Workshop: The Engines and Caruana's Queen Sacrifice

12/22/2016 – Caruana's positional queen sacrifice in his game against Hikaru Nakamura at the London Chess Classic fascinated the public particularly. But are modern engines able to evaluate such a queen sacrifice and its consequences correctly? Arno Nickel grandmaster of correspondence chess took a close look at the critical phase of that game.

Advent calendar: December 22

12/22/2016 – From December 1 to December 24 we invite our readers every day to open a door in our advent calendar. Click and enjoy a little chess treat. Behind door 22 you can find out more about a match between two World Champions that began 90 years ago. Advent calendar, door 22.

Chess adventures in China

12/21/2016 – China is chess superpower but for a long time open tournaments have been rare in the country. But the chess scene in China flourishes and the 1. Hainan Dhanzou Open attracted a lot of strong players. Dutch GM Jan Werle also travelled to Hainan and was impressed by the strength of the Chinese juniors and the superb performance of Yu Yangyi who finished clear first with 8.0/9.

"It happens to the best...": Jon Speelman's Agony Column #33

12/21/2016 – Every chess tournament has its share of errors, mistakes, blunders, no matter whether amateurs or the world's best players try their skills. Jon Speelman takes a look at agonizing moments from the London Chess Classic.

Wei Yi draws first blood in four game match against Richard Rapport

12/21/2016 – Richard Rapport started well in the first round of his four-game match against Wei Yi, getting a nice advantage in an offbeat line of the French. But Wei Yi took his chances in an unbalanced position to win the game with an impressive attack.

Advent calendar: December 21

12/21/2016 – From December 1 to December 24 we invite our readers every day to open a door in our advent calendar. Click and enjoy a little chess treat. Behind door 21 waits a tricky endgame. Advent calendar, door 21.

Riazantsev and Andreikin are new European Rapid and Blitz Champions

12/20/2016 – With 7.0/7 Alexei Shirov had the best start in the rapid tournament of the European Rapid and Blitz Championships that were played from 15th to 17th December in Tallinn, Estonia. But then Shirov lost steam and Alexander Riazantsev won the tournament on tie-break. The blitz tournament was dominated by Dmitry Andreikin: he scored 22.0/26 and did not lose a single game.

Advent calendar: December 20

12/20/2016 – From December 1 to December 24 we invite our readers every day to open a door in our advent calendar. Click and enjoy a little chess treat. Behind door 20 waits a report about a remarkable match. Advent calendar, door 20.

2016 Christmas Buyer's Guide: From start to finish

12/20/2016 – While openings are unquestionably important, even a winning advantage can be squandered if the middlegame and endgame skills are lacking. There is no lack of top-notch courses to help you, ranging from beginner tactics to advanced strategic motifs, not to mention numerous exemplary works on the endgame. In this Buyer’s Guide you will find all you need on learning to play chess, mastering the middlegame, and converting the endgame.

Lubomir Kavalek: Nailed to the chessboard for 50 years

12/20/2016 – His graduation from National Master and International Master to full GM took just seven months and happened 51 years ago. “A grandmaster title is like a driver’s license,” an experienced colleague told him. “You don’t yet know how to drive well, you learn on the go.” In his Huffington Post column Lubos Kavalek looks at memorable players – Flohr, Spassky, Petrosian, Fischer – and games from that time. His article is historically and didactically interesting.

Young generation triumphs in Israeli Championships

12/20/2016 – The Israeli Championships took place in the ancient city of Tiberias but at the board youth triumphed over experience: 25-year old Tamir Nabaty won the Open section and 17-year old Michal Lahav became new Women's Champion of Israel. Report and results...

Bodychecks and blows

12/20/2016 – Every week ChessBase magazine author and renowned endgame expert Karsten Müller presents a remarkable or particularly instructive endgame in his blog. A click on the diagram opens a larger board. Test your endgame skills, improve and have fun!

Three lead at the Sunway Sitges 2016

12/20/2016 – The Sunway Sitges 2016 is currently taking place in Spain from the 16th to the 23rd of December 2016. The tournament is extremely strong with 28 grandmasters playing in the field of 117 participants. Gata Kamsky and Sasikiran are the top seeds with a rating of 2661. However, the most impressive thing about the event is the beautiful setting. IM V. Saravanan, who himself is playing at the event, sent us an impressive pictorial report

Advent calendar: December 19

12/19/2016 – From December 1 to December 24 we invite our readers every day to open a door in our advent calendar. Click and enjoy a little chess treat. Today a former World Champion shows a little opening trick. Advent calendar, door 19.

