Game of the Week: Beating the favourite

3/31/2021 – This week Merijn van Delft shows how the young German FM Julian Kramer (Elo 2419) defeated Ivan Cheparinov (2667) at the European Club Cup. | 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.

European Online Chess Club Cup - Live!

3/31/2021 – The European Chess Club Cup is taking place online this year, on March 27-31. The rapid tournament has been split in three stages. In the first stage, no fewer than 91 teams fought to reach the playoffs, to be played on Monday. In the playoffs, 9 teams will move on to the final group (May 30-31), when they will be joined by the winners of the European Women’s Clup Cup, Cercle d’Echecs de Monte-Carlo. | The action kicks off at 14:30 CET.

Euro Club Cup: Clichy and Deizisau in the lead

3/31/2021 – The finals of the European Online Chess Club Cup started on Tuesday with rounds 1 to 4. Clichy Echecs 92 and Schachfreunde Deizisau were the best performers with six match points each, but since the French team scored one more individual point it currently occupies first place. The rapid online tournament ends on Wednesday with rounds 5 to 9 (starting at 14.30 CEST).

Candidates Storytellers - Lennart Ootes

3/31/2021 – In about three weeks, on April 19, the second part of the Candidates Tournament 2020/2021 will start in Yekaterinburg, Russia. To get in the mood for the event, Eric van Reem, host of the "Let's talk about chess" podcast, invites his guests to become "Candidates Storytellers". Eric's first guest was well-known chess photographer Lennart Ootes, whose fantastic photos give chess tournaments a special touch and help to make them memorable. In an entertaining talk Lennart spoke about his work and shared funny memories of his time at the Candidates. | Photo: David Llada

The Weekly Show: The European Online Club Cup

3/30/2021 – In his "Weekly Show" IM Lawrence Trent will look at the European Online Club Cup where favourites Baden-Baden couldn’t make it through their playoff group. He will also be talking about the continued cancellation of top level tournaments, the cheating scandal in the World Online University Championships and more. | 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.

CBM Extra #200: "The brilliancy"

3/30/2021 – ChessBase Magazine Extra is the supplement to the ChessBase Magazine. In addition to opening videos, CBM Extra since more than a year has offered a collection of annotated games. The "Lucky bag" of the current issue, #200, contains 33 games with analyses by Anish Giri, Romain Edouard, Nodirbek Abdusattorov, Davorin Kuljasevic et al. With “"The brilliancy" we highlight one of these 33 extensively annotated games. Sagar Shah was so impressed by a game of his young countryman Nihal Sarin that he felt that he simply had to analyse it! Take a look and be inspired by Nihal's double sacrifice!
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Euro Club Cup: Star-studded finals

3/30/2021 – The playoffs of the European Club Cup were played on Monday, with 18 teams divided in 3 sections fighting to qualify to the final stage — a 10-team single round robin. An exciting qualifier left strong teams out of contention. The all-play-all final will be played on Tuesday and Wednesday. | Follow the games live!

An old rivalry: Bishop vs Knight

3/30/2021 – Who is better - bishop or knight? This is an old question and the answer usually is: "It depends". At any rate, the duel knight against bishop is often intriguing and full of surprise. In the diagram position the knight seems to give White good chances to win the game, but in fact Black's bishop can secure the draw. How?

Grandmaster Chef: Vladimir Kramnik

3/29/2021 – Grandmaster Vladimir Kramnik became the Classical World Chess Champion in 2000 by beating Garry Kasparov. He defended his title in 2004 against Péter Lékó, and defeated the reigning FIDE World Champion Veselin Topalov in a unification match in 2006. In this article I will make a meal I think Kramnik would like and annotate the game Ponomariov – Kramnik, Linares 2003 | Photo: Lennart Ootes

Euro Club Cup: On to the playoffs

3/29/2021 – The European Chess Club Cup, played online this year, saw 18 — out of a massive 90-team turnout — squads moving on to the playoffs after a first qualification phase played over the weekend. Most of the favourites advanced to the second stage of the event, but there were a few of them did not manage to make the cut.

