6/7/2022 – Alexander Nikitin passed away on June 5, at the age of 87. A strong International Master himself, Nikitin was one of the most distinguished chess coaches in history. Among others, he trained Dmitry Jakovenko, Etienne Bacrot and 13th world champion Garry Kasparov. GM Emil Sutovsky wrote an obituary.

6/7/2022 – What is he up to these days? He is difficult to reach – his almost daily appearance on international news report, meetings with influential figures, his copious writing in the media, those are the explanation. We share with you his latest newsletter, which links to the different activities, mainly connected with the war on Ukraine. And describing developments that can lead to President Putin's fall. In addition: you may want to visit his Kasparov Chess platform, where you can learn, play, watch and read about chess.

6/7/2022 – German WGM Jana Schneider is conducting an experiment on cognitive perception for her bachelor’s thesis at the University of Würzburg. The question is whether one can process chess positions faster in 2D or 3D. If you would like to take part, you can find out more here! | Photo: Frank Hoppe

6/7/2022 – With an impressive win in the classical game against Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, Magnus Carlsen grabbed the sole lead at the Norway Chess Tournament. After six rounds, Carlsen has collected 12½ points, one more than second-placed Vishy Anand, who on Monday won with black in Armageddon against Anish Giri. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

6/7/2022 – The bodycheck is the most important motif in the endgame rook against pawn, which will sooner or later arise from the position shown in the diagram. In the actual game White did not find the correct defense and lost. Can you do better? White to move and draw!

6/6/2022 – The second leg of the MPL Indian Chess Tour, sponsored by the Play Magnus Group, took place on June 2-6 as a 16-player single round-robin. Aravindh Chithambaram and Nihal Sarin finished in shared first place on 32/45 points — the football scoring system was in place — but Aravindh scored a higher number of wins, which granted him tournament victory. This win earned Aravindh a spot in the next event of the Meltwater Champions Chess Tour.

6/6/2022 – In the Endgame Magic Show #197 Karsten Müller is joined by Harald Schneider Zinner. Harald and Karsten look at endgames from the recent round of the German Bundesliga. They start with rook endings and continue with the fight of two minor pieces against a rook. | You can watch the Endgame Magic Show on-demand with a ChessBase Premium account.

6/6/2022 – One of the prerequisites for playing chess well is to have a decent feel for the geometry of the board. In today’s column, GM Jon Speelman explores this theme through a couple of somewhat unusual patterns — the staircase and the stairwell. He also looks at a game by Will Watson, a player once described by Boris Spassky as “a drunk with a machine gun”. | Pictured: ‘Relativity’ by M. C. Escher

6/6/2022 – Vishy Anand regained the sole lead at the Norway Chess Tournament thanks to a victory in Armageddon over former co-leader Magnus Carlsen. The Indian missed a huge chance to defeat the world number one in their classical encounter, but quickly managed to recover from the setback to get an all-important win in the sudden-death decider. Anish Giri and Aryan Tari scored three points by winning their classical games with the white pieces. | Photos: Lennart Ootes

6/5/2022 – 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 82nd instalment of his ChessBase show "Understanding before Moving", Herman explains why playing the Benko Gambit might be a good choice for club players. | Photo: Pascal Simon

6/4/2022 – At the Tata Steel Masters 2022 Jorden van Foreest got the opportunity to conduct a long-planned opening experiment: In the Sicilian with 2.Nc6 he surprised his opponent Praggnanandhaa with 3.Bc4?! "Finally, here it was. There aren't all that many good reasons for why I like the move, the main probably being the fact that it looks so stupid :-)", writes the young Dutchman at the beginning of his analysis in the new CBM Extra #207. And the game continued no less exceptionally: after 3...e6 4.0-0 d5 5.Bb5! dxe4 6.Ne5 Qc7 7.Nxc6 bxc6 8.Bc4! White hast lost a pawn and moved his bishop three times in the opening! In the end, with a bit of luck, Van Foreest still won the game. It's "The brillancy" in CBM Extra #207. On top of that, the new edition offers no less than 56 annotated games and over an hour of video training with Elisabeth Pähtz and Ivan Sokolov.

6/4/2022 – Round 4 of the Norway Chess tournament was played on Friday. Magnus Carlsen won his classical against Anish Giri, and was awarded three points for his victory. Previously in the sole lead, Viswanathan Anand, playing with Black, had to settle for a draw against Wesley So before losing the Armageddon game. Anand received only one point in this round and is now sharing the lead with Carlsen. Round 5 will be played on Sunday after a rest day. | Photos: Lennart Ootes