12/21/2023 – ChessBase India, together with several partners and supported by the Government of Tamil Nadu, is organising the Chennai Masters 2023, the strongest classical chess tournament in the history of Indian chess, from 15 to 21 December. Gukesh D. and Arjun Erigaisi get a chance to improve their chances to reach the Candidates Tournament in an 8-player single round-robin. | Follow the games live starting at 14.45 IST (10.15 CET, 4.15 ET).

12/21/2023 – GM Gergely Antal emerged as the winner of the 2023 Hungarian Individual Chess Championship. Men, women, and some invited youngsters aspiring for a place in the Hungarian U25 national team in the 2024 Olympiad in Budapest competed in a shared pool but were ranked separately. All in all, 30 players battled in a 9-round Swiss tournament on December 12-20. | Photos: Hungarian Chess Federation

12/21/2023 – The German Masters was exciting right up to the final round. Alexander Donchenko, Dennis Wagner and Rasmus Svane battled it out for victory in the open tournament, while the women’s Masters saw Dinara Wagner and Hanna Marie Klek fighting for firs place in a direct duel. In the end, the Wagners were declared victorious in both tournaments. Congratulations! | Photos: Paul Meyer-Dunker

12/20/2023 – Arjun Erigaisi scored the sole victory in the penultimate round of the Chennai Grand Masters. It started a little wild compared to other games. His opponent, Parham Maghsoodloo, decided to sacrifice his bishop to get a couple of pawns and exploit Arjun's weakened king. However, there was not enough compensation and White could not generate a substantial attack. The other games had a relatively calm draw between Gukesh and Eljanov, Aronian and Predke, and Sjugirov and Harikrishna. Harikrishna can spoil Gukesh's tournament if he manages to beat the teenager. The final round stars one and a half hour earlier than usual. | Photos: Shahid Ahmed

12/20/2023 – The name "Hastings" has a very special ring to it in the chess world. In 1895 one of the most important tournaments in chess history took place in the seaside resort on the south-east coast of England, and chess tournaments are still regularly held there today - no tournament in chess history has a longer tradition. The Berlin FM Jürgen Brustkern is a great expert on Hastings and has written a book on the history of this tradition together with Norbert Wallet. In an interview with ChessBase he reveals what fascinates him so much about Hastings.

12/20/2023 – As it is already well-known, chess is a game of repeated motifs; a game of repeated knowledge! Once you carefully and correctly learn a motif, a pattern or an opening, your subconscious carefully stores it for use when time comes and demands! Here is a valuable lesson from a world-class chess trainer on the subject. There is a lot to learn!

12/17/2023 – In order to attack the enemy king successfully in a game of chess, you need sufficient firepower and a clear target. Often there will be a complex of squares of the same colour that come under attack, and so we have white or dark-square games. Today we have some instances of attacks on both light and dark squares, featuring the likes of Johannes Zukertort (pictured) and Anatoly Karpov!

12/17/2023 – Arjun Erigaisi scored his first win of the event against Alexandr Predke in the third round of the Chennai Grand Masters 2023. After losing the first round against Harikrishna, Arjun was virtually in a must-win situation to stay in the championship hunt and keep his chances in the FIDE Circuit. Predke made a positional mistake which allowed his opponent to force the queen exchange. Arjun made the most out of his opportunity to trail the leaders — Sanan Sjugirov and Harikrishna — by a half point at 1.5/3 along with Levon Aronian, Pavel Eljanov and D Gukesh. | Photos: Shahid Ahmed

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