The World Championship 1972 calendar - Door 16

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

FIDE reforms the qualifications paths to the Candidates Tournament

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
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Sunway Sitges: Six players on 4/4

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.
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Speedchess Championship: Hikaru Nakamura vs Nihal Sarin

12/15/2022 – In the first semi-final of the Speedchess Championship on chess.com, defending champion and blitz specialist Hikaru Nakamura will meet the young Indian grandmaster Nihal Sarin, who is also considered to be a blitz chess specialist. The eagerly awaited match starts today, 15.12., at 15.00. The winner of this encounter will meet Magnus Carlsen or Maxime Vachier-Lagrave who will play the second semi-final tomorrow, 16.12.. Watch Nakamuara vs Sarin live with commentary. | Graphics: chess.com
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The World Championship 1972 calendar - Door 15

12/15/2022 – 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

Game of the Week #546: K Priyanka vs Van Delft

12/15/2022 – In his “Game of the Week” show #546 Merijn van Delft presents another one of his own games - an interesting Najdorf he played with Black against the young talented Indian K Priyanka. | Merijn’s show is available on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here.

Sunway Sitges: Van Foreest’s Greek gift

12/15/2022 – Nineteen players are sharing first place on 3 out of 3 points in the main event of the Sunway Sitges Festival. Kushal O, a 17-year-old Indian player with an 1801 Elo rating, is among the leaders, as he stunned players in the 2250-2500 rating bracket on the first three days of competition. Big guns Yu Yangyi, Hans Niemann and Jorden van Foreest (pictured) are also sharing the lead. | Photo: Amruta Mokal
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Speedchess Championship: So vs Vachier-Lagrave

12/14/2022 – Hikaru Nakamura, Nihal Sarin and Magnus Carlsen already qualified for the semi-finals of the chess.com Speedchess Championship. Today Wesley So and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave will play in the last quarter-final. Here live from 19:00 CET (10:00 am PT) with video commentary from chess24 and chess.com. | Graphics: chess.com
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ChessBase 17 - All the new features explained

12/14/2022 – The recently released ChessBase 17 offers a wealth of new and interesting functions. In the last weeks IM Sagar Shah from ChessBase India took a closer look at the program to understand the features deeper. To share his insights he made a video that covers most of the new features of ChessBase 17 and explains how these features can be used. He concludes: "I think ChessBase 17 is amazing."
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Speedchess Championship: Carlsen vs Caruana 22:4

12/14/2022 – The result of the eagerly awaited rematch of the 2018 World Championship match between Magnus Carlsen and Fabiano Caruana in the quarterfinals of the chess.com Speedchess Championship was one-sided. Caruana didn't take his chances, Carlsen took them all and demonstrated world championship level chess in 5+1 blitz, in 3+1 blitz and in bullet. He even managed to satisfy his harshest critic. | Graphics: Chess.com
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Sunway Sitges: Esipenko escapes with a draw

12/14/2022 – No fewer than 54 players have won both their first encounters at the main event of the Sunway Festival in Sitges. However, round 2 saw five 2600+ rated players draw against much lower-rated opponents. Russian rising star Andrey Esipenko was held to a draw by French FM Mathieu Phileas, who in fact could have won the game had he made the most of his chances in a queen and rook endgame. | Pictured: The first blitz tournament of the festival took place on Tuesday night

The World Championship 1972 calendar - Door 14

12/14/2022 – 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

Praggnanandhaa wins Julius Baer Challenge Championship

12/14/2022 – In the Julius Baer Challenge Championship match between Pranav Venkatesh and Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa the favourite Praggnanandhaa clearly dominated. After winning the two best-of-three rapid matches 2,5-0,5 and 2-0 Pragg lost the first game of the first blitz match but then won the next two blitz games and with that the entire match.
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United States Women’s Chess Champions, 1937–2020 - An interview with Alexey Root

