Game of the Week #551: A. Giri vs M. Carlsen

1/18/2023 – In his “Game of the Week” show #551 Merijn van Delft takes a look how Anish Giri won against Magnus Carlsen in round 4 of the Masters at the Tata Steel Tournament in Wijk aan Zee. | Merijn’s show is available on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here.

Howard University, "The Mecca of Black Education," seeks to make its mark in the world of college chess

1/18/2023 – For much of its storied existence, Howard University in Washington D.C. – a historically Black university located in America’s capital city – has been known as "The Mecca of Black Education," or just "The Mecca". This year, at the Pan-American Intercollegiate Team Championship the Howard University Chess Club achieved the best result it has ever achieved in the Team Championship. A success that is partly due to hard training and the help of Jerald Times, an award-winning chess educator from New York City, and Tani Adewumi, the 12-year old chess talent from Nigeria, who helped the team to prepare. | Photo: (from left to right: Goodness Atanda, Lawrence D. Custis, Samir Acharya, Malcolm Wooten and Malik Castro-DeVarona | Photo: Jerald Times
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Svitlana's Smart Moves - How to use the initiative like Anish Giri

1/18/2023 – Gaining the initiative in chess is one of the most effective tools to decide a game in your favour. It always depends on what kind of player you are of course, and for some it seems easier, others struggle a lot more to make initiative moves. Anish Giri is momentarily storming towards the Tata Steel chess title, with his spectacular playing style. Svitlana presents us his victory against Gukesh D., where he took over the game with a few moves for the win. The same applies to Max Wamerdam's game against Jergus Pechac, and it contains a valuable lesson.
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Gert Devreese: Memorable Interviews

1/18/2023 – Can a massive volume of lengthy chess interviews, some dating back to over two decades, attract chess enthusiasts today. Can they be of interest to a heavily satiated chess audience? You bet they can. Frederic Friedel started reading the 476-page book – and was immediately hooked. He describes the reason for his fascination and tells us what is unique about this work.
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Tata Steel Chess R4: Giri beats Carlsen, Pragg stuns Ding

1/18/2023 – Round 4 of the Tata Steel Masters saw the two highest-rated players in the world losing on adjacent boards, as Anish Giri and Praggnanandhaa defeated Magnus Carlsen and Ding Liren respectively. Giri is now sharing the lead with Nodirbek Abdusattorov, who got the better of Parham Maghsoodloo. In the Challengers, four decisive results left three players sharing the lead on 3/4 points. | Photo: Lennart Ootes / Tata Steel Chess Tournament 2023
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Fresh moves in the board room

1/17/2023 – Last month World Chess, the company that ran the World Chess Championships, announced its plans to float on the main London Stock Exchange in November, inviting institutional and retail investors to subscribe for eight million Euro shares. This comes at the heels of planned 483 million takeover of PlayMagnus by the giant Chess.com. What this all means is discussed by Peter O’Brien in the latest issue of The British Chess Magazine.

The power of passed pawns

1/17/2023 – In the diagram position both sides have dangerous passed pawns. But it is Black to move - and he can win by making the most of his passed pawns. How?

Tata Steel Chess R3: Caruana joins the leading pack

1/16/2023 – Fabiano Caruana scored the one decisive game in round 3 of the Tata Steel Masters, as he beat Jorden van Foreest with the white pieces to join the leading pack, now comprising five players. The longest games of the day in this section saw Vincent Keymer and Arjun Erigaisi successfully defending tough positions against Praggnanandhaa and Levon Aronian, respectively. Meanwhile, six players are sharing first place in the Challengers. | Photo: Lennart Ootes / Tata Steel Chess Tournament 2023
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Endgame Magic #223: Endgame Highlights of the FIDE World Rapid Championship

1/16/2023 – In his Endgame Magic Show #223 Karsten shows endgame highlights from the FIDE World Rapid Championship. | You can watch the Endgame Magic Show on-demand with a ChessBase Premium account.

Streaming what the heart desires

1/16/2023 – In the past, Fritztrainers were only available on DVD - you had to wait for the post, and installation on hard disk and online activation were unavoidable. Nowadays, downloading is the standard - so the training courses can be installed and started directly after purchase. However, only on Windows or Mac OS. It is now even more convenient and faster with the stream function on the ChessBase video page - also usable on mobile devices such as iPad, tablet or smartphone. You don't even have to enter a serial number here. This is how it works!

Mikheil Mchedlishvili wins 2023 Georgian Championship

1/16/2023 – Am Freitag endete die 82. Georgische Landesmeisterschaft in Tiflis mit einem Sieg von Mikheil Mchedlishvili (Foto). Das Turnier wurde mit zehn Spielern im Modus jeder gegen jeden gespielt. Mchedlishvili kam als einziger Spieler auf 7 Punkte. Giga Quparadze wurde Zweiter vor Tornike Sanikidze. | Fotos: Georgischer Schachverband
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"Jumping across the centre line"

1/16/2023 – In football, the area around the center line is usually a hazard-free space. But in chess, when a knight crosses the centre line – i.e. if it jumps from his own half of the playing field to that of the opponent – then it "usually sends a clear attack signal", writes Oliver Reeh in his tactics section in ChessBase Magazin #211. His collection of tasks in the new edition includes 38 games, which are peppered with many training questions. Attacking knights play an important role in almost all cases. We would like to present the first three tasks from the collection as well as an excerpt from his first interactive video here. Have fun!

