1/6/2023 – With a score of 8.0/9 (+8, -1, =0) the 16-year-old Indian M Pranesh finished clear first at the 50th Rilton Cup in Sweden, a success that made him India's 79th Grandmaster. Kaan Kucusari and Nikita Meshkovs shared second and third place with 7.0/9. The well-known Swedish streamer Anna Cramling played in the B-tournament and entertained her 250,000 YouTube followers with daily streams. | Photos: Lars OA Hedlund

1/6/2023 – December was typically a busy month for chess all over the world. While the world watched in awe at the world’s top, top exponents battle it out in the final month of the year 2022 to try and stop Carlsen’s dominance in the World Rapid and Blitz championships, there was no less excitement over the chess board in the classical format in other parts of the world. One was the return of over-the-board version of the Penang Heritage City International Chess Open, after the Covid-imposed hiatus in the past three years. Report by By Edwin Lam Choong Wai.

1/6/2023 – In the first "Fast & Furious" show of 2023 Robert Ris discusses the ins and outs of a well-known tabiya of the Sicilian Alapin, in which Black's strategy is based on exploiting a long term pawn weakness on c3. However, in practice he rarely gets the chance to do so as was confirmed by the recent games Abdrlauf-Smirin (Rilton Cup) and Ganguly-Makarian (World Rapid). | "Fast and Furious" is available on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here.

1/5/2023 – The new generation of chess stars is here, with no fewer than nine players aged 19 or younger rated above 2650 at the time. In a 7-part series, we will look at the performances of the top juniors in 2022. Let us start with the clear leader of the pack, Alireza Firouzja. | Find here analysis of a remarkable victory by Firouzja, annotated by Romain Edouard. | Photo: Grand Chess Tour / Lennart Ootes

1/5/2023 – Over the turn of the year, the Indian Chess Federation organised its 59th National Championship, an open event that attracted almost 200 players. After a very exciting tournament the 23-year old Karthik Venkataraman won with 10.0/13. | Photos: All Indian Chess Federation

1/5/2023 – As a chess player, you probably know this problem: The openings for the next chess tournament are all perfectly prepared, but then shortly before the tournament starts you start to wonder: what should I wear? ChessBase presents the new spring fashion, with prints that will impress your opponent. Also for the children and the dear four-legged friends. Now in the New Year's Sale!

1/5/2023 – In his “Game of the Week” show #549 Merijn van Delft looks at a recent but historically important game: Magnus Carlsen's win against Parham Maghsoodloo in the last round of the Rapid World Championship 2022. Carlsen had to win and he outplayed Maghsoodloo in a fine mix of attack and defense. | Merijn’s show is available on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here.

1/5/2023 – Can a unit of our army be a friend or foe depending on the circumstances? From experience, we know that the answer is a resounding yes! GM Sundararajan Kidambi explains the beautiful concept of using your opponent’s piece to your advantage instead of always being bent on automatically going for the recapture.

1/4/2023 – The 3rd World Chess Championship between Wilhelm Steinitz and Isidor Gunsberg that ran from December 9, 1890 to January 22, 1891 was a closely fought match. At the end of 19 games, Steinitz emerged victorious, 6-4, to retain his title. Gunsberg's good result in this match was no coincidence. Gunsberg was one of the strongest players of his time though today he is almost forgotten. Eugene Manlapao takes a look at the life and career of this relatively unknown World Championship challenger. | Photo source: Wikipedia

1/4/2023 – The theme of “decision-making” is an essential part of every chess game. At every moment of the game, you must make a decision that is not only tactical; as psychology, structural preferences, positional basics and good variation calculation are all part of the process of making the right decision.

1/4/2023 – October saw the start of the new Bundesliga season. In ChessBase Magazine #211 participants from various teams comment on their games from the first rounds, including the stars from the cover - Pavel Eljanov, Loek van Wely and Luke McShane - as well as Nils Grandelius, Rustam Kasimdzhanov, Ivan Saric, Ivan Cheparinov, Gawain Jones, Nikita Vitiugov, Erwin L'Ami, Dennis Wagner, Daniil Yuffa, Georg Meier, Jan-Christian Schröder, Thai Dai Van Nguyen and Michael Prusikin. In addition, David Navara presents his game against Luke McShane in a detailed video analysis and Rustam Kasimdhzanov reviews his Black victory against Julian Kramer, also in the video. "The Analysis" of the issue comes from Erwin l'Ami – A Queen’s Gambit Accepted in which the Dutch GM actually had his opponent perfectly pegged out. Enjoy!

1/4/2023 – The cosmopolitan city of Almaty saw Magnus Carlsen adding two world titles to his collection, while Tan Zhongyi and Bibisara Assaubayeva took home gold medals in the women’s events. With so much chess being played in a span of five days, Karsten Müller had no trouble finding remarkable endgames to share with us. Find here six instructive positions to learn and enjoy! | Pictured: Vincent Keymer trying to make the most of his good knight against Maxime Vachier-Lagrave’s bad bishop. | Photo: Lennart Ootes