6/21/2022 – Endgames are often full of tactical possibilities, particularly so if both sides have passed pawns. The diagrammed position occurred in a game between Magnus Carlsen and Anish Giri at the Esports Cup in Oslo. It is White to move, and can you find the move the World Champion played?

6/18/2022 – White's big trump in the diagram position is his active rook on h7, and with White's last move 23.Kb1! he also has prevented Black from bringing his king to safety by castling queenside. How would you punish 23...0-0-0?

6/17/2022 – In the current ChessBase Magazine Extra #207 Elisabeth Pähtz presents a setup against the Grünfeld Defence that served her well in the FIDE Grand Swiss in Riga 2021: White fianchettos the light-squared bishop and restricts the possibilities of Black's bishop on c8 with 10.h3. Our author has divided her video analysis into four different clips. As harmless as the move 10.h3 may seem at first glance, Black must react precisely to avoid getting into huge trouble. Check it out!

6/15/2022 – The Budapest Gambit (1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e5 3.dxe5 Ng4) has its most loyal followers in club chess. 1.d4 players who are confronted with the gambit have to reckon with the fact that their opponents are far more familiar with the positions, if only because of the number of games they have played with that system. In the current ChessBase Magazine Extra 207 Ivan Sokolov shows a little-known but very convenient way for White to gain a nice advantage without extensive study of opening theory. You can watch an excerpt from his video analysis here!

6/14/2022 – Mate ends the game and mating attacks also occur in the endgame. In the diagrammed position it is White to move. What should he do?

6/11/2022 – From the diagram position, Black hunted down the exposed white king with some extraordinary moves. Can you find them all?

6/7/2022 – The bodycheck is the most important motif in the endgame rook against pawn, which will sooner or later arise from the position shown in the diagram. In the actual game White did not find the correct defense and lost. Can you do better? White to move and draw!

6/4/2022 – At the Tata Steel Masters 2022 Jorden van Foreest got the opportunity to conduct a long-planned opening experiment: In the Sicilian with 2.Nc6 he surprised his opponent Praggnanandhaa with 3.Bc4?! "Finally, here it was. There aren't all that many good reasons for why I like the move, the main probably being the fact that it looks so stupid :-)", writes the young Dutchman at the beginning of his analysis in the new CBM Extra #207. And the game continued no less exceptionally: after 3...e6 4.0-0 d5 5.Bb5! dxe4 6.Ne5 Qc7 7.Nxc6 bxc6 8.Bc4! White hast lost a pawn and moved his bishop three times in the opening! In the end, with a bit of luck, Van Foreest still won the game. It's "The brillancy" in CBM Extra #207. On top of that, the new edition offers no less than 56 annotated games and over an hour of video training with Elisabeth Pähtz and Ivan Sokolov.

6/4/2022 – It is said that "Vishy" Anand only needed seconds to find White's winning continuation in the diagram position - whereas you have all the time in the world!

5/31/2022 – The new Extra #207 offers, among other things, over an hour of video training with Elisabeth Pähtz and Ivan Sokolov. Germany's best female chess player presents one of her favourite weapons against the Gruenfeld Defence in a short video series. And Sokolov's contribution deals with a topic that should be interesting for many 1.d4 players, especially at club level: The GM from the Netherlands shows a method with which a nice advantage can be comfortably achieved against the Budapest Gambit. This issue's "Brilliancy" comes from Jorden van Foreest, who takes a critical look at his Sicilian experiment (3.Bc4) from the Tata Steel Masters 2022 against Praggnanandhaa. In addition, the "Lucky bag" with 56 annotated games offers a great mix of analyses and surprising ideas. ChessBase Magazine Extra is the perfect complement to ChessBase Magazine. Available as a single issue or by subscription (6 issues per year). Available as a download or on DVD.

5/31/2022 – Pawn endings require precise calculation. In the diagrammed position it is Black to move and win. But how?