4/27/2021 – There is still one round to go at the Candidates Tournament but Ian Nepomniachtchi is sure to be the winner, and in November he will play Magnus Carlsen for the World Championship. In the press conference after the 13th round Nepomniachtchi said that he was very happy about the win but also revealed that he felt tired after more than a year of preparation. | Photo: Alina l'Ami (Archive)

4/25/2021 – An exciting round with four decisive results left two players as the main contenders to win the Candidates Tournament. Anish Giri continued his run of excellent form and beat Fabiano Caruana with the black pieces, but could not catch up with Ian Nepomniachtchi, who got the better of Wang Hao. Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and Ding Liren also won. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

4/24/2021 – Anish Giri climbed to sole second place at the Candidates Tournament in Yekaterinburg thanks to a brilliant win over Ding Liren in round 11. While Ian Nepomniachtchi and Fabiano Caruana drew their direct encounter, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave was defeated by Alexander Grischuk in a sharp battle. In a crucial face-off, Caruana will have the white pieces against Giri in Saturday’s twelfth round. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

4/21/2021 – This week Merijn van Delft takes a look at the Candidates and presents the highlight of round 8: Anish Giri's fine win against Wang Hao. Instructive and pleasant. | Merijn's show is available on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here.

4/20/2021 – Anish Giri beat Wang Hao to climb to shared second place a half point behind sole leader Ian Nepomniachtchi at the Candidates Tournament in Yekaterinburg. Fabiano Caruana and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave are the other two players who make up the chasing pack, as they both drew their games in round 9 — while Caruana failed to make the most of his advantage against Kirill Alekseenko, MVL defended fiercely against Ding Liren. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

4/14/2021 – This week Merijn van Delft takes a look at another duel from the German "Kader-Challenge" in Magdeburg: a positional masterpiece by Matthias Bluebaum. | Merijn's show is available at 16.00 UTC (17:00 CET, 12:00 EDT) and on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here.

4/7/2021 – This week Merijn van Delft shows a duel between two brothers - Rasmus Svane and Frederik Svane. The two faced each other in round three of the German "Kader-Challenge" in Magdeburg and everyone who expected a lifeless draw was pleasantly disappointed. | Merijn's show is available at 16.00 UTC (17:00 CET, 12:00 EDT) and on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here.

3/31/2021 – This week Merijn van Delft shows how the young German FM Julian Kramer (Elo 2419) defeated Ivan Cheparinov (2667) at the European Club Cup. | Merijn's show is available at 16.00 UTC (17:00 CET, 12:00 EDT) and on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here.

3/25/2021 – One hour video training. Plus 33 extensively analysed games by Anish Giri, Romain Edouard, Nodirbek Abdusattorov, Dejan Bojkov, Erigaisi Arjun, Davorin Kuljasevic and others. ChessBase Magazine Extra is the perfect addition to ChessBase Magazine and can also be obtained by subscription (6 issues per year). Available on DVD or as a download.

3/24/2021 – This week Merijn van Delft takes another look at the relatively new and highly fascinating 7.g4 variation in the Taimanov Sicilian, a line which Anish Giri used to win a crucial game against Ian Nepomniachtchi in the Magnus Carlsen Invitational. | Merijn's show is available at 16.00 UTC (17:00 CET, 12:00 EDT) and on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here.

3/22/2021 – Anish Giri defeated Ian Nepomniachtchi in tiebreaks to win the second edition of the Magnus Carlsen Invitational. In the second set of the match, Nepomniachtchi had kept the score tied by winning the fourth game on demand. Magnus Carlsen beat Wesley So in the match for third place.

3/21/2021 – In the first set of the Magnus Carlsen Invitational finals on Saturday all the games played between Anish Giri and Ian Nepomniachtchi ended in draws. In the first game, Giri missed a chance to win, while the remaining three games were evenly matched. In the match for third place, Wesley So had no chance against Magnus Carlsen: the World Champion won the first set 3:1. | Photo: FIDE

3/20/2021 – Ian Nepomniachtchi and Anish Giri only needed draws on day 2 of the semis to reach the finals of the Magnus Carlsen Invitational. While Giri in fact defeated Wesley So for a second day in a row, Nepomniachtchi knocked out Magnus Carlsen in the blitz tiebreakers. | Photo: Maria Emelianova / FIDE

3/19/2021 – Magnus Carlsen and Wesley So are favourites in their semifinal clashes against Ian Nepomniachtchi and Anish Giri at the Magnus Carlsen Invitational. But they are both behind after the first set. | Photo: Georgios Souleidis

