Svitlana's Smart Moves - The Scotch Game Fritztrainer!

1/12/2022 – After her first Fritztrainer: "Understanding Material Imbalances", Svitlana surprises us with her second course:"The Scotch Game"! The Canadian WIM gives us a little sneak preview in this episode as an appetizer. If you enjoy the content she created so far, it is highly appreciated if you purchase her Fritztrainers.

New: The Scotch Game by Svitlana Demchenko

1/12/2022 – The Scotch Game (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4) is a great repertoire addition for any player looking for a solid yet active opening, which relies more on understanding rather than pure memorization. The popularity of the Scotch rose exponentially after Garry Kasparov employed it in the World Championship match against Anatoly Karpov in 1990, and the opening has stayed in style ever since.

The Weekly Show: The Vergani Cup

1/11/2022 – In his "Weekly Show" Lawrence Trent takes a look at the Vergani Cup, focusing on the performance of Nurgyul Salimova who scored a GM norm. A fantastic performance by the Bulgarian youngster! The game of the day is Nigel Short's encounter with Salimova. | Lawrence’s show is available on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here

The perfect score: Keres wins Tallinn 1942 with 15.0/15

1/11/2022 – Paul Keres (January 7, 1916 – June 5, 1975) was the clear favourite in the 1942 Estonian Championship in Tallinn. At the time he was considered a possible challenger to World Champion Alexander Alekhine and was the only world-class player in the field. Nevertheless, it is astonishing how clearly Keres dominated the tournament: he won all 15 games without conceding a single draw. | Photo: Valter Heuer (Archive)

Time to learn the Grunfeld from a World class GM?

1/11/2022 – Sometimes bad performance at a tournament can spur you into action. It can make you have a close look at the holes and weaknesses in your play. This is exactly what happened with our reviewer Aanjaneya Phatak. 20-year-old Aanjaneya, who works on chess without a coach, decided to go to the MP Masters Chess 2021. He lost 47 Elo point making his rating fall from 2212 to 2165. But from that experience he realized that he needed to add new openings to his arsenal. That's how he got his hands on Markus Ragger's latest Fritztrainer for ChessBase on the Grunfeld Defence. In this article Aanjaneya narrates his experience of working with Austria's first ever 2700+ GM.

Match in neon limelight

1/11/2022 – A new Russian film, written and directed by Aleksey Sidorov, called “The Champion of the World” was released on December 30. The film tells the story of the bitter rivalry between Anatoly Karpov and Viktor Korchnoi, focusing on their memorable match in Baguio. Eteri Kublashvili had access to the shooting and shared a number of remarkable photos and impressions on the website of the Chess Federation of Russia.

The Phantom Queen

1/11/2022 – Sometimes it would be nice to have another queen on the board, especially if things went wrong in the first part of the game. In a YouTube video on optical illusions, Matt Pritchard reveals how you can suddenly conjure up a queen on the board by using means of disguise that have a long tradition in chess but are rather unusual in modern tournament play.

Never miss a check...

1/11/2022 – Pawn races often have a flavour of their own and taking pawns is not always the most important. In the diagram position it is Black to move and win. What would you do?

Thirty years! Happy Birthday Fritz (6.1)

1/10/2022 – Four years after his epic match against Fritz in Bahrain, which ended in a hard-fought 4-4 draw, World Champion Vladimir Kramnik, who had in the meantime twice defended his title, once again took up the gauntlet to face his computer opponent. In a two-part pictorial article, Frederic Friedel describes the intense million-dollar battle that was fought between them in 2006 in Bonn, Germany. Finance Minister Peer Steinbrück called it a cultural battle between outstanding representatives of human and technical intelligence.

Can you own Byrne-Fischer?

1/10/2022 – On Tuesday, January 11, 2022, the first auction of the Chess World Champion NFTs (Wilhelm Steinitz) will end at 12:00 CET. The other auctions will follow roughly every hour. So let's summarize what makes this series unique. In one sentence: It will remain the first of its kind for all times! Also: What is the deeper meaning of NFTs? And a short but hefty guide to the technical side of the auction.

Karsten Müller’s Endgame Magic Show #177: The fourth phase of the game

1/10/2022 – In the Endgame Magic Show #177, Karsten Müller and Arne Kähler look at a fascinating position played at the 2021 FIDE World Cup in Sochi. Sometimes you need to calculate what will happen in the fourth phase of the game, when newly promoted queens appear on the board, and every single check is crucial! | You can watch the Endgame Magic Show on-demand with a ChessBase Premium account.

