The Winning Academy 2: The Art of Exchanging Heavy Pieces

12/2/2021 – One of the most refined and inconspicuous ways to gain an advantage and to win is the art of exchanging pieces. Most club players don’t take exchanges too seriously. Sacrificing is brave, attacking is fun, but exchanging pieces is kind of boring, isn’t it? Even cowardly. But knowing when to exchange and when not to exchange is a powerful strategic weapon. In part 2 of his "Winning Academy" series, Jan Markos shows why. | Photo: Wikipedia

The Endgame Magic Christmas Calendar - Door 2

12/2/2021 – The second day of our magical endgame calendar. Yesterday, you had to solve the famous endgame move by Shirov vs. Topalov. And of course, most of you knew the correct answer, and also mentioned the game. More of this, please! But we also had quite some participants answer with A. Be4, which won't do the trick. But no worries, you have 23 more tries. Today, we look at a famous check-mate in 18 moves. Luckily, you only need to know the first move to start this combo.
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World Championship: Game 5 annotated by Anish Giri

12/1/2021 – On Wednesday, Ian Nepomniachtchi got the white pieces for a third time in the World Championship match against Magnus Carlsen. The Russian got an advantage out of the opening but could not make the most of his chances. Super-GM Anish Giri annotates the game with instructive insights and pertinent variations. | Photo: Alina l’Ami

World Championship Game 5: Not forceful enough

12/1/2021 – For the first time at the World Championship match in Dubai, Ian Nepomniachtchi clearly won the opening battle against Magnus Carlsen. The Russian missed a couple of chances to put his opponent under more pressure, which led to a fifth draw in the 14-game duel. The contenders will get a second rest day on Thursday. | Photo: Anastasiya Karlovich

Game of the Week #492: Max Warmerdam vs Hing Ting Lai

12/1/2021 – This week, Merijn van Delft takes a look at a game from the Dutch Championship, in which Max Warmerdam outplayed his opponent Hing Ting Lai convincingly. Warmerdam is not only a strong player, but he also worked as a second for Jorden Van Foreest at the Wijk aan Zee tournament 2021, and helped Van Foreest to surprisingly win this prestigious event. | Merijn’s show is available on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here.

The new FIDE World Ranking List: December 2021

12/1/2021 – With Alireza Firouzja, the chess world now has a new number two behind Magnus Carlsen. On the new World Ranking from December 2021, which the FIDE just published, the 18-year-old, who was born in Iran but is living in France, is ahead of Ding Liren and Fabiano Caruana.

Be'er Sheva wins the Israeli Cup

12/1/2021 – The State Cup for Teams is the biggest annual event in Israel. In 2020, Corona forced it to take a break, but this year it was played again, on Friday, 26 November 2021. The venue was the beautiful Educational Campus Beit Shmuel (pictured) in Jerusalem and the team of Be'er Sheva won the event. | Photos: Ofri Barnea

Win a private training session with Rustam Kasimdzhanov!

12/1/2021 – He is the FIDE World Chess Champion of 2004, and has been the main second of World Champion Viswanathan Anand, during Anand's successful title defences in 2008, 2010 and 2012. He has coached the German national team, became the trainer of World Champion challengers Sergey Karjakin and Fabiano Caruana. Now you can win a private session with Rustam. Just submit a brilliant game you've recently played against the computer.

The Endgame Magic Christmas Calendar - Door 1

12/1/2021 – Last year you could open 24 calendar doors and guess the Fritztrainer correctly. This year it's all about magical endgames. Thanks to our endgame expert GM Dr. Karsten Müller, we have put together a potpourri of endgame riddles for you. If you can find the right answer, you automatically enter a raffle with plenty of prizes to be won. Among them, our big Christmas surprise packages!
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New: Mega DataBase 2022

12/1/2021 – Start the new year well-prepared. In the updated Mega Database 2022 you will now find over 9.2 million games, from the first recorded games in the history of chess to games played in October 2022. The Mega is chess history and contains almost all top games ever played, many of them annotated by top players of the past and of today. The huge database is an invaluable tool to prepare for your opponents, to study chess and to enjoy chess!

World Championship: Game 4 annotated by Luke McShane

12/1/2021 – On first sight, game 4 of the World Championship match between Magnus Carlsen and Ian Nepomniachtchi does not seem to be particularly spectacular. Nepomniachtchi went for the Petroff and appeared to be well prepared for Carlsen's novelty 18.Nh4 and after 33 moves the game ended with a repetition and a draw. But as English Grandmaster Luke McShane points out in his analysis, the game contained a lot of hidden tactical possibilities.

