The World Rapid and Blitz Championships will take place in Warsaw

12/10/2021 – A few days ago the FIDE announced that the World Rapid and Blitz Championships due to Corona restrictions could not take place in Nur Sultan, Kazakhstan, as was originally planned. Now FIDE announced that they found a new venue: the World Rapid and Blitz Championships will take place in Warsaw on the planned dates (December 25 - December 31, 2021). | Photo: Qbolewicz

Carlsen is (still) the champ! - Games and commentary

12/10/2021 – Magnus Carlsen picked up a fourth win at the World Championship match in Dubai to secure overall victory with three games to spare. Playing black, the world champion saw Ian Nepomniachtchi all but self-destructing for a third time in the match. This was Carlsen’s fourth consecutive defence of the title after becoming world champion in 2013. | Replay all the games with computer analysis. Full report to follow shortly | Photo: Niki Riga

The Endgame Magic Christmas Calendar - Door 10

12/10/2021 – The rook moves to the square f2. Most people knew that yesterday, which is wonderful! As always, the detailed solution is in the video, and there are many details to consider. We are briefly confused ourselves during the analysis. Today we have to solve a problem, starring Magnus Carlsen!
More...
 1

"Magnus, and Modern chess, at its best"

12/10/2021 – The new ChessBase Magazine Extra #204 offers two opening videos on Scandinavian and Catalan as well as a total of 26 games with detailed commentary, including analyses by Anish Giri, Romain Edouard and Michal Krasenkow. Peter Heine Nielsen, Magnus Carlsen's second, contributes "The brilliancy". And of course it's about am extraordinary game by the World Champion. In the final of the Meltwater Tour 2021 Carlsen outplayed Jan-Krzysztof Duda after a novelty ("At first it looks close to insanity.") in only 18 moves. Take a look!
More...
 1

Nodirbek Abdusattorov wins El Llobregat Open in Barcelona

12/10/2021 – After nine rounds three players shared first place with 7.0/9 each at the El Llobregat Open in Barcelona: Nodirbek Abdusattorov (Uzbekistan), Murali Khartikeyan (India), and Pere Garriga Cazorla, the best player from the host country. Abdusattorov then won the playoff and the tournament, Khartikeyan finished second. | Photos: Patricia Claros

Field of participants Tata Steel Chess Tournament 2022 complete

12/10/2021 – The field of participants of the Tata Steel Chess Tournament 2022 is complete. Anish Giri (7th on the world ranking) and Jorden van Foreest, winner of the Tata Steel Chess Tournament 2021, will represent The Netherlands in the Tata Steel Masters. Both grandmaster groups consist of a mix of well-established players and promising young players. The 84th edition of the Tata Steel Chess Tournament will take place in Wijk aan Zee from 14 – 30 January 2022. | Photo: Jorden van Foreest (winner) and Anish Giri playing the tie-break during the Tata Steel Chess Tournament 2021 | Photo: Tata Steel Tournament

Robert Ris’ Fast and Furious: A crushing win against the Bayonet Attack

12/9/2021 – This week, well-known Dutch trainer Robert Ris looks at an entertaining attacking game in the King's Indian. Enjoy! | "Fast and Furious" is available on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here.

Thirty years! Happy Birthday Fritz (5)

12/9/2021 – The adventures we have had with Fritz! A unique experience was a match our program played in the Gulf state of Bahrain, back in 2002. The eight-game struggle ended in a hard-fought 4-4 draw. In a large pictorial article Frederic Friedel describes the intense battle against the reigning World Champion Vladimir Kramnik, and the three weeks spent by the ChessBase/Fritz team in a luxury hotel in Bahrain.

Svitlana's Smart Moves - Hope for all Nepo fans

12/9/2021 – In today's episode, Svitlana wants to give some hope to all the Nepo fans out there. The Canadian WIM shows us some beautiful games of former World Chess Champions, who managed remarkable comebacks in World Championship matches. We are talking about players like Wilhelm Steinitz, Alexander Alekhine, and Bobby Fischer. All three of them were trailing in World Championship matches and all three of them could turn the tables around. Nepo, it ain't over, until it's over.

Brilliancies with Fritz 18: Robert Ris gives it a try!

12/9/2021 – Winning a brilliancy is a delight! Fritz 18 shows you how to do it - with the "Evolving Genius" function. The program gives subtle hints, you find ways to play fantastic games. The renowned author and coach IM Robert Ris has tried it and played a spectacular, fast and furious game which he shows in a video. But Fritz 18 helps everyone to play brilliant games. And you can share these brilliancies and take part in our Fritz 18 lottery and win great prizes!. A lot of readers have already sent in brilliancies, we show the most beautiful victories in loose order! So, join the action and send your brilliancy to brilliancy@chessbase.com"!

