2/2/2022 – Last Friday, 28 January, the French Grandmaster Gilles Mirallès passed away at the age of 55 in Ferney-Voltaire. Mirallès was French junior champion, two-time national champion and often played for France in team events. For a time he ran a chess school in Geneva. | Photo: Chess School Geneva

2/2/2022 – Round eight of the #GibChess Battle of Sexes, held at Gibraltar’s Garrison Library on Tuesday 1 February, resulted in a 5½-4½ victory for Team Sabino with the White pieces, increasing their overall score to 42½-37½ – a lead of five points for the men’s team with two rounds to go. The battle is now well and truly joined, with various chances coming and going, but the men’s team lead is starting to look hard to overturn. Report and photos by John Saunders.

2/2/2022 – In his "Weekly Show" Lawrence Trent, who is currently in Gibraltar to commentate the games of the "Battle of the Sexes" with Irina Bulmaga, looks at highlights from this entertaining event. | Lawrence’s show is available on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here

2/2/2022 – FIDE has published the new world ranking list. Since hardly any tournaments were played in January and the Tata Steel tournament was not taken into account for the February list, there are virtually no changes at the top. Magnus Carlsen continues to be the world's number one with a huge margin, Alireza Firouzja is in second place and the only other player with a rating of +2800.

2/1/2022 – ChessBase Magazine offers a window to the world of professional chess and it also provides arsenal for the tournament player. Issue 205 offers games from several major events, FIDE Grand Swiss Tournament, USA and Russian Championships and European Team Championship, 2287 games (21 annotated), 11 opening surveys, lectures and exercises for training. Annotators include Alireza Firouzja, Anish Giri and Nikita Vitiugov among others. The icing on the cake is the Robert Hübner Special, a tribute to a great player who crossed swords with the best of them all, from Bobby Fischer to Garry Kasparov. Our columnist Nagesh Havanur takes a look. | Photo: Magnus Carlsen vs Alireza Firouzja, Norway Chess 2021 | Photo: Lennart Ootes

2/1/2022 – Round seven of the #GibChess Battle of Sexes, held at Gibraltar’s Garrison Library on Monday 31 January, resulted in a 6-4 victory for Team Sabino with the black pieces, increasing their overall score to 37-33 – a lead of four points. But, once again, it could have been very different if Team Pia had taken all the chances offered in what was a particularly tense and hard-fought round. | Photo: Sir David Steel, Governor of Gibraltar, by John Saunders.

2/1/2022 – In the diagrammed position it is Black to move and draw. In fact, as endgame books and tablebases know this position is a theoretical draw. However, it occurred at the end of a rapid game and with only seconds on the clock Black failed to find the right move. Can you do better?

2/1/2022 – Last Saturday, Arjun Erigaisi won the Tata Steel Challengers tournament with a round to spare. Despite having secured tournament victory, the Indian collected one more win on Sunday, thus finishing the event with a remarkable 10½/13 score. We take a look at some of Arjun’s most successful performances, and reflect on the change of attitude that has worked so well for him. | Photo: Lennart Ootes – Tata Steel Chess Tournament 2022

1/31/2022 – Chess is an integral part of the lives of Pia Cramling and her daughter Anna. But mother and daughter are successful in very different ways. While Pia Cramling has been one of the world's best women player for decades, Anna Cramling Bellón has now become a successful chess streamer. But both pursue a common goal. As they explain in an interview with Tatiana Flores, they both want to promote chess and bring more women into the community.

1/31/2022 – The well-known author and Grandmaster Mihail Marin is Karsten Müller's guest in the Endgame Magic Show #180. Mihail talks about his forthcoming ChessBase products, and Karsten and he look at endgame highlights from the Sitges Open 2021. | You can watch the Endgame Magic Show on-demand with a ChessBase Premium account.

1/31/2022 – Round six of the #GibChess Battle of Sexes, held at Gibraltar’s Garrison Library on Sunday 30 January, saw the men’s team win by 6½-3½ on the day and, for the first time, move into the lead in the overall match by 31 points to 29. It was round of missed chances and swings of fortune as players became tired and the tension increased. For the first time since our arrival the sun shone outdoors, but not indoors on the women’s games as they didn’t get their fair share of whatever luck was going. Four rounds remain, and now it is the women’s team who need to fight back if they are to share the top prize of £75,000. Report and photos: John Saunders

1/31/2022 – Besides Magnus Carlsen, who got a win by forfeit over Daniil Dubov, Praggnanandhaa, Sergey Karjakin and Jorden van Foreest also scored full points in the last round of the Tata Steel Masters tournament. Meanwhile, Arjun Erigaisi, who had secured first place in the Challengers with a round to spare, collected yet another victory to finish the event with a remarkable 10½/13 score. | Photo: Jurriaan Hoefsmit