2/20/2024 – Knight and bishop are stronger than a rook, but the rook is by no means helpless. In the diagram position it is Black to move and draw. What should he do?

2/20/2024 – The Mitropa Cup is taking place on February 15-23 in Apolda, Germany. Ten teams from Central Europe (also including Italy) are playing single round-robins in the open and the women’s categories. After five rounds, the German squads are leading both competitions. In the open, Germany has a perfect 10/10 score, while in the women’s, Germany has drawn twice so far, with Switzerland and Slovakia. | Photo: Frank Hoppe

2/19/2024 – Jan Henric Buettner, the driving force behind the G.O.A.T. Freestyle Challenge, had promised that the tournament in Weissenhaus would set a new milestone in the presentation of chess. This was indeed the case, and expectations were exceeded. It was the players themselves who had the most fun. The focus was not on opening knowledge, but on creativity and talent. Gregor Poniewasz has collected sounds and pictures from the final day of play.

2/19/2024 – In his new Fast & Furious episode, Robert Ris takes a look at a game from Baadur Jobava, which helped the creative Grandmaster to win the Georgian Championship 2024. | Fast & Furious is available on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here.

2/19/2024 – The experiment of preparing to win a tournament as the lowest rated player in just 30 days is running, and the first week started. ChessBase content manager Arne has to start somewhere. But where? By writing a Masterplan! With this, he can concentrate on tactics, openings, middlegames, and endgames for the upcoming weeks. Furthermore, Arne chooses 40 Fritztrainers, fools around with ChessBase 17, and the Mega Database, to study all of his opponents in the tournament!

2/19/2024 – The Arabian Karpov Cup, as part of the 1st Jeddah International Youth Festival, successfully fulfilled its mission: to present a platform for young players from the Arab and African regions to play in an international tournament, so as to increase their rating or simply to gain experience. Emirati WCM Rouda Essa Al Sarkal, aged 15, won the event after obtaining 7½/9 points and outscoring Humaidan Mohamed Alzaabi on tie-break criteria. | Photos: Diana Mihajlova and the Jeddah Chess Festival

2/15/2024 – Magnus Carlsen and Fabiano Caruana signed a draw in the first game of the finals at the Freestyle G.O.A.T. Chess Challenge. In the match for third place, Levon Aronian barely escaped with a draw against Nodirbek Abdusattorov, while Alireza Firouzja got the better of Gukesh D in the fight for fifth place. Finally, in the match for seventh place, Vincent Keymer defeated an out-of-form Ding Liren. | Photo: Nils Rohde / ChessBase

2/15/2024 – In his new Game of the Week show, Merijn van Delft shows an interesting game from the German Bundesliga, in which White showed ways to overcome the Berlin wall. | Merijn’s show is available on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here.

2/15/2024 – A strong outlook of nonchalance is associated with the term "modern" in chess. It typically insinuates that a player is not grossly concerned with conventional strategies, especially having to control the center immediately. This article highlights Modern Defense, its core ideas, key variations, and how to play against it.

2/14/2024 – Fabiano Caruana and Magnus Carlsen, the two highest-rated players in the world, will play the final match at the Freestyle G.O.A.T. Chess Challenge. While Carlsen defeated Nodirbek Abdusattorov by a 1½-½ score, Caruana’s match against Levon Aronian went all the way to Armageddon. Caruana twice blundered in winning positions in what was a thrilling confrontation. | Photo: Nils Rohde / ChessBase

2/14/2024 – On the occasion of the 100th anniversary since its founding, FIDE is set to launch the Chess Torch Relay, a global movement aimed at celebrating the rich history of the game and bringing together the entire chess community. As part of the FIDE 100 celebration, the torch relay will commence on February 14 in New Delhi, India, at the Major Dhyan National Stadium.

2/14/2024 – Development and piece activation are well-known assets that every decent player seeks during his game. So, centralisation is the key-word which comes to our thoughts when we are talking on the above subjects. But there are cases where the de-centralisation can be the alternative option! Well, of course we talk about ‘healthy’ ideas, which can help us to improve an inferior or better position, depending on the circumstances. Our internationally famous trainer explains.