1/12/2022 – The Scotch Game (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4) is a great repertoire addition for any player looking for a solid yet active opening, which relies more on understanding rather than pure memorization. The popularity of the Scotch rose exponentially after Garry Kasparov employed it in the World Championship match against Anatoly Karpov in 1990, and the opening has stayed in style ever since.

1/11/2022 – In his "Weekly Show" Lawrence Trent takes a look at the Vergani Cup, focusing on the performance of Nurgyul Salimova who scored a GM norm. A fantastic performance by the Bulgarian youngster! The game of the day is Nigel Short's encounter with Salimova. | Lawrence’s show is available on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here

1/11/2022 – Paul Keres (January 7, 1916 – June 5, 1975) was the clear favourite in the 1942 Estonian Championship in Tallinn. At the time he was considered a possible challenger to World Champion Alexander Alekhine and was the only world-class player in the field. Nevertheless, it is astonishing how clearly Keres dominated the tournament: he won all 15 games without conceding a single draw. | Photo: Valter Heuer (Archive)

1/11/2022 – Sometimes bad performance at a tournament can spur you into action. It can make you have a close look at the holes and weaknesses in your play. This is exactly what happened with our reviewer Aanjaneya Phatak. 20-year-old Aanjaneya, who works on chess without a coach, decided to go to the MP Masters Chess 2021. He lost 47 Elo point making his rating fall from 2212 to 2165. But from that experience he realized that he needed to add new openings to his arsenal. That's how he got his hands on Markus Ragger's latest Fritztrainer for ChessBase on the Grunfeld Defence. In this article Aanjaneya narrates his experience of working with Austria's first ever 2700+ GM.

1/11/2022 – A new Russian film, written and directed by Aleksey Sidorov, called “The Champion of the World” was released on December 30. The film tells the story of the bitter rivalry between Anatoly Karpov and Viktor Korchnoi, focusing on their memorable match in Baguio. Eteri Kublashvili had access to the shooting and shared a number of remarkable photos and impressions on the website of the Chess Federation of Russia.

1/11/2022 – Sometimes it would be nice to have another queen on the board, especially if things went wrong in the first part of the game. In a YouTube video on optical illusions, Matt Pritchard reveals how you can suddenly conjure up a queen on the board by using means of disguise that have a long tradition in chess but are rather unusual in modern tournament play.

1/11/2022 – Pawn races often have a flavour of their own and taking pawns is not always the most important. In the diagram position it is Black to move and win. What would you do?

1/10/2022 – Four years after his epic match against Fritz in Bahrain, which ended in a hard-fought 4-4 draw, World Champion Vladimir Kramnik, who had in the meantime twice defended his title, once again took up the gauntlet to face his computer opponent. In a two-part pictorial article, Frederic Friedel describes the intense million-dollar battle that was fought between them in 2006 in Bonn, Germany. Finance Minister Peer Steinbrück called it a cultural battle between outstanding representatives of human and technical intelligence.

1/10/2022 – On Tuesday, January 11, 2022, the first auction of the Chess World Champion NFTs (Wilhelm Steinitz) will end at 12:00 CET. The other auctions will follow roughly every hour. So let's summarize what makes this series unique. In one sentence: It will remain the first of its kind for all times! Also: What is the deeper meaning of NFTs? And a short but hefty guide to the technical side of the auction.

1/10/2022 – In the Endgame Magic Show #177, Karsten Müller and Arne Kähler look at a fascinating position played at the 2021 FIDE World Cup in Sochi. Sometimes you need to calculate what will happen in the fourth phase of the game, when newly promoted queens appear on the board, and every single check is crucial! | You can watch the Endgame Magic Show on-demand with a ChessBase Premium account.

1/10/2022 – The Indian Grandmaster Lalith Babu won the "Vergani Cup" in the Italian Adriatic resort of Cattolica which finished on Sunday. With 7.0/9 Lalith shared first place with Hans Moke Niemann (USA), Vitaliy Bernadskiy (Ukraine) and Nurgyul Salimova (Bulgaria), but he had the best tiebreak and therefore won the tournament and the first prize of €2,500. | Photos: Rupali Mullick

1/10/2022 – With the Tata Steel Masters kicking off next Saturday, chess aficionados are set to enjoy another year of elite tournaments. Besides the traditional event in Wijk aan Zee, a tournament with a new format will take place in Gibraltar, while the first two legs of the FIDE Grand Prix will be played in close succession in February.