Understanding before Moving 161: Chess history in a nutshell (42)

1/21/2024 – Herman Grooten is an International Master, a renowned trainer and the author of several highly acclaimed books on chess training and strategy. In the 161st episode of his ChessBase show "Understanding before moving" Herman continues his series "Chess history in a nutshell" and shows how David Bronstein played the King's Gambit. | Photo: Pascal Simon
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Norway Chess introduces parallel women’s tournament

1/21/2024 – The organisers in Stavanger have announced the participants of the upcoming Norway Chess Tournament. As a novelty, a women’s tournament will now be organised in parallel under the same conditions as the open event from 27 May to 7 June. Each tournament will feature six players, with both world champions included — Ju Wenjun and Ding Liren — besides local hero and world number one Magnus Carlsen.
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Tata Steel Chess R7: Abdusattorov and Gukesh score, catch Giri in the lead

1/21/2024 – The standings in both the Masters and Challengers were shaken up in round 7 of the Tata Steel Chess Festival. In the Masters, Nodirbek Abdusattorov defeated former sole leader Anish Giri and is now tied for first place — both with Giri and with Gukesh D., who scored a third consecutive victory on Saturday. In the Challengers, Saleh Salem took the lead after beating Eline Roebers and seeing former leader Erwin l’Ami losing to Jaime Santos. | Photo: Tata Steel Chess Tournament / Jurriaan Hoefsmit
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Robert Ris’ Fast and Furious: Firouzja takes down the Berlin Wall

1/20/2024 – In a Fast & Furious episode coming from Wijk aan Zee, Robert Ris analyses the enjoyable victory obtained by Alireza Firouzja out of a Berlin Defence with 5.Re1. | Fast & Furious is available on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here.

Jeddah and Djerba to host emerging chess talents

1/20/2024 – A brainchild of Chokri Saidi, a French-Tunisian entrepreneur, the Djerba Chess Festival aims to combine chess, friendship, culture and tourism on the beautiful island of Djerba, the largest island off the coast of North Africa — which is also known as the ‘island of dreams’. Furthermore, Saidi has gone a step further in his chess organizing pursuits and, from this year, he is also organizing the prestigious Jeddah International Youth Chess Festival. Diana Mihajlova informs.
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Checks!

1/20/2024 – Yes, in the diagram position you may strike with White, but please try to calculate the winning variation as far as possible beforehand. A ten-mover, if you will - have fun!

Grivas: A Sense of Danger

1/20/2024 – Top players have a rather developed sense of danger; an asset that protects them from awkward moments. In the following game from round four of the Tata Steel Tournament in Wijk aan Zee we can observe how the great Indian talent Gukesh felt comfortable in his game against top-ten grandmaster Anish Giri, completely missing the so much needed sense of danger. The very experienced chess trainer GM Efstratios Grivas takes us meticulously through the very instructive game. | Photos: Lennart Ootes

Tata Steel Chess R6: Giri misses win, remains sole leader

1/20/2024 – Defending champion Anish Giri remains the sole leader of the Tata Steel Masters after six rounds. The Dutchman could have increased his lead, though, as he failed to convert an advantageous position against Parham Maghsoodloo on Friday. Standing a half point back is Alireza Firouzja, who bounced back from his round-5 loss by beating Wei Yi with white. In the Challegers, Erwin l’Ami escaped with a draw in his game against second-placed Anton Korobov to keep the sole lead. | Photo: Tata Steel Chess Tournament / Lennart Ootes
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Daniel King’s Power Play Show: Niemann on form

1/19/2024 – This week GM Daniel King presents two complex games played by Hans Niemann in the Tata Steel Challengers, which continue the Giuoco Piano theme. | 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.

Mega Database - Essential wisdom!

1/19/2024 – No tournament player can do without the ChessBase Mega Database. But what do you need to know when setting it up on your PC? ChessBase expert Thomas Stark and Arne Kaehler show you everything you need to know about the new Mega Database 2024: Download, installation and, above all, the weekly game update, in which 5,000 new games are imported every week.
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Game of the Week #603: P. Maghsoodloo vs N. Abdusattorov

1/19/2024 – The chess world's attention is currently focused on Wijk aan Zee, which is once again proving to be a fascinating tournament, thanks to an interesting mix of top players, young talents and strong up-and-coming players. In his new Game of the Week show, Merijn van Delft also turns his attention to Wijk aan Zee and, on the advice of Anish Giri, analyses the clash between Parham Maghsoodloo and Nodirbek Abdusattorov - an intriguing battle. | Merijn’s show is available on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here.
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Tata Steel Chess R5: Ju upsets Firouzja, Roebers stuns Niemann

1/19/2024 – Ju Wenjun, in the Masters, and Eline Roebers, in the Challengers, obtained remarkable wins over much higher-rated opponents in round 5 of the Tata Steel Chess Festival. Ju defeated an overly ambitious Alireza Firouzja, while Roebers patiently made the most of a positional advantage in her game against top seed Hans Niemann. Firouzja’s loss allowed Anish Giri to go into round 6 with a full-point lead, while Erwin l’Ami is the sole leader in the Challengers. | Photo: Tata Steel Chess Tournament / Jurriaan Hoefsmit
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Svitlana's Smart Moves - Gukesh vs. Pragg: The Tata spectacle!

