would have celebrated his 200th birthday.

3/7/2018 – On March 10th, the Candidates tournament 2018 will begin in Berlin. In November, the winner of this tournament will play a match for the world championship against Magnus Carlsen in London. Candidates tournaments have always been special, providing memorable moments in chess history, with scandals, drama and, of course, brilliant games. In the run-up to the start of this year's tournament, it's a good time to take a look at some previous classics. | Photo: Herbert Behrens (ANEFO) (Cropped from GaHetNa (Nationaal Archief NL)) [CC0], via Wikimedia Commons

1/5/2018 – Only a few chess enthusiasts will remember the name of Paul Felix Schmidt thought Schmidt was one of the world's best players in the 1930s and 1940s, and equal to his Estonian countryman Paul Keres. A new biography by Eva Regina Magacs and Michael Negele invites you to get to know Paul Felix Schmidt and chess in his time.