11/21/2023 – The renowned chess magazine "New in Chess" is published eight times a year and issue no. 7/2023 has just been delivered. With detailed tournament coverage, analyses by top players and interesting news from the world of chess. One of the highlights of the magazine is an interview by Dirk Jan ten Geuzendam with businessman and chess patron Ilya Levitov about "24 Hours with Kasparov", a series of interviews Levitov conducted with Garry Kasparov and published on YouTube. Kasparov talks about his life with amazing openness, charm and even more energy, and comments on important games in his career. | Screenshot from "24 Hours with Kasparov"

11/16/2023 – Dirk Jan ten Geuzendam, author, organiser, commentator, chess book collector and editor-in-chief of the renowned chess magazine "New in Chess", has conducted numerous interviews with top players over the last four decades. When Sagar Shah, founder and director of ChessBase India, recently visited Holland, he changed roles and interviewed the experienced interviewer. This led to an entertaining conversation about chess books and memories of meeting players such as Kasparov, Karpov, Tal, Anand and many others.

11/10/2023 – Albin's Counter Gambit (1.d4 d5 2.c4 e5) has been, and still is, a rare guest at top level tournaments, and is hardly ever seen in the practice of the world champions. The variation is considered theoretically dubious and as an overly aggressive attempt to gain counterplay in the rather solid Queen's Gambit. However, the opening has found its way into literature - in the novel "Gambit" by American crime writer Rex Stout.

11/7/2023 – How do you train, what do you train, why do you train and how useful is it to train or play chess at all? These and a whole series of other questions were answered by the Slovakian grandmaster, successful author and renowned coach Jan Markos in a ChessBase interview with Johannes Fischer.

6/30/2023 – The Prague Chess Festival is drawing to a close, but after eight of nine rounds the battle for tournament victory is still wide open. In the Masters, Bogdan-Daniel Deac (pictured) and Ray Robson lead with 5 out of 8 each, but theoretically five more players have a chance of sharing first place. In the Challengers, Mateusz Bartel is sole leader with 5.5 out of 8, but there are no less than three players within half a point of him. | Photos: Petr Vrabec

6/29/2023 – In the top match of the seventh round of the Masters at the Prague Chess Festival Ray Robson (pictured) beat Vincent Keymer and with this victory the American took the sole lead with 4.5 out of 7. The other four games ended in draws. In the Challengers, a draw against Jergus Pechac was enough for Benjamin Gledura to defend his sole lead. | Photo: Anezka Kruzikova

6/28/2023 – There was only one decisive game in round 6 of the Prague Chess Festival Masters Tournament: Wang Hao won with White against Boris Gelfand. Vincent Keymer missed good chances against Haik Martirosyan, but is still tied for first place with Ray Robson and Bogdan-Daniel Deac with 3.5 out of 6. Behind them are five (!) players with 3 out of 6 each - so with three rounds to go, eight players have a good chance of winning the tournament. In the Challengers, Benjamin Gledura is still the sole leader with 4.5 out of 6.| Photos: Petr Vrabec

6/19/2023 – In the ninth and final round of the Teplice Open, all the encounters on the top five boards ended in draws and that secured clear first place for German GM Frederik Svane (pictured), who had a half-point lead going into Sunday’s round. He scored 7½ points and obtained an Elo gain of 15.8 points, thanks to his 2743 tournament rating performance. Rasmus Svane, the champion’s brother, finished in fourth place with 7 points to his name. | Photo: Official website

6/17/2023 – Alice Lee, aged 13, is considered one of the biggest talents in the United States. In March, she finished second in the highly competitive American Cup after narrowly losing to Irina Krush in a playoff. The youngster has now earned her third and final IM norm at the Canadian Transnational Open in Montreal. Alice Lee is in illustrious company, as the only women players that had previously earned the IM title by age 13 are Judit Polgar and Kateryna Lagno. | Photo: Bryan Adams / Saint Louis Chess Club

