Gibraltar GP: Abdumalik starts with two wins

5/24/2021 – Zhansaya Abdumalik from Kazakhstan is leading the fourth leg of the Women’s Grand Prix in Gibraltar after two rounds. The 21-year-old is the only player to have won both her games so far, as she got the better of compatriot Dinara Saduakassova and Elisabeth Paehtz in the first rounds of the event. Four players stand a half point behind. | Photo: FIDE

Understanding before Moving 28: A curious endgame

5/23/2021 – 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 28th instalment of his ChessBase show "Understanding before Moving", Herman talks about schematic thinking in the endgame and presents a curious endgame. | Photo: Tommy Grooten

Happy Birthday, Anatoly Karpov

5/23/2021 – Today, on 23 May, Anatoly Karpov turns 70! The 12th World Champion is still very active and on 31 May 2021, he will give a simul at the Karpov Children’s Cup, an event supported by FIDE. Which made Alexey Root remember a remarkable Karpov simul in Austin, Texas, back in 1994. | Photo: V. Savostianov, Novosti Press (via D. Griffin)

ChessBase Magazine 200

5/22/2021 – It hasn't been easy working under pandemic stress. Now that things are getting better we need to get ready to re-enter the chess arena. "The only real training tool I found," writes Davide Nastasio, "which was comprehensive, and covered all the phases of the game is ChessBase Magazine, now in its 200th edition. Davide shares some of the positions and games he found especially interesting.

Carlsen's kamikaze king

5/22/2021 – The diagram shows a position from the game L. Dominguez vs M. Carlsen, Opera Euro 2021. Black's last move 27...Kh6? gave White the chance to hunt the bold king down and to win against the World Champion. But as this was a rapid game and White did not have much time left on the clock, he failed to find the win. Can you do better, without a ticking clock and all the time in the world?

Daniel King’s Power Play Show: Miniatures from the Russian Team Championships

5/21/2021 – In this Power Play Show, GM Daniel King looks back to the Russian Team Championships in Sochi and presents interesting miniatures, games in which one side quickly collapsed. | 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.

The ChessBase News Review (07.05. - 21.05)

5/21/2021 – Lawrence Trent and Arne Kaehler talk about what happened chess-wise last week. They give their opinions on various topics, and encourage you to think about the subject, analyse games, or read the articles thoroughly yourself. After not having a show last Friday, This week we talk about the Fritztrainer tournament with Kasimdzhanov, King & Co, the young talent Adewumi, how "funding" plays a role in developing child prodigies, and our thoughts about "no castling" chess, which will take place in Dortmund soon.

Chess Logical: did you solve it?

5/21/2021 – It was a two-part task: from the reactions of students to a Zen master's whispered hints, they try to deduce which piece he is thinking of. In the second part you have to solve a chess study with a uniquely different drawing strategy. Very strong players all over the world joined in our experiment – most failed to solve the Logical. Here at last are the solutions – both of them.

Fighting for a spot in the Candidates: Gibraltar Women’s GP

5/21/2021 – The International Chess Federation announced the new dates of the final stage of the Women’s FIDE Grand Prix, to be played in Gibraltar from May 22 to June 2. The best female chess players in the world will be competing in a crucial event in the race for the World Championship title, since the two best players from the Women Grand Prix Series qualify directly for the Candidates Tournament. | Photo: David Llada / FIDE

Chartres: Maurizzi on course for the title

5/21/2021 – With only one point out of three games the 14-year old French talent Marc Andria Maurizzi had a bumpy start at the Grandmaster Tournament in Chartres but after five wins in a row he now only needs a draw in the final round to become the youngest French Grandmaster of all time. | Photos: Chartres Echecs

The experts play their openings: a theme tournament with Rustam Kasimdzhanov, Mihail Marin, Robert Ris and Merijn van Delft

5/21/2021 – Practice what you preach: in a theme blitz tournament on playchess.com the well-known and popular ChessBase authors Rustam Kasimdzhanov, Mihail Marin, Robert Ris and Merijn van Delft showed why they like and what they know about the openings they present in their courses. If you missed the live transmission of the entertaining event on twitch.tv, here's a summary with highlights from the games.

Throwback Thursday: Ponomariov, knockout expert

5/20/2021 – With a peak rating of 2764, Ruslan Ponomariov can pride himself on a long list of professional achievements, including individual triumphs in Dortmund, Pamplona and San Sebastián, as well as gold medals with the Ukrainian team at two Chess Olympiads. However, he is perhaps best known for his excellent results in knockout events, including his victory at the 2002 FIDE World Chess Championship, when, as an 18-year-old, he defeated compatriot Vasyl Ivanchuk in the final of a gruelling event. | Photo: Manu de Alba

Robert Ris’ Fast and Furious: Adventures in the Karpov Variation (4...Nd7) of the Caro-Kann

5/20/2021 – In this week’s show, well-known Dutch trainer Robert Ris takes a look at the Karpov Variation of the Caro-Kann, a still reliable but also somewhat risky system. | "Fast and Furious" is available on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here.

