10/31/2021 – This week, well-known Dutch trainer Robert Ris takes a look at the spectacular queen sacrifice that Alexandr Predke used to beat Nodirbek Yakubboev in round 2 of the Grand Swiss in Riga. | "Fast and Furious" is available on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here.

10/31/2021 – After kicking off the event with three straight wins, Alireza Firouzja drew a game for the first time at the FIDE Chess.com Grand Swiss on Sunday. The youngster nonetheless kept the sole lead, as none of his closest chasers got to score a win — Evgeniy Najer almost managed, but failed to find a killer shot. Meanwhile, among the women, Chinese star Lei Tingjie beat Valentina Gunina to climb to sole first place. | Photo: Anna Shtourman

10/30/2021 – Halloween is near — and inspired Siegfried Hornecker to search for compositions and studies that are suitable to this time of the year. After all, a good endgame study doesn't ask "Trick or treat?" but rather offers both. Enjoy!

10/30/2021 – In the diagram position, Black's king is only protected by pawns and - not a single minor piece supports its monarch. Which is kind of an invitation for White - or isn't it? Your move!

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

10/28/2021 – When talking about ancient games you might have an image of a couple of dozen at most, ranging from chess and its precursors, to backgammon, Go, and a few more, but humanity has long had a passion for a good game. This passion has spanned across the globe with thousands of games uncovered, but no way to learn how to play them...until now. (image: papyrus dated c.1200 BC)

10/28/2021 – This week, Merijn van Delft takes a look at a game Shakhryar Mamedyarov played in the Bundesliga against Gata Kamsky, "one of the most beautiful positional games of the year". | Merijn’s show is available on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here.