World Cup: Health-related issues

7/16/2021 – The second round of the World Cups kicked off on Thursday, with the top seeds in both sections starting their campaigns after getting byes in the first round. A couple of health-related issues arose on Thursday, as Levon Aronian showed symptoms of fever and withdrew from his game against Bobby Cheng, while later on, with the games already in play, FIDE announced that another player had tested positive for Covid-19. | Pictured: Irine Sukandar | Photo: Eric Rosen

Dortmund: Eljanov takes the lead, Kramnik and Anand draw second "No Castling" game

7/16/2021 – After five rounds Pavel Eljanov leads the Deutschland Grand Prix in Dortmund with 4.0/5. On Thursday he won his morning game against Mateusz Bartel and in the afternoon he drew against Daniel Fridman. Vincent Keymer won a fine endgame against Gata Kamsky and Vishy Anand and Vladimir Kramnik drew the second game of their "No Castling" match. Chess legend Artur Jussupov made the ceremonial first move. | Photo: Christian Lünig

Robert Ris’ Fast and Furious: Painful losses for Kasparov in the Najdorf

7/15/2021 – This week, well-known Dutch trainer Robert Ris takes a look at the problems Garry Kasparov faced in the Najdorf, when he tried it in his blitz games of the Croatia Grand Chess Tour. | "Fast and Furious" is available on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here.

World Cup: The big guns are coming

7/15/2021 – Two matches — out of the 28 that went to playoffs in round 1 — reached the third set of tiebreaker games at the World Cups in Sochi: in the open, Neuris Delgado knocked out Niaz Murshed, while in the women’s section, Gulnar Mammadova eliminated Mai Narva in the longest matches of the inaugural round. Youngsters Volodar Murzin (14 y.o., pictured), Gukesh (15), Nurgyul Salimova (18) and Jennifer Yu (18) also made it through to round 2 on Wednesday. | Photo: Eric Rosen

NC Masters in Dortmund: Anand starts with a win

7/15/2021 – Wednesday afternoon "No Castling" chess premiered at the highest level in Dortmund's Westfalenhalle. In the first game of their "No Castling" match Vishy Anand and Vladimir Kramnik engaged in an uncompromising fight in which Anand eventually had the better of it. In the Deutschland Grand Prix Dmitrij Kollars and Pavel Eljanov share the lead with 2.5/3 each, but the big news of the day was the torrential rain that currently is causing havoc in large parts of Germany and also affected the players in the Westfalenhalle.

Dortmund: An entertaining start

7/14/2021 – Yesterday, 13 July 2021, the 48th Schachtage Dortmund began in Dortmund's Westfalenhalle. In the opening round of the Deutschland Grand Prix the young German Dmitrij Kollars (pictured) defeated the even younger German Vincent Keymer. Pavel Eljanov (against Andreas Heimann) and Daniel Fridman (against Mateusz Bartel) also won their games. | Photos and video: The Organiser

World Cup: Twelve players bounce back

7/14/2021 – Day 2 of the first round at the World Cup and Women’s World Cup in Sochi saw 12 players winning on demand to take their matches to tiebreakers. Those are not the only confrontations that are to be decided in rapid and blitz chess, though, as 16 other matches finished with both games drawn. | Photo: Eric Rosen

The Weekly Show: Brilliancies at the World Cup

7/13/2021 – In his "Weekly Show" IM Lawrence Trent will take a look at the World Cup and the glorious game the Chilean GM Pablo Salinas won with Black against GM Mads Andersen from Sweden. Lawrence will also do a roundup of what happened at the Swedish Championships, the San Fermin Masters and the Grand Chess Tour tournament in Croatia. | Lawrence's show is available on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here.

World Cup: Salinas’ astounding win and endgame analyses

7/13/2021 – The World Cup kicked off on Monday with a crowd of chess players even larger than usual — the main tournament has now 206 participants, while the Women’s World Cup is taking place concurrently for the first time. Not surprisingly, a number of exciting games were seen in Sochi. We take a look at a very good-looking win by Chilean GM Pablo Salinas, and we share instructive endgame analyses by GM Karsten Müller. | Photo: Eric Rosen

Jung Min Seo wins Swedish Championships

7/13/2021 – Pia Cramling had the best start at the Swedish Championships in Helsingborg, but she could not keep up the pace. This allowed the young (born in 2002) IM Jung Min Seo to catch up and to become Swedish Champion 2021. | Photo: Swedish Chess Federation

Breaking the wall

7/13/2021 – Pawn endings must be calculated precisely and the activity of the king is very important. In the diagram position White has a protected passed pawn on b6 but it is not immediately apparent whether this is enough to win. Do you have an idea how White can overcome Black's defensive set-up?