The Endgame Magic Christmas Calendar - Door 9

12/9/2021 – The "body-check" is the right solution from yesterday, instead of an immediate "opposition". If the king goes to d4, the game can be won. The good news is, almost everyone knew that too. In door number 9 we again have only four pieces on the board, and again it is a really instructive endgame prime example.
More...
 1

Fedoseev wins Sheikh Hamdan bin Rashid Rapid Cup

12/9/2021 – During the World Championship match between Magnus Carlsen and Ian Nepomniachtchi a number of other tournaments are played in Dubai. One of them is the Sheikh Hamdan bin Rashid Rapid and Blitz Cup, in which 24 players from 22 countries took part. The winner of the Rapid Cup, a nine round Swiss, was Russian Grandmaster Vladimir Fedoseev. | Photos: Tournament Page

FIDE World Rapid & Blitz Championships will not be held in Kazakhstan in December

12/9/2021 – The FIDE Rapid and Blitz World Championships cannot take place in Nur Sultan (Kazakhstan) in December as originally planned. Due to the tightened Corona security measures imposed by the Kazakh government, FIDE has cancelled the tournament in Kazakhstan and is currently looking at alternative venues.

World Championship: Game 10 annotated by Wesley So

12/9/2021 – "A short and quite uneventful draw, which totally makes sense as Magnus is on the verge of match victory." This is how Wesley So summed up game 10 of the World Championship match between Magnus Carlsen and Ian Nepomniachtchi. However, in his analyses he still managed to dig deep and indicates a lot of hidden subtleties of the game, particularly in regard to opening theory and match strategy. | Picture: FIDE

World Championship Game 10: Safety first

12/8/2021 – An uneventful draw in game 10 of the World Championship match kept Magnus Carlsen’s 3-point lead going into the fourth rest day of the contest. The defending champion only needs to score 1 point in the remaining 4 encounters to keep his crown. | Photo: Niki Riga

Game of the Week #493: Thomas Beerdsen vs Sergey Fedorchuk

12/8/2021 – This week, Merijn van Delft takes a look at a game between the Dutch player Thomas Beerdsen and Sergey Fedorchuk from Ukraine. The game was played at a tournament in Barcelona and helped Beerdsen to make his second grandmaster norm. | Merijn’s show is available on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here.

New: Elisabeth Pähtz - Attacking with the Jobava London System

12/8/2021 – The Jobava London System, named after the top Georgian player Baadur Jobava, is a side form of the London System, which differs in principle in only one small detail - the white knight is established early on c3. This brings two major advantages. On the one hand, it is possible to castle longside more quickly, and on the other hand, tactical motifs sometimes arise on the queenside. Since the system is still relatively new, there is no need to learn tons of theory.

The Endgame Magic Christmas Calendar - Door 8

12/8/2021 – Oh dear! The last door really was a tough cookie. Rarely have we received so many different answers, so we decided to draw two more winners for the day. In the video, we see the details of the solution Kc2, which lay dormant for more than 100 years. Today we have only four pieces on the board, and yet the solution is not crystal clear.
More...
 3

World Championship: Game 9 annotated by Wesley So

12/8/2021 – After blundering in game 8 of his World Championship match against Magnus Carlsen, Ian Nepomniachtchi also blundered and lost in game 9. Carlsen now leads 6-3 and with five games to go the match is practically over. Wesley So took a close look at game 9 and concludes: "Ian was playing very well early on in the match but ... game 6 was clearly the turning point in this match as before that both players were playing equally well and it seems that Ian was no inferior to Magnus. ... Ian is a great player and even the greatest players make mistakes. Unexpected and miserable stuff happens to us all, and we hope Ian will be able to move on and get his mojo back asap!" | Photo: Wesley So (Archive) | Photo: Lennart Ootes

World Championship Game 9: Disaster strikes for Nepo

12/7/2021 – The World Championship match in Dubai might theoretically finish after 11 (out of 14) games, as Magnus Carlsen scored a third victory in four games after Ian Nepomniachtchi inexplicably blundered a piece in an equal position on Tuesday. The challenger now needs to win 3 out of the 5 remaining encounters to take the match to tiebreaks. | Photo: Niki Riga

New: Andrew Martin - The Barry Attack

12/7/2021 – Not quite a London System and not quite a Veresov. The unusually named ‘Barry Attack‘ lies somewhere between the two. Yet another challenging queen pawn system that Black has to prepare for.

The Endgame Magic Christmas Calendar - Door 7

12/7/2021 – First, thank you very much for all the answers! We are delighted that this calendar is so well received. Door number 6 proved to be one of the most difficult ones, although the majority were able to find the somewhat bizarre move Kh8. If you thought door 6 was tough already, today we raise the difficulty even more. Good luck!
More...
 2

Max Warmerdam wins Dutch Championship

12/7/2021 – This year, the Dutch National Championship was played in two stages. In the knockout preliminaries four players had qualified for the finals: Max Warmerdam, Robin Swinkels, Roeland Pruijssers, and Hing Ting Lai. Max Warmerdam convincingly won the finals, a double round-robin which was played last week. | Photos: Harry Gielen

The principle of three weaknesses

12/7/2021 – In queen endgames having the initiative is crucial. In the diagram position it is Black to move and it is Black who has the initiative. But how should he proceed?