12/25/2022 – To help you enjoy your seasonal feast, we have a turkey, a tree and a turbulent priest; a circus trip, a corkscrew and a silent (k)night – and lots more for your festive chess delight! Graham Phythian presents some fun and challenging positions to help you while away the festive period. They all appear in the Christmas section of CHESS Magazine, which has a special gift ready for you. You can download the entire magazine to read, free of charge! In any case we all wish you a Merry Christmas – CHESS and ChessBase.

12/24/2022 – The 1972 World Championship match between Bobby Fischer and Boris Spasski is regarded as one of the most critical moments in the history of chess, occurring 50 years ago. To present you with this year's Christmas calendar in the proper setting, Arne swiftly constructed a time machine, and went back 50 years. Of course, the 1972 World Cup is the main calendar focus this time! You have the opportunity to guess, count, and conduct research every day for a chance to win one of 90 ChessBase prizes. Your chances of winning one of the major prizes increases, the more questions you can correctly guess. | Photo: Original by World Chess Hall of Fame

12/24/2022 – In the diagram position Black threatens ...Rh8, but he doesn't have the sole right to use the h-file. White to play and win!

12/24/2022 – Nodirbek Abdusattorov dominated the field at the Gashimov Memorial in Baku. The 18-year-old from Tashkent was the top scorer in the rapid and finished the blitz in third place. Since none of the players who had ended the rapid near the top of the standings performed strongly in the blitz, Abdusattorov managed to clinch first place with five rounds to spare! | Pictured: The players visited the grave of Vugar Gashimov on Wednesday.

12/23/2022 – This week Robert Ris presents a fine attacking game by Kirill Alekseenko, the winner of the Sitges Open, who showed the potential of the Steinitz Variation of the Ruy Lopez. | "Fast and Furious" is available on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here.

12/23/2022 – With nine chess playing members, the Peglau family from Dippoldiswalde, a small town in Germany, is probably the world's largest chess family. But it definitely is one of the strongest. As the successes of the Peglaus at the recently finished European Blitz and Rapid Championships show. | Photos: Henrik Teske

12/23/2022 – Kirill Alekseenko secured first place at the main event of the Sunway Chess Festival by drawing Hans Niemann with white in Thursday’s final round. Meanwhile, Amin Tabatabaei caught up with Niemann by beating Adhiban Baskaran — thus, a playoff match for second place between Niemann and Tabatabaei followed, with the US grandmaster winning in Armageddon after trading victories in two 5-minute games.

12/23/2022 – The 1972 World Championship match between Bobby Fischer and Boris Spasski is regarded as one of the most critical moments in the history of chess, occurring 50 years ago. To present you with this year's Christmas calendar in the proper setting, Arne swiftly constructed a time machine, and went back 50 years. Of course, the 1972 World Cup is the main calendar focus this time! You have the opportunity to guess, count, and conduct research every day for a chance to win one of 90 ChessBase prizes. Your chances of winning one of the major prizes increases, the more questions you can correctly guess. | Photo: Original by World Chess Hall of Fame

12/23/2022 – The Vugar Gashimov Memorial 2022, organized once again as a rapid and blitz tournament, is taking place on December 18-23 in Baku, Azerbaijan. On Sunday, the ten participants are playing the first three rounds of the 15+10 rapid event — four Azerbaijanis, led by superstar Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, are competing with six guests from around the world. | Follow the games live, starting at 12.00 CET (6.00 ET, 16.30 IST)

12/23/2022 – Chess is fun but it can also be difficult. Being a chess parent is also often fun but sometimes it can also be difficult. Daniel Sokol, chess enthusiast and father of two kids who love to play chess and to compete in tournaments, shares some of his adventures and insights as a chess parent. And concludes: "The chess tournament, with its wealth of emotions and experiences, is an excellent training ground for the challenges of life for the children, and of parenthood for the adults." | Photo: Sebastian Siebrecht

12/22/2022 – In his “Game of the Week” show #547 Merijn van Delft analyses one of Kirill Alekseenko’s victory from the Sitges tournament. Alekseenko combined positional play with good old attacking chess, making chess look easy in the process! | Merijn’s show is available on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here.

12/22/2022 – On 12 December the Hungarian Grandmaster Ivan Farago died at the age of 76. He was born on 1 April 1946 in Budapest, and in 1974 he became an International Master. The Grandmaster title followed two years later, in 1976. In 1986 he became Hungarian Champion and in July 1993 he reached a peak rating of 2540. In a short obituary FIDE pays tribute to this passionate player. | Photo: LGA