11/27/2023 – Teimour Radjabov had a terrible tournament at the European Team Championship, and couldn't win a single game. Robert Ris steps in to the rescue. When Radjabov was just 15 years old, he faced Garry Kasparov, who had an incredible rating of 2847 at that time. In a French Defence game, we can witness several Knight sacrifices, and stunning attacks against Garry's king, by the Underdog.

11/22/2023 – Every now and then, Svitlana talks about a new opening. This time, it is the suspicious Budapest Gambit. To Arne's disappointment - if you play the opening correctly, some variants seem to move to a very calm middle- and endgame, rather than setting the board on fire. It might be interesting to get to know the Gambit a bit better because it is actually quite sound.

11/20/2023 – For the Fritz 19 launch, we let six different players, ranging from elo 1839 up to 2614, battle the six engine player characters. Twice, the computer escaped with extraordinary swindle tactics, causing a stalemate for Elisabeth Paehtz, and Jan Jettel! The engine showed us beautiful tactical moves, to decide the outcome against Leon Mendonca, and Svitlana Demchenko. The two human victories were determined through hard fights in endgames, by Robert Ris, and Polina Karelina. Overall, the experiment was a success: We wanted fun, and entertaining games, and we got them. Now, it is your turn!

11/8/2023 – Chris Ward couldn't resist showing us a wonderful game of Arjun Erigaisi, defeating Ian Nepomniachtchi with the Dragon. Apparently, Erigaisi is watching the Monthly Dragon, since he used the advice by Chris, of last month's episode! But the Indian GM used a quite interesting path to keep the game going, which is normally used by club players.| Photo: John Upham

11/2/2023 – After the sixth round of the 2023 FIDE Grand Swiss, every chess player should know all participants who remain in the top 20. Unless, Ramaza Zhalmakhanov shows up! The young talent from Kazakhstan is probably playing his best tournament ever, with draws against Giri, Sevian, Sarana, and Firouzja, and two wins against Pichot and Bassem! Let's see if the IM can keep up with the elite until the final round. His win against Amir Bassem, in the Ruy Lopez, is a tactical masterpiece.

10/29/2023 – Svitlana is taking us through the Panov Attack against the Caro-Kann Defence. The aggressive opening turns out to be an ambitious variation, full of attacking potential, if you can live with an isolated queen pawn. The basics are well explained, and should motivate you to look a bit deeper into this surprising Caro-Kann counter.

10/16/2023 – One of the strongest national chess tournaments is still running, and it looks as if Fabiano Caruana can win the US Championship trophy in 2023. Svitlana found some exciting tactics and invites everybody to guess the correct, or best move. Especially the women's section was not shying back!

10/13/2023 – Offerspill Sjakklubb started the 38th European Chess Club Cup Open as fourth seed. Magnus Carlsen, Offerspill's first board, was certainly the main reason for this - after all he is the world number one with a rating of 2839. But it was still a big surprise that the Norwegians won the cup! One team member in particular - Pranav Venkatesh (whose birthday is today!) - rocked the house with 5.0/7 points. His game against Super Grandmaster Jorden Van Foreest was particularly daring. Robert Ris shows this magical Underdog victory.

10/9/2023 – Svitlana Demchenko celebrated her 20th birthday recently, marking this year's World Junior Championship in Mexico as her final appearance. She enjoyed the tournament atmosphere, and met many chess friends. In this episode, she shows us a well-prepared Italian Game.

9/27/2023 – The Dragon Master is back with a new episode! We already reviewed the possibility of trapping the white queen in an earlier show. In today's video, Chris points out how important this resource is to gain a strong advantage over White.| Photo: John Upham

9/20/2023 – IM Andrew Martin recently produced his upcoming Fritztrainer on the Black Knight Tango opening at the ChessBase Headquarters in Hamburg. We seized the opportunity to chat with him and delve into his extensive chess journey. Born and raised in London, Andrew turned to chess as a solace during a challenging childhood. This passion shaped his entire life around the captivating game. He's done it all: from authoring multiple books, collaborating closely with ChessBase, competing in tournaments, mentoring students, to even setting a simultaneous play world record against 321 opponents. The conversation with Andrew is profoundly insightful, offering listeners a wealth of knowledge.

9/14/2023 – Fabiano Caruana had to face the underdog Nijat Abasov in the match for third place at the Baku World Cup. In round 8.2, the US player made a fairly unknown move in the Four Knights Sicilian, by moving the bishop to f4. Svitlana offers insights into various variations arising from this opening. The endgame provides valuable lessons as well!

9/13/2023 – During a visit to the ChessBase office to record his latest Fritztrainer, Grandmaster Nick Pert was interviewed. In a conversation with Arne Kaehler, Nick delved into his background, sharing stories of his upbringing, his introduction to chess, and the competitive dynamic with his twin brother. He also discussed his decision to follow a chess career over pursuing his field of study, and touched upon his achievement of becoming a world champion in 1998.

9/8/2023 – In 2004, Vladimir Kramnik and Peter Leko played a match for the World Championship. After a nail-biting series of games, the match ended in a 7-7 draw, with Kramnik retaining his title by winning the 14th game on demand. But Svitlana shows us one of the two wins by Leko (who, incidentally, is celebrating his birthday today!) - a fascinating game with an interesting side story.

9/6/2023 – The World Cup had it's fair share of underdog surprises in the first round. Robert Ris decided to pick a game from round three, though! Anish Giri faced Nijat Abasov, and in the tiebreaker, the GM from Azerbaijan played aggressive moves, which caused a lot of trouble for Giri. Ris shows us exactly, how the 150 points weaker player won impressively.

8/30/2023 – In the last episode, Chris introduced the Hungarian Dragon. This time, the British GM will continue with some deviations of the popular variation. Beware, the following game is intense! It is definitely worth it to check out the full analysis. | Photo: John Upham

8/23/2023 – In mid-August, the Women's Chess Commission hosted its inaugural Online Blitz Tournament on the ChessBase Playchess platform. Under the leadership of Chairperson Regina Pokorna, the event was organized to further spotlight women's chess. Eleven female competitors took part in this intimate online blitz event, where they had the chance to challenge the formidable IM Stavroula Tsolakidou. The top Greek female player clinched the title with a flawless score of 10/10!

8/21/2023 – In today's episode, Honorata shows us how an attack is set for success if all pieces work together. Emanuel Lasker's game was considered one of the most beautiful attacks in chess history, and you are about to find out why. We want to point out that Svitlana Demchenko also made an episode about this sacrifice, which we added to our links — so you can watch two experts analysing the same game!