Sophie Milliet leads in Chartres

5/20/2021 – Currently, a Grandmaster tournament and three matches between prominent players are played in Chartres, France. The idea is to give members of the club a chance to get practice after the long break caused by the pandemic. The 14-year-old Marc Andria Maurizzi hopes to get his third GM norm in the tournament to become France's youngest grandmaster of all time. But with 4.0/6 he still needs 2.5/3 in the final rounds to reach this goal. Tournament leader is Sophie Milliet (pictured) with 4.5/6. | Photos: Chartres Echecs

"Ask me anything": Garry Kasparov at Reddit

5/20/2021 – "Ask me anything" (AMA) is a "Question & Answer" format on the Reddit platform in which readers are invitid to ask a famous guest, well, anything. On 19 May, the Reddit readers asked Garry Kasparov about chess, Magnus Carlsen, Deep Blue, Artificial Intelligence, and much more. Kasparov's answer were open, frank, clear, and are a pleasure to read. | Photo: kasparov.com

No Castling Chess online tournament open to all

5/19/2021 – This summer Vladimir Kramnik and Viswanathan Anand will face each other in an innovative chess variant, proposed by Kramnik: No Castling Chess. There is one simple rule change – no castling is allowed, everything else remains the same. The organizers have announced that everybody will get a chance to try the new variant at the Sparkassen Online Open to be played on July 10-18. The winner will get a spot in next year’s Dortmund Open.

Game of the Week: Wei Ji vs Zhao Jun

5/19/2021 – This week Merijn van Delft takes a look at the Chinese Championship and presents a wild tactical win by Wei Yi. | Merijn's show is available on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here.

Hybrid Chess - an okay way to play during the pandemic

5/19/2021 – Playing over-the-board but entering the moves of the game into a computer to play online against an opponent who is playing in an entirely different location, all supervised by an arbiter - that is Hybrid Chess. After the first hybrid tournaments the players now share their impressions. But feedback from the Mitropacup participants reveals mixed attitudes about hybrid chess and the rules that were applied, writes Stefan Löffler. | Photo: Peter Sadilek | Photo: Stefan Löffler

Komodo Dragon 2 is here!

5/19/2021 – The latest iteration of the renowned program belongs to the strongest chess engines in the world, especially now that it draws its strength from the tremendous tactical power of a classic Alpha Beta engine, combined with deep positional play drawn from an advanced neural network. It also has different modes of play which you may find very interesting. For instance in MCTS mode it will show you not which is the objectively best move, but the one that gives the opponent the best chance of going wrong.

Svitlana's Smart Moves - Episode 4

5/19/2021 – Svitlana Demchenko is a 17-year-old, Canadian WIM, and chess coach. Here and now, she will teach us plenty of smart moves on the board, ranging from tactics, strategies, openings, and anything else chess related. In the process, I'm happy to be available as a student at club player level, and pester the female international master with questions. Anyone who wants to strengthen their chess skills is welcome to watch, and actively replay the positions from the video, on our chessboard.

Tani Adewumi becomes National Master at 10

5/19/2021 – Already a well-known figure in the world of chess, Tanitoluwa Emmanuel Adewumi made mainstream headlines after becoming a National Master at the Fairfield County Chess Club Championship tournament in Connecticut. The 10-year-old was a Nigerian refugee living in a homeless shelter in Manhattana and is now pursuing the dream of becoming the world’s youngest grandmaster. | Photo: Epoch Times

The Weekly Show: The Chinese Championships

5/18/2021 – In his "Weekly Show" IM Lawrence Trent takes a look at the Chinese Championships, and his feature game is the nice technical victory Ju Wenjun, who played in the open section, achieved against the eventual winner Yu Yangyi. | Lawrence's show is available on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here.

Chess genius Vassily Ivanchuk

5/18/2021 – One year ago the ChessBase Magazine introduced a new column, the "Special". It offers room for a wide range of topics, e.g. Dorian Rogozenco's video presentation of rediscovered Kasparov games in ChessBase Magazine #195, "My favourite Fischer game" (CBM #196), "Kasparov as challenger" (CBM #198), "My favourite game of Paul Keres" (CBM 199) or how people remember the young Magnus Carlsen (CBM #200). The current issue #201 focuses on a player who has been among the world's best for more than three decades: Vassily Ivanchuk. The "Ivanchuk Special" in CBM #201 includes 22 games from 1987 to 2019. As a sample we show two of these games, annotated by Renato Quintilliano and David Navara. Enjoy!
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The sharpest endgame weapon

5/18/2021 – The German word "Zugzwang" describes the phenomenom that the rules of chess force you to make a move when it's your turn even if it would be better to do nothing. In chess, you simply cannot pass. "Zugzwang" is a typical endgame phenomenon that often decides the game. In the diagram position White can use "zugzwang" to force the opponent to self-destruct. How?