The Weekly Show

11/30/2021 – In his "Weekly Show" IM Lawrence Trent talks about the World Championship match between Magnus Carlsen and Ian Nepomniachtchi and takes a look at game 4 of the match. | Lawrence’s show is available on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here

World Championship Game 4: Hesitant birthday boy

11/30/2021 – The match for the World Championship in Dubai is still tied, as Magnus Carlsen and Ian Nepomniachtchi signed a fourth consecutive draw on Tuesday. The defending champion went for his first 1.e4 with the white pieces, to which Nepo responded by setting up a Petroff Defence. Carlsen spent quite a while investigating options that might create trouble for his opponent, but ended up going for a triple repetition on move 30. | Photo: Niki Riga

The Return of the King... and Queen... and Rooks, Bishops etc....

11/30/2021 – Covid might have knocked the Banff Open down, but it certainly didn't knock it out. The popular tournament was back with a vengeance this year, after being cancelled in 2020. The fifth ever Banff Open was held over the Remembrance Day long weekend and welcomed the strongest (and largest) group of players in its history, with one GM (Joel Benjamin), 3 IMs and 6 FMs taking part. | Photos: Banff Open

The Kasparov Chess Foundation announces University Cup

11/30/2021 – The Kasparov Chess Foundation announces the second annual KCF University Cup, which will take place online, February 5 - 6, 2022. The tournament is open to teams from colleges and universities from all over the world.

Going round and coming back

11/30/2021 – Pawn endings must be calculated precisely. In the diagram position it is Black to move and win - if he finds the right square(s) for his king. What should Black do?

Chess arbiters and the three-fold draw

11/29/2021 – "The difference between not the best arbiter and a good one," IA Tomasz Delega writes, in the October issue of the ECU E-magazine, "is that the first one knows the rules and the second one understands also, what these rules are for." He explains the situation using the example of the three-fold draw claim: how must this be correctly handled?

Karsten Müller’s Endgame Magic Show #172: Endgame highlights from the European Team Championship

11/29/2021 – In the Endgame Magic Show #172 Karsten Müller and Arne Kähler look at interesting endgames from the European Team Championship. | You can watch the Endgame Magic Show on-demand with a ChessBase Premium account.

Fritz 18: Play and share brilliancies - and win in the Fritz 18 lottery!

11/29/2021 – The new AI-based training method "Easy Game" helps you to play brilliancies against Fritz18! After mating Fritz18 you can publish your game with one click or you can send it per email to ChessBase to take part in the great Fritz 18 lottery. Join the action!
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Grotesque chess problems

11/29/2021 – Look at this position. Black still has all his pieces on the board, while White has just a single pawn, on its original square. So what is the task? "White to play and win" says the composer, one of the most imaginative in history. Born in 1860, Ottó Titusz Bláthy composed a large number of "Grotesques", extremely unusual positions in which White must win against much larger black forces. These problems are generally intended to be humorous. We hope you enjoy our examples, which should also serve to remind you how you can move the pieces, play and analyse right there on our news page diagrams.

World Championship: Game 3 annotated by David Navara

11/29/2021 – Game 3 of the World Championship match between Magnus Carlsen and Ian Nepomniachtchi was full of opening subtleties and refined maneuvering that, however, eventually led to the third draw of the match. David Navara took a closer look at the game and its hidden subtleties.

World Championship Game 3: A ‘dumb’ move, a draw

11/28/2021 – The battle of theoretical preparations continues at the World Championship match, with Magnus Carlsen and Ian Nepomniachtchi signing a third consecutive draw on Sunday before the first rest day in Dubai. Once again, the defending champion deviated from mainstream theory only to see his opponent well prepared and ready to discuss the ensuing sidelines. | Photo: Eric Rosen

Understanding before Moving 55: Pawn vs knight (2)

11/28/2021 – 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 55th instalment of his ChessBase show "Understanding before Moving", Herman continues to talk about pawns which terrorize knights. | Photo: Tommy Grooten

World Championship: Game 2 annotated by Luke McShane

11/28/2021 – A remarkable battle between the protagonists of the 2021 World Championship match ended in a draw on Saturday. It was the second tense draw in a row, with both contenders showing deep theoretical preparation. Game 2 was a Catalan, and by no means was it a boring positional struggle. Grandmaster Luke McShanes analyses. | Photo: Niki Riga