3/30/2024 – In his first-ever confrontation against Magnus Carlsen, Faustino Oro from Argentina, aged 10, defeated the former world champion in a 1-minute game. After becoming the youngest player to ever earn an IM norm in 2023, the ‘Messi of chess’ moved from Argentina to Spain, where he intends to continue making progress in chess. | Robert Ris analysed Oro’s memorable victory.

3/30/2024 – With his opening move in the diagram position Black ensures that the white king remains unsafe, and only three moves later there will be sudden checkmate finale. Have fun!

3/30/2024 – At first sight it looks scary, but Black also gets his portion of chances. Very often a complicated fight arises, where all results can be possible. If you want to study this opening, it would be well to follow the didactic analysis of a world-class trainer, who played successfully against it on his 32nd birthday.

3/29/2024 – All chess players aspire to create a lasting masterpiece over the board. And if sacrifices appeal to the artistic side of a chess player, what can be a better way than to sacrifice the most powerful of all pieces, the queen? GM Sundararajan Kidambi presents three games featuring remarkable (positional) queen sacrifices! | Pictured: Karthikeyan Murali | Photo: Niklesh Jain / ChessBase India

3/29/2024 – In his new Fast & Furious episode, Robert Ris shows how Levon Aronian surprised Wesley So in a classical line of the Nimzo-Indian. Aronian’s 5...c5!? worked out perfectly as he went on to win the game. | Fast & Furious is available on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here.

3/29/2024 – If you want to make progress in chess, sooner or later you will have to deal with your opening repertoire. It is better to approach this complex subject systematically than to get lost in a mass of videos, books and clever tips. To help with this, the Opening Encyclopaedia 2024 informs about the latest opening developments and provides basic knowledge.

3/29/2024 – Magnus Carlsen scored back-to-back wins on Thursday to take the lead at the Grenke Chess Classic in Karlsruhe. Carlsen defeated Vincent Keymer and former leader Richard Rapport to go into the rest day a full point ahead of Rapport, Ding Liren and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave. The remaining four rounds of the double round-robin will be played during the weekend, with the final playoff set to take place on Monday. | Photo: Angelika Valkova

3/28/2024 – What to do against 1.e4? Many players choose to open with the Sicilian to play for a win with Black and get interesting positions, but they are afraid of the long forced variations in the Najdorf, the Dragon or the Sveshnikov. The Kalashnikov Variation (1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 e5 5.Nb5 d6!?) is an interesting alternative. The positions offer a wealth of tactical and strategic possibilities, but the theory is straightforward. In a new course, French GM Fabien Libiszewski shows how to score in the Kalashnikov Variation.

3/28/2024 – It is quite difficult to find the right trainer for a chess player. More so when there are so many lucrative options available. While some prefer to work on their own, others need a chess coach to guide and help them improve their game. Peter Long shares his experiences and thoughts as a trainer. Instead of focusing on gaining more knowledge, attending camps and playing tournaments incessantly, creating a structure will help students to fix their gaps and become stronger players.

3/28/2024 – ChessBase Magazine Extra is the ideal supplement to ChessBase Magazine. Videos by Nico Zwirs on the Vienna Game following the game Wei Yi vs. Max Warmerdam from Tata Steel 2024 (1.e4 e5 2.Nc3 Nf6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.d3 c6 5.f4) and part 2 of "Mikhalchishin's miniatures", this time focussing on the "Indian" openings. "Lucky bag" with 53 analyses by Romain Edouard, Michal Krasenkow, Samvel Ter-Sahakyan, Gabriel Sargissian and many more. "The brilliancy" is provided by the 15-year-old IM Shreyas Royal from England. Plus over 50,000 new games for your database!

3/28/2024 – In his new Game of the Week show, Merijn van Delft takes a look at a fine game played by Fabiano Caruana against Grigoriy Oparin at the American Cup. In about a week Caruana will play in the 2024 Candidates Tournament in Toronto and he is one of the favourites to win this tournament. Especially if he shows the form he showed against Oparin. | Merijn’s show is available on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here.

3/27/2024 – Two rounds featuring turnarounds and missed chances left Richard Rapport atop the standings of the Grenke Chess Classic with a 1-point lead over Magnus Carlsen, Ding Liren and Vincent Keymer. Rapport drew Keymer and beat Daniel Fridman in rounds 3 and 4, while both Carlsen and Keymer obtained big advantages which they were unable to convert into full points. The marquee matchup of the day saw Ding holding a draw with black against Carlsen. | Photo: Angelika Valkova