5/4/2021 – In his "Weekly Show" IM Lawrence Trent will take a look at the New in Chess Classic where Magnus Carlsen won his first Meltwater Champion Chess Tour title. | Lawrence's show is available on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here.

5/4/2021 – Svitlana Demchenko is a 17-year-old, Canadian WIM, and chess coach. Here and now, she will teach us plenty of smart moves on the board, ranging from tactics, strategies, openings, and anything else chess related. In the process, I'm happy to be available as a student at club player level, and pester the female international master with questions. Anyone who wants to strengthen their chess skills is welcome to watch, and actively replay the positions from the video, on our chessboard.

5/4/2021 – It's also thanks to Magnus Carlsen that the Stonewall currently enjoys a good reputation and is considered healthy and ambitious. Usually, the Stonewall structure arises via the Dutch Defense, after 1.d4 f5. But in ChessBase Magazine #201, the new issue of the CBM, the renowned theoretician and Dutch expert Viktor Moskalenko shows that Black also does well against line-ups without d2-d4 (English or Reti). He explains the ideas of these systems with some of his own games and concludes: "Behind the Stonewall you should never lose".

5/4/2021 – The 2020-21 FIDE Candidates Tournament concluded on April 27, 2021 with Ian Nepomniachtchi (pictured) emerging victorious from a close race in the second half of the event, ahead of Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Anish Giri, and Fabiano Caruana. In a two-part reflection on the Candidates the Canadian FM Joshua Doknjas aims to provide readers with a glimpse into the preparation of the world’s best players and showcase some of their brilliant ideas that were hidden beneath the surface. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

5/4/2021 – The diagram position looks pretty bad for Black. He has a passed pawn that is close to queening and he is to move but White has the nasty threat of 55.Rd8+ that is hard to parry. But Black's knight can do some magic and save the game. What should Black do?

5/4/2021 – On 1 May the FIDE published the new World Ranking List. Magnus Carlsen (2847) continues to be the world's number one, followed by Fabiano Caruna (2820) on two. The second half of the Candidates Tournament helped Ding Liren (number 3, 2799) to eight additional rating points while Ian Nepomniachtchi (number 4, 2792) gained three rating points and Anish Giri (number 6, 2780) four. But it was the Iranian Parham Maghsoodloo who made the biggest jump ahead: after convincingly winning the Iranian Championship he now has a rating of 2698 and is the world's number 41.

5/3/2021 – From 10 to 18 July, Dortmund will once again be Germany's chess capital. Chess fans in Dortmund organise the "Sparkassen Chess Trophy", a grandmaster tournament, and Vladimir Kramnik and Vishy Anand will play a match in No Castling Chess. In an interview Kramnik reveals more.

5/3/2021 – Only needing a draw in the second set of the finals against Hikaru Nakamura, Magnus Carlsen bounced back from a loss in game 1 with a win in game 3 — Nakamura could not win on demand in game 4, which meant Carlsen had won his first event of the Meltwater Champions Chess Tour. Shakhriyar Mamedyarov obtained a 2½-½ victory over Levon Aronian to secure third place.

5/2/2021 – Only needing a draw in the second set of the finals against Hikaru Nakamura, Magnus Carlsen bounced back from a loss in game 1 with a win in game 3. Nakamura could not win on demand in game 4, which meant Carlsen had won his first event of the Meltwater Champions Chess Tour. Shakhriyar Mamedyarov obtained a 2½-½ victory over Levon Aronian to secure third place. | The action kicks off daily at 19:00 CEST.

5/2/2021 – Now that we know that Ian Nepomniachtchi will be Magnus Carlsen’s next challenger for the World Championship title, it’s time to start getting ready for the big match. Star columnist Jon Speelman has another go at prediction, claiming that “Carlsen is surely the favourite, but not, I think, by that much: no more than 60-40, and perhaps just 55-45”. | Photo: Lennart Ootes / Grand Chess Tour

5/2/2021 – 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 25th instalment of his ChessBase show "Understanding before Moving", Herman shows how useful a "Strategic Thinking Protocol" is to find the right plans and moves. | Photo: Tommy Grooten

5/2/2021 – In a hard-fought first set of the New in Chess Classic finals, Magnus Carlsen grabbed the lead by scoring a 3-1 win over Hikaru Nakamura. After drawing the first two games and losing the third encounter, Naka had a better position in a must-win situation. The American mishandled his advantage and Carlsen ended up scoring a second win in a row. Meanwhile, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov and Levon Aronian tied the first set in the match for third place. | Photo: Lennart Ootes