12/12/2020 – What is a good gift for a passionate chess player? ChessBase has a huge variety of nice digital presents, which make even more sense in these weird times, no doubt! But there might be something else as an option - something physical. Chessplus has been on the market since a couple of years, but this time it is easier than ever to get a hold of it. | Photos: from Chessplus

12/12/2020 – Hikaru Nakamura qualified to the final of the Speed Chess Championship on Wednesday with a narrow victory over Wesley So. On Friday, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave became the other finalist. The Frenchman defeated none other than world champion Magnus Carlsen with a 13:11 score after playing 24 blitz and bullet games (which were played with three different time controls). The final will be played today (Saturday) at 18:00 CET, Noon ET. | Image: chess.com

12/12/2020 – This year we are launching our "Christmas Fritztrainer Calendar". For the next 24 days, you can open one of our Fritztrainer doors daily, and guess: Which Fritztrainer is this? If you send us the correct answer by email, you are participating in a raffle to win plenty of prizes, including our big Christmas surprise packages!

12/12/2020 – Mikhail Botvinnik became world champion for the first time in 1948. After defending the title twice, he lost it to Vasily Smyslov in 1957. Botvinnik reclaimed the title with a clear victory in a rematch the very next year. In game 14, he played what he called “maybe his most subtle rook ending”. Endgame specialist Karsten Müller now wonders whether a few mistakes have not been discovered yet. You can help him solve the historical riddle! | Pictured: Botvinnik v Smyslov on April 19, 1957 | Photo: Fotograaf Onbekend / Anefo

12/11/2020 – The Spanish Chess Federation organized a training match in which five of the strongest players from the Iberian country faced an international squad over ten days in La Palma, one of the Canary Islands. The double-round Scheveningen tournament came to an end on Wednesday, with the international team getting a 27:23 victory. | Pictured: Ivan Cheparinov facing Jaime Santos | Photos: Spanish Chess Federation (FEDA)

12/11/2020 – In this Power Play Show, GM Daniel King takes a look how Wesley So - successfully - plays against the King's Indian. And there will be another problem by Odette Vollenweider, the most prominent female composer of the modern era. | 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. | Photo: Champions Chess Tour | Archive

12/11/2020 – Vishy Anand celebrated his 50th birthday last year. But the crowd of well-wishers on his 51st birthday was almost even bigger. In a video his friends from Grenke in Baden-Baden have captured congratulations from prominent well-wishers all over the world.

12/11/2020 – After six rounds Sergey Karjakin and Ian Nepomniachtchi continue to share the lead in the Superfinal of the Russian Championship - both won their games in round 6. In the women's tournament Polina Shuvalova continues to win and with 6.0/6 she is now 1½ points ahead of the field. | Photos: Eteri Kublashvili

12/11/2020 – In this week's show, well-known Dutch trainer Robert Ris takes a look at a way to spice up the Petroff - the Stafford Gambit: 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.Nxe5 Nc6!?. | "Fast and Furious" is available on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here.

12/11/2020 – Jeroen van den Belt has already explained how the search booster came about and how it works in an interview with Frederic Friedel. But how the high-speed tool will be used in practical tests may still be unclear to some. That is why we have simply opened ChessBase 16, and let the booster work.

12/11/2020 – This year we are launching our "Christmas Fritztrainer Calendar". For the next 24 days, you can open one of our Fritztrainer doors daily, and guess: Which Fritztrainer is this? If you send us the correct answer by email, you are participating in a raffle to win plenty of prizes, including our big Christmas surprise packages!

12/11/2020 – The Grand Chess Tour (GCT) is scheduled to return in 2021 and will feature five tournaments and a format that was originally planned for the 2020 edition of the tour. Tour participants will compete for a total prize fund of $1.275 million over the course of the 2021 season.