The fourth phase of the game

10/12/2021 – After opening, middlegame and endgame comes the 4th phase of the game when both sides have queened. The main guideline in these positions is that the side with the safer king wins. In the diagram position Black might be able to queen his pawn but White will definitely queen first - and then will hunt Black's king. However, Black can still draw. How?

Superfinals: Alekseenko and Gunina in the lead

10/12/2021 – After three rounds, the Superfinals in Russia have two sole leaders — Kirill Alekseenko in the open section, and Valentina Gunina in the women’s tournament. Both of them have scored two wins and a draw so far in Ufa. Aleksandra Goryachkina, who is playing in the open event, drew Pavel Ponkratov, beat Alexander Motylev and was defeated by Alekseenko. | Photo: Eteri Kublashvili

Karsten Müller’s Endgame Magic #165: With French Grandmaster Romain Edouard

10/11/2021 – In the Endgame Magic Show #165 Karsten Müller has a guest: Romain Edouard, Grandmaster, publisher, and former second of Veselin Topalov. Romain and Karsten discuss Romain's forthcoming ChessBase projects and look at endgame highlights from Romain's games. | Watch it on-demand with a ChessBase Premium account.

Elo Meter - The test that calculates your Elo

10/11/2021 – What if you could get an estimate of your Elo rating just by doing a single test, as opposed to playing a couple of dozen games at long time controls? It isn’t an exaggeration to say this sounds like one of those inane personality ‘quizzes’ you see in supermarket magazines. But this proposal was the subject of a university study to do just that. Try it yourself!

US Championships: Robson takes the sole lead, Yip beats Krush

10/10/2021 – Ray Robson (pictured) inflicted Jeffery Xiong’s third straight loss to take the sole lead in the US Championship. Five players stand a half point behind, including Leinier Dominguez, who defeated Sam Shankland on Saturday. In the women’s section, Carissa Yip joined Katerina Nemcova in the lead after beating 8-time champion Irina Krush. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

Understanding before Moving 48: The target on g6

10/10/2021 – 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 48th instalment of his ChessBase show "Understanding before Moving", Herman shows how to use "the target on g6" to build up an attack. | Photo: Tommy Grooten

Teams from 31 countries to participate in Championship for Prisoners

10/10/2021 – Forty-three teams from 31 countries will play in the 1st Intercontinental Online Championship for Prisoners, a two-day event that starts on October 13, the International Day of Education in Prisons. The championship is a part of the “Chess for Freedom” Program, launched earlier this year.

US Championships: Caruana and Sevian join the lead

10/9/2021 – After escaping with draws from two inferior positions in the first rounds of the US Chamionship, Fabiano Caruana scored his first win of the event on Friday to join a group of 4 co-leaders atop the standings table — Sam Sevian also won to join the leading pack. In the women’s section, Katerina Nemcova continues to be the sole leader. | Photo: Bryan Adams

Russian Superfinals in Ufa

10/9/2021 – The Russian Superfinals are taking place on October 9-20. An open tournament and a women’s tournament are taking place concurrently. The open event, which includes Aleksandra Goryachkina (pictured), has Dmitry Andreikin, Nikita Vitiugov and Andrey Esipenko as the top seeds. Polina Shuvalova, Alina Kashlinskaya and Natalija Pogonina are the highest-rated players in the women’s section. | Photo: Eteri Kublashvili

Bishops in the center

10/9/2021 – In the diagram position White just played 14.Bd4 to neutralize the enemy Dragon bishop on the long diagonal. But this solid looking move actually allowed Black to get the advantage. How did he continue?

The Chess Super League is here!

10/9/2021 – The Chess Super League is a grand event which will be held online from the 11th to the 17th of October 2021. Samay Raina, ChessBase India and Nodwin Gaming have come together to launch the league which will be known as the Chess Super League. Each team will be owned by a well-known celebrity and will consist of top international and Indian players, like Ding, Giri, Radjabov, Nakamura, Hou Yifan, the Muzychuk sisters, Gujrathi, Harika, Gukesh, and many more.

Karsten Müller's Endgame Dictionary: The Umbrella

10/8/2021 – There are so many endgame terms that Karsten Müller has decided to summarise them in a growing dictionary and explain them on video. He starts with the "Umbrella", which can help in bad weather but also in rook endings. In a video Karsten Müller explains what an "umbrella" is in endgame theory and shows why it is useful to know the term and its meaning.