Tata Steel Chess R2: Carlsen and Giri catch up

1/16/2023 – Magnus Carlsen and Anish Giri joined Nodirbek Abdusattorov and Ding Liren in the lead of the Tata Steel Masters tournament after winning their second-round games. Giri sacrificed material to get a remarkable victory over Gukesh, while Carlsen showed great technique to take down Vincent Keymer. In the Challengers, Eline Roebers, Alexander Donchenko and Amin Tabatabaei grabbed full points in round 2. | Photo: Lennart Ootes / Tata Steel Chess Tournament 2023
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Understanding before Moving 108: Play the Sicilian (9)

1/15/2023 – 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 108th instalment of his ChessBase show "Understanding before Moving", Herman continues to explain why it is good to study and to play the Sicilian. | Photo: Pascal Simon
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Young guns by the sea

1/15/2023 – As Wijk aan Zee gets underway this weekend, we can look forward to a magnificent battle of the generations. In my time this would have been utterly impossible — surely the young guns used to play in the B group? Find here analyses of three formidable wins by the Indian prodigies that are playing in Wijk aan Zee. | Photos: Tata Steel Chess
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Tata Steel Chess R1: Ding and Abdusattorov score with black

1/15/2023 – Ding Liren and Nodirbek Abdusattorov were the first winners at the Masters section of the 2023 Tata Steel Chess Tournament. Both players scored with the black pieces, as Ding got the better of Dommaraju Gukesh and Abdusattorov defeated Richard Rapport. In the Challengers, Max Warmerdam and Abhimanyu Mishra collected full points on opening day. | Photo: Lennart Ootes / Tata Steel Chess Tournament 2023
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Where will the World Championship match take place?

1/14/2023 – According to the calendar put forth by the International Chess Federation (FIDE), the World Championship match between Ian Nepomniachtchi and Ding Liren is set to begin on April 7. However, FIDE has yet to announce a host or a location for the event. The pandemic, Russia’s attack on Ukraine, and the withdrawal of reigning champion Magnus Carlsen have caused many complications for the organization.| Photo: FIDE
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Surprise

1/14/2023 – In the diagram position it is White to move. Black just played 48...Qe2??, a move that looks strong but allows White a surprising win. What should White do?
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Ten Trivia about the Tata Steel Tournament series, the Wimbledon of Chess

1/13/2023 – The traditional Tata Steel international invitation tournament series, annually ongoing since the year 1938, held in Wijk aan Zee and earlier in Beverwijk, is a highlight in the calendar of classical chess. Eduard Frey presents funny Trivia from the rich history of this remarkable tournament. | Photo: Playing Hall, Organiser
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High Drama in England: The Burn vs. Gunsberg Controversy of 1886

1/13/2023 – While Eugene Manlapao was doing research on Amos Burn (pictured on the right) and Isidor Gunsberg (left), the subjects of his last two articles, he came upon an interesting episode in their careers. Burn and Gunsberg were two of the leading British players in the late 19th century, and they naturally became fierce rivals. This rivalry, however, triggered a controversy that spilled to the press. Burn, Gunsberg, and another master dragged into the issue, all turned contentious. Public opinion was divided.
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Three teams still perfect in the German Bundesliga

1/13/2023 – The 2022-23 edition of the German Bundesliga kicked off on October 22 last year and is set to finish on April 30. All 16 teams have played at least four rounds, but 10 of them have brought forward their round-7 matches. Three squads won all their confrontations: SG Solingen, OSG Baden-Baden and SC Viernheim. The next three rounds are scheduled for February 2-4.
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Robert Ris’ Fast and Furious: A new idea in the Queen's Gambit Declined

1/12/2023 – In his "Fast & Furious" show Robert Ris presents a relatively new idea in the Queen's Gambit Declined. The provocative move Robert discusses has brought a number of successes. | "Fast and Furious" is available on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here.

Modern Classics #02: Botvinnik - Tal (1960)

1/12/2023 – After Dorian Rogozenco had concluded his "Classics" series in ChessBase Magazine in summer last year, he started his new column "Modern Classics" in CBM #210 with a game Fischer-Petrosian from the 1971 Candidates Match. In CBM #211 he takes up the "Special" of the new issue and presents a brilliant game by Mikhail Tal. On the programme is the sixth game of the World Championship match from 1960 against Mikhail Botvinnik. You can watch an excerpt from Rogozenco's video analysis here!
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Svitlana's Smart Moves - Smartest moves of 2022

1/12/2023 – Luckily, we will probably never run out of good games played! With the new ChessBase 17 function to find beautiful games, it is even easier than ever, to find some tremendous tactics. Svitlana reviews a couple of games, and lets us guess the right move. If you remember the games, you will have an easier time finding them. Wesley So's game, was surely the most spectacular game, against Hrant Melkumyan. But also the often overseen game between Can and Maghsoodloo was quite phenomenal.
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