The Winning Academy 7: Why is the threat stronger than its execution?

3/8/2022 – It was Aron Nimzowitsch (pictured) who coined the paradoxical expression "The threat is stronger than its execution." This phrase sounds catchy and smart but if you think about it, you start to wonder how a threat can actually ever be stronger than its execution. Jan Markos has a number of good answers. (Foto: L'Echiquier 1931)

Loose Pieces Drop Off (LPDO)

3/8/2022 – The acronym "LPDO" was probably coined by the English player Mike Cook, who used it to explain the majority of his losses in a 100-game blitz match against John Nunn. But it was Nunn who made the term popular by talking about this blitz match in his book "Secrets of Practical Chess". Keeping "LPDO" in mind might help to reduce blundering pieces, even in the endgame. In the diagrammed position Black's rook and bishop are both "loose". How did White manage to let them "drop off"?

Karsten Müller’s Endgame Magic Show #184: Endgame highlights from the FIDE Grand Prix in Berlin

3/7/2022 – In the Endgame Magic Show #184 Karsten Müller presents endgame highlights from the FIDE Grand Prix in Berlin, which was won by Hikaru Nakamura. | You can watch the Endgame Magic Show on-demand with a ChessBase Premium account.

"chess4peace": The Emanuel Lasker Society appeals for donations to help Ukraine

3/7/2022 – Under the motto "Chess4Peace" and in solidarity with the people in Ukraine, the Emanuel Lasker Society has issued an appeal for donations. If you want to help, you can donate to an account set up by the Emanuel Lasker Society.

New - Robert Ris: Calculation Training Booster

3/7/2022 – For those who haven’t recently done any calculation training, there is the Calculation Training Booster. After all, every chess brain needs regular stimulation, as you don’t want to become a lazy player - avoiding calculating critical variations or simply failing to calculate properly.

Belgrade GP: Fire on board

3/7/2022 – Richard Rapport and Anish Giri will enter the last round of the preliminaries at the Belgrade Grand Prix with 1-point leads in their respective pools. Rapport scored a crucial win on Sunday, as he got the better of Vidit Gujrathi with the black pieces. In the same group, Alexei Shirov obtained his first win of the series by beating Vladimir Fedoseev in a sharp encounter. | Photos: Mark Livshitz

Inspired defence

3/6/2022 – In the opening rounds of the Belgrade Grand Prix there were two splendid instances of defensive queen sacrifices. These remarkable efforts set Jon Speelman thinking about defence in general. He thus turned to one of his favourite books, The Middlegame by Max Euwe and Hans Kramer, and cherry-picked a couple of games from the chapters on Steinitz and Lasker. | Pictured: Emanuel Lasker / Collection of the World Chess Hall of Fame

Arjun Erigaisi wins Indian National Championship

3/6/2022 – Rating favourite Arjun Erigaisi won the MPL 58th National Senior Chess Championship 2022, which took place from February 25 to March 3 in the city of Kanpur. Arjun edged past D Gukesh and Iniyan P on tiebreaks. All three of them scored 8½/11 points. Only four players younger than Arjun have won the National Senior title in Indian chess history. | Photo: Aditya Sur Roy

Understanding before Moving 69: Ideas in the King's Indian (2)

3/6/2022 – 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 69th instalment of his ChessBase show "Understanding before Moving", Herman continues to show ideas in the King's Indian. | Photo: Pascal Simon

Kvika Reykjavik Open 2022 – No Covid-restrictions

3/5/2022 – With the start of the 2022 Reykjavik Open just over a month away, it’s time to take a little stock and remind chess players about the upcoming event. Perhaps some people are hesitant to make a decision on participating in a chess tournament due to the current Covid situation. We can however give you some fantastic news. Since last Friday, there are no, i.e. ZERO, Covid restrictions in Iceland. Everything is open “as normal” and there are no longer any restrictions on the border. Press release of the Kvika Reykjavik Open 2022 – Icelandic Chess Federation

Belgrade GP: MVL beats Predke, breaks drawing spell

3/5/2022 – Seven out of eight games finished drawn in Friday’s fourth round of the preliminaries at the FIDE Grand Prix in Belgrade. The only winner of the day was Maxime Vachier-Lagrave. The Frenchman’s win was the first one of the event in pool D. With two rounds to go in the double round-robins, MVL and Anish Giri are sole leaders in their pools. | Photos: Mark Livshitz

ECU suspends the Russian and Belarusian Chess Federations

3/5/2022 – The Board of the European Chess Union met in an extraordinary session this week. The organization strongly condemned the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the involvement of Belarus, and expressed its solidarity for the Ukrainian people. Notably, the Board decided to suspend the Russian and Belarusian Chess Federations. Individual players from these countries will be excluded from all ECU competitions unless they change federation or by their expressed will represent the FIDE flag in the rating list.

Exposed

3/5/2022 – Black king on e7, unprotected queen a5 - White's threat in the diagrammed position is obvious, and not even 17...Bb6 could prevent him from making a good catch. Your call!

