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

10/9/2020 – Many players believe that Mark Dvoretsky's "Endgame Manual" is one of the best chess books of all time. Recently, Russell Enterprises released the 5th edition of this legendary work. In an interview with Johannes Fischer, Karsten Müller, who edited and revised the 5th edition of the "Manual", talks about his passion for the endgame, why studying Dovretsky's manual is fun and worth the effort, and what makes this book so special.

9/22/2020 – The Russian IM Semen Khanin started at the Panchenko Memorial in Chelyabinsk as number 26 on the seeding list, but after nine rounds he finished first on tiebreak. Anastasia Bodnaruk dominated the Women's Tournament and finished clear first with 8.0/9. | Photo: Galina Popova

9/21/2020 – In the last 15 years the OSG Baden-Baden has won the title of German Team Champion no less than 14 times, and in 2020 they won it again. Though it was close. In the dramatic seventh and decisive round of the Bundesliga Championship Baden-Baden only narrowly won the top match against the SC Viernheim 4½-3½. | Photo: Christian Bossert

9/9/2020 – On September 9, 2010, ten years ago, the Danish Grandmaster Bent Larsen died in Argentina where he lived with his wife Laura Benediz Benedini, a lawyer, whom he had met in 1980. Larsen was born on March 4, 1935, and in the 1960s he was arguably the most successful tournament player and definitely one of the best players in the world. He is famous for his fighting spirit, his optimism, his original play and his entertaining writing. | Photo: Bent Larsen © Hans Peters

9/9/2020 – Vishy Anand and Vladimir Kramnik are friends, but they were also rivals. They played a World Championship match and about 150 games against each other, and for two decades both were among the three best players in the world. In the Indian sports program "The Finish Line" Anand now talks about his World Championship match 2008 against Kramnik. Anand shares insights about his surprising choice of 1.d4, about match strategy and he reveals why this was one of the most important matches of his career. | Photo: Alina l'Ami

8/20/2020 – "Yet another extraordinary encounter!" That is how Daniel King described game 1 of the sixth set of the match between Magnus Carlsen and Hikaru Nakamura in the final of the Magnus Carlsen Chess Tour. Carlsen played with White and after the opening he sacrificed two pawns to threaten Black's king with his two bishops. This led to fascinating complications and a strong mating attack. Daniel King took a closer look.

8/13/2020 – In his match against Magnus Carlsen in the semi-finals of the Magnus Carlsen Chess Tour Ding Liren lacked fortune, and lost the match 1-3 after missing a number of good opportunities, especially in the fourth set. But Ding arguably played most the spectacular game of the entire match and had the rare pleasure to mate Carlsen's king in the middle of the board. Daniel King took a closer look.

8/7/2020 – After the Open Polish Championship, which Kacper Piorun won, the Polish Chess Federation now organises the National Women's Championship. Klaudia Kulon had the best start and leads with 3 out of 3. In round three she won an entertaining and theoretically interesting game in the Sicilian Kalashnikov. | Photos: Wojciech Zawadzki (Polish Chess Federation)

8/6/2020 – In the mid-1970s Helmut Pfleger, who today, August 6, celebrates his 77th birthday, was one of the top 50 players of the world. But he was a doctor by profession and despite all his successes in chess he always remained an amateur. So he often had a hard time against the professionals when it came to opening theory. Nevertheless, in a theoretical duel against one of the greatest opening experts of the time, he won one of the most important games in the history of the Chess Olympiads. | Photo: Helmut Pfleger | Photo: Hartmut Metz

7/13/2020 – In this "Simon Says" English Grandmaster Simon Williams continues to look at some of Alekhine's best attacking games and discusses how attacking play developed due to his influence on the game. | Watch "Simon Says" for free and on-demand (for a limited time, or forever with a ChessBase Premium account). (Normally 16:00 UTC (18:00 CEST / 12 Noon EST). | Photo: Portrait of Alekhine by Man Ray

7/6/2020 – With an energetic win against Roman Toran Paul Keres also won the jubilee tournament in Bamberg. After 14 of 15 rounds Keres has 11.0/14 and is 1½ points ahead of World Champion Tigran Petrosian, who was lost against Jürgen Teufel but saved himself with a well-timed draw offer. The German players Wolfgang Unzicker, Lothar Schmid and Rudolf Teschner share places three to five.

7/3/2020 – In this Power Play Show Grandmaster Daniel King takes a look at some tricky pawn endgames but the main focus of the show is on the remarkable King's Indian that Carlsen played against Ding Liren in the Chessable Masters. | Power Play is on air most Fridays at 17:00 UK (18:00 CEST, 11:00 EST) on playchess.com. All the usual puzzles, games and instruction will be on offer. | Photo: Lennart Ootes, Archive

7/2/2020 – Paul Keres continues to dominate the Bamberg tournament. In round 10 he defeated Heikki Westerinen in the endgame, while World Champion Tigran Petrosian was lucky to get a draw against Lothar Schmid. With five rounds to go, Keres is now on 8.5 out of 10, 1.5 points ahead of Borislav Ivkov and Petrosian.

7/1/2020 – The quarterfinals of the Chessable Masters were very exciting, with Carlsen knocking out Caruana, Nepomniachtchi beating Artemiev and Giri eliminating Grischuk. Ding Liren won his match against Nakamura and in his "Game of the Week" show Merijn van Delft will study Ding Liren's phenomenal handling of White's side of the King's Indian. | Merijn's show is available at 15.00 UTC (17:00 CEST, 11:00 EDT) on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

7/1/2020 – Round 9 of the Jubilee Tournament in Bamberg brought a number of exciting games. Wolfgang Unzicker played the move of the day against Laszlo Szabo, and Borislav Ivkov could have played the game of the day if he had found a hidden tactical possibility against World Champion Tigran Petrosian. | Photo: Wolfgang Unzicker | Photo: Roger Rössing, Deutsche Fotothek.

6/30/2020 – In his weekly show IM Lawrence Trent takes a look at Giri’s performance vs Grischuk at the Chessable Masters, with a special focus on Giri's win with Black in game four of their second match. But Lawrence will also give a more general roundup of the action. | Lawrence' show is available at 17:00 UTC (19:00 CEST, 13:00 EDT) on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here. | Photo: Alina l'Ami (Archive)