3/18/2021 – It was a short day at the office for the quarterfinalists of the Magnus Carlsen Invitational, as three out of the four mini-matches lasted three games each, while in the only contest to go to game 4 Anish Giri beat Maxime Vachier-Lagrave in only 20 moves. Giri will face an in-form Wesley So in semis, while Magnus Carlsen will fight for a spot in the finals with Ian Nepomniachtchi. | Photo: Niki Riga

3/15/2021 – Anish Giri, Magnus Carlsen and Wesley So all scored 4/5 points on day 2 of the Magnus Carlsen Invitational preliminaries. Giri thus kept his spot as leader of the event, with Carlsen still a half point behind in sole second place. The last five rounds of the preliminary stage will be played on Monday, when half the field will be eliminated before the knockout stage kicks off the day after. | Photo: Eteri Kublashvili

3/14/2021 – Anish Giri is the sole leader of the Magnus Carlsen Invitational preliminaries after finishing day 1 with three wins in a row, including one over Wesley So and one over the world champion. After five rounds, Levon Aronian and Carlsen are sharing second place, a half point behind the Dutchman. | Photo: Jurriaan Hoefsmit

3/3/2021 – This week Merijn van Delft takes a look at a game in which Anish Giri enriched opening theory and showed his attacking skills against Alexei Shirov. | Merijn's show is available at 16.00 UTC (17:00 CET, 12:00 EDT) and on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here. | Photo: Alina l'Ami

2/9/2021 – One of the pre-tournament favourites, online blitz specialist Hikaru Nakamura, did not make it into the knockout stage of the Opera Rapid tournament after failing to convert a winning position in the last round against Sam Shankland. Nakamura was eliminated on tiebreak criteria, as he got the same score as Daniil Dubov but won fewer games than the Russian. Ian Nepomniachtchi also had a tough day at the office and was eliminated. Magnus Carlsen won the preliminary stage; Anish Giri scored as many points as the world champion but collected fewer wins. | Photo: Eteri Kublashvili

2/3/2021 – This week Merijn van Delft again looks back to the Tata Steel Tournament 2021 in Wijk aan Zee and analyses how Anish Giri managed to squeeze a nice win out of a seemingly equal position against Radoslaw Wojtaszek. | Merijn's show is available at 16.00 UTC (17:00 CET, 12:00 EDT) and on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here. | Photo: Photo: Jurriaan Hoefsmit – Tata Steel Chess Tournament 2021

2/1/2021 – There was no lack of excitement on the last day of action at this year’s Tata Steel Masters tournament. Jorden van Foreest defeated Nils Grandelius from the white side of a Najdorf to catch up with Anish Giri, who drew David Anton with the black pieces — these results meant an all-Dutch playoff would decide the winner. Two draws in the blitz tiebreakers were followed by an Armageddon decider, in which Giri got a major advantage but ended up losing in a wild time scramble. | Photo: Jurriaan Hoefsmit – Tata Steel Chess Tournament 2021

1/28/2021 – Anish Giri scored a win from what seemed to be a drawn position over Radoslaw Wojtaszek to grab the sole lead in round 10 of the Tata Steel chess tournament. Three players are chasing the Dutchman a half point behind — Andrey Esipenko joined previous co-leaders Fabiano Caruana and Alireza Firouzja in shared second place thanks to his victory over David Anton. | Photo: Jurriaan Hoefsmit – Tata Steel Chess Tournament 2021

1/27/2021 – Three players are sharing the lead with four rounds to go at the Tata Steel chess tournament in Wijk aan Zee, as Anish Giri and Fabiano Caruana won their games on Tuesday to join Alireza Firouzja at the top of the standings table. While Giri inflicted Maxime Vachier-Lagrave’s third loss in the tournament, Caruana got the better of Radoslaw Wojtaszek after playing a surprising move out of a King’s Indian Defence. | Photo: Jurriaan Hoefsmit – Tata Steel Chess Tournament 2021

1/24/2021 – It was an eventful seventh round in Wijk aan Zee, as five out of seven games finished decisively, including Anish Giri beating former sole leader Nils Grandelius with the white pieces. Giri, who was sharing second place before the round, was not the only player from the chasing pack to win on Saturday though — Fabiano Caruana, Alireza Firouzja and Jorden van Foreest also scored full points to become co-leaders. | Photo: Jurriaan Hoefsmit – Tata Steel Chess Tournament 2021