1/11/2022 – Paul Keres (January 7, 1916 – June 5, 1975) was the clear favourite in the 1942 Estonian Championship in Tallinn. At the time he was considered a possible challenger to World Champion Alexander Alekhine and was the only world-class player in the field. Nevertheless, it is astonishing how clearly Keres dominated the tournament: he won all 15 games without conceding a single draw. | Photo: Valter Heuer (Archive)

12/23/2021 – The King's Gambit continues to pose puzzles. The opening evokes memories of glorious sacrificial games from the romantic era, but at the same time it is regarded as somewhat unsound — as theoretically incorrect. But even today the move 2.f4 after 1.e4 e5 leads again and again to unusual positions rich in content. As the games of King’s Gambit expert Joe Gallagher demonstrate! | Photo source: British Chess News

12/16/2021 – In 1865 Gustav Neumann (15 December 1838 - 16 February 1881) scored 34 points from 34 games in the club tournament of the "Berliner Schachgesellschaft", the Berlin Chess Society. Neumann had not yet played a single international tournament at that time, but he was one of the leading players in Germany and thus one of the leading players in the world. Neumann's opponents in this club tournament were not particularly strong, but to win 34 games without losing or drawing shows ambition and the will to win. Neumann had both.

12/16/2021 – On Monday, the 8th Sunway Sitges Open began near Barcelona. 31 players in the strong field have an Elo-rating of more than 2500, but Anton Korobov (pictured), the winner of 2019, is top seed and again among the favourites. He started the tournament with three wins - as did 18 other players. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

12/14/2021 – Peter Heine Nielsen has been Magnus Carlsen's head coach and second since 2013, and in an in-depth interview with IM Sagar Shah the Danish grandmaster and ChessBase author has now revealed some background on Carlsen's World Championship match against Ian Nepomniachtchi: Nielsen reviews the critical moments of all eleven games, discusses what makes a good coach and talks about the upcoming World Championship cycle and Alireza Firouzja's chances in it. | Photo: Hartmut Metz | Archiv

11/22/2021 – As a chess player, Alexander Alekhine (pictured) was brilliant, but his biography contains a number of dark spots. In particular, his proximity to the Nazis has damaged the reputation of the fourth world champion. The Swiss historian and chess player Dr. Christian Rohrer wanted to find out how and to what extent Alekhine supported the Nazis, and he published his findings in an online article titled "World chess champion and favourite of Hans Frank?: assessing Alexander Alekhine’s closeness to the National Socialist regime". Detailed, fascinating and well worth reading.

11/1/2021 – With an impressive finish Michal Krasenkov won the strong Sheik Russel tournament in Dhaka, Bangladesh, that ended 27 October. In the last three rounds the Russian-born Polish GM scored 3.0/3, which helped him to finish sole first with 7.0 out of 9. Six players followed half a point behind and shared second to seventh place. | Photo: Alina l'Ami (Archive)

10/20/2021 – Last weekend, Baden-Baden won the German Team Championship, the Bundesliga. Again. In fact, since 2006 the team from Baden-Baden, sponsored by GRENKE Leasing, only failed to win the league in 2016, when Solingen finished first. This year, at the end of a season that due to the pandemic lasted from 2019 to 2021, Baden-Baden was three team points ahead of their closest rivals but securing the title was more difficult than the final result suggests. | Photos: Pascal Simon

10/12/2021 – Stefan Zweig's "The Royal Game" and Vladimir Nabokov's "Lushin's Defence" are the best-known novels about the destructive power chess can have. In "Chess Fever", a fine novel about youth, growing up, creativity and lots of chess, the English author Mark Ozanne describes the passion for the game in less sinister fashion, but much funnier and much closer to the mind of a chess player.

7/22/2021 – In Dortmund Vishy Anand and Vladimir Kramnik tried a new variant of chess: they played a four-game match, in which castling was not allowed. After four interesting games Anand won the match 2.5-1.5, and both players, the organizers in Dortmund and the public agreed that the experiment was a success.

7/21/2021 – 50 years ago, on 20 July 1971, Bobby Fischer (pictured) and Bent Larsen played the sixth and final game of their semi-final match of the Candidates. Fischer had won the first five games and he also won the sixth. It was Fischer's 19th win in a row against some of the world's best players, a sensational and unrivalled winning streak. In his new book "The Unstoppable American: Bobby Fischer's Road to Reykjavik" Dutch Grandmaster Jan Timman takes a close look at this winning streak and Fischer's dominance in the years 1970 to 1971. Confident, entertaining, and with new insights about Fischer's strengths and weaknesses.

7/12/2021 – Magnus Carlsen seems to be well prepared for the World Cup. Before this big knockout event thats starts today, 12 July, the World Champion travelled to Pamplona in Spain to play a two-day knockout 3+2 blitz online tournament from there - with some of the world's best players. Carlsen, Wesley So, Ding Liren and Levon Aronian were seeded for the quarter-finals were they faced four qualifiers. Carlsen first won against Eduardo Iturrizaga Bonelli, then scored a surprisingly clear win against So and then went on to defeat Aronian in the final.

6/22/2021 – 170 years ago, on 21 June 1851, Adolf Anderssen and Lionel Kieseritzky played one of the most famous games of all time: the so-called "Immortal Game", in which Anderssen sacrificed a large part of his army to mate the enemy king. Since then this game has been included in countless anthologies, it continues to be a popular choice for live exhibition games, it has been quoted in films, and the decisive position has been printed on T-shirts. It also played a role in the novel "Writers & Lovers" by American author Lily King.

6/17/2021 – David Navara, the number one Czech player, started the Masters at the Prague Chess Festival with two losses, and in round 3 he had to play against Sam Shankland, who seems to be in good shape in Prague. But Navara still played ambitiously which allowed Shankland to counter and to win a fine game. With 2.5/3 Shankland is now the sole leader at the Masters. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

5/12/2021 – 60 years ago today, on 12 May 1961, the return World Championship match between Mihail Tal and Mikhail Botvinnik, which had started in Moscow on 15 March, came to an end. Tal had won the first match in 1960 with 12.5-8.5, but in the return match Botvinnik regained the world championship title and defeated Tal 13-8 (+10, -5, =6). But despite the clear result Botvinnik's victory still failed to convince.

5/5/2021 – On Sunday, 2 May, Magnus Carlsen won the New in Chess Classic Online Tournament, the first of the so far five Meltwater Champions Chess Tour tournaments the World Champion, who is as spoilt for success as he is hungry for it, could win. But Carlsen did not only entertain and impress at the board (or screen). In short video clips, shown during the live broadcast, he revealed what he thinks about previous World Champions and showed his amazing chess memory. | Image: Screenshot

4/28/2021 – The first day of the quarterfinal at the New in Chess Classic Online Tournament brought a number of interesting games and match wins for Levon Aronian (3-1 against Wesley So), Shakhriyar Mamedyarov (3-1 against Alireza Firouzja) and Hikaru Nakamura (2.5-1.5 against Le Quang Liem). Magnus Carlsen and Teimour Radjabov drew all four games and the match. | Photo: Levon Aronian | Photo: Grand Chess Tour, Lennart Ootes

4/12/2021 – On his Twitter account, Scottish chess fan Douglas Griffin regularly publishes historical photos of famous chess players. Photographs that awaken memories and keep them alive, pictures that allow views into the past. On 28 May 2019, Griffin published a photo that shows Max Blümich and Alexander Alekhine playing against each other in the 1941/1942 Krakow/Warsaw tournament. A picture that raises questions: How did the game go, who won, who was Max Blümich and who else is in the photo? | Photo: audiovis.nac.gov.pl