Karsten Mueller’s Endgame Magic #153

7/27/2021 – Karsten Mueller again enjoys some Endgame Magic and together with his guest Thomas Stark he presents endgame highlights from the Goldmoney Asian Online Rapid Tournament that ended in the beginning of July, and that was won by Levon Aronian - who showed his endgame skills in a very crucial game.

Powerful pawns

7/27/2021 – Endgames with opposite coloured bishops have drawish tendencies but are also full of surprising tactics. In the diagram position White is a pawn up but Black's bishop seems to have the pawns on the kingside under control. However, White has a way to make his pawns really powerful. What can he do, how can he win?

World Cup: Shankland and Vidit go through

7/27/2021 – In the open section of the World Cup, 2 players secured a spot in the quarterfinals on Monday, as Sam Shankland (pictured) and Vidit Gujrathi knocked out Peter Svidler and Vasif Durarbayli. Meanwhile, in the women’s tournament, Aleksandra Goryachkina, Tan Zhongyi and Alexandra Kosteniuk made it to the semifinals. | Photo: Eric Rosen

"Chess teaches you so much!": An interview with IM Sabrina Vega

7/26/2021 – Sabrina Vega is the best woman player in the history of Spanish chess. She won the national women's championship six times and represented her country in five Chess Olympiads. In an interview with Tatiana Flores, Sabrina Vega talks about her chess career and how chess can help you to grow and to enrich your personality.

U.S. Championships: Niemann and Wang win, Christiansen and Kaidanov have to play tiebreak

7/26/2021 – Two national champions were crowned on Sunday, 25 July, as both GM Hans Niemann (pictured) and IM Annie Wang clinched victories in the 2021 U.S. Junior Championships, both winning $10,000 scholarships in addition to the first place prize. Meanwhile, GM Larry Christiansen won a critical last round game in the U.S. Senior, forcing a playoff tiebreak on Monday against GM Gregory Kaidanov. With their victories, Hans and Annie qualified for the 2022 U.S. Championship and U.S. Women’s Championship. | Photo: Courtesy of Saint Louis Chess Club, Crystal Fuller

Gata Kamsky wins rapid section of the triathlon in Biel

7/26/2021 – The main event at this year’s edition of the Biel Chess Festival is the Grandmaster Triathlon, in which eight participants play a mix of classical, rapid and blitz chess. The rapid section was played on Sunday, and saw Gata Kamsky getting clear first place with a 5½/7 performance. Nihal Sarin and Maxime Lagarde finished second and third respectively. | Photos: Official site

World Cup: Wins for Kosteniuk and Martirosyan

7/26/2021 – Day 1 of the fifth round at the World Cups in Sochi saw Haik Martirosyan and Alexandra Kosteniuk (pictured) getting off to winning starts in their matches, as they beat Amin Tabatabaei and Valentina Gunina respectively. The remaining 7 matches in the open section and 3 matches in the women’s category finished drawn. | Photo: Anastasiia Korolkova

The ChessBase Shop Assistant

7/25/2021 – Many of the ChessBase products have been around for more than 30 years, and we now have ChessBase 16, Fritz 17, over 200 ChessBase magazines, as well as more than 500 training programmes from chess masters. With so much choice, it is easy to lose the overview, and sometimes you ask yourself: what is which software good for, what can I do with it, and what are the main functions? With the newly made shopping assistant, we have created a guide for you in a short description + videos.

Understanding before Moving 37: Advantage in Development (3)

7/25/2021 – 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 37th instalment of his ChessBase show "Understanding before Moving", Herman continues to explain why it is so important to develop one's pieces as soon as possible. | Photo: Tommy Grooten

World Cup: Ivic stuns Andreikin, Carlsen advances

7/25/2021 – Two sets of tiebreaker rounds were enough to find a winner in all 12 matches that were played on Saturday at the World Cups in Sochi. The top seeds in both sections moved on to the next round, as Magnus Carlsen and Aleksandra Goryachkina got the better of Radoslaw Wojtaszek and Antoaneta Stefanova, respectively. A big upset was seen in the open, as Serbian GM Velimir Ivic knocked out Dmitry Andreikin. | Photo: Eric Rosen

Alekseenko wins Chess960 event in Biel

7/24/2021 – The main event of the 2021 Biel Chess Festival kicked off on Saturday, as the 8 participants of the Grandmaster Triathlon battled it out at the ACCENTUS Chess960 tournament. While the event did not grant points for the final standings, it decided who will get an extra white in the classical section of the triathlon, and might end up serving as the tiebreaker in case two or more players finish equal in points in the overall standings. | Photos: Official site

The straying queen

7/24/2021 – In the diagram position, decentralizing White's queen with 20.Qa5? Rxd4 21.Qxa7 looks unhealthy - and runs into a direct refutation. Full score only if you can see it already in this position!

