1/28/2023 – In an earlier episode, Svitlana taught us the King's Indian Defence. Today, we will learn all the basics about the King's Indian Attack, which is a universal setup, similar to the London System. This also means that the attack can be easily played against standard openings, like the Sicilian, the French, or the Caro-Kann. Svitlana explains, using a Bobby Fischer game, how to win against the French Defence with this interesting opening.

1/25/2023 – Rapid interviews are fun: interviewer and guest face each other in an epic rapid chess battle. The chess guest not only has to face the interviewer's questions, but also concentrate on the chess game at the same time. This leads to surprising answers and sometimes to curious chess positions. Indian super talent Savitha Shri recently bagged the Bronze medal in the World Rapid Chess 2022, and reached the fabulous rating of over 2400. Also, today is her birthday, and she turns 16! Congratulations, and well played. | Photo: Instagram Savitha Shri

1/24/2023 – The first Monthly Dragon in 2023 is ready, and our Dragon aficionado GM Chris Ward found some interesting games in the Yugoslav attack for us. This month we take a look at 9. 0-0-0 d5 where White ignores the central pawn tension and instead immediately swaps knights on c6 and then seeks to trade off the Dragon bishop via Bh6. This ultra-direct approach with a swift h-file assault in mind has been around for decades but has recently come back into fashion. Needless to say it’s far from one-way traffic though as Black certainly has his own attacking aspirations in another no-holds-barred encounter of thrills and spills! | Photo: John Upham

1/18/2023 – Gaining the initiative in chess is one of the most effective tools to decide a game in your favour. It always depends on what kind of player you are of course, and for some it seems easier, others struggle a lot more to make initiative moves. Anish Giri is momentarily storming towards the Tata Steel chess title, with his spectacular playing style. Svitlana presents us his victory against Gukesh D., where he took over the game with a few moves for the win. The same applies to Max Wamerdam's game against Jergus Pechac, and it contains a valuable lesson.

1/12/2023 – Luckily, we will probably never run out of good games played! With the new ChessBase 17 function to find beautiful games, it is even easier than ever, to find some tremendous tactics. Svitlana reviews a couple of games, and lets us guess the right move. If you remember the games, you will have an easier time finding them. Wesley So's game, was surely the most spectacular game, against Hrant Melkumyan. But also the often overseen game between Can and Maghsoodloo was quite phenomenal.

12/30/2022 – Magnus Carlsen not only won the Rapid Championship 2022, but also the Blitz Championship. The GOAT of chess, played some remarkable games, and Svitlana takes a closer look at two of them. Funnily enough, in one of the games, Bobby Fischer had a very similar position against Ulf Andersson. Perhaps Carlsen remembered the particular attacking move, and used it for his own victory. But this episode begins with the masterful tactic of Daniil Dubov against Nihal Sarin. What a stunner!

12/30/2022 – Our time travel journey is over, and we return from 1972 to the present. This year we reached a new world record, with almost 7200 (!) answers. Were the questions too easy, or was the topic particularly interesting? But there was something else, wasn't there? Yes, we solve the tricky last question, which of course the majority answered correctly. Thank you for the lively participation, and the mostly positive comments. Have a great new year 2023!| Photos: Pixabay

12/24/2022 – The 1972 World Championship match between Bobby Fischer and Boris Spasski is regarded as one of the most critical moments in the history of chess, occurring 50 years ago. To present you with this year's Christmas calendar in the proper setting, Arne swiftly constructed a time machine, and went back 50 years. Of course, the 1972 World Cup is the main calendar focus this time! You have the opportunity to guess, count, and conduct research every day for a chance to win one of 90 ChessBase prizes. Your chances of winning one of the major prizes increases, the more questions you can correctly guess. | Photo: Original by World Chess Hall of Fame

12/23/2022 – The 1972 World Championship match between Bobby Fischer and Boris Spasski is regarded as one of the most critical moments in the history of chess, occurring 50 years ago. To present you with this year's Christmas calendar in the proper setting, Arne swiftly constructed a time machine, and went back 50 years. Of course, the 1972 World Cup is the main calendar focus this time! You have the opportunity to guess, count, and conduct research every day for a chance to win one of 90 ChessBase prizes. Your chances of winning one of the major prizes increases, the more questions you can correctly guess. | Photo: Original by World Chess Hall of Fame