US Championships: Nemcova makes it 2 out of 2

10/8/2021 – Wesley So joined Ray Robson and John Burke in the lead of the US Championship after beating Dariusz Swiercz in round 2. Meanwhile, Katerina Nemcova (pictured) became the only player in both sections to keep a perfect score after two games, as she defeated Sabina Foisor with the black pieces. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

Robert Ris, Attacking the French with 3.Bd3 - A Review

10/8/2021 – Fans of the French Defence usually know their lines and structures very well, and they are happy to play their pet systems, even when the engines grant White a slight advantage. But 1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Bd3!? is a good way to bring French experts out of their comfort zone. In a "60 Minutes" video, Dutch IM Robert Ris, an expert for sharp systems, shows how White can use 3.Bd3!? to get promising play against the French Defense. IM Martin Neubauer had a look at the video.

Robert Ris’ Fast and Furious: The Belgrade Gambit

10/7/2021 – This week, well-known Dutch trainer Robert Ris looks at a way to spicen things up in the Scotch Four Knights - the Belgrade Gambit: 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.d4 exd4 5.Nd5!?. | "Fast and Furious" is available on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here.

The Elo ratings: Inflation or Deflation?

10/7/2021 – In a recent article Walter Wolf took a close look at the current development of the Elo ratings. IM Dirk Sebastian and IM Martin Voigt, who are both from Hamburg, have also examined the trends in the recent developments of the Elo ratings and try to answer the question whether there currently is an inflation or a deflation of Elo?

Svitlana's Smart Moves - Bold sacrifices might not work

10/7/2021 – Congratulations to Svitlana, who just turned 18 years old. Since she is a year older now, maybe we rename the format to "Svitlana's Smarter Moves"? But not much has changed luckily, and it is time to make some bold sacrifices, and figure out, if they are even working. Svitlana shows us a famous example by Emmanuel Lasker, and an interesting variation in the Caro-Kann.

US Championships: Favourites escape

10/7/2021 – The US Championships, again taking place over the board, kicked off on Wednesday. The open section saw Ray Robson (pictured) and John Burke grabbing the early lead, while among the women Irina Krush, Katerina Nemcova, Ashritha Eswaran and Gulrukhbegim Tokhirjonova scored full points on the first day of action. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

How to automatically create tactical quizzes

10/7/2021 – Solving tactical puzzles can be fun, but what if you could automatically create your own, even from your own games? Nothing could be easier thanks to the analysis tools in both the Fritz interface or ChessBase. In fact, it can be a fun way to review your online games and be tested on the moves where you or your opponent missed a shot. Read on to learn how!

Fabrizio Bellia becomes first Italian to win the European Senior Championship

10/7/2021 – Four Senior European titles were awarded in Budoni, Sardinia. In the over-50 group, Fabrizio Bellia (photo) became the first Italian to win the title, while German GM Klaus Bischoff came second. The over-65 title went to Nathan Birnboim. Two-time GDR national champion Annett Wagner-Michel won the women’s title. | Photo: Scacchierando

Game of the Week 484: Giri vs Carlsen

10/6/2021 – This week, Merijn van Delft shows an instructive game in which Magnus Carlsen defeated Anish Giri with the black pieces after navigating a position with a curious material imbalance. | Merijn’s show is available on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here.

Final rounds of the Bundesliga to be played in Berlin

10/6/2021 – On October 14-17, the last seven rounds of the 2019/2020 Bundesliga season will finally be played. The second half of the interrupted season will take place at the Hotel “Maritim proArte” in Berlin. At the halfway point, the two favourites for the championship title, Baden-Baden and Hockenheim, are tied at the top of the standings table without any losses. | Pictured: Peter Heine Nielsen and Peter Svidler during the final event of the 2019 season. | Photo: Maria Emelianova

Biofeedback in Chess – Part 1

10/6/2021 – Did you know that playing competitive chess affects your heart rate and increase your blood pressure? That you can burn hundreds of calories just sitting at the chess board for a couple of hours? Ashwin Subramanian is a Software Engineering Manager in the Hi-Tech Industry. He is an avid chess player, and is studying the value of biofeedback in chess during his personal time.

Magnus Carlsen: world champion, comedian, party animal

10/6/2021 – How does Magnus Carlsen spend his time when he is not playing chess? He is quite active, in fact! For example, he is one of the contestants on a Norwegian reality show — in “Ikke lov å le på hytta”, the contestants try to make the other residents of the house laugh while not laughing themselves. And this is only one of his many side activities.