Tykhon Cherniaiev - Professional Streamer, Minecrafter, and Chess Prodigy

2/2/2022 – The 11-year-old Candidate Master from the Ukraine is streaming regularly on Twitch.tv and YouTube. But his passion for chess and streaming started even earlier. In our interview, Tykhon tells us how he learned to play chess, what Minecraft has to do with his English-speaking skills, and why he always seems to be in a good mood. Furthermore, we take a look at one of his favourite games, including nice, insightful analysis.

Game of the Week #501: Caruana vs Carlsen, Wijk aan Zee 2022

2/2/2022 – In his "Game of the Week" show #501 Merijn van Delft takes a look at the final rounds of the Tata Steel tournament in Wijk aan Zee, and focuses on Magnus Carlsen's fine and crucial win with Black against Fabiano Caruana. | Merijn's show is available on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here.

Svitlana's Smart Moves - Finding pawn weaknesses

2/2/2022 – There are a couple of different pawn weaknesses in chess. Often, spotting those weaknesses is the most common technique, used by professional chess players, to gain an advantage. Svitlana helps us to identify the fragile pawns, and making the correct, smart moves, once we understand the situation on the board.

French Grandmaster Gilles Mirallès dies at the age of 55

2/2/2022 – Last Friday, 28 January, the French Grandmaster Gilles Mirallès passed away at the age of 55 in Ferney-Voltaire. Mirallès was French junior champion, two-time national champion and often played for France in team events. For a time he ran a chess school in Geneva. | Photo: Chess School Geneva

Battle of the Sexes: Men increase lead

2/2/2022 – Round eight of the #GibChess Battle of Sexes, held at Gibraltar’s Garrison Library on Tuesday 1 February, resulted in a 5½-4½ victory for Team Sabino with the White pieces, increasing their overall score to 42½-37½ – a lead of five points for the men’s team with two rounds to go. The battle is now well and truly joined, with various chances coming and going, but the men’s team lead is starting to look hard to overturn. Report and photos by John Saunders.

The Weekly Show: The ongoing Battle of the Sexes

2/2/2022 – In his "Weekly Show" Lawrence Trent, who is currently in Gibraltar to commentate the games of the "Battle of the Sexes" with Irina Bulmaga, looks at highlights from this entertaining event. | Lawrence’s show is available on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here

FIDE ratings February 2022

2/2/2022 – FIDE has published the new world ranking list. Since hardly any tournaments were played in January and the Tata Steel tournament was not taken into account for the February list, there are virtually no changes at the top. Magnus Carlsen continues to be the world's number one with a huge margin, Alireza Firouzja is in second place and the only other player with a rating of +2800.

CBM 205: A Question of Strong Will and Cool Nerves

2/1/2022 – ChessBase Magazine offers a window to the world of professional chess and it also provides arsenal for the tournament player. Issue 205 offers games from several major events, FIDE Grand Swiss Tournament, USA and Russian Championships and European Team Championship, 2287 games (21 annotated), 11 opening surveys, lectures and exercises for training. Annotators include Alireza Firouzja, Anish Giri and Nikita Vitiugov among others. The icing on the cake is the Robert Hübner Special, a tribute to a great player who crossed swords with the best of them all, from Bobby Fischer to Garry Kasparov. Our columnist Nagesh Havanur takes a look. | Photo: Magnus Carlsen vs Alireza Firouzja, Norway Chess 2021 | Photo: Lennart Ootes

Battle of the Sexes: Men forge ahead

2/1/2022 – Round seven of the #GibChess Battle of Sexes, held at Gibraltar’s Garrison Library on Monday 31 January, resulted in a 6-4 victory for Team Sabino with the black pieces, increasing their overall score to 37-33 – a lead of four points. But, once again, it could have been very different if Team Pia had taken all the chances offered in what was a particularly tense and hard-fought round. | Photo: Sir David Steel, Governor of Gibraltar, by John Saunders.

A theoretical draw, but...

2/1/2022 – In the diagrammed position it is Black to move and draw. In fact, as endgame books and tablebases know this position is a theoretical draw. However, it occurred at the end of a rapid game and with only seconds on the clock Black failed to find the right move. Can you do better?

Composed yet ruthless: Arjun Erigaisi

2/1/2022 – Last Saturday, Arjun Erigaisi won the Tata Steel Challengers tournament with a round to spare. Despite having secured tournament victory, the Indian collected one more win on Sunday, thus finishing the event with a remarkable 10½/13 score. We take a look at some of Arjun’s most successful performances, and reflect on the change of attitude that has worked so well for him. | Photo: Lennart Ootes – Tata Steel Chess Tournament 2022

A strong duo: An interview with Pia and Anna Cramling

1/31/2022 – Chess is an integral part of the lives of Pia Cramling and her daughter Anna. But mother and daughter are successful in very different ways. While Pia Cramling has been one of the world's best women player for decades, Anna Cramling Bellón has now become a successful chess streamer. But both pursue a common goal. As they explain in an interview with Tatiana Flores, they both want to promote chess and bring more women into the community.

