11/26/2021 – The World Championship is about to begin on the 26th of November 2021. Sagar Shah and Amruta Mokal have made their way from Mumbai to Dubai to bring you on the ground coverage of the biggest event of the year. Magnus Carlsen is going to play his 5th World Championship Match in the last 8 years, while this will be the first shot at the title for the Challenger Ian Nepomniachtchi. A lot of interesting things have already happened leading to the match, and in this article we tell you about the venue of the event - the massive Dubai Expo 2020, the press conference and the opening ceremony! Along with it Sagar gives you a personal account of his experience of travel from India to the UAE and reaching the World Championship venue.

11/25/2021 – The World Championship match will start very soon, and is scheduled to run over 14 exciting games. When one of the rounds is over, says CHESS Magazine, London, why not enjoy a chess-themed crossword composition. We reprint the puzzle here, without the solution (which we will add at the end of the match). Maybe our readers can solve the puzzle communally, in the feedback section below the article?

11/25/2021 – This week, well-known Dutch trainer Robert Ris presents a fine attacking game and takes a look at a way to spice things up in the usually quiet Spanish with 6.d3. | "Fast and Furious" is available on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here.

11/25/2021 – IM Jonathan Tisdall has been covering World Chess Championship matches for decades. His book "Moscow Marathon" from 1985 (co-authored with Jon Speelman) is a witty and insightful report about the 1984/1985 match between Garry Kasparov and Anatoly Karpov, and Tisdall's textbook "Improve Your Chess Now" from 1997 is considered a modern classic. In Dubai, Tisdall covers the match between Carlsen and Nepomniachtchi as FIDE press officer and writing about the press conference on Wednesday, Tisdall revealed "the best advice for aspiring champions". | Photo: Eric Rosen

11/25/2021 – With the World Championship match in Dubai scheduled to kick off on Friday, we get ready for the showdown between Magnus Carlsen and Ian Nepomniachtchi by recapping the four previous matches, which were all won by Carlsen (two of them in rapid playoffs). In the third instalment, we recapitulate what went on at the Fulton Market building in Lower Manhattan, where Carlsen came back from behind in the classical games before beating Sergey Karjakin in the rapid tiebreakers. | Photo: Anastasiya Karlovich

11/25/2021 – Who will win the World Championship match between Magnus Carlsen and Ian Nepomniachtchi in Dubai? In video interviews a number of top players, including Garry Kasparov and Vishy Anand, have commented on the possible outcome of the match in video interviews. Before the match, Magnus Carlsen and Ian Nepomniachtchi also revealed what they think about the other and the match. | Image: FIDE

11/22/2021 – This week, well-known Dutch trainer Robert Ris shows how the young Indian Grandmaster Arjun Erigaisi used the London System to win in only 19 moves against Sam Shankland at the Tata Steel India Tournament in Kolkata. | "Fast and Furious" is available on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here.

11/22/2021 – As a chess player, Alexander Alekhine (pictured) was brilliant, but his biography contains a number of dark spots. In particular, his proximity to the Nazis has damaged the reputation of the fourth world champion. The Swiss historian and chess player Dr. Christian Rohrer wanted to find out how and to what extent Alekhine supported the Nazis, and he published his findings in an online article titled "World chess champion and favourite of Hans Frank?: assessing Alexander Alekhine’s closeness to the National Socialist regime". Detailed, fascinating and well worth reading.

11/22/2021 – Levon Aronian beat Arjun Erigaisi in the Armageddon Playoffs to win Tata Steel Chess India 2021 Blitz. The second day of the Blitz event saw several players at the top throughout the day, including Nihal, Gukesh, Levon, Parham and Arjun. However, in the end it was Aronian and Arjun who tied for the first place at 11½/18 each. Arjun was completely winning in both Playoff games, and Aronian admitted that he should have lost at least one of them. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

11/22/2021 – Thanks to a final-round victory over Armenia, Ukraine got their first gold medals at the open section of the European Team Championships. France came second after beating Azerbaijan, with Alireza Firouzja beating Shakhriyar Mamedyarov to climb to second place in the world ranking and become the youngest ever player to cross the 2800-rating barrier. Poland finished in third place. | Photos: ECU Press

11/21/2021 – In this week’s column, Jon Speelman returns to his explorations of remarkable games by the world’s top juniors. Naturally, he looks at games by Kirill Shevchenko (pictured), Arjun Erigaisi and Alireza Firouzja, three young stars who left a strong mark in top tournaments during the last month or so. | Photo: Anastasiya Karlovich

11/21/2021 – Sometimes watching a game of chess is inspiring – and instructive. A recent blitz game between two hot Indian talents will illustrate this. The second part of this game, which has an interesting underpomotion, was recorded, and commented on by IM Sagar Shah of ChessBase India. We have added a replay board on which you can analyse yourself. A most enjoyable way to improve your skill, don't you think?