4/18/2022 – Gukesh won his first classical tournament of the year at the 48th edition of the La Roda International Open. He obtained an unbeaten 8/9 score to finish a half point ahead of the competition. Haik Martirosyan from Armenia secured second place as the only player who got 7½/9 points. Five players scored 7/9, with Praggnanandhaa and Raunak Sadhwani getting third and fourth places respectively on tiebreaks. | Photo: Official site

4/18/2022 – In his Endgame Magic Show #190 Karsten Müller looks at endgame highlights from the Bundesliga. On 9 and 10 of April the 16 teams in Germany's top league played rounds 3 and 4 of the current season, which led to a number of fascinating endgames which Karsten wants to share with his viewers. | You can watch the Endgame Magic Show on-demand with a ChessBase Premium account.

4/18/2022 – Krishnan Sasikiran was one of three players who entered the final round of the Fagernes Open a half point behind sole leader Aryan Chopra. Sasikiran beat Alexander Donchenko with black to catch up with Aryan, who drew Frode Urkedal on top board. Out of the two Indians, it was Sasikiran who claimed the title, as he had the better tiebreak score at the end of the event. | Photo: Anna Shtourman

4/17/2022 – Chess is always tense, and the closer you get to lifting the tension, the tenser it normally gets. This is something that stronger players often exploit against weaker opposition. Grandmaster Jon Speelman uses three notable games to explore this all-important subject, including a fascinating encounter between Reuben Fine and Jose Raul Capablanca. | Pictured: Erich Gottlieb Eliskases

4/17/2022 – 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 75th instalment of his ChessBase show "Understanding before Moving", Herman shows how to put pressure on your opponent. | Photo: Pascal Simon

4/17/2022 – St. Petersburg 1914 is one of the most memorable tournaments in history. What has made it a landmark chess event? Was it because it was the first true super-tournament of the 20th century and chess’ modern age? Was it because it drew together the legendary trio of Emanuel Lasker, Jose Raul Capablanca, and Alexander Alekhine for the first time? Was it because it provided one of the most dramatic and riveting finishes of all time in top-level chess? The reasons are plenty, all of which call for a revisit of the tournament a century and eight years after its passing.

4/14/2022 – A strong open tournament is taking place at the small Norwegian city of Fagernes. Six players rated 2600 or above made their way to the touristic destination located three hours north of Oslo. After five rounds (out of nine), eight players are sharing the lead on 4 points, including top seed Arjun Erigaisi. | Photo: Tom Eriksen

4/14/2022 – How do you build an opening repertoire and learn the variations? Fritz 18 offers many possibilities for this, and you can even compare your learning success with other users. In a short series of tutorials, we show you how to do it. In the first episode, we deal with learning and testing the opening repertoire. The next episodes will deal with building the opening repertoire. With the new "Easy Game" mode in Fritz 18, you can check your knowledge of an existing repertoire, and you can replay and practise it. Let's go!

4/13/2022 – In his "Game of the Week" show #511, Merijn van Delft takes a look at Praggnanandhaa's inspired attacking win against French Grandmaster Matthieu Cornette at the strong Reykjavik Open, in which "Pragg" finished sole first. | Merijn's show is available on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here.

4/13/2022 – "Winter is Coming" is the title of a book by Garry Kasparov published in 2015. In it he warned that Russia’s descent from a nascent democracy into a full-blown dictatorship under Vladimir Putin made it a threat to the West and world peace. "Garry could be forgiven for declaring: I bloody told you so," writes Malcolm Pein in the April 2022 edition of CHESS Magazine. In it he describes the consequences the Russian invasion of Ukraine has for the world of chess.

4/13/2022 – After the moves 1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 c5 4.cxd5 Black usually chooses the classical Tarrasch Defence with 4...exd5. 4...cxd4, on the other hand, leads to the Schara von Hennig Gambit. Still quite popular in the 90s, this gambit went out of fashion in the meantime. But recently a series of online games at the highest level (above all thanks to Alexander Grischuk) generated new interest. Robert Ris presents the latest developments in his opening video for the ChessBase Magazine Extra #206. Watch an excerpt from his video analysis!

4/13/2022 – Who am I? Tactician or position player? Attacker or defender? Should I play 1.d4 or 1.e4? Sicilian or French? If you know your strengths and weaknesses you will score more points and you will be more successful. In their "Player Types" ChessBase course Karsten Müller and Luis Engel take a close look at playing styles, and in an extensive interview Karsten Müller reveals a few things they discovered.