9/1/2021 – The new ChessBase Magazine # 203 already whets the appetite for the World Championship match in November. In the "Special: Ian Nepmniachtchi" each of our authors analyses their favorite game of the new challenger. The result is an exclusive collection of 21 extensively annotated games. Karsten Müller puts the technique of the 31-year-old Russian to the test in his contribution "Nepomniachtchi’s Endgames". And Mihail Marin explores the question of what distinguishes “Nepos” playing style. Adhiban, Krasenkow, Navara, Praggnanandhaa, Vitiugov, Wojtaszek and others comment on their games from the World Cup. Plus 10 opening articles ("The Scandinavian under pressure", "News from the Fantasy Variation" etc.), opening videos by King, Werle and Marin as well as training columns on tactics, strategy and endgame. We present all of this to you in the new CBM layout!

8/31/2021 – The first sets of the Aimchess US Rapid quarterfinals were played on Tuesday. Magnus Carlsen, Alireza Firouzja and Levon Aronian won their first 4-game mini-matches, which means a draw on Wednesday will grant them a spot in the semifinals. The one match that finished drawn was Vladislav Artemiev vs Leinier Dominguez, as the Russian won game 4 on demand to tie the score. | Photo: Amruta Mokal

8/31/2021 – In his "Weekly Show" IM Lawrence Trent takes a look at a game which shows how things can go wrong from the black side of a Slav Defence — i.e. Wesley So vs Awonder Liang from the Aimchess US Rapid. | Lawrence's show is available on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here

8/31/2021 – Have a fearful opponent next round? Have ChessBase 16 but no database (having one is a bonus)? No worries, here is a tutorial to help you get sorted and prepared so you can approach your next game with confidence. Don't miss this valuable lesson, which comes with a summary of the main points in a convenient video at the end!

8/31/2021 – In the diagram position it is Black to move and tablebases and endgame books know that this position is a theoretical draw. However, holding theoretical draws is often difficult in practice. But Jan-Krzyzstof Duda, who was Black against Ding Liren here, was up to the task and found the only move that saves the game. What did he play?

8/31/2021 – Half the players were eliminated from the Aimchess US Rapid after three days of preliminaries. Among them are top GMs Anish Giri and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave. Notably, we will get to see four interesting matchups in the quarterfinals, with world champion Magnus Carlsen facing Jan-Krzysztof Duda, after Duda recently beat Carlsen in the semifinals of the World Cup. | Pictured: Locations of the participants

8/30/2021 – Herman and Karsten discuss endgames and Herman’s forthcoming ChessBase products. Herman tells many surprising stories connected to endgames. He talks, for example, about how Loek van Wely began his serious work on rook endgames. | Endgame Magic is on air most Mondays. Watch it on-demand with a ChessBase Premium account.

8/30/2021 – The Division 3 stage of the 2021 FIDE Online Olympiad finished on Sunday. After nine rounds in each of the 10-team round robin pools, 15 countries have qualified for the next stage of the tournament. These 15 qualifiers will join 35 new seeded teams in Division 2 — including powerhouses such as Cuba, Italy, Israel, Shenzhen, Slovenia and Sweden, all rated +2300 — which will run next weekend, September 2-4.

8/30/2021 – The United Arab Emirates have the world's tallest building (Burj Khalifa), the world’s biggest mall – and the world's biggest chess club. It covers an area of 34,000 square feet, including the main hall, which can accommodate up to 500 players. Now the Sharjah Cultural & Chess Club (SCCC) is inviting you to play in the 4th Sharjah Masters 2021, from September 16 to 26. All event’s participants must present a Covid vaccination certificate.

8/30/2021 – Here's another opportunity to sharpen your tactical skills: twelve positions taken from recent tournaments, selected by the British magazine CHESS. The diagrams on our news page allow you to move the pieces around to analyse. There is also an embedded engine that will actually play out the position against you! Which means you can work things out directly on the diagrams in the browser. How neat is that?

8/30/2021 – Day 2 of the Aimchess US Rapid prelims saw Vladislav Artemiev climbing to sole first place after drawing two games and winning the remaining three to go into the last day of the round robin a half point ahead of Levon Aronian and Magnus Carlsen. The likes of Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and Leinier Dominguez are in real danger of being eliminated before the knockout. | Photo: Eric Rosen / FIDE World Cup

8/29/2021 – A special kind of magic trick is to turn one thing into another — a.k.a. a switcheroo. In endgame studies, one such transformation is turning a stalemate into a checkmate. Columnist Siegfried Hornecker shows phenomenal examples which made use of this fantastic ‘magic trick’. | Pictured: Ernest Pogosyants