The Chess Saga of Fridrik Ólafsson

9/7/2021 – Fridrik Ólafsson may be the strongest chess player of the 20th century about whom until now no book existed, in any major language. It feels great to present this first book outside of Iceland about the chess career of their first and most prominent grandmaster. It is full of important narrative and wonderfully annotated games, which highlight his personal attacking style, which he used to beat the likes of Keres, Tal, Petrosian, Fischer, Korchnoi and Karpov.

Not all roads lead to Rome

9/7/2021 – When only very few pawns are left on the board the attacker has to be careful that s/he keeps at least one pawn that can queen. In the diagram position White has three pawns left, two more than Black. But there is only one way to win. How should White proceed?

Karsten Mueller’s Endgame Magic #159: Best endgames of 2020

9/6/2021 – Karsten is joined by Arne Kaehler to discuss the best endgames of 2020. Our in-house specialist decided to kick off the show with a fascinating ending played by two amazingly strong engines, Stockfish and Komodo. | Endgame Magic is on air most Mondays. Watch it on-demand with a ChessBase Premium account.

Demchenko and Keymer tie for first at European Championship

9/6/2021 – Thanks to a final-round win, Vincent Keymer caught up with former sole leader Anton Demchenko atop the standings of the European Championship in Reykjavík. Demchenko was crowned European champion on tiebreak criteria, and thus became the first sub-2600 player to earn the title. A total of 23 players gained a ticket to the next edition of the FIDE World Cup. | Photos: Official site

What is a Cloud Database. And how to use it.

9/6/2021 – With so many cloud-based tools and services with 'cloud' in their name, it would be easy to overlook this incredibly useful tool inside ChessBase 16, which allows you to seamlessly work across multiple devices and even share with others in real time. Even professional players can miss this tool, and what is more it integrates directly with the web apps from ChessBase Account. Read on to learn more!

Pawn sac in the Grünfeld

9/6/2021 – Fighting against the Grünfeld (1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 d5), quite a number of players try to make things easier for themselves by going for the sideline 4.Bg5. After all, it threatens Bxf6, followed by picking Black's d-pawn. So, what should Black do about it? "Nothing" is the answer by GM Lars Schandorff. In his article from ChessBase Magazine #203, he recommends to simply reply with 4…Bg7 — a pawn sacrifice employed by Peter Svidler already thirty years ago.

Carlsen blows out Artemiev, wins Aimchess US Rapid

9/6/2021 – A convincing performance in the finals of the Aimchess US Rapid gave Magnus Carlsen tournament victory in the last ‘regular’ event of this year’s Meltwater Champions Chess Tour. The world champion beat Vladislav Artemiev 2½-½ in the second set of the finals. The young Russian nonetheless made it into the grand finale of the series, despite only playing in 3 of the 9 qualifying tournaments.

Online Olympiad: 15 qualifiers join China, India and Russia in the main event

9/5/2021 – Division Two came to a close on Saturday with some very exciting last-round matches, deciding the three winners of each group. Although a couple of teams (especially Colombia) dominated their groups, this stage of the event was very closely fought in general.

The patter of tiny feet

9/5/2021 – The humble pawn is the foot soldier of chess. A single passed pawn may be a huge threat if well-supported, but can also become a liability if not. Today we look at some instances of pawn “avalanches”, in which the patter of tiny feet became thunder. | Pictured: Louis-Charles Mahé de La Bourdonnais

Remembering Dima

9/5/2021 – A year ago, on September 4 2020, Dmitry Svetushkin passed away. The Moldovan Grandmaster played ten times for his country at chess Olympiads and was an active and renowned trainer. Friends describe ‘Dima’ as a very friendly, well-read and versatile person, who, for example, tried to learn German just to read Goethe in the original. Carl Strugnell shares memories and lessons of his friend and trainer. | Photo: Andreas Kontokanis

Aimchess US Rapid Finals - Carlsen beats Artemiev

9/5/2021 – Magnus Carlsen is the Aimchess US Rapid winner after a near-faultless display against Vladislav Artemiev. The World Champion now marches into next month’s $300,000 Meltwater Champions Chess Tour Final top of the leaderboard and in top form. | Full report to follow shortly

European Championship - Final round

9/5/2021 – The 2021 European Individual Championship is taking place from August 26 to September 5 at the Hotel Natura in Reykjavík, Iceland. A field of 184 players will fight to get a share of the €100,000 prize fund and one of the 23 spots at the FIDE World Cup that are in offer. The games start at 15.00 local time (17.00 CEST, 11.00 ET). Follow the action live! | Pictured: Alexey Sarana

Intensive training course with GMs Tkachev and Kazhgaleyev

9/5/2021 – The first Intensive Training Course of the Chess-Magic Academy will be held from the 24th to the 30th October 2021. GMs Vladislav Tkachiev (France) and Murtas Kazhgaleyev (Kazakhstan) are the main coaches. The theme will be the Soviet Chess School - Botvinnik’s “Total Chess” Approach.

