Reflecting on the 2020-2021 Candidates – Part 2

5/10/2021 – The Candidates Tournament 2020/2021 brought a wealth of interesting games and interesting novelties. After all, the players had more than one year to prepare for seven games. In his two-part reflection on the Candidates the Canadian FM Joshua Doknjas takes a close look at the most important theoretical developments in the Candidates and discusses various strategies of preparation. | Photo: Tournament winner Ian Nepomniachtchi | Photo: Lennart Ootes
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May 04 The Weekly Show
The weekly highlights with IM Lawrence Trent. View the new video!
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The game of the week presented by IM Merijn van Delft. View the new video!
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Russian Premier League, Round 9 - Live!

5/10/2021 – The Russian Team Championships were decided in the penultimate round: The Iron Horsemen of St. Petersburg win the Open Championship, the Moscow Chess Team wins the Women's Tournament. However, there is still one round to play in which the other teams fight for the places. It starts at 14:00 CEST (8:00 am EDT, 1 pm BST). Follow the games live.

Winners decided with a round to spare at the Russian Team Championships

5/10/2021 – Already one round before the end of the event, the Russian team champions in the Premier League as well as in the women’s competition have been decided. In the Premier League, the Mednyi Vsadnik from St. Petersburg secured their fourth consecutive title after winning seven out of seven matches. The women’s tournament was similarly won by the Moscow Chess Team, which also has a perfect score. | Photo: Vladimir Barsky

Learning from Sultan Khan

5/9/2021 – Reading seems to have become a dying habit. With the advent of gadgets, distraction lurks around every corner and resisting the temptations has become increasingly difficult. A true bibliophile knows the essence of reading from a physical book — the smell of a newly printed one cannot be replaced by a digital version. Four-time Indian women’s champion, Asian continental champion and Olympic individual gold medallist IM Padmini Rout reflects on Daniel King’s book about Sultan Khan. | Photo: Amruta Mokal

Understanding before Moving 26: Cooperation between queen and bishop

5/9/2021 – Herman Grooten is an International Master, a renowned trainer and the author of several highly acclaimed books about chess training and chess strategy. In the 26th instalment of his ChessBase show "Understanding before Moving", Herman shows examples of a good cooperation between queen and bishop. | Photo: Tommy Grooten

Favourites top the standings in Russian Team Championships

5/9/2021 – The Russian Team Championships are being played on May 1-10 at the Hotel Zhemchuzhina in Sochi. Besides the Premier League, a 9-team round robin, the Women’s League and the Higher League are taking place as Swiss tournaments. Both in the Premier League and the Women’s Tournament, the clear favourites have managed to win all of their matches — the Mednyi Vsadnik (Iron Horsemen) led by Nikita Vitiugov and the Moscow Chess Team led by Kateryna Lagno. | Pictured: Aleksandra Goryachkina | Photo: Vladimir Barsky

Will he break the world record?

5/8/2021 – He learnt the rules of chess when he was two and a half years old. He became the youngest national expert at the age of seven, and the youngest National Master in the US at the age of nine. In late 2019, he beat R. Praggnanandhaa's record of becoming the youngest IM ever. Meet Abhimanyu Mishra, a youngster who lives in New Jersey, USA. Abhimanyu is an amazing talent and is now going after the record of becoming the youngest GM in history. In spite of the Covid pandemic. And you can help him achieve his goal!

Wojtaszek and Kulon prevail at the Polish Championships

5/8/2021 – Radoslaw Wojtaszek and Klaudia Kulon prevailed in the open and women’s sections of the 2021 Polish Championships, played over the board in Bydgoszcz. This was Wojtaszek’s fourth victory in the national championship, while Kulon won the women’s title for the first time in her career. | Photos: Official site

Mitropa Cup, Round 4: Czechia and Italy in the lead

5/8/2021 – Four (out of nine) rounds of the Mitropa Cup have alerady been played. After a 3-1 victory over Hungary in round four, the German team is currently in second place, only one team point behind the leading Czechs. In the women’s category, Italy has won every single match so far and has a two-point lead over Hungary and Germany. | Photos: Claudia Münstermann

Catch with a catch!?

5/8/2021 – If Black plays 30...Nxc3 in the diagram position he attacks White's rook on b1 and opens the bishop's diagonal a8-g2. So, everything seems fine for Black - unless White can spoil the fun with 31.Bc5. Well, can he?

