1/16/2024 – Defending champion Anish Giri joined Alireza Firouzja in the lead of the Tata Steel Masters after beating Alexander Donchenko with the black pieces. Full points were also scored by Ding Liren, Nodirbek Abdusattorov and Jorden van Foreest — all three grabbed their first wins of the event. In the Challengers, six players are sharing first place with 2/3 points following a round that saw five out of seven games ending decisively. | Photo: Tata Steel Chess Tournament / Jurriaan Hoefsmit

1/15/2024 – On 15 January 1930 one of the strongest chess tournaments of the time began in the Italian resort of San Remo. 16 players took part, including the reigning world champion Alexander Alekhine and chess legends such as Aron Nimzowitsch, Akiba Rubinstein and Efim Bogoljubow. Alekhine won comfortably with 14 points from 15 games, achieving one of the greatest successes of his career. His third wife, Nadasha Vasilyev, probably played a major role in this and other Alekhine successes. | Photo: Alekhine and Nadascha in San Remo 1930 | Photo: https://audiovis.nac.gov.pl/

1/15/2024 – ChessBase Magazine is breaking new ground. The new CBM #217 (January 2024) is the first issue to include full mobile access, so you can download it directly via the web browser on your iPad or tablet, enjoy world-class games with analyses by the players, learn about new opening ideas, solve training tasks or replay selected master games move by move in interactive video format. Also this week we offer you a complete CBM article from the current issue free of charge. "A promising structure against Sveshnikov" is the title of Krisztian Szabo's opening article. His recommendation: After 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 e5 6.Ndb5 d6 7.Sd5!? Nxd5 8.exd5 secures White a space advantage and a very good starting position. Have a look!

1/15/2024 – The term was first used by Fred Reinfeld and Irving Chernev, in 1933. It is a chess tactic in which a player, instead of playing the expected move (commonly a recapture), first interposes another move posing an immediate threat that the opponent must answer, and only then plays the expected move. Leading chess trainer and analyst, GM Efstratios Grivas, tells us how this tactical manoeuvre works.

1/15/2024 – Every chess player likes to attack. Every chess player likes to put pressure on their opponent. But when the tables are turned, and we become the target of an attack, we may feel uncomfortable, anxious, and insecure. Yet, we can save an incredible number of defensive positions if we know the techniques and rules-of-thumb.

1/15/2024 – Alireza Firouzja became the first sole leader in this year’s Tata Steel Masters after beating Parham Maghsoodloo with white in the second round — the Frenchman is the only player who started the event with back-to-back victories. Gukesh D. and Max Warmerdam also grabbed wins on Sunday. Meanwhile, in the Challengers, five players are sharing first place with 1½/2 points. | Photo: Tata Steel Chess Tournament / Lennart Ootes

1/12/2024 – In his new Game of the Week show, Merijn van Delft analyses one of the games played by world champion Ding Liren at a rapid Chinese tournament. Ding returned to an official competition after a long hiatus. | Merijn’s show is available on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here.

1/11/2024 – Timing is a key factor in chess. As noted by the inimitable Bobby Fischer: “Chess is a matter of delicate judgement, knowing when to punch and how to duck”. GM Sundararajan Kidambi explores this all-important theme using games by Levon Aronian, Vishy Anand and Stockfish/Leela! | Photo: Amruta Mokal

1/11/2024 – It's an experiment. We wanted to know how a number of different personalities reacted to some unusual problems we presented in our Christmas Puzzle week. So we gave them two positions and let them wrestle with them online. For starters, we bring you video of a super-talent, Leon Luke Mendonca, and his first-time encounter with anything like this. Did you react in similar fashion to the problems?

1/11/2024 – In the first episode of 2024, Robert found a couple of Underdogs during the Rapid and Blitz World Championship. But having a 1900 rated player win against a Grandmaster with 2600, is truly rare. And when you know that the underdog is only 8-years old, it is even more impressive! The Dutch IM also found an underdog victory game by the Argentinian supertalent Oro Faustino, which is very instructive!

1/11/2024 – Ding Liren played his last classical rated game on May 15, when he beat Bogdan-Daniel Deac with black in the last round of the Superbet Classic in Bucharest. Just two weeks earlier, he had defeated Ian Nepomniachtchi in a thrilling match to become the 17th undisputed world chess champion. Following his long hiatus, the Chinese ace will compete again at the Tata Steel Masters in Wijk aan Zee. A week before the start of the traditional event, he played a rapid tournament in China. | Photo: Amruta Mokal

1/11/2024 – A number of tournaments are traditionally organised at the turn of the year. The Staufer Open in Schwäbisch Gmünd, Germany took place for the 34th time. Well over 500 chess enthusiasts took part in two competitions. Eltaj Safarli was the clear winner in the A Open. Bettina Trabert reports.