Indian Grandmaster Lalith Babu wins Vergani Cup

1/10/2022 – The Indian Grandmaster Lalith Babu won the "Vergani Cup" in the Italian Adriatic resort of Cattolica which finished on Sunday. With 7.0/9 Lalith shared first place with Hans Moke Niemann (USA), Vitaliy Bernadskiy (Ukraine) and Nurgyul Salimova (Bulgaria), but he had the best tiebreak and therefore won the tournament and the first prize of €2,500. | Photos: Rupali Mullick

What’s next: top tournaments in January and February

1/10/2022 – With the Tata Steel Masters kicking off next Saturday, chess aficionados are set to enjoy another year of elite tournaments. Besides the traditional event in Wijk aan Zee, a tournament with a new format will take place in Gibraltar, while the first two legs of the FIDE Grand Prix will be played in close succession in February.

A brilliant year: Alireza Firouzja’s rise to the very top

1/9/2022 – In a year that saw Magnus Carlsen defending the Classical World Championship title for a fourth consecutive time, a young player became the most dangerous potential challenger for the Norwegian. 18-year-old Alireza Firouzja climbed to the second spot in the world ranking by showcasing incredible results throughout 2021. We look at how the Iranian-born grandmaster gained 55 rating points in 12 months. | Photo: Jurriaan Hoefsmit

Tata Steel Chess to kick off in less than a week

1/9/2022 – The Tata Steel Chess Tournament 2022 will take place in Wijk aan Zee on January 14-30. The Masters and the Challengers sections will be played concurrently. The Open had to be cancelled. World Champion Magnus Carlsen leads the field. Alireza Firouzja is not taking part. | Photos: Tata Steel Chess

Understanding before Moving 61: Light-square strategy

1/9/2022 – 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 61st instalment of his ChessBase show "Understanding before Moving", Herman talks about "Simple Chess" and light-square strategy. | Photo: Tommy Grooten

Historias de Ajedrez: A Cuban Chess Movie

1/8/2022 – "Historias de Ajedrez" is a Cuban movie from 2019 by Emmanuel Martin Hernandez. In the movie, Hernandez, a passionate chess player himself, offers an intimate look at the stories of chess players in Santiago de Cuba.

The perfect start

1/8/2022 – In the diagram position it is White to move and he has to react to Black's threat of ...g4 which would trap the bishop on h3. But with the right pawn push White can gain the upper hand. Which pawn should White push ahead?

Daniel King’s Power Play Show: Rapid Attacks

1/7/2022 – In his first Power Play Show of 2022 Daniel King looks at games by the winners of the Women's World Rapid - Aleksandra Kosteniuk; and the Women's World Blitz - Bibisara Assaubayeva. Daniel also shows a nice study by Leonid Kubbel (not too difficult!). | 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.

How the AI Revolution Impacted Chess (1/2)

1/7/2022 – In 2017, AlphaZero shocked the chess world by crushing Stockfish in a 100-game match. Since then, chess engines have undergone a substantial revision based on deep learning methods to develop a neural network. Joshua Doknjas examines the impact of the AI revolution in chess. | Graphic: Europe Echecs

Trent's Tactics - Recap of 2021 and finding creative patterns

1/7/2022 – Trents Tactics is back in 2022! Lawrence and Arne decide to talk about the chess year 2021, the tournaments, and the best male and female player. They then move directly to highly creative tactical patterns, and finally play some ChessBase training, trying come closer to the rating of 2400.

92nd FIDE General Assembly: results and decisions

1/7/2022 – Parallel to the Rapid and Blitz World Championships in Warsaw, FIDE held its annual congress. Delegates participated mostly online. On its website, FIDE recently published the "results and decisions" of the congress. Despite the Corona pandemic, FIDE is solidly financed, now largely from sponsorship, donations and broadcasting rights, less so from membership fees. The World Chess Federation has reacquired the rights to the World Championships. | Photos: David Llada

MegaBase 2022: Three Epic Matches

1/7/2022 – The MegaBase 2022 is Chess History in Action: It offers 9.210.512 games, the earliest played in 1475 and the most recent played October 2021, many of them annotated. Here our columnist, offers an introduction to three epic matches from the MegaBase with six annotated games. There is a lot more to discover in this treasure trove, grand battles, opening novelties and exemplary endgames.

Robert Ris’ Fast and Furious: My favourite game of 2021

1/6/2022 – In the first episode of his "Fast & Furious" show in 2022, Dutch trainer Robert Ris presents his favourite game of 2021, that features an impressive attack in a sharp line of the Sicilian Najdorf. | "Fast and Furious" is available on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here.