Robert Ris’ Fast and Furious: Sicilian Dragon (6.g3)

7/1/2021 – This week, the well-known Dutch trainer Robert Ris takes a look how Black can spice up the Sicilian Dragon even if White tries to have a quiet life. | "Fast and Furious" is available on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here.

Top 12: A wine maker and a mathematics professor battle it out against international stars

7/1/2021 – The "Top 12" competition sees some of the world’s best players battle it out to claim the French club championship. This year players such as Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Veselin Topalov and Jorden Van Foreest show their class in this 11-round event. However, this competition also serves as an excellent platform for amateurs who seldom get to play against such strong opponents. Dhananjay Khadilkar asked Mathieu Ternault (pictured), a wine maker by profession, and Mickael Hutois, a professor for mathematics, how it feels to play in such an event. | Photo: Dhananjay Khadilkar

Nihal Sarin wins Silver Lake Open

7/1/2021 – Nihal Sarin was the dominant player at the Silver Lake Open: the young Indian and reigning U18 World Champion won the tournament with 8.0/9 and a rating performance of 2809. His compatriots Raunak Sadhwani and Abhimanyu Puranik won silver and bronze. | Photo: Rupali Mulick

Game of the Week: M. Carlsen vs P. Svidler

7/1/2021 – This week Merijn van Delft takes a look how Magnus Carlsen surprised Peter Svidler - and chess fans around the world - with an unusual move in the starting position of the Najdorf Sicilian. | Merijn's show is available on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here.

Goldmoney Asian Rapid: Carlsen knocks out So in tiebreaks

7/1/2021 – Two of the four quarterfinal matches at the Goldmoney Asian Rapid tournament were decided on tiebreaks. After winning the first set and the first game of the second set, it seemed like Magnus Carlsen was going to have an easy day at the office, but back-to-back wins by Wesley So meant it would all be decided in blitz. The world champion finally moved on to the semis thanks to a win and a draw in the 5-minute games. Levon Aronian also had a tough time against Arjun Erigaisi, but managed to advance, while Vladislav Artemiev and Ding Liren won their matches in the rapid section of the second set. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

Made it! Abhi youngest GM in history!

6/30/2021 – This remarkable lad from Englishtown, New Jersey, playing with great determination under Covid restrictions in Hungary, has scored his third and final GM norm. He has earned the title at the age of 12 years, 4 months, and 25 days, which is 66 days sooner than Sergey Karjakin in 2002. This comes after he had broken the record of youngest US master (at nine years and two months), and youngest International Master ever (at 10 years, nine months, and three days). Congratulations, Abhi!

34. Torneo Magistral Ajedrez Ciudad de Leon

6/30/2021 – The traditional Chess Masters Tournament of the city of Leon goes online again. The four participants are Leinier Dominguez, Boris Gelfand, Women's World Champion Ju Wenjun and Jaime Santos, who represents the host. The tournament starts today at 15:30 CEST (9:30 ET, 13:30 UTC) and will end on Sunday.

Nihal Sarin leads at the Silver Lake Open

6/30/2021 – After eight of nine rounds the young Indian Grandmaster Nihal Sarin leads at the Silver Lake Open Veliko Gradiste with 7.0/8 and is half a point ahead of his countryman Raunak Sadhwani and the Serbian GM Branko Damljanovic, against whom Sarin has to play with Black in round nine. | Photos: Rupali Mullick

FIDE reports: "The Queens' Festival goes big"

6/30/2021 – Over 460 female players from 82 countries participated in the individual and team tournaments within the Queens’ festival global chess tournaments run from June 11 to June 27. The ambitious global project aiming at connecting women chess players from around the world of all ages and all rating groups was organized by FIDE Commission for Women’s Chess in cooperation with FIDE Events Commission and with the support of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), as well as Asian Chess Federation, African Chess Confederation, European Chess Union, and Confederation of Chess for Americas. | Pictures: FIDE

Goldmoney Asian Rapid QF: Artemiev stuns Giri, Carlsen beats So

6/30/2021 – The first sets of the quarterfinal matches at the Goldmoney Asian Rapid Tournament were played on Tuesday. Magnus Carlsen and Vladislav Artemiev got off to a good start, with the former obtaining a 2½-1½ victory over Wesley So and the latter defeating Anish Giri by a convincing 3-0 score. The remaining two mini-matches finished drawn. | Photo: Alina l’Ami / Tata Steel Chess

The Weekly Show: Arjun Erigaisi surprises at Goldmoney Asian Rapid tournament

6/29/2021 – In his "Weekly Show" IM Lawrence Trent will take a look at the Asian Goldmoney Rapid tournament (part of Meltwater Chess Tour). He will particularly focus on the performance of another new young star – the Indian GM Arjun Erigaisi who qualified for the knockout stage and defeated Hou Yifan in round 10 in crushing style. | Lawrence's show is available on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here.