Smyslov’s 100th birthday

3/28/2021 – Vasily Smyslov became the seventh World Chess Champion in 1957 after his victory over Mikhail Botvinnik — he would later lose the return match. Symslov had a deep understanding of chess and was part of the absolute chess elite for many years. As late as 1984, he contested a Candidates match against Garry Kasparov. This past week we celebrated the 100th anniversary of Smyslov’s birth. | Pictured: Smyslov with his cat Belka. | Photos: Dagobert Kohlmeyer

Understanding before Moving 20: Activate your worst piece

3/28/2021 – 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 20th instalment of his ChessBase show "Understanding before Moving", Herman shows why it is often a good idea to try to activate your worst piece. | Photo: Tommy Grooten

How chess, and eventually ChessBase, led me to a great life

3/28/2021 – He started with ambitions to become a tennis professional – only to discover how much better well-trained players are. Then started to study chess. Six years after his first tournament he had become a master. Where does ChessBase come into all this? Kevin Cotreau bought our database program, and KnightStalker (US version of Fritz 1.0), and that changed his life. Today he is a leading chess analyst – just ask Dr. Karsten Müller.

The Magic of Mikhail Zinar II: Curiosities and more

3/27/2021 – In this month’s column, Siegfried Hornecker concludes his tribute to the recently deceased master Mikhail Zinar. This time around, his more unusual ideas are presented while providing more background information on an eventful life. | Photo: arves.org

The most beautiful chess club in the world

3/27/2021 – The Central Chess Club in Moscow is the most beautiful chess club in the world. The edifice on Gogolevsky Boulevard has a long history and an even longer prehistory which offers a profound look into the society of pre-revolutionary Russia. | Photo: admagazin.ru

Carlsen's rollercoaster

3/27/2021 – In the diagram position, White has just played 17.e5, attacking against Black's queen on f6 and Black's bishop on b7. The World Champion first defended cooly, but then blundered which allowed his opponent a spectacular finish. Enjoy!

Tournaments postponed in Sweden and Norway due to the sanitary crisis

3/27/2021 – Scattered over-the-board tournaments have been played during the first quarter of the year, and a number of well-known events announced the dates for this year’s editions. However, there are countries that have been showing a rising trend of Covid-19 cases, which has prompted the organizers of the TePe Sigeman & Co and the Norway Chess tournaments to postpone their starting dates. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

The ChessBase News Review

3/26/2021 – Lawrence Trent and Arne Kaehler talk about what happened chess-wise last week. They each choose three articles, which might be interesting, and worth talking about the most. They give their opinions on various topics, and encourage you to think about the subject, analyse games, or read the articles thoroughly yourself.

Chess in film: “Casablanca”

3/26/2021 – For more than 70 years, the 1942 film Casablanca has made lovers — and those who want to be lovers — dream. In 2002, the American Film Institute voted it the best American love story of all time and, in 2007, it was voted the third best American Film of All Time. Numerous dialogues from Casablanca have become part of the cultural collective memory. And chess also plays a small role in the film.

Daniel King’s Power Play Show: Test your calculation with Wesley So

3/26/2021 – In this Power Play Show, GM Daniel King looks at a brilliant game from the Magnus Carlsen Invitational featuring brilliant calculation skills by Wesley So. | 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.

European hybrid qualification tournament for the FIDE World Cup

3/26/2021 – The European Hybrid Qualification Tournament for the FIDE World Cup will take place on May 22-30 and will be played Online as a hybrid event. 36 players will qualify for the FIDE World Cup 2021. The event will be played under a knock-out system with matches consisting of 2 standard games plus tiebreaks if needed.

The French Chess Federation turns 100

3/26/2021 – Last weekend, renowned chess personalities and historians held an online conference on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the French Chess Federation. Over two days, lectures shed light on the history of chess in France. Co-organisers Herbert Bastian and Frank Hoffmeister sent a report.

Throwback Thursday: McShane makes a splash at the London Classic

3/25/2021 – The first edition of the London Chess Classic was played in 2009 as an 8-players single round-robin event, with half the field comprised of top English grandmasters and the other half including some of the strongest players in the world. Luke McShane left a strong impression in his five showings at the Olympia Conference Centre, winning the brilliancy prize in 2009 and getting shared second place in 2010.

Robert Ris’ Fast and Furious: The Nakhmanson Gambit

3/25/2021 – In this week’s show, well-known Dutch trainer Robert Ris takes a look at the surprising Nakhmanson Gambit. Give up a piece and go for a devastating attack — it will be tough for your opponent to find the precise defensive setup. | “Fast and Furious” is available on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here.