9/2/2021 – For the first time in the Meltwater Champions Chess Tour, Alireza Firouzja has made it past the quarterfinals. And the 18-year-old did it in style, knocking out one of the toughest opponents in the tour, Wesley So. In the semis, Firouzja will face Vladislav Artemiev, who defeated Leinier Dominguez in a close match. The other semifinal will see Magnus Carlsen playing Levon Aronian. | Photo: Amruta Mokal

9/1/2021 – The Scandinavian opening is controversial. Some hate it, others love it. But if Magnus Carlsen and many other Grandmasters play this opening occasionally, it wouldn't harm to take a closer look at it. Especially the "Portuguese Variation" is worth discovering. This tricky line is full of tactics, and heavy development on Black's side. Furthermore, Svitlana teaches us some more ideas from a blindfold match between Gelfand and Morozevich. After all, it is a great idea to try out openings you have never ever touched before, to get the most out of this beautiful game called chess.

9/1/2021 – Maxime Vachier-Lagrave couldn’t have asked for a better time to win the Sinquefield Cup. Scoring six points in nine rounds, he became the only player to outrightly win the event twice. Equally important for him, the win beckons a return to top form. In an interview with Dhananjay Khadilkar, he remarked, “I have absolutely no doubt that I am part of the chess elite”. | Photo: Austin Fuller

9/1/2021 – This week, Merijn van Delft chooses one of the many exciting games played in the prelims of the Aimchess US Rapid tournament — Daniel Naroditsky’s impressive attacking win over Wesley So. | Merijn’s show is available on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here.

9/1/2021 – The new ChessBase Magazine # 203 already whets the appetite for the World Championship match in November. In the "Special: Ian Nepmniachtchi" each of our authors analyses their favorite game of the new challenger. The result is an exclusive collection of 21 extensively annotated games. Karsten Müller puts the technique of the 31-year-old Russian to the test in his contribution "Nepomniachtchi’s Endgames". And Mihail Marin explores the question of what distinguishes “Nepos” playing style. Adhiban, Krasenkow, Navara, Praggnanandhaa, Vitiugov, Wojtaszek and others comment on their games from the World Cup. Plus 10 opening articles ("The Scandinavian under pressure", "News from the Fantasy Variation" etc.), opening videos by King, Werle and Marin as well as training columns on tactics, strategy and endgame. We present all of this to you in the new CBM layout!

8/31/2021 – The first sets of the Aimchess US Rapid quarterfinals were played on Tuesday. Magnus Carlsen, Alireza Firouzja and Levon Aronian won their first 4-game mini-matches, which means a draw on Wednesday will grant them a spot in the semifinals. The one match that finished drawn was Vladislav Artemiev vs Leinier Dominguez, as the Russian won game 4 on demand to tie the score. | Photo: Amruta Mokal

8/31/2021 – In his "Weekly Show" IM Lawrence Trent takes a look at a game which shows how things can go wrong from the black side of a Slav Defence — i.e. Wesley So vs Awonder Liang from the Aimchess US Rapid. | Lawrence's show is available on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here

8/31/2021 – Have a fearful opponent next round? Have ChessBase 16 but no database (having one is a bonus)? No worries, here is a tutorial to help you get sorted and prepared so you can approach your next game with confidence. Don't miss this valuable lesson, which comes with a summary of the main points in a convenient video at the end!

8/31/2021 – In the diagram position it is Black to move and tablebases and endgame books know that this position is a theoretical draw. However, holding theoretical draws is often difficult in practice. But Jan-Krzyzstof Duda, who was Black against Ding Liren here, was up to the task and found the only move that saves the game. What did he play?

8/31/2021 – Half the players were eliminated from the Aimchess US Rapid after three days of preliminaries. Among them are top GMs Anish Giri and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave. Notably, we will get to see four interesting matchups in the quarterfinals, with world champion Magnus Carlsen facing Jan-Krzysztof Duda, after Duda recently beat Carlsen in the semifinals of the World Cup. | Pictured: Locations of the participants

8/30/2021 – Herman and Karsten discuss endgames and Herman’s forthcoming ChessBase products. Herman tells many surprising stories connected to endgames. He talks, for example, about how Loek van Wely began his serious work on rook endgames. | Endgame Magic is on air most Mondays. Watch it on-demand with a ChessBase Premium account.

8/30/2021 – The Division 3 stage of the 2021 FIDE Online Olympiad finished on Sunday. After nine rounds in each of the 10-team round robin pools, 15 countries have qualified for the next stage of the tournament. These 15 qualifiers will join 35 new seeded teams in Division 2 — including powerhouses such as Cuba, Italy, Israel, Shenzhen, Slovenia and Sweden, all rated +2300 — which will run next weekend, September 2-4.