2016 Christmas Buyer's Guide: Openings

12/19/2016 – With Christmas just around the corner, you might be tempted to give someone a cool ChessBase DVD from the extensive catalogue, but with hundreds of items, and new ones coming out all the time, it can be daunting to know which item has their name written on it. With this in mind, we have put together a few Buyer’s Guides to help you choose. In this Buyer's Guide you will find suggestions for all styles and strengths on Openings, whether it be a full repertoire or openings taught by World Champions.

The First Lady of the London Chess Classic

12/19/2016 – The London Chess Classic has come to a close now and we’ve known for a couple of days that Wesley So would take home the title. We’ve also seen a French domination in the FIDE Open, but this weekend was all about the outstanding performance by Valentina Gunina winning the rapidplay with 9/10.

Wesley So, double winner in London

12/18/2016 – Winning the Grand Chess Tour is a great achievement for Wesley So - his biggest success so far as he said, and a lot of spectators are expecting more to come. On Sunday, he also secured first place in London - so he won 295.000 $ in total. Fabiano Caruana couldn't catch up for a tied first place - a draw was not enough. Veselin Topalov finally managed to win a game; Anish Giri finished with 9/9 draws. More...

The Super Rapidplay in Memory of Michael Uriely

12/18/2016 – The Super Rapidplay at the London Chess Classic started yesterday, and this year the tournament is stronger than ever and has an incredible 474 participants! The tournament is being held in memory of a talented young chess player from London, whose life was taken far too early. Read about the action from today’s rapidplay and other events....

Advent calendar: December 18

12/18/2016 – From December 1 to December 24 we invite our readers every day to open a door in our advent calendar. Click and enjoy a little chess treat. Today we share some theoretical research and offer a number of not particularly original but perhaps immortal games. Advent calendar, door 18.

London Chess Classic, Rd. 8: Wesley So wins Grand Chess Tour 2016

12/17/2016 – Round 8 of the London Chess Classic was relatively quiet. The most exciting game was Veselin Topalov vs Vishy Anand, in which Anand came up with a stunning novelty and later profited from a blunder by Topalov to score the only win of the round. Wesley So will be happy about the quiet round. He drew with Black against Fabiano Caruana and with this draw he is certain to win the Grand Chess Tour 2016 - the biggest triumph of So's career. Report and games.

The French do it for MVL

12/17/2016 – We have been truly blessed with some exciting chess this year, with decisive results all over the shop in the main event. Whilst Giri may still be sticking to his solid draws, most are using Topalov as a punching bag. However, today was all about Hikaru Nakamura’s moment of fame as he destroyed the Najdorf expert in the same line he lost to yesterday. Mehr...

A Master Class on the "Human Machine"

12/17/2016 – José Raúl Capablanca was called the human chess machine. His games were filled with simplicity and beauty that can be understood quite easily, but are extremely difficult to emulate in practice. In the fourth volume of the Master Class series Niclas Huschenbeth, Mihail Marin, Oliver Reeh and Karsten Müller delve deeply into the various facets of the Cuban's play. After watching the DVD Aditya Pai, the author of this article, writes: "Since it covers all aspects of Capablanca's play, it helps the viewers comprehensively improve their chess understanding. A review.

Advent calendar: December 17

12/17/2016 – From December 1 to December 24 we invite our readers every day to open a door in our advent calendar. Click and enjoy a little chess treat. Today we offer some magic. Advent calendar, door 17.

Caruana's brilliancy: The Engine Challenge

12/16/2016 – When a grandmaster analyzing a game, professes a move or type of move as exceptionally challenging for an engine, it is obviously going to be scrutinized left and right. That is precisely what happened in the analysis of Fabiano Caruana’s fantastic queen sacrifice against Hikaru Nakamura in game six of the London Classic. The comments on engines were not entirely wrong, but as we will see, there are notable exceptions! Learn how the entire sacrifice could have been solved in seconds.