Opera Euro Rapid Finals: All square

2/14/2021 – Wesley So scored a win on demand to tie the score in the first mini-match of the Opera Euro Rapid’s finals against Magnus Carlsen. Meanwhile, Teimour Radjabov got ahead on the scoreboard against Maxime Vachier-Lagrave in the match for third place. Report with instructive analysis by Karsten Müller. | Photo: Lennart Ootes / Grand Chess Tour

Understanding before Moving 14: Smoking the king out

2/14/2021 – 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 14th part of his ChessBase show "Understanding before Moving" Herman looks at a fine attack crowned by an unusual move. | Photo: Hans Hoornstra

Valentine's Day: A Love for Love

2/14/2021 – Today is Valentine's Day, the day dedicated to romantic love. The French singer, actor and writer Serge Gainsbourg was a great romantic, and he was known for taking his mission in the name of love very seriously. His song "Je t'aime..." was quite explicit and censored in a number of countries. But Gainsbourg loved scandals - and chess, as well. | Photo: Serge Gainsbourg | Photo: Roger Kasparian

Africa Online Individual Championship 2021

2/13/2021 – As so many other tournaments, the Africa Championship went online this year. The FIDE and the African Chess Confederation organized the tournament which was played in various groups. Ahmed Adly from Egypt won the Main Open, Amina Mezioud from Algeria became Women's Champion, Charles de Villiers from South Africa won the Senior Tournament, Lamine Brahami from Algeria was first in the U20 Open and Lina Nassir from Algeria clinched the title in the U20 Girls section. The biggest surprise of the event was perhaps the fourth place of the untitled and lower-rated Linda Dalitso Shaba (pictured) from Zimbabwe in the women's tournament. | Photo: Zimbabwe Chess Federation

Opera Euro Rapid SF: Carlsen and So reach the final

2/13/2021 – Magnus Carlsen and Wesley So advanced to the final of the Opera Euro Rapid tournament, to be played on Saturday and Sunday starting at 17.00 CET. For a second time in a row, Carlsen knocked out his opponent in the Armageddon decider, while So had a much shorter day at the office, as it was impossible for Teimour Radjabov to win the match once the American collected two points in their second mini-match. | Photo: Lennart Ootes / frchess.com

Let's Talk about Chess... with Pentala Harikrishna

2/13/2021 – In a new episode of his "Let's talk about Chess..." podcast Eric van Reem has a long and relaxed chat with Pentala Harikrishna, India's number two. In part one of the interview the Indian Grandmaster, who is living in Europe, looks back to the Tata Steel Tournament 2021 that finished two weeks ago, and shares memories of his first start in Wijk, which was twenty years ago. | Photo: Pentala Harikrishna at the Chess Olympiad 2016 | Photo: Andreas Kontokanis

Daniel King’s Power Play Show: Elegant Endgames

2/12/2021 – In this Power Play Show, GM Daniel King looks at two elegant endgames, one from the Tata Steel Tournament in Wijk aan Zee and one from the Opera Euro Rapid Online Tournament. | 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.

Opera Euro Rapid SF: Carlsen dominates

2/12/2021 – Eternal favourite Magnus Carlsen needed luck to survive in the quarterfinals against Danniil Dubov, but on the first day of the semifinals he obtained a clear victory against Maxime Vachier-Lagrave. Wesley So also took the lead in his match against Teimour Radjabov. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

University of Texas wins Kasparov Chess Foundation University Cup

2/12/2021 – The Kasparov Chess Foundation tries to promote chess whenever and wherever possible, and on the weekend of February 6 and 7 the "KCF" invited students from all over the world to take part in the University Cup, a big online tournament. It was a huge success and Garry Kasparov was happy to join the action as commentator.

Trouble

2/12/2021 – In the diagram position it is White to move and he is in big trouble: his king is exposed, Black's white-squared bishop rules on the diagonal a8-h1, and the black pawn on h3 can turn nasty. White played 29.Qf2 which allowed Black to hunt down White's king. How did Black finish the game?

25 years ago: Deep Blue beats Kasparov

2/11/2021 – 25 years ago, on February 10, 1996, Deep Blue became the first chess computer to beat a reigning World Champion in a game under tournament conditions. This happened in the first Kasparov vs Deep Blue match, the first big "Man vs Machine" match. Despite his loss in the first game Kasparov still won the match 4-2, but one year later, 1997, he lost the rematch against Deep Blue.

