7/10/2021 – In this Power Play Show, GM Daniel King looks at two games from the Goldmoney Asian Rapid tournament. Daniel did an excellent job commentating the games live, and uses two examples from the event to show how important it is to develop a good understanding of rook and pawn positions. | Power Play is on air most Fridays. Watch it on-demand with a ChessBase Premium account. All the usual puzzles, games and instruction will be on offer.

7/10/2021 – In the diagram position White has brought almost all of his pieces in position to attack the black king. However, in order to exploit this menacing show of force White needs to play all over the board. But he will be rewarded with checkmating the opponent or a decisive material plus - enjoy!

7/10/2021 – After starting the rapid section of the Croatia GCT with back-to-back wins, Ian Nepomniachtchi never let go of the lead — the Russian goes into the final two days of action a full point ahead of a 4-player chasing pack. In the blitz section, Garry Kasparov will replace Croatian GM Ivan Saric. Saric had a great performance, scoring two wins, six draws and a single loss against his higher-rated colleagues. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

7/9/2021 – The "Special" of the new ChessBase Magazine #202 is dedicated to Jan Timman, the Dutch legend who will celebrate his 70th birthday this year. "My favourite Timman game" features an exquisite selection of a total of 25 victories annotated by our authors, containing some very personal notes: "... Timman appeared to incorporate a mixture of the hippie, the free spirit and the chess artist, and despite that was world class over the board" (Martin Breutigam). David Navara, Adhiban Baskaran, Yannick Pelletier, Krishnan Sasikiran and many others have contributed to the "Special" of this issue. Today, we present you Igor Stohl's analysis of the game Nigel Short - Jan Timman from Linares 1992. Enjoy!

7/9/2021 – Lawrence Trent is looking forward to Sunday, when Italy will face England in the Euro 2020 final. But there is more to come, like the no-castling chess event in Dortmund and, of course, the World Cup in Sochi. Trent and Arne Kaehler talk about Nihal Sarin, who keeps on winning tournaments; Pia Cramling, who is not far away from winning the Swedish Championship, and Ian Nepomniachtchi, who is dominating in Croatia. Furthermore, we talk about the English opening 1.c4, and dive into the "Chess Train" events. Will we ever be able to play chess on Mars?

7/9/2021 – The French Chess Federation has announced that Alireza Firouzja will be naturalized in France. The current number 1 player in the junior rating list will represent the French Federation in the future. It will take some time for the change of federation to be completed.

7/6/2021 – In his "Weekly Show" IM Lawrence Trent will take a look at the Russian Higher League. He analyses a highly entertaining victory by Maksim Chigaev, one that included a spectacular finish. | Lawrence's show is available on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here.

7/6/2021 – Let us assume you are a chess amateur, who in pandemic times have become obsessed with improving your game. Wouldn’t it be nice to have one of the top ten players in the world coach you? If that is what you want it is of advantage to be a leading stand-up comedian. But even if you are not, you can still profit from this charming little lesson Anish Giri, rated 2776, gave Biswa Kalyan Rath, 1600, on how to best use a bishop pair to win a game. Learn and enjoy.

7/6/2021 – The English is becoming increasingly popular as White players avoid the heavy theory of 1.e4 or 1.d4 and hope to achieve a small advantage in a safe position. A lot of club players tend to focus on openings against 1.e4 and 1.d4 but neglect to study a response to the English. 1...e5 is a theoretically sound response with good chances of equality or better in all variations, and in this video series, Grandmaster Nicholas Pert provides a complete Black repertoire based on this move.

7/6/2021 – The 34th edition of the “Magistral Ciudad de León” took place online from June 30 until July 4. A 4-player knockout, the event saw Boris Gelfand beating Leinier Dominguez in the final match played on Sunday. Dominguez had defeated women’s world champion Ju Wenjun while Gelfand had knocked out Jaime Santos in the semifinals. | Photo: Amruta Mokal

7/6/2021 – Knights that fight against pawns can be clumsy but sometimes they can also work magic. In the diagram position, Black's a-pawn wants to queen but the white knight can still stop him. On the other hand it is hard to see how Black can stop White's e-pawn from queening. But Black can help her knight to do some magic and win. Do you have an idea how?

7/5/2021 – Bischwiller claimed their third consecutive French club championship title by winning the 2021 edition of ‘Top 12’ in Chalons en Champagne. Led by French Grandmaster Etienne Bacrot, the club scored an impressive 10 wins and a draw in the 11-round event to claim 32 points, three ahead of the runners-up Asnieres. | Pictured: Marie Sebag (left) of Bischwiller defeated Pauline Guichard of Asnieres in their round-5 match