Part five of our “Logic Riddles” series is here! This time it is all about a chess-related riddle, pertaining colours. We recently posted a philosophical brain-teaser which can be solved in more than one way. One of the many possible answers is shared in this article!
In the diagram, Black's blockade construct Qd8/Bh4 on the kingside looks artificial, but White rightly decided not to rush and calmly strengthened his position. How?
His painfully honest, self-deprecating style is impossible to miss amid the generally ‘well-behaved’ community of chess players. Love him or hate him, Daniel Gormally has gained notoriety in the chess world for his witty remarks, his dark sense of humour and his unique writing style. Now he...
The corona pandemic did not prevent the organizers of the Leon Masters (Magistral Ciudad de León) from launching the 33rd edition of the traditional yearly event. The main event, to be played on July 10-12, is a four-player knockout with two Spanish players and a couple of international stars. In...
After confirming his participation to play at the fourth stage of the Magnus Carlsen Tour, former world champion Vishy Anand talked to The Hindu. The “Tiger of Madras” praised the current world champion for having organized the tour and showed he is more than willing to try new formats in this...
As is well known, the coronavirus pandemic has brought public chess life to a standstill. But now it is slowly getting back into gear. In Bischofsgrün, the Upper Franconian Senior Championships were played. The social-distance rule was meticulously observed — with double boards.
Soon after rapidly climbing to the top of the chess elite, Vugar Gashimov sadly passed away at the young age of 27 on January 11, 2014. The Azerbaijani grandmaster was known for his joyful personality and his uncompromising style on the chessboard. We look back at a testimonial made about him and...
“Game Changer” by Matthew Sadler and Natasha Regan, published by New in Chess, won the Averbakh-Boleslavsky Award to the best book of 2019. Artur Jussupow, who was a member of the jury, said of the book: “It is a unique project that combines human achievements with remarkable development in AI...
This provoking title has some truth in it. Humanbenchmark.com specializes in measuring human brain abilities with games and cognitive tests. One of their exercises states that chimpanzees consistently outperform humans — the Chimpanzee Test. Interestingly enough, some games are strongly related...
ChessBase 15 is the most powerful chess database management software on the planet, but to get the best out of all that potential, the first thing you need is a large, up to date Reference Database. Nick Murphy takes you step by step through setting and updating your reference database.
After presenting the Indian, Chinese and Egyptian theories of the origins of chess, researcher Sergio Negri takes us through hypotheses based on myths, legends and the fictional world — many of which are better known than those based on historiographical data.
Paul Keres' tournament victory was already certain before the final round. Nevertheless, the Estonian once again played uncompromisingly to win. This was not the only decisive game of the day, which ended with a wonderful closing ceremony. At which a budgie also changed hands. | Photo: SC Bamberg
One draw in a crucial game and David Bronstein would have been World Champion. After losing a difficult ending in the crucial 23rd game Bronstein drew the World Championship Match 1951 against Mikhail Botvinnik which allowed Botvinnik to keep the title. Now Karsten Müller wanted to know whether...
To improve in chess you need to practice. But what do you do when you have little time, e.g. just a few hours before going to work? Davide Nastasio uses this time to study his favourite chess magazine to keep in shape. In a review he takes a look at the latest issue of the ChessBase Magazine.
In the endgame the king often gets active – after all, when only a few pieces remain on the board mate is less likely. However, the king often still needs protection from checks and attacks. But sometimes it can use enemy pawns as an "umbrella" to run for shelter.
The Turkish Chess Federation is organizing online matches in which the best players from the country face international stars. Starting July 7, Turkey’s number four Vahap Sanal will face Shakhriyar Mamedyarov on the PlayChess platform. They will play sixteen 15-minute games (with 10-second...
Initially, Ennio Morricone wanted to become a chess professional. But then he realized that his musical talent was much greater than his talent for chess and he became a composer, whose music added a special touch to many famous films. But Morricone was always passionate about chess. On July 6,...
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...
Merijn van Delft has been giving chess training for many years, and has a regular show at ChessBase. He now published an interesting book on "Positional Sacrifice". In an interview he talks about the book, his work and his passion for positional sacrifices.
“The most important thing is to choose the moves you want to play — not somebody else, let alone an engine. They may not ‘theoretically’ be the best, but unless they can palpably be refuted you will do better with them than something ‘better’ which makes your stomach turn”, concludes star...
In the thirteenth round of the Bamberg Jubilee Tournament, almost all games ended drawn — and some of them were very short. Only the Bulgarian grandmaster Milko Bobotsov (photo: Dutch National Archive) achieved a victory against Jürgen Teufel from Bamberg. But, since these two players are in the...
Looking back: in 1983 Frederic Friedel was in Budapest for the third Microcomputer World Chess Championship. There he made first acquaintance with the Polgar family, but also met the East German chess programming team. His description of this memorable encounter tells us what things were like in...
In the new ChessBase Magazine #196 eleven opening articles with exciting repertoire ideas are waiting for you. IM Robert Ris scrutinizes an almost forgotten line with which Daniil Dubov recently brought fresh wind into the Tarrasch Defence and tried at the highest level. Ris' conclusion: 7.cxd4 8...
Magnus Carlsen won the Chessable Masters online tournament by scoring a straight-set victory in the final against Anish Giri. In Saturday’s second set of the deciding match, Carlsen got an impressive win in the first game, while Giri missed chances to tie the score in games 2, 3 and 4. This was...
The editor of the chess periodical “Deutschen Schachzeitung” Rudolf Teschner is an International Master and thus a strong chess player. Yesterday at the Bamberg Jubilee Tournament, Yugoslavian grandmaster Borislav Ivkov confirmed this was the case when he lost to Teschner — in fourth place,...