10/25/2021 – The advance g2-g4 is a well-known motif in various lines of the Sicilian. In the Taimanov Variation (1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 e6 3.d4 exd4 4.Nxd4 Nc6 5.Nc3 Qc7) with 6.Be3 a6, however, the move 7.g4 was established in top chess by Anish Giri just over half a year ago. In the current ChessBase Magazine Extra #203 Robert Ris explains the ideas of this very concrete concept in his opening video. Total playing time: 38 minutes. You can watch an excerpt of his analysis here. Take a look!

10/25/2021 – The Danish Championship, played in Svendborg on the island of Funen, ended on Sunday with the victory of Allan Stig Rasmussen. With a score of 7.0/9 the 37-year-old Grandmaster finished half a point ahead of Sune Berg Hansen and Jesper Søndergård Thybo, who shared second place. It was the fifth time Rasmussen won the title. | Photos: Dansk Skak Union

10/24/2021 – The Dutch Championship will be played in two stages this year. On Saturday, the three-round knockout phase was completed in the town hall of Hoogeveen. The field of participants was thus reduced from 16 to 4, who will determine the new champion in a double round-robin in Rotterdam at the end of November. The qualified players are Roeland Pruijssers, Max Warmerdam, Robin Swinkels and Hing Ting Lai. Meanwhile, the Women's Championship, which was played concurrently, was organized as a round robin tournament — the event was won by WGM Anne Haast. | Photos: Frans Peeters

10/24/2021 – 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 50th instalment of his ChessBase show "Understanding before Moving", Herman talks about typical sacrifices. | Photo: Tommy Grooten

10/23/2021 – The Saemisch Variation is a very stable response to the King’s Indian Defence. And the Benoni can also be answered with the same setup and the same underlying ideas. Jan Werle presents the white setup thoroughly on his DVD. Philipp Hillebrand has looked at the FritzTrainer just as thoroughly!

10/23/2021 – In the diagram position White's knight is about to occupy the blockade square in front of the pawn d5. How would you react with Black?

10/20/2021 – This year, the British Chess Federation organised two national championships, an online championship in July/August, and an "Over-the-Board" championship at the beginning of October. Nicholas Pert (pictured) won the Open Championship, Harriett Hunt became Women's Champion. | Photos: John Stubbs (Tournament page)

10/20/2021 – All but one game in both sections of the Russian Superfinals finished drawn in Wednesday’s final round, and the one decisive game (which was played in the open section) did not alter the situation at the top of the standings table. Thus, Nikita Vitiugov and Valentina Gunina, who were the sole leaders after the penultimate round, were crowned as the 2021 Russian chess champions. | Follow the action live starting at 12.00 CEST (6.00 ET, 15.30 IST)

10/20/2021 – Last weekend, Baden-Baden won the German Team Championship, the Bundesliga. Again. In fact, since 2006 the team from Baden-Baden, sponsored by GRENKE Leasing, only failed to win the league in 2016, when Solingen finished first. This year, at the end of a season that due to the pandemic lasted from 2019 to 2021, Baden-Baden was three team points ahead of their closest rivals but securing the title was more difficult than the final result suggests. | Photos: Pascal Simon

10/20/2021 – Going into Wednesday’s final round in the Russian Superfinals, both the open tournament and the women’s championship have a sole leader with a half-point edge over two players sharing second place. In the open, Nikita Vitiugov leads, with Maxim Matlakov and Vladimir Fedoseev standing close behind; among the women, Valentina Gunina is the frontrunner, with her closest chasers being Evgenija Ovod and Polina Shuvalova. | Photo: Eteri Kublashvili

10/19/2021 – Fabiano Caruana, Wesley So and Sam Sevian finished the 2021 US Championship sharing first place on 6½/11 points. A rapid round robin tournament (10 minutes plus 2-second increments) will decide the winner. In case of a tie, blitz and Armageddon will follow. | Follow the action live with commentary starting at 13.00 local time (14.00 ET, 20.00 CEST)

10/19/2021 – The last round of the US Championship was played on Monday. The US Champion, however, has not yet been decided, as Fabiano Caruana, Wesley So and Sam Sevian finished tied on points atop the standings and will play a rapid-chess tiebreak to find the winner of this year’s national event. | Photos: Lennart Ootes