12/6/2020 – 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!

12/6/2020 – In "Rapid Interview" I talk with personalities of chess, in the course of us playing a rapid game. Grandmaster Jonathan Levitt is my first victim, and it turns out not being so easy to answer all questions confidently, while facing the Albin's Countergambit. Levitt has done a lot for chess in the 80s and 90s, reaching his Grandmaster title in 1994. He wrote chess books, invented tricky chess puzzles, and coached successfully. Why did he suddenly stop playing chess? And how come he wrote a brand-new book? This, and other questions will be answered in the Rapid Interview.

12/5/2020 – 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!

12/5/2020 – A lot of movies have been made where chess was either a backdrop, centerpiece or just one of the key elements to a mystery or climax. But there has not been any mainstream drama series where chess is the main focal point in a series. Netflix decided to adapt The Queen's Gambit by Walter Tevis into a seven episode mini-series. Special Consultants are Garry Kasparov and Bruce Pandolfini. So you can be rest assured that there won't be odd chess board orientation or or incorrect checkmates. Photo: Pinterest

12/4/2020 – The Russian Superfinal is about to kick off at the Central Chess Club in Moscow. Ian Nepomniachtchi, Sergey Karjakin and Peter Svidler are the top seeds. Svidler, at 44, will be vying to win the national title for a whopping ninth time. His first triumph in a Russian Championship came way back, in 1994, while he won the tournament for the last time in 2017. | Photo: 1995 Groningen Tournament, from Olimpiu G. Urcan’s Twitter account

12/4/2020 – In this Power Play Show, GM Daniel King takes a look what Wesley So - the man of the hour - tried against the London System. And there will be a 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

12/4/2020 – This weekend, ChessTech organizes a major international online conference on chess and technology. Numerous speakers will give online lectures on a variety of topics. In addition to the English lectures, there are contributions in Spanish, French and German. ChessBase is represented by Matthias Wüllenweber and Albert Silver.

12/4/2020 – Black's position in the diagram is a horror, and his attempt to safeguard the hanging bishop d6 with the 'active' 21...Sc4 only accelerates the end - if you know what to do with White!

12/4/2020 – The quarterfinal of the Chess.com Speed Chess Championship between Hikaru Nakamura and Vladimir Fedoseev was a rather one-sided affair. Nakamura dominated his opponent from start to finish and won the first nine (!) games of the match. After 27 games the match was over and with a smooth 21.5-5.5 victory Nakamura qualified for the semifinals where he will face Wesley So. | Photo: Lennart Ootes (Archive)

12/4/2020 – Only a few days after his defeat against Wesley So in the Skilling Open on November 30, his 30th birthday, Magnus Carlsen was back to play in another online tournament, and he won his quarterfinal match of the Chess.com Speed Chess Championship against Vladislav Artemiev, though not without some problems. | Picture: Chess.com

12/4/2020 – 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!

12/4/2020 – Can the performance of world class players at online tournaments be used as an indicator for the quality of work done from home? Three economists, among them German IM Dr. Christian Seel, do think so. A report by Stefan Löffler highlights their sobering conclusions. | Image: Christian Seel (private)