11/4/2023 – In the diagram position, White has powerful bishops and superactive rooks, while all of Black's pieces are on the back rank. White also has a way to convert his positional plus into material gains - do you see how?

11/3/2023 – In the new episode of his Fast & Furious show, Robert Ris shows how Javokhir Sindarov used a form of an accelerated King's Indian to beat Samuel Sevian with a fast and furious attack in Round 6 of the Grand Swiss Tournament on the Isle of Man. | Fast & Furious is available on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here.

11/3/2023 – The FIDE Candidates is scheduled to be held in April 2024 in Toronto, Canada. There are eight spots in the open section and one of them will be decided by the FIDE circuit 2023 – on the 1st of January 2024. What is the FIDE circuit? Who are the players who have the best chance? And what are the events remaining in the year? Shahid Ahmed answers all your questions.

11/3/2023 – Four players are sharing the lead with three rounds to go in the open section of the FIDE Grand Swiss after Fabiano Caruana, Bogdan-Daniel Deac and Andrey Esipenko scored full points on Thursday to join Vidit Gujrathi atop the standings. Nine players stand a half point behind, including second seed Hikaru Nakamura and Indian prodigy Arjun Erigaisi. In the women’s tournament, meanwhile, Anna Muzychuk, Antoaneta Stefanova and Vaishali Rameshbabu continue to share first place. | Photo: Anna Shtourman

11/2/2023 – The new Fritz is coming soon - Fritz 19, the World Chess Software Champion 2023, will be available on 14 November and offers a variety of useful tools. It is a good sparring partner, you can improve your openings by playing against (memorising) your opening repertoire, you can do calculation training for a quick Elo boost and much more.

11/2/2023 – In his Game of the Week show #592 Merijn Van Delft analyses how the young Uzbek grandmaster Javokhir Sindarov defeated US grandmaster Sam Sevian at the Grand Swiss Tournament with a dazzling attack on the black squares. | Merijn’s show is available on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here.

11/2/2023 – A win over Javokhir Sindarov with black allowed Vidit Gujrathi to emerge as sole leader in the open section of the FIDE Grand Swiss. The Indian grandmaster is the only player in the open to have scored five wins, as he began the event with a loss against Erwin l’Ami. Eleven players stand a half point back, including top seeds Fabiano Caruana and Hikaru Nakamura. Meanwhile, in the women’s tournament, Vaishali Rameshbabu and Antoaneta Stefanova collected full points to join Anna Muzychuk in the lead. | Photo: Anna Shtourman

11/2/2023 – After the sixth round of the 2023 FIDE Grand Swiss, every chess player should know all participants who remain in the top 20. Unless, Ramaza Zhalmakhanov shows up! The young talent from Kazakhstan is probably playing his best tournament ever, with draws against Giri, Sevian, Sarana, and Firouzja, and two wins against Pichot and Bassem! Let's see if the IM can keep up with the elite until the final round. His win against Amir Bassem, in the Ruy Lopez, is a tactical masterpiece.

11/1/2023 – Magnus Carlsen is still the clear world number one, but his lead over the other world class players has shrunk somewhat, although it's still impressive. World number two Fabiano Caruana is the only player in the top 12 to have gained Elo in the last month, and with a good result in the Grand Swiss Tournament on the Isle of Man he could break the 2800 barrier again. Here's the FIDE Ranking as of 1 November 2023.

11/1/2023 – In the Endgame Magic Show #253 Karsten Müller and endgame aficionado Ted Jewell analyse endgame highlights from the first two rounds of the German Bundesliga. | You can watch the Endgame Magic Show on-demand with a ChessBase Premium account.

11/1/2023 – World-class chess explained in video: Dorian Rogozenco shows two win by Magnus Carlsen from the World Cup 2023 – From a surprise weapon to a fashionable variation: Luis Engel shows why 6.Rg1 is being used by more and more top players against the Najdorf Variation (video) – Analyses of Nijat Abasov, Anish Giri, Vidit Gujrathi, Ferenc Berkes, Jan Krzysztof Duda, Andrey Esipenko, Nils Grandelius, Anna and Mariya Muzychuk, Praggnanandhaa, Peter Svidler et al. from the World Cup 2023 – “Special” on Hou Yifan: exclusive collection of 22 encounters with detailed commentary from the period from 2008 to 2020 – "Crushing the Benoni": Petra Papp recommends the attack with 6.e4 g6 7.f4! – Carlsbad 1923: Mihail Marin surprises us with how modern the old masters already laid out the game 100 years ago, incl. two interactive videos – "Fundamental Endgame Knowledge" Part #6: Karsten Mueller reveals tips and tricks in the endgame with more than two pawns on one wing and much more.

11/1/2023 – It is the halftime at the World Senior Chess Championship 2023, and after six rounds the participants were enjoying a day off. After visiting the city of Palermo the players are getting ready to continue battles for the titles in second half of the tournament, starting on November 1. | Photos: Denis Burko