1/30/2022 – When Boris Spassky, World Champion from 1969 to 1972, had to play the Sicilian with the white pieces, he seemed to get particularly inspired. Today, the living legend from Leningrad turns 85, and to celebrate him we share a selection of brilliant games he played with 1.e4 c5 during his illustrious career. | Photo: Gerhard Hund

1/30/2022 – 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 (pictured), 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. | Replay all the games with computer analysis. Full report to follow shortly!

1/30/2022 – 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 64th instalment of his ChessBase show "Understanding before Moving", Herman talks about the "power of the diagonal". | Photo: Tommy Grooten

1/30/2022 – The Grandmasters Dr. Karsten Mueller and Luis Engel have set a ball rolling in Germany with their latest Fritztrainer. GM Lars Bo Hansen designed the four-player model in 2005, and was perhaps ahead of his time. In the 5-part interview with Dr. Karsten Mueller, all four player types are discussed in detail. Today - The Activist.

1/30/2022 – Magnus Carlsen beat Fabiano Caruana to claim his eighth tournament title in Wijk aan Zee with a round to spare. The world champion will not even need to show up for Sunday’s final round, as the organizers of the tournament confirmed that Daniil Dubov will not be playing despite testing negative to a second Covid-19 PCR test. Meanwhile, Arjun Erigaisi clinched the title in the Challengers, thus getting an invitation to next year’s main event. | Photo: Jurriaan Hoefsmit

1/29/2022 – The #GibChess Battle of the Sexes reached its halfway point at Gibraltar’s Garrison Library on Friday 28 January with a tense 5-5 draw in round five, with the women having White on all boards. The women thus still lead the men by a single point, with 25½ points to the men’s 24½. The match is beautifully poised for a tense second half when play resumes on Sunday | Report and photos by John Saunders

1/29/2022 – Videos: Mihail Marin examines the Berlin Defence with 4.d3 d6 and finds some practical advantages for Black over the standard move 4...Bc5. Christian Bauer presents a new knight sacrifice in the Voronezh Variation of the Alekhine Defence. In this issue's "Brilliancy" Imre Hera took the initiative against Zoltan Almasi in the London System after 1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 e6 3.Bf4 b6 4.e3 Be7 5.h3 c5 6.Nc3! "The lucky bag" is particularly well stocked with 72 (!) extensively annotated games! Among them are analyses by Vladimir Belous, Spyridon Kapnisis, Michal Krasenkow, Krishnan Sasikiran and many others. ChessBase Magazine Extra is the perfect supplement to ChessBase Magazine. Available as a single issue or by subscription (6 issues per year). Available on DVD or as a download.

1/29/2022 – In the diagram position White has a shortcut to victory, enabling him to hunt down Black's king ... or his queen on h1! Can you work it all out in your head?

1/29/2022 – Endgame studies sometimes go to extremes, e.g. by demonstrating a win in 584(!) moves in a study, in which King, Rook, two Bishops (standing on the same colour), and pawn fight against King, Queen and Pawn. But are these and similar studies relevant for the theory of the endgame or practical games? It depends. Siegfried Hornecker takes a closer look.

1/29/2022 – Anish Giri is all but out of contention for first place at the Tata Steel Masters tournament, as he was defeated by Jorden van Foreest in Friday’s eleventh round. Magnus Carlsen signed a draw against Vidit Gujrathi and has a half-point lead over Richard Rapport going into the final weekend of the event. Moreover, Carlsen will get a free point in the last round, when he was supposed to face Daniil Dubov, who had to leave the tournament after testing positive for Covid-19. | Photo: Jurriaan Hoefsmit

1/28/2022 – In his Power Play Show, GM Daniel King looks at tactical moments from the Tata Steel tournaments. The main game under consideration is Caruana vs Rapport which is more strategic and displays Rapport's ambitious and somewhat unorthodox style. | 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.

1/28/2022 – Lawrence Trent thinks that Paul Keres might be one of the most underrated players in the chess world. Time to witness a special game of his against Ilmar Raud. The tactical combination is quite stunning. It is also time to catch up with the tactics training on ChessBase, and break through the 2400 rating wall. Will it finally work out today?