2/28/2021 – The ChessBase Magazine celebrates its anniversary! The new issue, number 200(!), offers various extras, for example an exclusive collection of "My favorite game of the young Magnus Carlsen", a selection of 100 exquisite games with analyses by top players such as Carlsen, Kramnik, and many others, a review of the history of CBM by Rainer Knaak, and much more. The issue also includes "Pearls from Wijk": Jorden Van Foreest and Anish Giri, the winners of Tata Steel 2021, annotate their best games, as do Nils Grandelius, Pentala Harikrishna, Jan-Krzysztof Duda and Radoslaw Wojtaszek. Plus training material and videos on openings, tactics, strategy and the endgame. Take a look!

2/27/2021 – Burkard Starke was first an enthusiastic chess player and later a committed trainer in Leipzig. He wrote instructive material and (chess) history books. He died a few days ago at the age of 79. An obituary by Rainer Knaak.

2/27/2021 – Hundreds of different Fritztrainers have been teaching us chess on ChessBase for more than a decade. Maybe you sometimes wonder what else the authors of these Fritztrainers do? "Meet the Fritztrainer" takes a look behind the scenes, telling us more about the private life of your favourite chess trainer. We already had the pleasure to talk to GM Chris Ward, and IM Merijn van Delft. One of our most active "Fritztrainers" is surely GM Nicholas Pert. The British Grandmaster tells us the stories of how he achieved his IM and GM titles, including a game analysis! | Photos: Nicholas Pert & Battersea chess club

2/27/2021 – Although many other endgame study composers created pawn endgames, two were outstanding — Nikolay Grigoriev and Mikhail Zinar. Columnist Siegfred Hornecker shares the story of the latter, an aviation technician turned teacher who was deeply passionate about chess. | Photo: arves.org

2/27/2021 – In the diagram position, White started to expose the central enemy king with 43.c5! dxc5 44.Rxc5 a3 - can you take things to victory from there?

2/26/2021 – A 10-player closed GM tournament was organized in Barcelona on February 16-24. Former French national champion Matthieu Cornette finished in clear first place on 7/9. His countryman, 13-year-old Marc Andria Maurizzi, got sole second place and obtained his second GM norm — Maurizzi is still in time to become France’s youngest-ever grandmaster. | Photo: Echiquier Bordelais

2/26/2021 – In this Power Play Show, GM Daniel King shows how White can try to bash the Gruenfeld with the seemingly modest 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 d5 4.cxd5 Nxd5 5.Bd2. But there is hidden menace.... | Power Play is on air most Fridays at 17:00 UTC (18:00 CET, 13:00 ET). All the usual puzzles, games and instruction will be on offer.

2/26/2021 – On Thursday, February 25, 2021, the Armenian Grandmaster Levon Aronian, currently number five in the world, informed the Armenian Chess Federation about his decision to move to St. Louis and to play for the US. With Fabiano Caruana, Wesley So, Levon Aronian, Leinier Dominguez and Hikaru Nakamura, the USA has now five players among the top 20. A press release by the St. Louis Chess Club has details. | Photo: Grand Chess Tour, Lennart Ootes

2/25/2021 – In a mind-boggling performance, Fabiano Caruana won the second edition of the Sinquefield Cup after scoring victories in his first seven games and obtaining a stratospheric Tournament Performance Rating. The six-player field had an average Elo rating of 2802 and included world champion Magnus Carlsen. | Photos: Lennart Ootes / Saint Louis Chess Club

2/25/2021 – Necessity is the mother of invention! Since the Corona crisis has limited travel possibilities, and many people don't want to play only online blitz and rapid chess, hybrid chess was created. On February 21 and February 22, the four cities of Barcelona, Malmö, Oslo and Bratislava played the first official Hybrid Chess tournament, the Hybrid Cities Cup. Almost like the old days...

2/25/2021 – In round 2 of the Altibox Norway Tournament 2020 Fabiano Caruana won a fascinating and tricky endgame against Jan-Krzysztof Duda. Of course, endgame expert and aficionado Karsten Müller was intrigued but the result notwithstanding he was not sure whether the endgame was also theoretically won. But now, after lengthy analyses with Zoran Petronijevic, he came to a definite conclusion. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

2/25/2021 – When the first "Chess Informant" was published in 1966, it demonstrated the power of information. Twice a year the "Informant" offered a collection of the most important games from current tournaments, information every serious chess player needed and wanted. Today, databases and the internet keep chess fans up-to-date but the "Informant" is still alive and kicking. Diana Mihajlova visited its offices in Belgrade.