3/4/2021 – A bit over ten years ago, Hou Yifan became the youngest-ever women’s world champion by winning a 64-player knockout tournament in Hatay, Turkey. The Chinese prodigy defeated her compatriot Ruan Lifei on tiebreaks in the final match of the competition. Hou eliminated Zhu Chen, Kateryna Lagno and Humpy Koneru on her way to the final.

3/4/2021 – In the anniversary edition CBM #200, Grandmaster Rainer Knaak, who regularly writes about "Opening Traps" in the Magazine presents his Top Ten opening traps. Traps that again and again lead to success - not only in blitz, but also in high-level tournament! Some of the traps Knaak presents are well-known but his Top Ten list also include lesser known examples that might catch you or your opponent unaware.

3/4/2021 – The Philidor Defence 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 d6!? was often underestimated in the past. But World Champion Alexander Alekhine, who used the Philidor Defence several times with good success, showed the dynamic possibilities of the opening. Stephan-Oliver Platz takes a closer look.

3/4/2021 – Every chess fan knows about the "Man vs Machine" matches between the IBM computer Deep Blue and World Champion Garry Kasparov in 1996 and 1997. But in the 1960s IBM had already developed a computer that could play chess reasonably well: the IBM 305 Ramac. At an industrial fair in Milan, Ramac even defeated the Italian champion Mario Monticelli - with a little trash-talk to spice things up. A find by Adolivio Capece.

3/3/2021 – This week Merijn van Delft takes a look at a game in which Anish Giri enriched opening theory and showed his attacking skills against Alexei Shirov. | 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

3/3/2021 – Recently, Peter Heine Nielsen, Danish Grandmaster, coach and second of Magnus Carlsen, and father of four children, enthusiastically retweeted a tweet by Cindy Zhan, which shows a scene from game six of the World Championship match Fischer vs Spassky in Reykjavik 1972. However, the photo does not show the real match but a Lego model of it. It is one of many creations by Cindy Zhan, self-declared "Chess Mom and Lego Fan". | Photos: Cindy Zhan

2/28/2021 – 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 16th part of his ChessBase show "Understanding before Moving" Herman looks at ways to restrain the activity of your opponent. | Photo: Hans Hoornstra

2/28/2021 – Hovhannes Gabuzyan goes into the last round of the 2021 Armenian Championship as the sole leader, a whole point ahead of Arman Pashikian and Samvel Ser-Tahakyan. The leader faces Tigran Petrosian with the black pieces. The games start at noon CET (11:00 UTC, 7:00 ET). Follow the action live.

2/28/2021 – The ChessBase Magazine celebrates its anniversary! The new issue, number 200(!), offers various extras, for example an exclusive collection of "My favorite game of the young Magnus Carlsen", a selection of 100 exquisite games with analyses by top players such as Carlsen, Kramnik, and many others, a review of the history of CBM by Rainer Knaak, and much more. The issue also includes "Pearls from Wijk": Jorden Van Foreest and Anish Giri, the winners of Tata Steel 2021, annotate their best games, as do Nils Grandelius, Pentala Harikrishna, Jan-Krzysztof Duda and Radoslaw Wojtaszek. Plus training material and videos on openings, tactics, strategy and the endgame. Take a look!

2/27/2021 – Burkard Starke was first an enthusiastic chess player and later a committed trainer in Leipzig. He wrote instructive material and (chess) history books. He died a few days ago at the age of 79. An obituary by Rainer Knaak.

2/27/2021 – Hundreds of different Fritztrainers have been teaching us chess on ChessBase for more than a decade. Maybe you sometimes wonder what else the authors of these Fritztrainers do? "Meet the Fritztrainer" takes a look behind the scenes, telling us more about the private life of your favourite chess trainer. We already had the pleasure to talk to GM Chris Ward, and IM Merijn van Delft. One of our most active "Fritztrainers" is surely GM Nicholas Pert. The British Grandmaster tells us the stories of how he achieved his IM and GM titles, including a game analysis! | Photos: Nicholas Pert & Battersea chess club

2/27/2021 – Although many other endgame study composers created pawn endgames, two were outstanding — Nikolay Grigoriev and Mikhail Zinar. Columnist Siegfred Hornecker shares the story of the latter, an aviation technician turned teacher who was deeply passionate about chess. | Photo: arves.org