1/14/2021 – The 83rd edition of the traditional Wijk aan Zee tournament is about to begin, with the first round scheduled to take place on Saturday. Seven-time winner Magnus Carlsen will be leading a 14-player field which includes world number 2 and latest World Championship challenger Fabiano Caruana. Carlsen won the “A tournament” for the first time thirteen years ago, when he shared first place with Levon Aronian. | Photos: Frits Agtenderbos / ChessVista

1/14/2021 – The lives of Walter Tevis and his literary character Beth Harmon have a number of similarities. Both of them experienced a childhood marked by drug addiction, and later, alcoholism, both "lived" in Lexington, Kentucky. And both of them found their salvation in chess. A hunt for clues in Lexington.

1/14/2021 – For more than twenty years Jeroen van den Berg has been running the tournament in Wijk aan Zee as director, and he has enormously contributed to the ongoing success and attraction of this event, which each year is an absolute highlight in the chess calendar. In his latest "Let's talk about chess..." podcast Eric van Reem talks to Jeroen van den Berg about the long and colourful history of the tournament, about fantastic games played in Wijk, and, of course, about this year's tournament, which will start on Saturday - under special conditions but still as an over-the-board tournament. | Photo: Grenke Schach

1/14/2021 – The Grand Chess Tour 2021, a series of five top tournaments (two with classical time-controls, three in rapid and blitz mode) announced the ten players that will compete as full 2021 tour participants: Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Ding Liren, Fabiano Caruana, Wesley So, Ian Nepomniachtchi, Alexander Grischuk, Levon Aronian, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, Teimour Radjabov, and Anish Giri. Magnus Carlsen and Hikaru Nakamura decided not to take part as full tour participants in 2021. The first Grand Chess Tour 2021 event will be the Superbet Chess Classic, in Bucharest, Romania, from June 3 - 15, 2021.

1/14/2021 – Stanley Kubrick is widely considered as one of the greatest directors of all time. But he was also a passionate chess player, and when he lived in New York, he often visited the "Flea House", a well-known and rather notorious meeting place for chess players and gamblers. In his film "The Killing" from 1956 Kubrick paid homage to this institution and one of its regular guests: the wrestler, chess lover, and actor Kola Kwariani. | Picture: Kola Kwariani (left), Stanley Kubrick (center) and Sterling Hayden (right), Cover of "Chess Review", March 1956

1/13/2021 – This week Merijn van Delft takes a look at a brilliant game Max Warmerdam played at the Vergani Open. A game that was not only a piece of art but also helped Warmerdam to win the tournament and to become a grandmaster. | 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: Alina l'Ami (Archive)

1/13/2021 – The success of the Netflix series "The Queen's Gambit" made Anya Taylor-Joy, who played the main character Beth Harmon in the series, a star. "The Hollywood Reporter" talked to Anya Taylor-Joy about her career, the series, why she fell in love with Beth Harmon, and how she learned to play chess to understand her character better. | Photo: Netflix

1/13/2021 – The Sicilian is the most popular opening against 1.e4 because it is theoretically sound but offers Black double-edged play at the same time. Whilst you must know how to handle the main line (2. Nf3 and 3.d4), sidelines are also very important. In this video series, Nicholas Pert gives a strong and practical Black repertoire against these sidelines such as the Bb5 Sicilian, the Grand Prix Attack, the Alapin and many more, from his years of experience playing the Sicilian.

1/13/2021 – You do not need to know the rules of chess to understand the metaphors of the game. In one of his many letters to his confidante and platonic friend Milena Jesenská (1896-1944), Franz Kafka made an excursion into the realm of chess to bare his soul and heart. Sergio Negri had a closer look.

1/12/2021 – The Club “Magic Extremadura Deportivo-Social” sponsors a social program called “Nuestro ajedrez reinserta” (“Our chess reintegrates”) in Extremadura, Spain. The club works in two prisons, each of them located in the capitals of the two provinces of Extremadura, Badajoz and Cáceres. Juan Antonio Montero, psychologist, director of the program and director of the Club Magic Extremadura Deportivo-Social sent us an illustrated report.

1/12/2021 – Dante Alighieri's work "The Divine Comedy" (written 1307-1321) is a classic of world literature and was the basis for today's Italian written language. Dante died in Ravenna in 1321 - this year marks the 700th anniversary of his death. Dante was a passionate chess player and owned a personal chess set. But what happened to it?, asks Adolivio Capece. | Picture: Fresco of Domenico di Michelino in Santa Maria del Fiore, Florence 1465

1/12/2021 – Today, January 12, Vlastimil Hort celebrates his 77th birthday. Congratulations! To mark the anniversary, the former World Championship candidate and great chess connoisseur gives the chess community another - albeit somewhat macabre - story.