12/17/2023 – Herman Grooten is an International Master, a renowned trainer and the author of several highly acclaimed books on chess training and strategy. In the 156th episode of his ChessBase show "Understanding before moving" Herman continues his series "Chess history in a nutshell" and takes a look at the games and the legacy of Paul Keres. | Photo: Pascal Simon

12/17/2023 – Today, 17 December 2023, Alexander "Big Al" Beliavsky celebrates his 70th birthday. 50 years ago, in 1973, he became World Junior Champion and has been a fixture in the chess universe ever since. For decades he was a world class player and in the course of his illustrious career Beliavsky defeated no less than nine world champions in classical chess - a feat achieved only by Paul Keres and Viktor Korchnoi! Eduard Frey congratulates and presents highlights of a remarkable career. | Alexander Beliavsky at his first Chess Olympiad in Lucerne 1982 | Photo: Dr. Klaus Krtschil via Wikipedia

12/17/2023 – Magnus Carlsen beat Wesley So in a hard-fought match to claim his third consecutive Champions Chess Tour title. This time around, the last event of the cycle took place in Toronto and featured eight much deserving qualified players. In the end, however, it was the king of rapid chess who — once again — came out on top. It was a well-deserved victory for the strongest chess player of this era. | Photo: chess.com / Thomas Tischio

12/16/2023 – Vishy Anand inaugurated the Chennai Grand Masters 2023 by making the first move on D Gukesh and Arjun Erigaisi's board. They had a relatively calm draw. Alexandr Predke (SRB) had good chances against Pentala Harikrishna. However, he blundered away his advantage. The endgame expert, Harikrishna, does not miss these chances to secure a half point. Pavel Eljanov (UKR) made an incorrect offer of queen trades, which resulted in him losing an exchange. The already difficult endgame turned worse for him and his opponent Sanan Sjugirov (HUN) scored his first-ever classical win over his opponent. Parham Maghsoodloo (IRI) was determined to push for a win, but a draw was the maximum result he could get. | Photos: Shahid Ahmed

12/16/2023 – Dr. Karsten Mueller and Luis Engel have generated a lot of interest with their four player type model. Now, with Fritz 19 offering different club player characters as opponents, the question arises whether there is a correlation to the player types. Surprisingly, the answer is quite positive, as Karsten Mueller explains in detail in the video. The German GM has also analysed three of the games against our ChessBase authors and friends Robert Ris, Jan Jettel, and Svitlana Demchenko.

12/16/2023 – Magnus Carlsen faced Levon Aronian several times in his career. The game Svitlana chose to analyse together with us, points out some crucial initiative decisions by Magnus, which made him win the game. Sacrificing one pawn to gain some advantage is a common practice. But sacrificing two pawns is already quite exceptional.

12/16/2023 – For the first time, the eight-player Champions Chess Tour Finals is taking place fully in person and over the board from December 9 to 16 in Toronto, Canada. Magnus Carlsen, the reigning Tour champion, and Hikaru Nakamura, the world’s top chess streamer, face stiff competition from a world-class field. | Follow the games live with expert commentary starting at 18.00 CET (12.00 ET, 22.30 IST)

12/16/2023 – The European Rapid and Blitz Chess Championships began yesterday at the Zagreb Exhibition Centre. The rapid tournament is played on Thursday and on Friday, followed by the blitz tournament on Saturday and Sunday. Almost 700 players from 41 federations are taking part.

12/16/2023 – In the diagram position White just opened the long diagonal for the bishop with 25.Ne4. Can Black now capture on d5 - and how should she capture on d5?

12/16/2023 – Magnus Carlsen only needs a draw in the second set of the Champions Chess Tour Finals to claim his third consecutive title in the online series (he also won in 2020, when the tour was fittingly named after him). Carlsen beat Wesley So in the first set of the match for the title after scoring the one win of the set from a very balanced endgame position. | Photo: chess.com / Thomas Tischio

12/15/2023 – The Chennai Grand Masters 2023 got off to a splendid start. Just when it seemed like the first round would end up being victorless, Pentala Harikrishna and Pavel Eljanov proved those predictions wrong. Arjun Erigaisi (Harikrishna’s opponent) made a significant mistake early in the game. It made him defend the better part of the battle. Eventually he missed his final opportunity to salvage a half point, which cost him the game. Parham Maghsoodloo (Eljanov’s opponent) made a huge blunder in a rook and two pawns endgame which was seemingly heading towards a draw. | All photos are by Shahid Ahmed unless specified otherwise.

12/15/2023 – This week GM Daniel King looks at a fine attack played by Alireza Firouzja. Apart from predicting some of his moves, he tests your defensive abilities! | Power Play is on air most Fridays. Watch it on-demand with a ChessBase Premium account. All the usual puzzles, games and instruction will be on offer.