World Cup: Half and half

7/24/2021 – Exactly half the matches in both sections were decided on Friday at the World Cups in Sochi. Among those needing to return to the playing hall for Saturday’s tiebreaks is world champion Magnus Carlsen, who got a winning position but could not break through against Radoslaw Wojtaszek. | Pictured: Andrey Esipenko | Photo: Eric Rosen

Daniel King’s Power Play Show: The Beast attacks

7/23/2021 – In this Power Play Show, GM Daniel King takes a look at tactics from the World Cup with the main feature a brilliant attack by Adhiban 'The Beast' Baskaran. | 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.

World Cup: No punches pulled

7/23/2021 – Half the matches in the open section of the FIDE World Cup finished decisively on Thursday, with Kacper Piorun, Vidit Gujrathi, Vasif Durarbayli and Sam Shankland scoring crucial wins with the black pieces. The biggest upset rating-wise was Amin Tabatabaei (pictured) beating Harikrishna with the white pieces. In the women’s section, Antoaneta Stefanova and Polina Shuvalova won their first games in the round-of-16. | Photo: Eric Rosen

Interesting line-up at the Biel Chess Festival

7/23/2021 – The Biel International Chess Festival takes place from 24 July until 04 August and offers a large variety of tournaments, and the prestigious Grandmaster Tournament impresses with an interesting format and an interesting line-up. Young players like Nihal Sarin and Vincent Keymer will meet veterans like Boris Gelfand and Gata Kamsky, and others, in a triathlon (Fischer Chess, Rapid, Classical). The tournament will begin on Saturday, 24 July, with the Fischerrandom event.

Freddy has beaten a grandmaster

7/23/2021 – Frederick Gordon learnt chess at the age of six. After a week he started beating his parents, both PhDs in mathematics. Now, at the age of ten, Freddy has defeated a full-blown grandmaster, Bogdon Lalic, in a rapid chess game. But, the BBC reports, "the talented young Scottish player did not share his excitement with his school friends because he thought it would be boasting."

Robert Ris’ Fast and Furious: Nimzo-Indian with 4.f3

7/22/2021 – This week, well-known Dutch trainer Robert Ris takes a look at the Nimzo-Indian with 4.f3, a sharp system that has helped White in many games to mate the opponent quickly. | "Fast and Furious" is available on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here.

FIDE announces Online Olympiad 2021

7/22/2021 – The International Chess Federation recently announced the FIDE Online Olympiad 2021, to be held between August 13 and September 15. The event will follow a format similar to one used last year, with member Federations being represented by their best players and top juniors. The national teams will compete in rapid chess matches played on six boards.

World Cup: A recap after the first rest day

7/22/2021 – After half the players returned home and the other half had a rest day before continuing the fight to reach the Candidates Tournament, the World Cup has resumed today with 32 players still going in the open section and 16 players battling it out in the women’s category. This seems to be a good time to take stock of what might happen in the next two weeks or so. | Pictured: Bibisara Assaubayeva | Photo: Eric Rosen

A successful experiment: The Anand vs Kramnik "No Castling" match in Dortmund

7/22/2021 – In Dortmund Vishy Anand and Vladimir Kramnik tried a new variant of chess: they played a four-game match, in which castling was not allowed. After four interesting games Anand won the match 2.5-1.5, and both players, the organizers in Dortmund and the public agreed that the experiment was a success.

International Chess Day in Vienna

7/22/2021 – 20 July was International Chess Day and it was celebrated all over the world. With "Chess Unlimited" Kineke Mulder (pictured, on the left) celebrates chess in Vienna throughout the year and brings the game to the streets and to the people. During the lockdown this was impossible, and Mulder was happy to share her chess enthusiasm on International Chess Day - with a lot of amateurs and German Grandmaster Sebastian Siebrecht (pictured, on the right). | Photos: Sebastian Siebrecht/ Kineke Mulder/ Erste Bank

Game of the Week 473: M. Krasenkow - K. Alekseenko

7/21/2021 – This week, Merijn van Delft takes a look a close look at a stunning game with a brutal rook sacrifice from the World Cup: Michal Krasenkow's fine attacking win against Kirill Alekseenko. | Merijn's show is available on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here.

Jan Timman: "The Unstoppable American: Bobby Fischer's Road to Reykjavik" – a review

7/21/2021 – 50 years ago, on 20 July 1971, Bobby Fischer (pictured) and Bent Larsen played the sixth and final game of their semi-final match of the Candidates. Fischer had won the first five games and he also won the sixth. It was Fischer's 19th win in a row against some of the world's best players, a sensational and unrivalled winning streak. In his new book "The Unstoppable American: Bobby Fischer's Road to Reykjavik" Dutch Grandmaster Jan Timman takes a close look at this winning streak and Fischer's dominance in the years 1970 to 1971. Confident, entertaining, and with new insights about Fischer's strengths and weaknesses.