Karsten Müller’s Endgame Magic Show #180 - with Mihail Marin: Endgame highlights of the Sitges Open 2021

1/31/2022 – The well-known author and Grandmaster Mihail Marin is Karsten Müller's guest in the Endgame Magic Show #180. Mihail talks about his forthcoming ChessBase products, and Karsten and he look at endgame highlights from the Sitges Open 2021. | You can watch the Endgame Magic Show on-demand with a ChessBase Premium account.

Battle of the Sexes: Men catch up

1/31/2022 – Round six of the #GibChess Battle of Sexes, held at Gibraltar’s Garrison Library on Sunday 30 January, saw the men’s team win by 6½-3½ on the day and, for the first time, move into the lead in the overall match by 31 points to 29. It was round of missed chances and swings of fortune as players became tired and the tension increased. For the first time since our arrival the sun shone outdoors, but not indoors on the women’s games as they didn’t get their fair share of whatever luck was going. Four rounds remain, and now it is the women’s team who need to fight back if they are to share the top prize of £75,000. Report and photos: John Saunders

Tata Steel R13: Wins for Pragg, Karjakin and Van Foreest

1/31/2022 – Besides Magnus Carlsen, who got a win by forfeit over Daniil Dubov, Praggnanandhaa, Sergey Karjakin and Jorden van Foreest also scored full points in the last round of the Tata Steel Masters tournament. Meanwhile, Arjun Erigaisi, who had secured first place in the Challengers with a round to spare, collected yet another victory to finish the event with a remarkable 10½/13 score. | Photo: Jurriaan Hoefsmit

A selection of brilliancies: Spassky faces the Sicilian

1/30/2022 – When Boris Spassky, World Champion from 1969 to 1972, had to play the Sicilian with the white pieces, he seemed to get particularly inspired. Today, the living legend from Leningrad turns 85, and to celebrate him we share a selection of brilliant games he played with 1.e4 c5 during his illustrious career. | Photo: Gerhard Hund

Tata Steel Chess - Games and results

1/30/2022 – Besides Magnus Carlsen, who got a win by forfeit over Daniil Dubov, Praggnanandhaa, Sergey Karjakin and Jorden van Foreest also scored full points in the last round of the Tata Steel Masters tournament. Meanwhile, Arjun Erigaisi (pictured), who had secured first place in the Challengers with a round to spare, collected yet another victory to finish the event with a remarkable 10½/13 score. | Replay all the games with computer analysis. Full report to follow shortly!

Understanding before Moving 64: The power of the diagonal

1/30/2022 – 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 64th instalment of his ChessBase show "Understanding before Moving", Herman talks about the "power of the diagonal". | Photo: Tommy Grooten

Player Types - The Activist

1/30/2022 – The Grandmasters Dr. Karsten Mueller and Luis Engel have set a ball rolling in Germany with their latest Fritztrainer. GM Lars Bo Hansen designed the four-player model in 2005, and was perhaps ahead of his time. In the 5-part interview with Dr. Karsten Mueller, all four player types are discussed in detail. Today - The Activist.

Magnus Carlsen grabs eighth title in Wijk aan Zee

1/30/2022 – Magnus Carlsen beat Fabiano Caruana to claim his eighth tournament title in Wijk aan Zee with a round to spare. The world champion will not even need to show up for Sunday’s final round, as the organizers of the tournament confirmed that Daniil Dubov will not be playing despite testing negative to a second Covid-19 PCR test. Meanwhile, Arjun Erigaisi clinched the title in the Challengers, thus getting an invitation to next year’s main event. | Photo: Jurriaan Hoefsmit

Battle of the Sexes, Round 5: A tense draw

1/29/2022 – The #GibChess Battle of the Sexes reached its halfway point at Gibraltar’s Garrison Library on Friday 28 January with a tense 5-5 draw in round five, with the women having White on all boards. The women thus still lead the men by a single point, with 25½ points to the men’s 24½. The match is beautifully poised for a tense second half when play resumes on Sunday | Report and photos by John Saunders

New: ChessBase Magazine Extra #205

1/29/2022 – Videos: Mihail Marin examines the Berlin Defence with 4.d3 d6 and finds some practical advantages for Black over the standard move 4...Bc5. Christian Bauer presents a new knight sacrifice in the Voronezh Variation of the Alekhine Defence. In this issue's "Brilliancy" Imre Hera took the initiative against Zoltan Almasi in the London System after 1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 e6 3.Bf4 b6 4.e3 Be7 5.h3 c5 6.Nc3! "The lucky bag" is particularly well stocked with 72 (!) extensively annotated games! Among them are analyses by Vladimir Belous, Spyridon Kapnisis, Michal Krasenkow, Krishnan Sasikiran and many others. ChessBase Magazine Extra is the perfect supplement to ChessBase Magazine. Available as a single issue or by subscription (6 issues per year). Available on DVD or as a download.
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No endgame technique required!

1/29/2022 – In the diagram position White has a shortcut to victory, enabling him to hunt down Black's king ... or his queen on h1! Can you work it all out in your head?

Study of the Month: Endgame Studies, Endgame Theory

1/29/2022 – Endgame studies sometimes go to extremes, e.g. by demonstrating a win in 584(!) moves in a study, in which King, Rook, two Bishops (standing on the same colour), and pawn fight against King, Queen and Pawn. But are these and similar studies relevant for the theory of the endgame or practical games? It depends. Siegfried Hornecker takes a closer look.