3/6/2023 – While a number of Russian chess masters have publicly spoken out in favour of stopping the Russian war of aggression, hardly anything has been heard from others. For example, from Vladimir Kramnik, the 14th World Champion (2000 to 2007). Martin Breutigam, author and International Master, asked Kramnik about the long silence – and received a full answer. | Photo: Guido Kohlen

3/6/2023 – The current ChessBase Magazine #212 offers three opening videos: Rustam Kasimdzhanov examines the Ruy Lopez with 8.a4 b4 9.a5, which was played twice in the Tata Steel Masters 2023 (So-Keymer and Caruana-Carlsen). Nico Zwirs checks Magnus Carlsen's idea 7...Bg4 in the Queen's Gambit Exchange Variation. And Mihail Marin puts the Evans Gambit from the game Beerdsen-Pechac from the Challengers to the test. You can watch an excerpt from Kasimdzhanov's video analysis here. Have fun!

3/6/2023 – Bobby Fischer is certainly the most famous of the Pisces chess players. But other top players include Bent Larsen, Veselin Topalov, Vasyl Ivanchuk, Teimour Radjabov, Hou Yifan, Anna Muzychuk and David Bronstein. Those who are Pisces can sometimes be as brilliant as Albert Einstein. With the Pisces-born, the circle of the twelve signs of the zodiac has come full circle, making this our final instalment.| Photo: Pixabay

3/6/2023 – After three rounds, eleven players still have the maximum number of points at the European Championship in Vrnjacka Banja. The young Czech player Nguyen Thai Dai Van has the best tiebreak and nominally leads the field. | Photos: Tournament page

3/6/2023 – Referring to Boris Gelfand’s style, Vladimir Kramnik wrote: “What impresses me most is his ability to create games, where all the moves, from the first to the last, are as though links in a single logical chain”. GM Sundararajan Kidambi analyses Gelfand’s win over Vishy Anand at the 2012 World Championship match in Moscow, a perfect example of the Israeli’s brilliant strategic aptitude. | Photo: Rodrigo Fernandez

3/5/2023 – Facing the mighty Baden-Baden in the Bundesliga, Jon Speelman was paired up against Etienne Bacrot (pictured) with black. The English grandmaster thus describes the start of what turned out to be a miniature win for Bacrot: “I then made the mistake of fairly quickly sleepwalking along the moves which you play against the supposed main line 5.g3, and he hit me hard on move 8 with g4!. [...] A move or so later, when I finally awoke from my slumber, I was already lost.” | Photo: Anastasiia Korolkova / FIDE World Cup 2021

3/5/2023 – Herman Grooten is an International Master, a renowned trainer and the author of several highly acclaimed books about chess training and chess strategy. In the 115th instalment of his ChessBase show "Understanding before Moving", Herman continues to explain why it is good to study and to play the Sicilian. | Photo: Pascal Simon

3/5/2023 – After the second round of the European Championship, a 56-player leading group has emerged. Gabriel Sargissian, David Navara, Jules Moussard, Boris Gelfand and Ivan Saric are the five highest-rated players who have won their first two games in the Serbian city of Vrnjacka Banja. | Photos: European Chess Union

3/5/2023 – Today: Mathias Feist explains how ChessBase 17 automatically pastes games and positions from the clipboard. In our new video series, our developers personally explain the new features they have developed themselves. From the new data format to the beauty index. In no time at all, you'll learn how it's done.

3/5/2023 – The 9th edition of the London Chess Conference will take place on 17-19 March 2023. The theme of the 2023 London Chess Conference is Chess and STEM — exploring the ways in which chess relates to Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics. The objective of the conference is to bring together all those involved in the use of chess for educational purposes, including representatives from the Education Commissions for FIDE and ECU in order to establish a co-operative working practice. | Photos: Official website

3/4/2023 – The last time Svitlana played chess, was summer 2022. The Canadian club championship of Svitlana's chess club was another chance to finally move the pieces on the board again. The Canadian WIM is studying most of her time now, but this doesn't mean that she got worse in chess. It seems, the opposite was the case, and Svitlana won a round before the tournament ended! We take a look at two of her games.

3/4/2023 – The new ChessBase Magazine #212 provides, among many other things, 50 games with detailed commentary, a large part of which comes from the Tata Steel Masters and Challengers. Anish Giri is also an excellent analyst: he takes a close look at nine games from Wijk aan Zee as well as at games from current rapid chess events in CBM #212. Other authors are Jorden van Foreest, Praggnanandhaa, Alexander Donchenko and Peter Heine Nielsen. "The Analysis" of the issue comes - how could it be otherwise - from the winner of the Tata Steel Masters: it's Giri's long-awaited victory over Magnus Carlsen. Find an abridged version of his analysis here. Enjoy!