1/19/2024 – No, you haven't missed a game of the Tata Steel 2024. Svitlana decided to travel a year back in time, and analyse one of the most interesting games of the Dutch tournament, 2023. Interestingly, both protagonists - Gukesh D, and Praggnanandhaa - will face each other soon enough, again in Wijk aan Zee! This is a sweet teaser for their upcoming match-up.
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The Winning Academy 29: Fear, the biggest enemy of a chess player

1/18/2024 – In real life, staying safe is often a good idea. A human being has almost always more to lose than to gain. By being a daredevil, you might gain fame or wealth, but you might also lose health, or even your life. And what is more important? Health or wealth? Life or fame? Therefore, most of us mortals are quite fearful, and rightly so. Fear protects us from unnecessary harm. However, in chess the situation is rather different.
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Tata Steel Chess R4: Giri leads, Pragg takes down Ding

1/17/2024 – Anish Giri scored a second consecutive win to become the sole leader at the Tata Steel Masters in Wijk aan Zee. The defending champion defeated Gukesh D. with the white pieces. Two more games ended decisively in round 4: Wei Yi beat Parham Maghsoodloo, while Praggnanadhaa R. got the better of Ding Liren — Pragg had also beat Ding in the 2023 edition. In the Challengers, Hans Niemann, Anton Korobov and Erwin l’Ami are sharing the lead after winning their games on Tuesday. | Photo: Tata Steel Chess Tournament / Lennart Ootes
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Last Call to Register at the Kasparov Chess Foundation Academy

1/17/2024 – Many consider Garry Kasparov to be the greatest chess player of all time. As well as being a fantastic player, he has done a lot to promote the game of chess. In 2011, he founded the Kasparov Chess Foundation, a non-profit organisation that aims to bring the many benefits of chess to children and adults around the world. The recently launched Kasparov Chess Foundation Academy offers attractive courses to raise your level of play. There's still time to register!
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The Monthly Dragon - This new g3 variation is getting quite popular!

1/17/2024 – As everybody knows by now, d5 is perhaps one of the best continuations for Black in the main variation of the Yugoslav attack. But more and more players accept the variation and try to swap off queens on d4 differently, by playing the knight to a4! Finally, a trendy move for White is now to move the g-pawn forward one square!? How to deal with this as a Dragon lover? Chris Ward knows the answer, and it leads to spectacular, beautiful outcomes, of course. | Photo: John Upham
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GM candidate Shreyas turns 15!

1/16/2024 – Last Tuesday, this young lad turned 15. Shreyas Royal gained his IM title in 2022, the youngest English player to do this. As a result he was invited to the London Chess Classic in December. There he was the lowest ranked player, but finished with 2630 performance, 226 points above his FIDE rating. In the Hastings Congress he missed his third GM norm by a whisker. It is time to take a closer look at this bright young talent, from whom we will be hearing a lot in the future. | Photo: Olympics.com

"The Terminator" vs. "The Incredible Hulk"

1/16/2024 – Arnold Schwarzenegger is well known for his love of chess. The Terminator actor and former governor of California has now found a chess partner who is also a physical match for him - "The Incredible Hulk". | Photo: Arnold Schwarzenegger
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FIDE publishes regulations for 2024 Candidates Tournaments

1/16/2024 – The chess world is eagerly awaiting the Candidates Tournaments, which will take place in Toronto from 3 April. The open tournament in particular will see many young, ambitious players taking part, hoping to challenge world champion Ding Liren. Now FIDE has published the regulations for the Candidates.
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Tricky

1/16/2024 – Positions, in which both sides have a queen and a rook combine elements of the endgame and the middlegame. In the diagram position, which is from a game between Pranesh vs Carlsen, played at the Qatar Masters, White could have used both to win. However, Pranesh missed this chance. Can you do better?

Tata Steel Chess R3: Giri joins Firouzja in the lead, Ding beats Gukesh

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
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At the height of his career: Alekhine wins San Remo 1930 with 14 out of 15

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/
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CBM #217 - Now also as a ChessBase Book for iPad, tablet, Mac etc.

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!
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