Backwards and forwards

1/3/2021 – Star columnist Jon Speelman recaps what he describes as an “unpr******ted” year, noting that the u-word is “a screen behind the comforting foliage of which gormless politicians have hidden”. Speelman then analyses remarkable wins by Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Daniil Dubov, Hikaru Nakamura and Magnus Carlsen. | Photos: Niki Riga / Lennart Ootes

Airthings Masters Finals - Live!

1/3/2021 – The year 2020 ends with a strong online tournament: the Airthings Masters. Teimour Radjabov won the first set of the finals, while Daniil Dubov and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave drew their first four-game encounter in the match for third place. The action kicks off at 15:00 CET, 9:00 ET. Follow the games live with commentary. Read the full report on day 1 of the finals. | Photos: Official site

Airthings Masters Finals: Radjabov wins first set

1/3/2021 – The first day of the Airthings Masters finals was played on Saturday. Teimour Radjabov won the last of the four games against Levon Aronian to bag the first ‘set’. In the match for third place, everything is still tied, as Daniil Dubov and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave drew their first four-game encounter. | Photo: FIDE

Understanding before Moving 8: Divided in two - Part 2

1/3/2021 – 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 eighth part of his ChessBase show "Understanding before Moving" Herman shows how important the harmony between pieces is. | Photo: Hans Hoornstra

Christmas puzzles: solutions

1/2/2021 – From Christmas Day, December 25th 2020, until New Year 2021, we published four installments of chess puzzles for you to solve. They were mostly computer resistant, which meant you couldn't simply start and engine to work them out. Today we bring you the solutions of the first three puzzle pages, with the fourth to follow soon. How many did you solve?

Yu Yangyi and Tan Zhongyi are the 2020 Chinese champions

1/2/2021 – The Chinese Championships took place in the city of Xinghua. In the open section, Yu Yangyi, Lu Shanglei and Wei Yi all collected 8 points after 11 rounds. Yu Yangyi, however, had the best tiebreak score. Fourth place went to the Women's World Champion Ju Wenjun, whose predecessor in the post of World Champion, Tan Zhongyi, won the women’s tournament. | Photo: Nadja Wittmann

Airthings Masters SF: Well-deserved finalists

1/2/2021 – Levon Aronian and Teimour Radjabov obtained convincing victories to reach the finals of the Airthings Masters, to be played on Saturday and Sunday starting at 15:00 CET. Aronian got the better of Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, while Radjabov eliminated Daniil Dubov, who came from knocking out world champion Magnus Carlsen. | Photo: Lennart Ootes / Grand Chess Tour

Damion Coppedge: Prison, Poetry, Buddhism and Chess

1/1/2021 – When Damion Coppedge was in prison for manslaughter, he played chess, wrote poetry, and practiced Buddhism. From prison, he sent $25 to Ugandan chess player Phiona Mutesi, which enabled her coach to open Mutesi’s first bank account. Free since 2019, Coppedge creates videos about chess, the game that he loves.

Not all rook endings are drawn

1/1/2021 – In the quarterfinal of the Airthings Masters Magnus Carlsen was defeated by Daniil Dubov after losing two spectacular games, in which Carlsen missed good chances. In another game of the match Carlsen had good chances in a rook ending with an extra pawn. But could he have won? Zoran Petronijevic and Karsten Müller took a close look!

More dynamic than Alekhine!?

1/1/2021 – In the diagram position White has to decide how to proceed after Black took on d4. A long-term strategic decision ... or isn't it? Enjoy!

Airthings Masters SF: Advantage Radjabov, Aronian

12/31/2020 – Levon Aronian and Teimour Radjabov kicked off the semifinals of the Airthings Masters with mini-match victories over Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and Daniil Dubov respectively. They both reached game 4 ahead on the scoreboard and saw their opponents overpush in must-win situations. | Photo: FIDE

Christmas puzzles: the very short, and the very, very long

12/31/2020 – We end 2020, not the greatest year ever, with part four of our yearly Christmas puzzles. You must forgive us for using unorthodox problems – it was an attempt to give you something that requires more than a press of the Alt-F2 key or clicking a fan icon to find the solution. Most of today's problems are fairly computer-resistant, including one that has nothing to do with chess. Enjoy and keep safe during the New Year transition.

Robert Ris' Fast and Furious: The Gothenburg Variation

12/31/2020 – In this week's show, well-known Dutch trainer Robert Ris takes a look at the Gothenburg Variation, which derives its name from the fact that three Soviet players (Keres, Spassky and Geller) played against three Argentinian players (Najdorf, Pilnik and Panno) and reached exactly the same variation of the Sicilian Najdorf at the Sweden city! | "Fast and Furious" is available on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here.

