12/3/2021 – Sometimes you discover a familiar tactic, proceed with the correct move order, and cannot find the winning path. Clear tactical patterns don't always win by default, as Lawrence demonstrates in just two hefty examples. Additionally, we try to break through to a 2300 rating. But the theme thread continues, and what should be a manageable task, turns out to get far more brutal than expected. This XL episode has tons of nice tactics for you to look at, and solve.

12/3/2021 – Videos: Scandinavian expert Christian Bauer presents clever move orders in the system with 3...Qa5. And Mihail Marin analyses the Deac-L. van Foreest from the European Team Championship and shows that there's always room for new ideas in the Catalan! Peter Heine Nielsen, Carlsen's second, annotates "The brilliancy" Carlsen-Duda from the final of the Meltwater Tour. Moreover, 25 games with detailed annotations await you in the "Lucky bag", including analyses by Anish Giri, Romain Edouard, Michal Krasenkow et al. ChessBase Magazine Extra is the perfect complement to ChessBase Magazine. Available as a single issue or by subscription (6 issues per year). Available on DVD or as a download.

12/3/2021 – How to checkmate a king with a knight and bishop was clear to most! There were also many answers that knew the "W" motif of the knight. You surely know your endgames! Solution B. Lh7 was correct. Should Carlsen and Nepomniachtchi think a little longer about their moves today, it is worthwhile to take a closer look at the somewhat more demanding third door. Quite a difficult task for a change!

12/3/2021 – Game number 6 of the World Championship in Dubai, left Carlsen with two rooks against Nepomniachtchi's Queen. Such material imbalances occur frequently. But do you know how much better two rooks are against a queen? What about a rook against two minor pieces in the middle game? Or even three minor pieces vs. a queen? The Canadian WIM shows us plenty of examples by master players like Fischer, Kasparov, Polgar, Capablanca, Alekhine, and more, on what to look out for in her first Fritztrainer.

12/3/2021 – As part of the Expo2020 in Dubai, the Spanish Pavilion organised a large tournament with schools from all over the world. The best teams of the online preliminaries were invited to Dubai. Favourite to win was the team Velammel Nexus from India that started with three grandmasters. The Indians won indeed but in the final had some trouble against surprisingly strong students from Peru. | Photos: Patricia Claros

12/3/2021 – World Champion Magnus Carlsen is currently playing in Dubai to defend his title, but in this episode of "Svitlana's Smart Moves" we will talk about another World Champion: Garry Kasparov, Svitlana's favourite player. With two fine games by Kasparov - against Anand and against Bareev - Svitlana shows us why good old gambits are still a powerful weapon in modern chess, and why activity is often more important than material.

12/1/2021 – Last year you could open 24 calendar doors and guess the Fritztrainer correctly. This year it's all about magical endgames. Thanks to our endgame expert GM Dr. Karsten Müller, we have put together a potpourri of endgame riddles for you. If you can find the right answer, you automatically enter a raffle with plenty of prizes to be won. Among them, our big Christmas surprise packages!

12/1/2021 – Start the new year well-prepared. In the updated Mega Database 2022 you will now find over 9.2 million games, from the first recorded games in the history of chess to games played in October 2022. The Mega is chess history and contains almost all top games ever played, many of them annotated by top players of the past and of today. The huge database is an invaluable tool to prepare for your opponents, to study chess and to enjoy chess!

12/1/2021 – On first sight, game 4 of the World Championship match between Magnus Carlsen and Ian Nepomniachtchi does not seem to be particularly spectacular. Nepomniachtchi went for the Petroff and appeared to be well prepared for Carlsen's novelty 18.Nh4 and after 33 moves the game ended with a repetition and a draw. But as English Grandmaster Luke McShane points out in his analysis, the game contained a lot of hidden tactical possibilities.

11/30/2021 – In his "Weekly Show" IM Lawrence Trent talks about the World Championship match between Magnus Carlsen and Ian Nepomniachtchi and takes a look at game 4 of the match. | Lawrence’s show is available on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here

11/30/2021 – The match for the World Championship in Dubai is still tied, as Magnus Carlsen and Ian Nepomniachtchi signed a fourth consecutive draw on Tuesday. The defending champion went for his first 1.e4 with the white pieces, to which Nepo responded by setting up a Petroff Defence. Carlsen spent quite a while investigating options that might create trouble for his opponent, but ended up going for a triple repetition on move 30. | Photo: Niki Riga

11/30/2021 – Covid might have knocked the Banff Open down, but it certainly didn't knock it out. The popular tournament was back with a vengeance this year, after being cancelled in 2020. The fifth ever Banff Open was held over the Remembrance Day long weekend and welcomed the strongest (and largest) group of players in its history, with one GM (Joel Benjamin), 3 IMs and 6 FMs taking part. | Photos: Banff Open