12/14/2022 – The history of the U.S. Women's Chess Championships contains a wealth of information about chess in America and countless fascinating stories about champions from all walks of life. A groundbreaking work about the U.S. Women's Chess Championships and the 29 women who won the title between 1937 and 2020 has been published by McFarland. Johannes Fischer wanted to know more and interviewed Alexey Root, the author of the book.
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Willy Hendriks' "The Ink War" - The Mystery of Zukertort's Breakdown

12/13/2022 – "The Ink War: Romanticism versus Modernity in Chess", the new book by Dutch author Willy Hendriks, is definitely one of the most exciting and interesting chess books of 2022. Hendriks first of all looks at the bitter rivalry between William Steinitz and Johannes Zukertort, who in 1886 played the first official World Championship match. But Hendriks also analyses how chess understanding developed and takes a critical look at chess history and the way chess history is written. Thoroughly researched, well-written, entertaining, witty, and thought-provoking. Here's an appetizer to enjoy!

Julius Baer Challenger Championship - All games

12/13/2022 – The 2021 Challengers Chess Tour Champion, Praggnanandhaa R, took on the 2022 Champion, Pranav V, in a $10,000 match held in the Tel Aviv offices of Julius Baer on December 11-13. The match was split into 4 mini-matches, 2 in rapid chess and 2 in blitz.

Manuel Göttsching, German pioneer of techno music, died on 4 December

12/13/2022 – Manuel Göttsching is a pioneer of techno music, and in 1984 he released his groundbreaking classic "E2-E4". The title of the album alludes to chess and the cover of the album also shows a chessboard - Göttsching liked to play. On 4 December the German musician died in Berlin at the age of 70. | Photo: Yoho

Julius Baer Challenge: Praggnanandhaa dominates

12/13/2022 – The two winners of the Julius Baer Challenger Tour 2021 and 2022, the young Indian grandmasters Praggnanandhaa and Pranav Venkatesh, currently play a three-day rapid and blitz match in Tel Aviv. After two best-of-three rapid matches follow two best-of-four blitz matches. Praggnanandhaa won both rapid matches and has very good chances to win the event.
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Chessbase 17 review: "Even more of a substitute for a human trainer"

12/13/2022 – We sent a copy of the new Chessbase 17 to the noted Russian journalist WGM Elmira Mirzoeva, and she wrote back quite excited how impressed she was, and that it was just such software and their new functions that allow young players to rise as quickly as they do. Read what she thinks in this review!

The World Championship 1972 calendar - Door 13

12/13/2022 – 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

The breakthrough

12/13/2022 – Opposite colored bishop endings often have drawish tendencies and fortresses are often the main topic. But sometimes creating passed pawns makes the fortresses crumble. In the diagram position it is Black to move and win. What should he do?

Sunway Sitges: Former winners held to draws

12/13/2022 – No major upsets were seen in round 1 of the Sunway Main Tournament, as 16 out of the top 20 seeds won their games in Sitges. Amin Tabatabaei, the tenth seed, lost by forfeit, while two former winners of the event (plus Jules Moussard) were held to draws by lower-rated opponents — i.e. Ivan Cheparinov and Anton Korobov. | Pictured: A beautiful sunset from the 2021 edition. | Photo: Lennart Ootes
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Endgame Magic #218 - with Herman Grooten

12/12/2022 – In the Endgame Magic Show #218 Karsten Müller and Dutch IM and popular author Herman Grooten talk about the endgame in general and Herman's new book "Chess Endgames for Club Players" in particular. | You can watch the Endgame Magic Show on-demand with a ChessBase Premium account.

A chess highlight at the end of the year: the FIDE World Rapid & Blitz World Championships 2022

12/12/2022 – At the end of the year, the FIDE World Rapid & Blitz Championships will be played in Almaty (Kazakhstan). The first day of play is 26 December. Top seeds in the rapid open are Magnus Carlsen, Hikaru Nakamura, Jan-Krzysztof Duda, Maxime-Vachier Lagrave, Ian Nepomniachtchi and Alexander Grischuk.