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 – 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

2/15/2021 – Adrian Michalchishin is one of the world's most renowned trainers. He has worked with players such as Alexander Beliavsky, Anatoly Karpov, Alisa Maric, Ilja Nyzhnyk, Richard Rapport, Mateusz Bartel, Susan and Sofia Polgar, to name just a few. In part II of an extensive interview he talks about the work of a trainer, psychology in chess, and reveals how Kasparov once forced him to play cards throughout the night, and why computers may be damaging for chess.

1/31/2021 – Even passionate chess players often have difficulties to appreciate the beauty of chess problems. Bizarre positions and terms such as albion, aristocrat, dual, duplex, uncapture, or Zepler doubling, to name just a few, are just not very inviting. But Sam Loyd, perhaps the most famous chess composer and puzzle author of all times, had a knack to present his chess problems in an attractive way: with humour, wit, and embedded into stories. Sam Loyd was born 180 years ago, on January 30, 1841.

1/27/2021 – … on January, 26, 2011, Viktor Kortschnoi played in round 2 of the Gibraltar Chess Festival against Fabiano Caruana. Kortschnoi was 79 years old, Caruana 18, Kortschnoi had a rating of 2544, Caruana had a rating of 2721. Moreover, Kortschnoi was playing with Black. But he soon attacked Caruana with all his energy and won a remarkable game. | Photo: John Saunders, Chess Festival Gibraltar 2011

1/20/2021 – Frank Scott's "The Queen's Gambit" with Anya Taylor-Joy as Beth Harmon is the most successful Netflix series of all time, and despite small inaccuracies it convincingly shows how exciting and fascinating chess can be. In fact, the games Beth Harmon plays in the series were almost all taken from actual tournament or matches. But which games found their way into the series? In New in Chess Magazine 08/2020 Erwin l'Ami took a closer look. | Photo: Beth Harmon's most crucial game | Photo: Screenshot from the series

1/21/2021 – In the past, many tournaments offered brilliancy prizes for particularly beautiful games, but unfortunately this fine custom has gone a little out of fashion. But the FIDE Online Cadet and Youth World Championships 2020 paid respect to this tradition and awarded a brilliancy prize. It was donated by the Russian company Gazprom, and it was won by 16-year old Indian prodigy Nihal Sarin for an impressive game full of sacrifices and unexpected moves. | Photo: Nihal Sarin (ChessBase India)

1/14/2021 – Stanley Kubrick is widely considered as one of the greatest directors of all time. But he was also a passionate chess player, and when he lived in New York, he often visited the "Flea House", a well-known and rather notorious meeting place for chess players and gamblers. In his film "The Killing" from 1956 Kubrick paid homage to this institution and one of its regular guests: the wrestler, chess lover, and actor Kola Kwariani. | Picture: Kola Kwariani (left), Stanley Kubrick (center) and Sterling Hayden (right), Cover of "Chess Review", March 1956

1/7/2021 – 105 years ago today, on January 7, 1916, Paul Keres was born. For more than 30 years, Keres was one of the world's best players, but although he finished second in four Candidates Tournaments, he never played a match for the World Championship. 105 years is not a round anniversary, but an occasion to look at a highlight of a long career. At the 1954 Chess Olympiad, Keres won gold with the Soviet Union team, and scored 13½/14 on board 4 - one of the best results ever achieved at Olympiads.

12/31/2020 – Adrian Michalchishin is one of the world's most renowned trainers. He has worked with players such as Aleksander Beliavsky, Anatoly Karpov, Alisa Maric, Ilja Nyzhnyk, Richard Rapport, Mateusz Bartel, Susan and Sofia Polgar, to name just a few. In an extensive interview he talks about his life, trainers who have influenced him, and what you need to be a successful coach and player. | Photo: Pascal Simon

12/28/2020 – The third and last day of the preliminary tournament of the Airthings Masters saw a lot of of exciting games and a close fight for the top eight places which secured the qualification for the knock-out stage. In the end and after a close tiebreak Carlsen, So, Nakamura, Nepomniachtchi, Radjabov, Aronian, Dubov and Vachier-Lagrave qualified. | Photo:

12/27/2020 – The Airthings Masters starts with a 12-player round robin preliminary tournament, in which the eight best players qualify for the knock-out stage. This mode of play invites caution, and on day 2 of the prelimary tournament only three of the 24 games were decided. Now, after eight rounds no less than six players share the lead with 4.5/8, and though tailenders Anish Giri and David Anton will need a strong finish on day 3, theoretically all twelve players can still qualify for the knock-out stage. The most entertaining player on day 2 was Daniil Dubov (pictured). | Photo: Lennart Ootes (Archive)

12/26/2020 – The first day of the Airthings Masters was rather peaceful: 17 of the 24 games ended in draw, only seven had a decisive result. Magnus Carlsen also finished the day without a win and drew all his four games. After the first four rounds five players share first place with 2½/4 each: Hikaru Nakamura, Levon Aronian, Wesley So, Teimour Radjabov, and Daniil Dubov. They all won one game and drew the other three. | Photo: Lennart Ootes (Archive)

12/16/2020 – Countless chess books are published every year, some better than others. With the year coming to an end, we take a brief look into five noteworthy works that were put in circulation in 2020.

12/4/2020 – The quarterfinal of the Chess.com Speed Chess Championship between Hikaru Nakamura and Vladimir Fedoseev was a rather one-sided affair. Nakamura dominated his opponent from start to finish and won the first nine (!) games of the match. After 27 games the match was over and with a smooth 21.5-5.5 victory Nakamura qualified for the semifinals where he will face Wesley So. | Photo: Lennart Ootes (Archive)

12/3/2020 – In the second match of the quarterfinals of the Speed Chess Championship 2020 on chess.com, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave narrowly won 14.5-12.5 against Levon Aronian. Despite some errors, the level of the match was high and the match itself was close until the very end.

11/12/2020 – The second wave of the Corona pandemic prevents top players again from playing live tournaments, but they still play online. For example, in the Speed Chess Championship 2020, a knock-out blitz tournament in which 16 of the world's best players in the world fight on chess.com for a $100,000 prize fund. In the fifth match of the first round, Levon Aronian won 14-11 against Ian Nepomniachtchi. The match was not without mistakes, but exciting and entertaining. | Picture: chess.com

11/3/2020 – At the Young Champions Tournament in Uppsala the opening choices of the young Dutch FM Siem Van Dael surprised again and again, particularly when he was playing with White. Van Dael tried 1.a4, 1.h4, 1.h3, 1.a3 and 1.g3 g6 2.Bg2 Bg7 3.Na3, and these unorthodox openings brought him 4 points out of 5 games and helped him to win the tournament. | Photos: Tournament page