12/29/2021 – What a unique idea: decorate a Moscow metro train to convert it into a chess museum. Each of the five cars of this train is dedicated to different chess-related themes — game history, chess development in the Soviet Union and in Russia, VIP names in the world of chess, and, of course, the elegant chess pieces. In addition, the train displays noteworthy facts about chess in cinema, visual arts, theatre, literature, and in the life of celebrities. | Photos by Eteri Kublashvili

12/29/2021 – This week, Merijn van Delft takes a looks at an unusual game by Boris Gelfand: at a certain point of time there were no less than four queens on the board! | Merijn’s show is available on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here.

12/29/2021 – After a thrilling final day, Nodirbek Abdusattorov won the World Rapid Chess title in a photo finish. At the start of the day, the young Uzbek defeated Magnus Carlsen. After 13 rounds, four players were tied on points. Abdusattorov won the playoff against Ian Nepomniachzchi. | Photos: Rafał Oleksiewicz, Michał Walusza, Anna Shtourman (FIDE)

12/29/2021 – The new ChessBase Magazine #205 offers a variety of high-class annotated games, with a focus on the FIDE Grand Swiss 2021. Besides the winner Alireza Firouzja, Nils Grandelus, Grigoriy Oparin, Alexandr Predke, Ivan Saric, Krishnan Sasikiran, Samuel Sevian, Nikita Vitiugov and Yu Yangyi comment on their best games. The young Russian GM Oparin earned a ticket for the upcoming Grand Prix series with third place (equal on points with Fabiano Caruana). His win with the black pieces against compatriot Vitiugov is "The Analysis" of the new issue. Take a look!

12/28/2021 – Nona Gaprindashvili wrote referring to Milunka Lazarevic: “A literary person by profession, lively and impressionable, Lazarevic is one of the brightest figures in women’s chess of the sixties”. Milunka attracted attention by her exciting, uncompromising style: sacrificing pawns and pieces and despising draws, which made her famous and endeared her to chess audiences! | Pictured: Lazarevic, Tengiz Giorgadze and Gaprindashvili (National Parliamentary Library of Georgia)

12/28/2021 – The 2022 Candidates Tournament, which will produce the challenger for the next world chess championship match, will take place in June 2022 in Madrid, Spain. As the organising sponsor of this prestigious tournament, Chess.com signed an agreement on Monday with governing body FIDE and the Scheinberg family, patrons of the event.

12/28/2021 – After nine rounds, played on Sunday and Monday, Magnus Carlsen is the sole leader at the World Rapid Chess Championship in Warsaw as the only player to have collected 7½ points. On the second day of play, Alireza Firouzja and Jan-Krzysztof Duda were two of the players defeated by the world champion. In the women’s tournament, Alexandra Kosteniuk is in a class of her own.| Foto: FIDE / Anna Shtourman

12/28/2021 – For 24 days, you mastered fierce end-game puzzles. We received over 6800 emails this year! This topped last year's calendar, bravo! From all entries we randomly selected three winners for each day, who can look forward to ChessBase Shop vouchers or two Fritztrainer DVDs signed by Karsten Müller. Those who guessed all 24 doors correctly, entered into our super raffle for one of three grand prizes.

12/28/2021 – Usually, in open positions a bishop is stronger than a knight. But in chess there's no rule without exception! In the diagram position it is White who has the knight, and it is White to move and win. What would you do?

12/27/2021 – In the history of the Chess World Championships Viktor Korchnoi is an extremely successful player, even if he was ultimately denied the title. If you count the 1974 Candidates Final for challenging Fischer, he played three 'World Championship matches'. The era of Korchnoi's participations in the WCh cycle stretches from the Curacao Candidates Tournament in 1962 to the 1991 quarterfinal match against Timman, which he played at the age of 60. The dramatic fight against Anatoly Karpov in Baguio City in 1978 stands out in particular: hypnosis, cheating accusations with blueberry yoghurt, X-ray examinations on chairs, mirror glasses worn at the board, Korchnoi's comeback to 5-5 after trailing 4-1 are a few of the external circumstances involved!

12/27/2021 – The first five rounds of the World Rapid Championship were played on Sunday. Three players are sharing the lead on 4½ points: defending champion Magnus Carlsen, local hero Jan-Krzysztof Duda and Baadur Jobava from Georgia. On the women’s tournament, Alexandra Kosteniuk and Valentina Gunina have a perfect 4/4 score after the first day of action. | Foto: Michal Walusza

12/26/2021 – It was just a few weeks ago that Markus Ragger published a complete repertoire on two FritzTrainers for his favourite opening against 1.d4: the Gruenfeld Defence. In the new ChessBase Magazine #205 he provides an update on the variation with 5.Bd2, since the new idea of 5...c5 has recently proved very attractive at the highest level. Among others, it was used by Carlsen, Giri and Dubov. While Markus Ragger in his FritzTrainer still recommends the common and still fully valid continuation 5...Bg7, his appeal in ChessBase Magazine is clear: "Let's make 5...c5 the main line against 5.Bd2!" You can watch an excerpt from his video analysis here!