Let's talk about chess ... with Venkat Saravanan (Part I)

12/31/2020 – In his last podcast of the year Eric van Reem had an extensive talk with the renowned trainer and writer IM Venkatchalam Saravanan from India. In part I of the podcast they talk about the chess year 2020, the online chess boom in India, the upcoming Anand biopic, the Candidates Tournament, and a few other topics. | Photo: Amruta Mokal

Airthings Masters QF: Dubov knocks out Carlsen

12/31/2020 – On a thrilling day of action, Magnus Carlsen, Hikaru Nakamura, Wesley So and Ian Nepomniachtchi were all knocked out of contention in the quarterfinals of the Airthings Masters. Most notably, Daniil Dubov eliminated the world champion by showcasing his trademark uncompromising playing style. Nakamura was quickly knocked out by Levon Aronian, while Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and Teimour Radjabov moved on to the semis only after defeating their opponents in Armageddon. | Photo: Lennart Ootes / World Rapid Championship 2018

An interview with Adrian Michalchishin - player, coach, author (Part I)

12/31/2020 – Adrian Michalchishin is one of the world's most renowned trainers. He has worked with players such as Aleksander Beliavsky, Anatoly Karpov, Alisa Maric, Ilja Nyzhnyk, Richard Rapport, Mateusz Bartel, Susan and Sofia Polgar, to name just a few. In an extensive interview he talks about his life, trainers who have influenced him, and what you need to be a successful coach and player. | Photo: Pascal Simon

Game of the Week: A masterpiece by Levon Aronian!

12/30/2020 – This week Merijn van Delft shows a game in which Levon Aronian (pictured) came up with an unusual and creative rook maneuver to create a masterpiece in his quarterfinal match against Hikaru Nakamura at the Airthings Masters. | Merijn's show is available at 16.00 UTC (17:00 CET, 12:00 EDT) and on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here. | Photo: Lennart Ootes (Archive)

Wojtaszek and Grandelius at Tata Steel Chess Tournament

12/30/2020 – Radoslaw Wojtaszek (Poland) and Nils Grandelius (Sweden) will participate in the Tata Steel Chess Tournament 2021 in January. They will replace Ian Nepomniachtchi and Nodirbek Abdusattorov, who have recently cancelled. 33-year-old Wojtaszek is the world’s number 36, with a rating of 2705. 27-year-old Grandelius (number 76 on the world ranking list) will debut in the Tata Steel Masters. He is Sweden’s best player and known for his adventurous playing style. The Tata Steel Chess Tournament will take place in De Moriaan in Wijk aan Zee from 15 – 31 January 2021.

Airthings Masters QF: Aronian and MVL score

12/30/2020 – Levon Aronian and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave won their first mini-matches in the quarterfinals of the Airthings Masters and only need a draw in tomorrow’s second ‘set’ to reach the semis. The remaining two matchups finished tied, with Magnus Carlsen and Daniil Dubov trading wins while Teimour Radjabov and Ian Nepomniachtchi drew all four of their 15-minute encounters. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

The Weekly Show: Airthings Masters Preliminary Tournament

12/29/2020 – In his "Weekly Show" IM Lawrence Trent takes a look at the preliminary stage of the Airthings Masters and in particular at the great game Nepomniatchi vs Dubov from Round 9. | 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. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

Christmas puzzles: I'll force you to mate!

12/29/2020 – The main subject today is the selfmate – sometimes also called sui-mate. In this form of chess problem White must force Black to mate him, while his opponent will do everything he can to avoid that happening. And the self-stalemate requires White to stalemate himself against the will of Black. Does this all sound irrational and frivolous? Well, don't be put off, but accept the challenge of solving some uniquely imaginative problems.

New: ChessBase Magazine 199

12/29/2020 – ChessBase Magazine is the most comprehensive and most sophisticated chess magazine there is. World class players analyze their brilliancies and explain the ideas behind their moves, opening specialists present the latest trends in opening theory and offer exciting ideas for your repertoire. Experts of tactics, strategy, and the endgame show you the tricks and techniques a successful tournament player needs! DVD with several hours of video + booklet. Also available for download, including the booklet in pdf!

Ruben Mantel: A "Rapid Interview" with Germany's fastest blitz player

12/29/2020 – In rapid, blitz or bullet the players have between one minute and one hour to mate or flag their opponents. In Hyperbullet they have only 30 seconds. But why not speed this up a bit? How about Ultrabullet, where each player has only 15 seconds for the entire game? "That's silly and has nothing to do with chess anymore", some might say. Ruben Mantel, Germany's best Ultrabullet player, partly agrees with this statement, but not entirely. In a "Rapid Interview" he talks about the attraction of very fast chess, how he came to like Ultrabullet, and whether this form of blitz destroys the game of chess or might help to improve it.

Stop the pawns!

12/29/2020 – Passed pawns can be dangerous, sometimes even extremely dangerous. In the diagram position Black really needs a good idea to stop the white pawns. What would you do? Black to play and draw!