Svitlana's Smart Moves - Episode 7

6/29/2021 – Svitlana Demchenko is a 17-year-old, Canadian WIM, and chess coach. Here and now, she will teach us plenty of smart moves on the board, ranging from tactics, strategies, openings, and anything else chess related. In the process, I'm happy to be available as a student at club player level, and pester the female international master with questions. Anyone who wants to strengthen their chess skills is welcome to watch, and actively replay the positions from the video, on our chessboard.

New: ChessBase Magazine 202

6/29/2021 – ChessBase Magazine is the most comprehensive and most sophisticated chess magazine there is. World class players analyze their brilliancies and explain the ideas behind the moves to you, opening specialists present the latest trends in opening theory and offer exciting ideas for your repertoire. Master trainers in the fields of tactics, strategy, and the endgame show you the tricks and techniques a successful tournament player needs! DVD with several hours of video + booklet. Also available for download including the booklet in pdf!

The king is a strong piece

6/29/2021 – It was Steinitz who claimed that the king is strong, even in the opening and the middlegame. However, the more enemy pieces on the board, the greater the danger for His Majesty. But in the endgame the king can often show its power. In the diagram position Black is a pawn down but is still able to draw. How?

Goldmoney Asian Rapid: Firouzja, Svidler and Dubov miss the cut

6/29/2021 – Levon Aronian won the preliminaries of the Goldmoney Asian Rapid tournament after scoring two wins and three draws on Monday to get a 10½/15 score. Eight out of the sixteen participants made it into the knockout stage, with 17-year-old Arjun Erigaisi surprisingly qualifying, while Alireza Firouzja, Peter Svidler and Daniil Dubov were left out of contention. | Don’t miss the instructive analyses by GM Karsten Müller! | Photo: Amruta Mokal

Swedish chess legend Ulf Andersson celebrates his 70th birthday

6/28/2021 – Ulf Andersson is the best Swedish chess player of all time and at his peak he was the world's number four. Andersson is also a correspondence chess grandmaster and one of the best correspondence chess players in the world. Yesterday, 27 June, he celebrated his 70th birthday. | Photo: Bert Verhoeff / Anefo / CCO

Robert Ris: "How to Make a Plan" - A review

6/28/2021 – Planning in chess is a fine and important art. On his DVD "Strategy Training: How to Make a Plan" Robert Ris shows how to master this art. Jana Schneider, one of Germany's top women players, had a look at the DVD and liked what she saw.

Goldmoney Asian Rapid: A tough field

6/28/2021 – Two thirds of the Goldmoney Asian Rapid preliminary stage have been completed. With five rounds to go, Ding Liren and Levon Aronian are sharing the lead on 7/10. Some strong players, such as Daniil Dubov, Alireza Firouzja and Peter Svidler are currently in the bottom half of the standings table. They will have to fight hard on Monday if they want to move on to the knockout stage of the tournament. | Pictured: Arjun Erigaisi | Photo: Lennart Ootes / Sunway Sitges

Judit Polgar on chess and politics at Monocle’s ‘The Foreign Desk’

6/27/2021 – In the latest episode of Monocle 24’s ‘The Foreign Desk’, host Andrew Mueller delves into the parallels between chess and the political arena. To do so, he was joined by Judit Polgar, the strongest-ever female chess player; David Edmonds, author of ‘Bobby Fischer Goes To War’; and Dana Reizniece-Ozola, the current Managing Director of FIDE.

Understanding before Moving 33: To trade or not to trade (2)

6/27/2021 – 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 33nd instalment of his ChessBase show "Understanding before Moving", Herman asks again whether "to trade or not to trade". | Photo: Tommy Grooten

Goldmoney Asian Rapid: Five leaders after five rounds

6/27/2021 – The first five rounds of the Goldmoney Asian Rapid tournament were played on Saturday. Five players are currently sharing the lead on 3½/5 points: Vladislav Artemiev [pictured], Daniil Dubov, Levon Aronian, Ding Liren and Mangus Carlsen. The 16 participants are fighting to finish the preliminaries in the top half of the standings table, as 8 of them will move on to the knockout stage of the online event. | Photo: Vladimir Barsky

Summer knight city

6/26/2021 – In a fascinating look at the possibilities granted by knight moves in endgame studies, practical games and mathematical problems — exploring, among others, underpromotions, stalemates and magic squares — columnist Siegfried Hornecker demonstrates the width of potential finesses that can be created with one of the two types of minor pieces appearing on a chessboard.

Cold blooded defence

6/26/2021 – In the diagram position Black has a strong attack and threatens 30...Qxg2#. But with careful play White can defend and win the game. How?

Top 12: Bischwiller and Clichy still perfect

6/26/2021 – The French Team Championship, also known as Top 12, is taking place in Châlons-en-Champagne. Only two teams have managed to score victories in the first two rounds: Bischwiller, with Markus Ragger and Etienne Bacrot on top boards, and the team from Clichy, led by Jorden van Foreest. | Photos: Official site