Magnus Carlsen wins San Fermin Masters

7/12/2021 – Magnus Carlsen seems to be well prepared for the World Cup. Before this big knockout event thats starts today, 12 July, the World Champion travelled to Pamplona in Spain to play a two-day knockout 3+2 blitz online tournament from there - with some of the world's best players. Carlsen, Wesley So, Ding Liren and Levon Aronian were seeded for the quarter-finals were they faced four qualifiers. Carlsen first won against Eduardo Iturrizaga Bonelli, then scored a surprisingly clear win against So and then went on to defeat Aronian in the final.

MVL wins Croatia GCT with a round to spare, Anand shines

7/11/2021 – Maxime Vachier-Lagrave was the clear winner of the 2021 Grand Chess Tour’s third leg, played in Zagreb. The Frenchman had an undefeated 6½/9 performance on Sunday, and managed to secure first place with a round to spare. Vishy Anand had a great day as well, as he also scored 6½ points in the second half of the blitz section to get sole second place. Anish Giri finished third, while Garry Kasparov continued to struggle against his younger opponents. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

A new way against the Bogo-Indian

7/11/2021 – Against the Bogo-Indian, White usually builds up with 5.g3. However, a practical disadvantage of this move is the fact that Black is usually very familiar with the variations that arise. Following an example of Sam Shankland, Lars Schandorff got interested in the new idea 5.e3, "that quickly leads to much less explored positions full of new possibilities for both sides". In the new ChessBase Magazine #202, the Danish GM takes a closer look!

Croatia Grand Chess Tour - MVL wins!

7/11/2021 – The Croatian leg of the Grand Chess Tour is taking place on July 7-11 at the Kongresni Centar in Zagreb. A rapid and blitz event, it features 9 rounds of rapid chess and 18 rounds of blitz. Remarkably, both Vishy Anand and Garry Kasparov are participating, with the latter only playing the blitz section, on Saturday and Sunday. | Follow the action live starting at 15.00 CEST (13.00 UT, 09.00 ET) | Photo: Lennart Ootes

Understanding before Moving 35: Development advantage (1)

7/11/2021 – 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 35th instalment of his ChessBase show "Understanding before Moving", Herman explains why it is so important to develop one's pieces as soon as possible. | Photo: Tommy Grooten

GCT Croatia: Nepo leads as Kasparov struggles

7/11/2021 – It was a tough day at the office for Garry Kasparov in Zagreb. The former world champion scored ½ point in the 9 rounds of blitz played at the Croatia Grand Chess Tour. The strongest performer in the first half of the blitz section was Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, who collected 6½ points and goes into the last day of action a half point behind sole leader Ian Nepomniachtchi. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

ChessFest with Alice

7/10/2021 – On Sunday 18th July the charity "Chess in Schools and Communities" is staging the UK’s biggest-ever outdoor chess festival, ChessFest, in Trafalgar Square, London’s most famous public space. It is to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the children’s classic "Through the Looking Glass." Tim Wall looks at what visitors can expect to see, and examines our lasting fascination with Lewis Carroll’s epic fantasy tale. Big pictorial preview.

Carlsen playing online from Pamplona

7/10/2021 – While Garry Kasparov plays over-the-board blitz chess in Zagreb, Magnus Carlsen is in Pamplona promoting chess and playing a two-day knockout tournament. The rest of the participants are playing online. Besides the world champion, Wesley So, Ding Liren and Levon Aronian were seeded directly into the quarterfinals, where they face four winners of previous qualifying tournaments. Each match consists of 8 blitz games, played on the chess24 platform.

Daniel King’s Power Play Show: Crucial rook and pawn technique

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.

Mighty knights

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!

GCT Croatia: Ready for Garry

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

CBM #202 Special: Jan Timman

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!

News Review - Giuoco Piano vs. 1.c4, Nihal unstoppable, and chess on Mars!

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?