Speed Chess Championship, Semifinals: Nakamura defeats So

12/10/2020 – On Wednesday, December 9, Hikaru Nakamura and Wesley So played the first semi-final of the chess.com Speed Chess Championship. The match was close but in the end Nakamura's skills in bullet chess helped him to a narrow 13½-12½ win. On Saturday, he will play in the final, either against Magnus Carlsen or against Maxime Vachier-Lagrave who will face each other in the second semi-final on Friday, December 11. | Picture: chess.com

Richard Rapport wins Danzhou Tournament

12/10/2020 – The 11th edition of the Danzhou Tournament took place on December 3-9, with half the participants playing online from the Country Garden Havana Holiday Hotel in Danzhou and the other half playing from home. It was an 8-player double round robin with a time control of 15 minutes for the game and 10-second increments from the start. Hungarian GM Richard Rapport was the clear winner after collecting 8/14 points. Ding Liren got sole second place. | Photo: Georgios Souleidis

Russian Superfinals: Polina Shuvalova starts with 5.0/5!

12/10/2020 – Round 5 of the Open Tournament of the Russian Championship brought five draws and one win: Maksim Matlakov defeated Maksim Chigaev but this did not affect the standings at the top. With 3.5/5 Ian Nepomniachtchi and Sergey Karjakin still share the lead. In the Women's Tournament Polina Shuvalova extended her winning streak and won her fifth game in a row and now leads with with 5.0/5. | Photos: Eteri Kublashvili

The Fritztrainer Christmas Calendar - Door 10

12/10/2020 – 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!

Moscow will host the Chess Olympiad 2022, Budapest will host the Chess Olympiad 2024

12/10/2020 – After Belarus has withdrawn its application to organise the Chess Olympiad 2022 in Minsk due to political uncertainty, and the Chess Olympiad 2020 in Moscow has been postponed to 2021, FIDE now decided "to have just one Olympiad during this period", in Moscow 2022. The Chess Olympiad 2024 will take place in Budapest. | Photo: FIDE President Arkady Dvorkovich | Photo: Vladimir Barsky

Julio Suárez and Alexandr Fier prevail at GM Tournament in La Palma

12/9/2020 – Four parallel tournaments were organized at La Palma, the most north-westerly island of the Canary Islands, Spain. Besides a Scheveningen match in which five Spanish players are facing a multinational squad, three 10-player single round robin tournaments took place, with local talents looking to get GM, IM and WGM norms. The strongest of these events was won by IM Julio Suárez (pictured), who tied atop the standings table with Alexandr Fier on 6/9 and got first place on tiebreaks. | Photos: Spanish Chess Federation (FEDA)

Game of the Week: An amazing attack!

12/9/2020 – In his "Game of the Week" show, Merijn van Delft takes a look at a fantastic attacking game by the young Spanish Grandmaster Jaime Santos Latasa. | 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.

Outdoor Chess: St. Augustine

12/9/2020 – St. Augustine, Florida, is America’s oldest continuously inhabited, European-established city. At its center is a pavilion, now called the Plaza de la Constitución but historically known as the slave market. Estelle Thibodeau reintroduced chess to that plaza and to a pizzeria, as told to Woman International Master Alexey Root. | Pictured: Estelle Thibodeau | Photo: Jennifer Jordan

Russian Superfinals, Rd. 4: Nepomniachtchi catches up to Karjakin

12/9/2020 – After four rounds Ian Nepomniachtchi and Sergey Karjakin share the lead at the Russian Superfinals. In round 4 Nepomniachtchi scored a fine win with Black in the Najdorf, while Karjakin drew. In the Women's Tournament Polina Shuvalova continues to win and now leads the field with 4.0/4. | Photos: Eteri Kublashvili

The Fritztrainer Christmas Calendar - Door 9

12/9/2020 – 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!

Autumn Series on Playchess # 7 - Play and win prizes

12/9/2020 – One year of top level chess and top level training materials: six issues (a one-year-subscription) of the ChessBase Magazine, that is the first prize in the 7th tournament of the Autumn Series on Playchess, a nine round Swiss blitz tournament that will start on Wednesday, December 9, 20.00 CET (19:00 UTC, 14:00 ET). As in all tournaments of the Autumn Series, the games will be played under real names.