6/17/2023 – With five wins in as many games, Frederik Svane had a brilliant start at the traditional open event in Teplice, Czech Republic. It was only in round 6 that the 19-year-old GM, who plays for the Hamburg Chess Club in the Bundesliga, conceded his first draw, against his brother Rasmus. A win over then co-leader Evgeny Romanov left him in the sole lead with two round to go. Three players, including Rasmus, stand a half point behind. | Photo: German Chess Federation

5/26/2023 – Fabiano Caruana lost to Nodirbek Abdusattorov in Round 2 of the ChessKid Cup, but now he has a chance for revenge in the Grand Final. On Day 4, Caruana first defeated Jules Moussard in the semi-finals of the Loser's Bracket and then beat Jorden Van Foreest in the final. | Photo: Lennart Ootes (Archive)

5/25/2023 – Nodirbek Abdusattorov continues to impress in the ChessKid Cup: he defeated Jorden Van Foreest in the final of the Winner's Bracket to qualify for the Grand Final, where he will meet the winner of the Loser's Bracket. In addition to Van Foreest, Fabiano Caruana, who beat Alireza Firouzja in round 2 of the Loser's Bracket, and Jules Moussard, who beat Dmitrij Kollars in the same round, are also in the running. | Photo: Screenshot of the live transmission

5/25/2023 – After 8 of 9 rounds, no fewer than eight players with 5.5/8 share the lead in the Sharjah Masters. One of them is the young Indian grandmaster Arjun Erigaisi (pictured), who in Round 8 with Black impressively showed why active piece play is often more important than pawn structure and what can happen when the king is stranded in the centre. | Photo: Facebook page of the Sharjah Masters

5/24/2023 – Nodirbek Abdusattorov (picture) and Jorden Van Foreest are in the final of the Winner's Bracket of the ChessKid Cup. In the semi-finals Abdusattorov beat Fabiano Caruana and Van Foreest won against Dmitrij Kollars, who missed a number of good chances. Co-favourite Hikaru Nakamura, on the other hand, was eliminated from the tournament, losing to Alireza Firouzja in the Losers' Bracket. | Photo: Nodirbek Abdusattorov at the Tata Steel Tournament 2023 | Photo: Lennart Ootes

5/23/2023 – Day 1 of the ChessKid Cup, a double elimination rapid (15+3) tournament, brought two big surprises: Alireza Firouzja lost his match against Dmitrij Kollars and Hikaru Nakamura lost against Jorden Van Foreest. Things went more smoothly for Fabiano Caruana and Nodirbek Abdusattorov: Caruana won 2.5-0.5 against Aleksandr Shimanov, as did Abdusattorov against Jules Moussard. | Graphics: Chess.com

4/4/2023 – A total of 56 players are participating in the Chessable Masters Tournament. The players are distributed in three divisions, each taking place with a double-elimination format. Four rapid games (15+3) are played in each confrontation, and if a match ends in a draw, an Armageddon decider follows. This format ensures excitement, surprises and plenty of mistakes. The biggest surprise on Day 1 was Magnus Carlsen’s loss to Vladislav Artemiev in Division I.

3/23/2023 – On March 24, the third of four tournaments in the FIDE Women’s Grand Prix Series 2022/2023 will begin in New Delhi, India. Twelve players will compete, but the two Ukrainian grandmasters Anna and Mariya Muzychuk have decided not to take part, presumably because Kateryna Lagno, Polina Shuvalova and Aleksandra Goryachkina, who are members of the Russian Chess Federation but play under the FIDE flag, will be among the participants in New Delhi. | Photo: ChessBase

3/20/2023 – Rainer Knaak was born on 16 March 1953 in Pasewalk, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. In 1974, at the age of 21, Knaak became the then youngest grandmaster in the world. The mathematician is a 5-time champion of the German Democratic Republic, and always caused a stir with his optimistic and elegant attacking style. Knaak was also successful as an author. He published numerous books and began working for ChessBase in 1994. He was editor-in-chief of ChessBase Magazine and published a number of popular ChessBase DVDs.