11/3/2021 – The 2021 FIDE Grand Swiss in Riga, Latvia has featured many exciting new opening ideas and double-edged games, as the world’s best players fight for spots in the World Championship cycle. Canadian FM and opening expert Joshua Doknjas analyzes five interesting games from the first half of the event. | Photo: Mark Livshitz

11/3/2021 – In a recent interview for chess.com Peter Doggers asked Fabiano Caruana about the upcoming World Championship match between Magnus Carlsen and Ian Nepomniachtchi, about World Championship matches in general, and about Caruana's own match against Carlsen in 2018. In an amazingly open and honest interview Caruana reveals a lot about his match-strategy against Carlsen, his feelings during and after the match, and gives insight into chess on the highest level.

11/2/2021 – Endgame specialist Kasten Müller continues to find instructive examples from the FIDE Chess.com Grand Swiss. The players are having a rest on Tuesday, so it is a good opportunity to find answers to a few technical questions: when to exchange down into a winning pawn endgame, how to defend with a bishop against a rook or how to handle an ending with bishops of opposite colours. | Photo: Mark Livshitz

11/2/2021 – Patrick Bet-David, CEO of Valuetainment, sits down with Garry Kasparov, in what was easily one of the best interviews by the former world champion in years. He candidly discusses topics such as chess today compared to his day, AI and why it is not the boogeyman, politics, Putin, the US, and truth. "I'm not a politician, I'm not running for office; I won't waffle, I won't duck." And he didn't.

11/2/2021 – One highlight of each issue of the ChessBase Magazine is "The Analysis", a deeply analysed, particularly interesting game, selected from the many annotated and interesting games in every issue. Not an easy task - just take a look at the list of authors who contributed analyses to CBM #204: Anton Demchenko, Romain Edouard, Viktor Erdos, Alireza Firouzja, Daniel Fridman, Anish Giri, Nils Grandelius, Niclas Huschenbeth, Maxime Lagarde, David Navara, Peter Heine Nielsen, Alexey Sarana, Ivan Saric, Hedinn Steingrimsson, Rasmus Svane and Vidit! This time, the game Mamedov-Lagarde from the European Individual Championship 2021, was chosen. Take a look at the diagram position after 14...Ke6, and you will know why! How could that position arise on the board? And how did the game continue? Curious?

11/2/2021 – Pawn endings are often tricky and must be calculated carefully. In the diagram position it is Black to move and he can win with precise play. How should he proceed?

10/30/2021 – For the first time in the 2021 FIDE Chess.com Grand Swiss a sole leader has emerged in either section, as Alireza Firouzja is the only player to have kicked off the event with three straight victories. The 18-year-old beat Alexandr Predke with the white pieces on Friday. In the women’s section, nine players are sharing first place on 2½/3 points. | Photo: Mark Livshitz

10/29/2021 – In this week’s show, GM Daniel King looks at ways to catch the enemy king, and shows how Maxime Vachier-Lagrave failed to do so in a recent Bundesliga game, which Daniel featured the previous week. More successful in his efforts to catch the enemy king was Vassily Smyslov in a game of his Candidate Match against Zoltan Ribli in 1983. | 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.

10/29/2021 – The FIDE is currently in an excellent position with its Presidium. Arkady Dvorkovich was Deputy Prime Minister of Russia and organised the World Cup. Managing Director Dana Reizneice was Minister of Economy and Finance of Latvia. On the occasion of the Grand Swiss in Riga, they both gave insightful interviews.

10/29/2021 – Today's tactical focus: how to harness the power of devastating queens. Trent uses examples from 1880 and 100 years later. The Playchess training playground is getting more and more difficult, and some problems took us a few minutes to solve. But we were able to reach a rating of over 2050 meanwhile.

10/29/2021 – The new ChessBase Magazine #204 dedicates its "Special" to the strongest female chess player of all time: Judit Polgar! The CBM authors annotate their favourite games of the attacking artist, Mihail Marin shows her great strategic skills and Karsten Müller shows her virtuosity in the endgame. The issue also contains the best from the European Championship 2021 - with analyes by the new Champion Anton Demchenko, Viktor Erdos, Daniel Fridman, Nils Grandelius, Maxime Lagarde, Aleksei Sarana, Ivan Saric and others. In his first opening video for the magazine, Austrian GM Markus Ragger presents an idea of World Champion Magnus Carlsen in the 3.Bb5+ Sicilian. Plus 11 opening articles ("A clear attacking plan against the Rubinstein Variation: 7.Be3", "Modern and simple vs. the Najdorf: 7.Nf3/8.Bg5" etc.), as well as training columns on tactics, strategy and endgame. All in a new layout!

10/29/2021 – Three players are sharing the lead at the open section of the FIDE Chess.com Grand Swiss in Riga, as Alireza Firouzja, Alexandr Predke and Ivan Saric are the only participants to have won both their games so far. Meanwhile, seven players have a 2/2 score in the women’s section. | Photo: Anna Shtourman