Daniel King’s Power Play Show: "Never move the queen out early"

3/4/2022 – "Never move the queen out early", runs the old maxim. And yet... In his Power Play Show, GM Daniel King examines two cases from the FIDE Grand Prix tournament in Belgrade where, in the open Sicilian, White plays an early queen move. Neither is ridiculous, at least theoretically... | Power Play is on air most Fridays. Watch it on-demand with a ChessBase Premium account. All the usual puzzles, games and instruction will be on offer.

Belgrade GP: Rapport wins, shares the lead

3/4/2022 – The highlight of day 3 at the FIDE Grand Prix in Belgrade was Richard Rapport’s victory over Vidit Gujrathi. The Hungarian thus caught his round-3 opponent in the lead of pool C. The one other decisive result on Thursday was seen in the same group, as Vladimir Fedoseev got the better of Alexei Shirov. Anish Giri played a remarkable queen sacrifice against Pentala Harikrishna — the game finished in a draw. | Photos: Mark Livshitz

An appeal to readers

3/4/2022 – The world is witnessing a catastrophe in Ukraine. Many of us are also anxious over the safety and well-being of chess players in the war-torn land. News on their current situation is coming in, but it is not enough to address all our concerns about them. We would be better placed to offer sympathy and help to players in Ukraine if we share information on their plight. It is in this spirit that our columnist has made the appeal to readers here.

CBM #206 Special: Levon Aronian

3/4/2022 – Levon Aronian, is the "hero" of ChessBase Magazine #206. In the new issue, our authors - David Navara, Adhiban Baskaran and Romain Edouard among others - comment on their favourite games of the top player. This has resulted in a collection of 19 special encounters from 1994 (U12 World Championship!) to 2021. In addition, Mihail Marin's contribution is entitled "Levon Aronian's strategic universe" and Karsten Mueller presents a selection of the Armenian's best endgames. You can watch the video from Mueller's endgame contribution as well as Adrien Demuth's analysis of the game Aronian-Ponomariov (Lausanne 2001) here - enjoy!
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Leading chess players of Russia appeal to Putin for peace and ceasefire

3/3/2022 – In an appeal to Vladimir Putin, the President of Russia, a large number of prominent Russian chess players call for a ceasefire and peace in Ukraine. "It is unbearably painful for us to see the catastrophe that is happening these days to our peoples." The courageous appeal appeared on the Russian sports site "Championat".

Robert Ris’ Fast and Furious: A miniature between two top players

3/3/2022 – This week Robert Ris takes a look at a miniature played at the highest level: at the Airthings Masters Online Rapid Tournament World Champion Magnus Carlsen defeated Jan-Krzysztof Duda with a swift attack and won a short and instructive game. | "Fast and Furious" is available on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here.

Double attack on the Taimanov Variation

3/3/2022 – In the current ChessBase Magazine the Sicilian Taimanov Variation (1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 e6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nc6 5.Nc3 Qc7 6.Be3 a6) is taken to task from two sides at once. The super-modern 7.g4 came onto the board at the Tata Steel 2022 in the game Grandelius-Carlsen, we have already presented the Swede's analysis to you recently. There is also a complete opening article by IM Christian Braun on precisely this variation in CBM #206. A "dangerous weapon for White", because Black has development problems, whereas White can quickly castle long... The concept, which Jan Werle looks at in his opening video on the basis of a game by Alireza Firouzja, is completely different: after 7.Nxc6 bxc6 8.Qd3 Nf6 9.Qg3 Qxg3 10.hxg3 White achieves a small but lasting positional advantage, which can be played comfortably. Take a look!
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Belgrade GP: Vidit and Giri sole leaders in their pools

3/3/2022 – Two players have a 1-point lead in their respective pools going into round 3 of the FIDE Grand Prix preliminaries in Belgrade. Anish Giri and Vidit Gujrathi kicked off the event with back-to-back wins and are the sole leaders in pools B and C. In pool A, Sam Shankland joined Dmitry Andreikin in the lead thanks to a win over Alexander Grischuk. In pool D, both games were drawn for a second consecutive day. | Photos: Mark Livshitz

ChessBase for Coaches: Creating a Worksheet

3/3/2022 – Whether for in-class work or for homework, worksheets help students review and practice chess. Creating worksheets—then printing, formatting, and sharing them—are tasks that every chess coach undertakes. In this article, National Master Jeffrey Ashton shows how ChessBase makes these tasks easier.

FIDE postpones World Team Championship to November 2022

3/3/2022 – The International Chess Federation (FIDE) has decided to postpone the World Teams Championship 2022 to November 2022. The rights to host the tournament are retained by the Israeli Chess Federation. Press release.

The band is back together! – Nigel Davies and Andrew Martin start Master Chess Web Show

3/3/2022 – IM Andrew Martin and GM Nigel Davies are a good team of experienced trainers. In the 1990s, they formed the "Master Chess Roadshow" and toured England to help players all over the country to get better and to have fun with chess. Now, the band is back together: with the Chess Web Show, three weekly shows on Twitch and a YouTube channel!