2/21/2023 – Different tournaments have different kinds of rest days! At the WR Chess Masters 2023, the players and organizers had a great time with a well organized mini-table tennis event. 7 out of the 10 participants of the main tournament took part in this round robin tournament with Gelfand, Dana Reizneice and Wadim Rosenstein joining them. It was a keenly contested event with Andrey Esipenko edging everyone out and taking the top spot. Sagar Shah who travelled to Dusseldorf brings you a fun report.

2/21/2023 – When Wadim Rosenstein realised a childhood dream and put together a world-class field for his WR Chess Masters in his home town, he hadn't even thought about the political overtones. He simply wanted to bring top chess to the banks of the Rhine in Düsseldorf and for Rosenstein Ian Nepomniachtchi and Andrey Esipenko were world-class grandmasters. After all, Russian chess players are not sanctioned by the World Chess Federation. Nevertheless, there were critical questions. Wadim Rosenstein answers these and other questions in an interview. | Photo: Wadim Rosenstein follows the games in the lounge, Jan Gustafsson is in the back (Photos: André Schulz)

2/21/2023 – This endgame guideline is often useful to find the best move when pawn races occur. In the diagram position it is White to move and win. What should he do?

2/20/2023 – In his Endgame Magic Show #228 Karsten has the 16-year old Indian Grandmaster Leon Luke Mendonca as his guest and they will look at highlights from the Bundesliga. | You can watch the Endgame Magic Show on-demand with a ChessBase Premium account.

2/20/2023 – In chess calculation, width is more important than depth. Virtually every decent player can calculate a forced line till the very end. However, only few can sense all the flavours of the position, find all the hidden ideas. To see the exceptions where everybody else only sees the rules. To find something unusual while all the others follow well-known patterns. In this article, Jan Markos shows you how Magnus Carlsen is able to come up with unexpected solutions in situations where an average club player would be totally confused. | Photo: Lennart Ootes, Archive

2/20/2023 – In order to understand openings properly, the middlegame should actually be studied first. Because all plans in the middlegame link directly to the ideas from the opening. Almost everything is hung up on pawn structures. Therefore, IM Herman Grooten takes the club chess player by the hand to take a closer look at common middlegame structures.

2/17/2023 – Bela Kotenashvili dominated the 80th Georgian Women's Championship, and won the tournament with 8.0/9. With 7.0/9 Lela Javakhishvili and Meri Arabidze shared second and third place, but thanks to her better tiebreak Lela Javakhishvili finished second. | Photos: Georgian Chess Federation

2/17/2023 – Wesley So, Levon Aronian and Andrey Esipenko kicked off the WR Chess Masters with wins, as they defeated Jan-Krzysztof Duda, Praggnanandhaa and Vincent Keymer respectively. Out of the three, So was the first one to leave the playing hall with a full point to his name. Aronian and Esipenko needed to work harder to convert their superior endgame positions against resilient opponents. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

2/16/2023 – In his 'Fast & Furious' show, Robert Ris has a look at the game Mamedyarov-Sevian from the Pro Chess League 2023. The game featured a sharp line from the Semi-Slav Meran variation which became popular after the World Championship match between Kramnik and Anand in Bonn 2008. | "Fast and Furious" is available on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here.

2/16/2023 – Yesterday, the ceremonial and stylish opening of the WR Masters took place at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Düsseldorf. After a press conference and a small show programme with a simul and "chess doubles", the lots were drawn. | Photos: Lennart Ootes

2/16/2023 – The name Erich Eliskases is familiar to only a few chess enthusiasts today. However, the Austrian was one of the best players in the world in the late 1930s. In 1941 he was supposed to play for the World Championship with Alexander Alekhine. But things turned out differently. 15 February 2023 is the 110th birthday of Eliskases, who was born in Innsbruck, Austria, and died in Cordoba, Argentina.

2/15/2023 – Johannes Zukertort is one of the great but tragic figures of chess history. A former title contender, he was as brilliant as he was misunderstood. On the 137th anniversary of the first World Chess Championship Match, his life, career, and legacy are worth re-examining.