12/22/2022 – The 1972 World Championship match between Bobby Fischer and Boris Spasski is regarded as one of the most critical moments in the history of chess, occurring 50 years ago. To present you with this year's Christmas calendar in the proper setting, Arne swiftly constructed a time machine, and went back 50 years. Of course, the 1972 World Cup is the main calendar focus this time! You have the opportunity to guess, count, and conduct research every day for a chance to win one of 90 ChessBase prizes. Your chances of winning one of the major prizes increases, the more questions you can correctly guess. | Photo: Original by World Chess Hall of Fame

12/21/2022 – The 1972 World Championship match between Bobby Fischer and Boris Spasski is regarded as one of the most critical moments in the history of chess, occurring 50 years ago. To present you with this year's Christmas calendar in the proper setting, Arne swiftly constructed a time machine, and went back 50 years. Of course, the 1972 World Cup is the main calendar focus this time! You have the opportunity to guess, count, and conduct research every day for a chance to win one of 90 ChessBase prizes. Your chances of winning one of the major prizes increases, the more questions you can correctly guess. | Photo: Original by World Chess Hall of Fame

12/20/2022 – The 1972 World Championship match between Bobby Fischer and Boris Spasski is regarded as one of the most critical moments in the history of chess, occurring 50 years ago. To present you with this year's Christmas calendar in the proper setting, Arne swiftly constructed a time machine, and went back 50 years. Of course, the 1972 World Cup is the main calendar focus this time! You have the opportunity to guess, count, and conduct research every day for a chance to win one of 90 ChessBase prizes. Your chances of winning one of the major prizes increases, the more questions you can correctly guess. | Photo: Original by World Chess Hall of Fame

12/19/2022 – The 1972 World Championship match between Bobby Fischer and Boris Spasski is regarded as one of the most critical moments in the history of chess, occurring 50 years ago. To present you with this year's Christmas calendar in the proper setting, Arne swiftly constructed a time machine, and went back 50 years. Of course, the 1972 World Cup is the main calendar focus this time! You have the opportunity to guess, count, and conduct research every day for a chance to win one of 90 ChessBase prizes. Your chances of winning one of the major prizes increases, the more questions you can correctly guess. | Photo: Original by World Chess Hall of Fame

12/18/2022 – The 1972 World Championship match between Bobby Fischer and Boris Spasski is regarded as one of the most critical moments in the history of chess, occurring 50 years ago. To present you with this year's Christmas calendar in the proper setting, Arne swiftly constructed a time machine, and went back 50 years. Of course, the 1972 World Cup is the main calendar focus this time! You have the opportunity to guess, count, and conduct research every day for a chance to win one of 90 ChessBase prizes. Your chances of winning one of the major prizes increases, the more questions you can correctly guess. | Photo: Original by World Chess Hall of Fame

12/17/2022 – The Dragon grandmaster is back with an interesting game for all you Sicilian lovers. Two U16 talents battled it out in the last European Youth Chess Championship 2022. But before this game is thoroughly presented by Chris Ward, first, we take a closer look at a recent game between Arjun Erigaisi and Fabiano Caruana. Nonetheless, in the second game, the Topalov Variation is on the board, and the British GM shows us some very interesting lines, plans, and ideas with this system. | Photo: John Upham

12/17/2022 – The 1972 World Championship match between Bobby Fischer and Boris Spasski is regarded as one of the most critical moments in the history of chess, occurring 50 years ago. To present you with this year's Christmas calendar in the proper setting, Arne swiftly constructed a time machine, and went back 50 years. Of course, the 1972 World Cup is the main calendar focus this time! You have the opportunity to guess, count, and conduct research every day for a chance to win one of 90 ChessBase prizes. Your chances of winning one of the major prizes increases, the more questions you can correctly guess. | Photo: Original by World Chess Hall of Fame

12/16/2022 – The 1972 World Championship match between Bobby Fischer and Boris Spasski is regarded as one of the most critical moments in the history of chess, occurring 50 years ago. To present you with this year's Christmas calendar in the proper setting, Arne swiftly constructed a time machine, and went back 50 years. Of course, the 1972 World Cup is the main calendar focus this time! You have the opportunity to guess, count, and conduct research every day for a chance to win one of 90 ChessBase prizes. Your chances of winning one of the major prizes increases, the more questions you can correctly guess. | Photo: Original by World Chess Hall of Fame

12/10/2022 – The Italian game was probably one of the very first openings you learned. The reasons are clear: The center is dominated, the minor pieces are active, the king is safe. The Giouco Piano is played by almost every top player in the world. Svitlana is teaching us the "slow" variation, the so-called Giuoco Pianissimo Variation in this episode. The move d3 is giving White the choice to prepare their attack with a bit more time. In a game between Sven Magnus Carlsen, and Christopher Hikaru Nakamura, Svitlana presents us the White plans, and Black's counter ideas.