2/2/2021 – "Masterminds: Chess Prodigies" is an exhibition that tells the stories of notable chess phenoms including Bobby Fischer, Magnus Carlsen and the Polgar sisters. Through photographs, videos and mementos of important chess matches and tournaments from the collection of the World Chess Hall of Fame, visitors will learn more about these talented young players as well as their later accomplishments. The exhibition will also highlight the achievements of players who took up the game later in life and still made a mark on the world of chess. Virtual tours of the exhibition are available.

2/2/2021 – In his "Weekly Show" IM Lawrence Trent will summarise the action at the Tata Steel Tournament, with a focus on the fantastic last-round game between Jorden van Foreest and Nils Grandelius that helped van Foreest to win the tournament. Lawrence's show is available at 17:00 UTC (18:00 CET, 12:00 ET) on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here.

2/2/2021 – The Caro-Kann is one of the most solid and respected responses against 1.e4. Since it is so solid, the Caro-Kann is an absolute brainteaser for most 1.e4 players. If you like sharp and attacking lines against this solid opening, but the 3.Nc3 and 3.e5 lines are too theoretical and too explored for you, then the Panov is definitely the solution!

2/2/2021 – Magnus Carlsen has won the Tata Steel tournament seven times, more than any other player. But the tournament in 2021 was a disappointment for the World Champion. He finished with 7½/13, but he was not happy about his play and lost 15.3 rating points. Maxime Vachier-Lagrave fared even worse - he lost more than 26 points, twice as much as Jan-Krzyszof Duda (-13). Rating winners in Wijk are Jorden van Foreest (+ 30), Andrey Esipenko (+24), Anish Giri (+12), and Alireza Firouzja (+10).

2/2/2021 – Knight endings are often tricky and both sides have to calculate precisely. In the diagram position Black has to make a difficult decision: should he try to advance and to queen the f-pawn or should he catch White's a-pawn and convert the kingside pawns later? What would you do?

2/2/2021 – You gain a good positon in a game. That's great, but how can you "realize" your advantage, how can you increase it, what should you focus on, how should you think about the advantage you have gained. That is what this Fritztrainer is about, with many instructive thoughts, ideas and plans pointed out by Grandmaster Sergei Tiviakov, who is a renowned chess trainer and teacher. Review with examples by Mattis Trätmar.

2/1/2021 – In the fifth and last episode of the "Wijk aan Zee Storytellers" podcast Eric van Reem talks to his compatriot Loek van Wely. "KingLoek" played 25 times in Wijk and 297 games in group A, only Dutch Grandmaster Jan Hein Donner can boast of more. In the podcast van Wely talks about his first tournament, where he played in group B and lost to all three Polgar sisters, the soccer games on the restdays, the rivalry between the Dutch players, and what the Netflix series "The Queen's Gambit" has to do with Wijk and himself. | Photo: Magnus Carlsen (left) and Loek van Wely (right) during an intense soccer match. | Photo: Alina l'Ami

2/1/2021 – The Tata Steel Tournament 2021 in Wijk aan Zee ended with a dramatic finish. In a nerve-wrecking Armageddon game Jorden van Foreest won the all-Dutch tiebreak against Anish Giri. Daniel King takes a look at this tie-break and other highlights from the last rounds of the Wijk aan Zee Tournament 2021.

2/1/2021 – For chess fans, the fact that the Tata Steel tournament was played over-the-board with a classical time control meant the return of high-quality games by the strongest players in the world. In the final round, world champion Magnus Carlsen showed what he is capable of in his game against Maxime Vachier-Lagrave. | Photo: Jurriaan Hoefsmit

2/1/2021 – In October 2020, the Norwegian Play Magnus Group, founded in 2013 with the World Champion as figurehead and shareholder, went public. Now a new addition to the company's portfolio is reported. The Play Magnus Group acquired the Dutch publishing house New in Chess, publisher of the renowned "New in Chess" magazine.

2/1/2021 – There was no lack of excitement on the last day of action at this year’s Tata Steel Masters tournament. Jorden van Foreest defeated Nils Grandelius from the white side of a Najdorf to catch up with Anish Giri, who drew David Anton with the black pieces — these results meant an all-Dutch playoff would decide the winner. Two draws in the blitz tiebreakers were followed by an Armageddon decider, in which Giri got a major advantage but ended up losing in a wild time scramble. | Photo: Jurriaan Hoefsmit – Tata Steel Chess Tournament 2021

2/1/2021 – Since the 1980s, the town of Alkmaar, twenty kilometres north-east of Wijk aan Zee, has been the home of "New in Chess", the best chess magazine in the world. A biography of its founder and long-time publisher Wim Andriessen (1938-2017) is now available. Stefan Löffler has read it. | Photo: Hidde Andriessen