The Weekly Show: The Russian Superfinals

12/8/2020 – In his "Weekly Show" IM Lawrence Trent takes a look at the Russian Superfinals and presents a fine game by Polina Shuvalova. | Lawrence's show is available at 18:00 UTC (19:00 CET, 14:00 ET) on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here.

Autism and Chess (1)

12/8/2020 – ASD stands for Autism Spectrum Disorder, a complex developmental condition that leads to challenges in social interaction, speech and nonverbal communication, and restricted or repetitive behaviors. People with autism or Asperger's often have special interests to which they apply themselves with great dedication. One such interest can be chess, and that provides opportunity and benefits – as described from personal experience by a young man with ASD. | Illustration by Bobby Lopez

Let's talk about chess ... with Stefan Meyer-Kahlen, creator of Shredder

12/8/2020 – In the latest episode of his "Let's talk about chess" podcast Eric van Reem talks with Stefan Meyer-Kahlen, the creator of Shredder. Shredder is one of the best-known computer programs and won no less than 15 titles at Computer Chess World Championships.

The Fritztrainer Christmas Calendar - Door 8

12/8/2020 – 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!

Slow and steady...

12/8/2020 – Of course, it is usually good to promote a passed pawn as fast as possible. But chess is simply not that simple, and sometimes haste indeed makes waste. The diagram position is an example. Why is it a mistake to queen the pawn immediately? And what is a better move?

Superfinals: Karjakin and Shuvalova take the lead

12/8/2020 – The Russian Superfinals, for men and women, are 12-player single round-robin events currently taking place at the Central Chess Club in Moscow. After three rounds, the one player in both tournaments to have kept a perfect score is Polina Shuvalova (pictured), who remarkably defeated Alina Kashlinskaya and Alexandra Kosteniuk in consecutive rounds. Meanwhile, in the open tournament, Sergey Karjakin is the sole leader on 2½/3. | Photo: Eteri Kublashvili

ChessBase 16 review: "A tool to enjoy and to improve your chess"

12/7/2020 – A few weeks ago ChessBase 16 appeared and chess fans all over the world are enthusiastic about it. One of them is Carl Portman. He had a look at the program and concluded: "ChessBase serves not only as a source of enjoyment in trying times but it is a fantastic information management tool to improve your chess."

Poland wins Online Olympiad for People with Disabilities

12/7/2020 – A few days ago, Poland won the 1st FIDE Online Olympiad for People with Disabilities. Second place went to Russia while Ukraine won bronze. The photo shows the players of the Polish winners, who of course had to play the tournament from their respective "home offices".

The Fritztrainer Christmas Calendar - Door 7

12/7/2020 – 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!
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Green light for Tata Steel 2021

12/7/2020 – Good news! The organisers of the Tata Steel Chess Tournament in Wijk aan Zee just published a press release to confirm that the traditional tournament will take place, from January 15 to 31st, 2021 - despite the corona crisis. However, the Masters, a round-robin with 14 top grandmasters, will be the only tournament, the Challengers and other tournaments had to be cancelled. But the line-up of the prestigious Masters is not certain yet.

The stillness of the hunter

12/7/2020 – After indulging in extreme violence with some of his favourite “hacks”, star columnist Jon Speelman changes gears and looks into a set of very interesting endgames. He focuses on zugzwangs, noting that “were it not for the obligation to move then almost all endgames with rook and pawn v rook would be drawn”.

Hou Yifan wins ‘Belt and Road’ online tournament

12/6/2020 – The now traditional Chinese chess tournaments in Danzhou are taking place this year despite the pandemic. An 8-player double round robin with all male participants is running on December 3-9, while a 10-player single round robin women’s tournament — with a faster time control — was played on Friday and Saturday. Hou Yifan, the rating favourite, finished in clear first place, a full point ahead of Sarasadat Khademalsharieh and Tan Zhongyi. | Photo: Official site, retrieved from chess.com

Understanding before Moving 4: King in the box

12/6/2020 – 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 fourth part of his ChessBase show "Understanding before Moving" Herman takes a look at kings in the corner. | Photo: Hans Hoornstra