The ChessBase News Review (30.4. - 07.05.21)

5/7/2021 – Lawrence Trent and Arne Kaehler talk about what happened chess-wise last week. They give their opinions on various topics, and encourage you to think about the subject, analyse games, or read the articles thoroughly yourself. This week we discuss chess in prison, analyse a game by Fat Fritz 2.0, take a look at some past Grandmasters, and finally find out, why noodles and spring rolls cost a fortune in Iceland, if the timing is wrong.

The best combinations from ChessBase Magazine #201

5/7/2021 – Constant tactical training is vital if you want to improve or just maintain your playing strength. In his ChessBase Magazine column "Tune your tactics", tactics expert IM Oliver Reeh regularly presents about 30 tactical tasks, from opening, middlegame and endgame, from simple to super-difficult, with questions far beyond the scope of the conventional "X to play and win". Moreover, Reeh presents his personal favourites in interactive Fritztrainer videos. In ChessBase Magazine #201, these favourites include three classics and a recent example. Take the test and enjoy!
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Rapid Interview - Cécile Haussernot

5/7/2021 – Rapid interviews are fun: interviewer and guest face each other in an epic rapid chess battle. The chess guest not only has to face the interviewer's questions, but also concentrate on the chess game at the same time. This leads to surprising answers and sometimes to curious chess positions. Cécile Haussernot is probably one of the most attractive titled chess players. I asked her if this ever lead to jealousy from other players, or hate comments, and how she deals with these factors. Furthermore, I wanted to know how it is for the French WIM to live in Tbilisi, Georgia, and what her future goals are in chess. | Photos: Cécile Haussernot

“Chess for Freedom” online conference announced

5/7/2021 – The International Chess Federation will hold an online conference dubbed “Chess for Freedom” on May 11th at 15:30 CET (8:30 US Central Time). The conference will present a newly launched project focused on introducing chess to prisons. This conference will feature FIDE President Arkady Dvorkovich, the 12th World Chess Champion Anatoly Karpov, Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart, and other invited guests.

Robert Ris’ Fast and Furious: The aggressive Rossolimo Sicilian

5/6/2021 – In this week’s show, well-known Dutch trainer Robert Ris shows how White can play the Sicilian Rossolimo in an aggressive way. | "Fast and Furious" is available on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here.

"The strategy was not to lose" - Eteri Kublashvili interviews Ian Nepomniachtchi

5/6/2021 – Ian Nepomniachtchi won the Candidates Tournament 2020/2021, and in November he will play against Magnus Carlsen for the world title. In an extensive interview with Eteri Kublashvili after the Candidates, Nepomniachtchi talked about his preparations for the second part of the Candidates and revealed why he once was so frustrated during his preparations that he threw his "iPhone into the wall". He also talked about his key to success, Magnus Carlsen - "a very nice dude" - and why "there is never enough time to prepare". | Photo: Lennart Ootes

Throwback Thursday: Wesley So makes it past 2800

5/6/2021 – Wesley So has proven to be capable of beating any player from the elite, including world champion Magnus Carlsen. The Filipino-born grandmaster, currently representing the United States, obtained his highest-ever live rating in April 2017, following a streak of remarkable results in the elite circuit. We look back at the successes that helped the ever-humble star to reach the second spot in the world ranking. | Photo: South African Junior Chess Championship Facebook page

Chess in the QLASH house

5/6/2021 – The Mitropa Cup 2021 is the first major team tournament that is played as a hybrid tournament. The players of the ten teams that take part in the tournament play from their home countries but meet in a central place where they play online, watched by arbiters. For the Italian team the Mitropa Cup is already a success: they play in a very modern, almost futuristic location - an eGaming house.

Qualification for FIDE Women’s Candidates Tournament 2022 announced

5/6/2021 – In May 2018 the Chinese Grandmaster Ju Wenjun became Women's World Champion by defeating her countrywoman Tan Zhongyi in a match. Later the same year Ju Wenjun defended her title in a knock-out tournament, and in 2020 she defended her title again, this time in a match against Aleksandra Goryachkina from Russia. In 2022 Ju Wenjun will face her next challenger, the winner of the Women's Candidates Tournament 2022, will take place in the first half of 2022. And recently, the FIDE approved the "qualifying path" for the Women's Candidates.
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