2/25/2021 – Necessity is the mother of invention! Since the Corona crisis has limited travel possibilities, and many people don't want to play only online blitz and rapid chess, hybrid chess was created. On February 21 and February 22, the four cities of Barcelona, Malmö, Oslo and Bratislava played the first official Hybrid Chess tournament, the Hybrid Cities Cup. Almost like the old days...

2/25/2021 – In round 2 of the Altibox Norway Tournament 2020 Fabiano Caruana won a fascinating and tricky endgame against Jan-Krzysztof Duda. Of course, endgame expert and aficionado Karsten Müller was intrigued but the result notwithstanding he was not sure whether the endgame was also theoretically won. But now, after lengthy analyses with Zoran Petronijevic, he came to a definite conclusion. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

2/25/2021 – When the first "Chess Informant" was published in 1966, it demonstrated the power of information. Twice a year the "Informant" offered a collection of the most important games from current tournaments, information every serious chess player needed and wanted. Today, databases and the internet keep chess fans up-to-date but the "Informant" is still alive and kicking. Diana Mihajlova visited its offices in Belgrade.

2/24/2021 – This week Merijn van Delft takes a look at a fine attacking game in which Dutch player Manuel Bosboom found a number of unusual, surprising and pleasing positional sacrifices. | 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.

2/24/2021 – The 25-year-old Grandmaster Hovhannes Gabuzyan started the Armenian Championships as number 9 seed, but after seven rounds he is sole tournament leader with 6.0/7. In round seven he defended his lead by winning a fine Najdorf Sicilian with Black against Zaven Andriasian.

2/24/2021 – “Healthy Chess” is the name of Club Magic Extremadura’s program focused on the elderly and directed by Juan Antonio Montero since 2008. The pioneering goals of the program have more to do with keeping the mind active instead of simply teaching the participants how to play chess. The classes are given in the Spanish region of Extremadura. | Pictured: Juan Antonio Montero giving a class | Photos: Club de Ajedrez Magic Extremadura

2/24/2021 – On September 1, 1972, Boris Spassky resigned the 21st game of the World Championship match Fischer vs Spassky 1972 in Reykjavik and Bobby Fischer was new World Champion. But after winning the title the American did not play an official game for 20 years, and soon hid from journalists, fans and colleagues. However, before Fischer fled into hiding, he showed himself to the public, and on November 8, 1972, Fischer was a guest in Johnny Carson's legendary "Tonight Show". Recently, a video of this remarkable episode appeared on YouTube. | Pictures: Screenshots from the show

2/23/2021 – In his "Weekly Show" IM Lawrence Trent takes a look at the FIDE World Online Corporate Championships, which took place last weekend . The team of GRENKE Bank (Georg Meier, Alina Kashlinskaya, Hanna Marie Klek, and Inna Agrest) won this huge worldwide online event by narrowly beating the the team of the Russian bank SBER in the finals. Lawrence presents a game between Georg Meier and Ian Nepomniachtchi, the top encounter of the finals. 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.

2/23/2021 – The Armenian Championships, open and women’s, are taking place on February 16-28 at the Tigran Petrosian Chess House in Yerevan, Armenia’s capital. After 6 rounds, Hovhannes Gabuzyan and Susanna Gaboyan are the sole leaders of the national events. | Photos: Gevorg Perkuperkayn / ArmenPress

2/23/2021 – Usually a rook is far superior to a knight in a pure endgame. But there are exceptions. In the diagram position White's rook is helpless against the black knight and the black pawns. Black to move and win.

2/22/2021 – Irina Bulmaga is a chess professional from Romania but she has sometimes found it difficult to explain to non-chess players what this means. Until recently - when she had an interesting conversation about chess, women's chess, Judit Polgar, Garry Kasparov, and others topics, while waiting for an official document. | Photo: Irina Bulmaga | Photo: David Llada

2/22/2021 – 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 15th part of his ChessBase show "Understanding before Moving" Herman looks takes a look at knights on the rim. | Photo: Hans Hoornstra