12/2/2021 – ChessBase Magazine offers a window to the world of professional chess and it also provides arsenal for the tournament player. CBM #204 contains 1226 games (26 annotated), 9 opening surveys, lectures and exercises for training. Annotators include Peter Heine Nielsen, Alireza Firouzja, Romain Edouard and Anish Giri, to mention a few. The icing on the cake is the Judit Polgar Special, a tribute to the former child prodigy who crossed swords with the best of them all, from Kasparov to Carlsen. Our columnist Nagesh Havanur takes a look and muses on the performance of the champion and the challenger in the coming match for the world crown.

12/2/2021 – One of the most refined and inconspicuous ways to gain an advantage and to win is the art of exchanging pieces. Most club players don’t take exchanges too seriously. Sacrificing is brave, attacking is fun, but exchanging pieces is kind of boring, isn’t it? Even cowardly. But knowing when to exchange and when not to exchange is a powerful strategic weapon. In part 2 of his "Winning Academy" series, Jan Markos shows why. | Photo: Wikipedia

12/2/2021 – The second day of our magical endgame calendar. Yesterday, you had to solve the famous endgame move by Shirov vs. Topalov. And of course, most of you knew the correct answer, and also mentioned the game. More of this, please! But we also had quite some participants answer with A. Be4, which won't do the trick. But no worries, you have 23 more tries. Today, we look at a famous check-mate in 18 moves. Luckily, you only need to know the first move to start this combo.

12/1/2021 – On Wednesday, Ian Nepomniachtchi got the white pieces for a third time in the World Championship match against Magnus Carlsen. The Russian got an advantage out of the opening but could not make the most of his chances. Super-GM Anish Giri annotates the game with instructive insights and pertinent variations. | Photo: Alina l’Ami

12/1/2021 – For the first time at the World Championship match in Dubai, Ian Nepomniachtchi clearly won the opening battle against Magnus Carlsen. The Russian missed a couple of chances to put his opponent under more pressure, which led to a fifth draw in the 14-game duel. The contenders will get a second rest day on Thursday. | Photo: Anastasiya Karlovich

12/1/2021 – This week, Merijn van Delft takes a look at a game from the Dutch Championship, in which Max Warmerdam outplayed his opponent Hing Ting Lai convincingly. Warmerdam is not only a strong player, but he also worked as a second for Jorden Van Foreest at the Wijk aan Zee tournament 2021, and helped Van Foreest to surprisingly win this prestigious event. | Merijn’s show is available on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here.

11/29/2021 – In the Endgame Magic Show #172 Karsten Müller and Arne Kähler look at interesting endgames from the European Team Championship. | You can watch the Endgame Magic Show on-demand with a ChessBase Premium account.

11/29/2021 – The new AI-based training method "Easy Game" helps you to play brilliancies against Fritz18! After mating Fritz18 you can publish your game with one click or you can send it per email to ChessBase to take part in the great Fritz 18 lottery. Join the action!

11/29/2021 – Look at this position. Black still has all his pieces on the board, while White has just a single pawn, on its original square. So what is the task? "White to play and win" says the composer, one of the most imaginative in history. Born in 1860, Ottó Titusz Bláthy composed a large number of "Grotesques", extremely unusual positions in which White must win against much larger black forces. These problems are generally intended to be humorous. We hope you enjoy our examples, which should also serve to remind you how you can move the pieces, play and analyse right there on our news page diagrams.

11/29/2021 – Game 3 of the World Championship match between Magnus Carlsen and Ian Nepomniachtchi was full of opening subtleties and refined maneuvering that, however, eventually led to the third draw of the match. David Navara took a closer look at the game and its hidden subtleties.

11/28/2021 – The battle of theoretical preparations continues at the World Championship match, with Magnus Carlsen and Ian Nepomniachtchi signing a third consecutive draw on Sunday before the first rest day in Dubai. Once again, the defending champion deviated from mainstream theory only to see his opponent well prepared and ready to discuss the ensuing sidelines. | Photo: Eric Rosen

11/28/2021 – 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 55th instalment of his ChessBase show "Understanding before Moving", Herman continues to talk about pawns which terrorize knights. | Photo: Tommy Grooten