European Championship (R10): Demchenko sole leader

9/5/2021 – The 2021 European Individual Championship is taking place from August 26 to September 5 at the Hotel Natura in Reykjavík, Iceland. With one round to go, 34-year-old Russian GM Anton Demchenko is the sole leader in the standings table. Four (young) players stand a half point behind, while a host of strong grandmasters will fight to get a ticket to the next World Cup — to do so they need to finish among the top 23. | Pictured: Vincent Keymer

Aimchess US Rapid Finals: Carlsen clinches first set

9/5/2021 – Magnus Carlsen obtained a clear victory in the first set of the finals at the Aimchess US Rapid. The world champion beat Vladislav Artemiev 2½-1½ thanks to wins in the first two games of the day. Meanwhile, Levon Aronian was awarded third place, since Alireza Firouzja had to withdraw due to illness. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

Chess 9LX: Kasparov returns to Saint Louis

9/4/2021 – The top international chess superstars are set to battle it out over the board from September 7-10 in Champions Showdown: Chess 9LX. The tournament will feature legendary World Champion Garry Kasparov, World Number 2 Fabiano Caruana, and the recent 2021 Grand Chess Tour winner, Wesley So. | Photo: Crystal Fuller

Aimchess US Rapid: Carlsen and Artemiev reach the final

9/4/2021 – Magnus Carlsen and Vladislav Artemiev emerged victorious from their semifinal duels at the Aimchess US Rapid on Friday. While the world champion beat Levon Aronian in the second set, Artemiev only went through after beating Alireza Firouzja in Armageddon. | Photo: Alina l’Ami

Daniel King’s Power Play Show: Chaos, but still classical

9/4/2021 – In this week’s show, GM Daniel King takes a look at a remarkable game from the Aimchess US Rapid, one in which Magnus Carlsen employed a modern approach right from the get go. | 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.

"The Queen's Gambit" revisited

9/4/2021 – The diagram position arose from an Open Spanish, an opening that apparently was unfamiliar to Beth Harmon, the main character of the Netflix series "The Queen's Gambit", who was playing with Black. Her last move 9...Na5 is an inaccuracy that allowed World Champion Borgov to seize the initiative. What did he play?

Nepomniachtchi's strategic and positional thinking

9/3/2021 – ChessBase Magazine # 203 with the "Special: Ian Nepmniachtchi" makes you want to follow the upcoming World Championship match in November. In the current issue, for example, our authors analyse their favorite game played by the 31-year-old Russian. The result is an exclusive collection of 21 annotated games. Karsten Müller puts the challenger's technique to the test in his contribution "Nepomniachtchi's Endgames". And Mihail Marin explores the question of what distinguishes Nepo's playing style. In addition to many training tasks, his strategy contribution includes an introductory video in which the GM from Romania outlines his findings. Take a look!
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Aimchess US Rapid SF: All square

9/3/2021 – The first day of the Aimchess US Rapid semifinals saw both mini-matches finishing drawn. In Magnus Carlsen vs Levon Aronian, the players split points in all four games. Meanwhile, Alireza Firouzja managed to tie the score after tricking Vladislav Artemiev in the last game of the first set. | Photo: Bryan Adams / Grand Chess Tour

In a serene little village: Solodovnichenko wins Paleochora Open

9/3/2021 – Paleochora is a serene little village which occupies a small peninsula on the southeast coast of Crete. Even during the uneasy pandemic time, Paleochora welcomed more than 300 players from all around the world for the 14th edition of the Open, one of the strongest tournaments in Greece. Irina Bulmaga reports from a paradisiacal location.

News Review - Lawrence has some sad news about the Gibraltar Open

9/3/2021 – The ChessBase News Review is back, and Lawrence shares his thoughts about Alireza Firouzja, who played rather bad tournaments recently, but seems to be back on track in the Aimchess Open. Furthermore, he talks about MVL, the winner of the last Sinquefield Cup, and how important this tournament was for the French Grandmaster. Lawrence also has some sad news - the Gibraltar Open might pause or come to an end. This episode ends unexpectedly. After Lawrence braggs about his "bullet chess" skills, Arne immediately challenges him to a three-game bullet match on Playchess. And this match is not as easy for the English IM as you might expect.

Robert Ris’ Fast and Furious: Playing 6.Bg5 to beat the Najdorf

9/2/2021 – This week, well-known Dutch trainer Robert Ris takes a look at a sharp and instructive game in the Sicilian Najdorf. Ris’ student Eline Roebers (15 years old) beat a player much higher-rated than her on her way to tournament victory at the Brugse Meesters in Belgium! | “Fast and Furious” is available on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here.