12/20/2022 – 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

12/20/2022 – In the endgame a rook is usually much stronger than a minor piece. But when only a few pawns are left on the board the attacker must be careful. In the diagram position it is Black to move. What did he do to win the game?

12/19/2022 – On the second day of the rapid tournament at the Gashimov Memorial, Uzbek grandmaster Nodirbek Abdusattorov kept the lead he had gained by winning all three of his games on Sunday. In the rapid, points count double, so Abdusattorov now has a 10/12 score after six rounds. Rauf Mamedov is in second place (9 points), while Wang Hao (8 points) is third, a point behind the Azerbaijani. | Photo: Official site

12/19/2022 – In the Endgame Magic Show #219 Karsten Müller shows highlights from the last rounds of the German Bundesliga. Highly instructive material! | You can watch the Endgame Magic Show on-demand with a ChessBase Premium account.

12/19/2022 – The 2022 European Rapid & Blitz Championships took place on December 16-18 in Katowice, Poland. All 22 rounds of blitz were played on Friday, while the 11 rounds of rapid took place over the weekend. Jaime Santos (open) and Aleksandra Maltsevskaya (women’s) won in the rapid section, while David Navara (open) and Alexandra Kosteniuk (women’s) got first place in the blitz section. | Photos: Michal Walusza

12/19/2022 – 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

12/16/2022 – In the second semi-final of the Speedchess Championship on chess.com Magnus Carlsen meets Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, and that gives the World Champion the opportunity for a little revenge. After all, in the semi-finals of the Speedchess Championship 2020 Carlsen had lost to "MVL", who then lost to Hikaru Nakamura in the final. This time Carlsen wants to do better, but of course "MVL" has other plans. Action starts at 19:00 CET (10:00 PT). With live commentary by Laurent Fressinet and Peter Heine Nielsen. | Graphics: chess.com

12/16/2022 – Hikaru Nakamura defeated Nihal Sarin by a 14½-10½ score in the first semifinal of the Speed Chess Championship. Naka, who won every edition of the online event since 2018, will face either Magnus Carlsen or Maxime Vachier-Lagrave in the final match, which is set to take place on December 20.

12/16/2022 – Viktor Korchnoi ( 1931 - 2016 ) was undoubtedly one of the most fascinating personalities in the chess world. The two-time World Championship finalist played successful and attractive chess, even into old age. We have a great Korchnoi bundle for you in our ChessBase Shop. The Fritztrainer - My life for chess, and the Masterclass Vol. 15 - Viktor Korchnoi. The complete package is available for only €49.90 and is now also available as a streaming version.

12/16/2022 – 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

12/16/2022 – The FIDE Council has approved a major reform of the qualification paths to the Candidates Tournament, the event that decides the challenger for the World Championship match. The main innovation is creating a new qualification path through different FIDE-rated tournaments. Tournaments that meet certain criteria will grant points towards the “FIDE Circuit”. | Photo: FIDE

12/16/2022 – After four rounds, six players still have perfect scores in Group A of the Sunway Chess Festival. Among the co-leaders is Samant Aditya, rated 2470, who defeated Adhiban (2611) in round 4. Two players from the top ten in the starting rank list are also among those with perfect scores — i.e. Hans Niemann and Kirill Alekseenko.