Opera Euro Rapid QF: Carlsen knocks out Dubov in Armageddon

2/11/2021 – Two out of four quarterfinal matches at the Opera Euro Rapid tournament went to tiebreaks, with Magnus Carlsen and Teimour Radjabov eliminating Daniil Dubov and Anish Giri in the blitz section of their matches. Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and Wesley So also moved on to the semifinals. | Photo: Amruta Mokal

Chess in Guatemala - and online

2/11/2021 – In September 2010, a group of businessmen and chess fans founded the Club Caissa Guatemala to promote the game through local tournaments. The founders of the club also dreamt about organizing a major international tournament. It became a reality in January 2019, when they hosted the first edition of the International Club Caissa Guatemala. This year, the third edition of the tournament took place. However, unlike its previous two editions, it was an online tournament. Polina Karelina and Winston Cu Hor report.

Game of the Week: Carlsen vs Dubov

2/10/2021 – This week Merijn van Delft wonders how Magnus Carlsen plans to counter the original and creative style of Daniil Dubov in their quarterfinal match of the Opera Euro Rapid. | 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.

Opera Euro Rapid QF: Carlsen, So and MVL off to winning starts

2/10/2021 – The imaginative Daniil Dubov is an uncomfortable opponent for all players, including Magnus Carlsen. On the first day of the Opera Euro Rapid quarterfinals, however, the world champion defeated the Russian convincingly. Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and Wesley So also won their mini-matches. | Photo: Niki Riga / World Chess

The Power of Information: The Chess Informant

2/10/2021 – In 1966 the first "Chess Informant" was published, and it changed the way chess players studied the game. Twice a year, the "Informant" published the most important games of the world's best players, often annotated by themselves, and no serious chess player could ignore this wealth of information. Today, databases collect more games and they do it quicker and more efficiently, but the "Informant" is still alive and kicking. Diana Mihajlova takes a look at the history of this groundbreaking chess publication.

The Weekly Show: The Opera Euro Preliminary

2/9/2021 – In his "Weekly Show" IM Lawrence Trent takes a look at the preliminary of the Opera Euro Rapid Online Tournament, with a focus on the game Nakamura-Shankland where Hikaru botched a winning position to then lose and thereafter be eliminated from the tournament. 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.

Opera Euro Rapid: Nakamura eliminated, Dubov to face Carlsen

2/9/2021 – One of the pre-tournament favourites, online blitz specialist Hikaru Nakamura, did not make it into the knockout stage of the Opera Rapid tournament after failing to convert a winning position in the last round against Sam Shankland. Nakamura was eliminated on tiebreak criteria, as he got the same score as Daniil Dubov but won fewer games than the Russian. Ian Nepomniachtchi also had a tough day at the office and was eliminated. Magnus Carlsen won the preliminary stage; Anish Giri scored as many points as the world champion but collected fewer wins. | Photo: Eteri Kublashvili

The king is a strong piece

2/9/2021 – Opposite coloured bishop endings have drawish tendencies but in the diagram position it is difficult to see how Black can stop White's connected passed pawns. However, Wesley So showed why the king is a strong piece and saved the game for Black.

Opera Euro Rapid: Fighting for survival

2/8/2021 – The Opera Euro Rapid tournament saw rounds 6 to 10 of the preliminaries being played on Sunday. At the top of the standings table, Magnus Carlsen defended his half-point lead over Wesley So and Anish Giri. The remaining five rounds will be played today (Monday) at 17.00 CET. Do not miss Karsten Müller’s analyses of five highly instructive endgames! | Photo: Play Magnus Group

CHESS Magazine puzzles (solutions)

2/8/2021 – It's a little late for New Year's celebrations, but never too late to have some fun. In the January issue of the UK CHESS magazine readers were challenged to solve eight unusual problems, which we shared with you last week – with live diagrams on which you could work things out. Today we have added full annotated solutions.

An elegant sufficiency of cooks

2/7/2021 – “The 8x8 board allied with the rules of chess is an amazing canvas. Much of the time the pictures it paints are fairly mundane, but occasionally it creates something extraordinary”, writes Jon Speelman to conclude this week’s article. In it, you will find helpmates, cooks and a surprising move out of a Catalan. | Photo: Anna Barnett website

Alexei Shirov prevails in Salamanca

2/7/2021 – Alexei Shirov won his last two games to remain ahead of David Anton and Eduardo Iturrizaga — who also won their last two encounters — and get clear first place at the Salamanca Masters. Shirov finished with an outstanding 6/7 score in the rapid tournament. Elisabeth Paehtz was the strongest among the women. | Photos: Official site

Understanding before Moving 13: Compensation

2/7/2021 – 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 13th part of his ChessBase show "Understanding before Moving" Herman shows why activity is sometimes more important than material. | Photo: Hans Hoornstra