12/22/2022 – The Israeli Championships took place on December 5-13 in the southern city of Arad, with a prize fund of 110 thousands NIS. The surprising winner was 20-year-old IM Ido Gorshtein, while IM Yuliya Shvayger defended her title in the women’s competition. | Pictured: FIDE Arbiter Ilana Glaz, Yuliya Shvayger, Avital Boruchovsky, Gil Boruchovsky (General Director of ICF), Ido Gorshtein, Ori Kochavi, Flory Sterling, Deputy Mayor of Arad. | Photos: Dr. Mark Livshitz

12/22/2022 – The 1972 World Championship match between Bobby Fischer and Boris Spasski is regarded as one of the most critical moments in the history of chess, occurring 50 years ago. To present you with this year's Christmas calendar in the proper setting, Arne swiftly constructed a time machine, and went back 50 years. Of course, the 1972 World Cup is the main calendar focus this time! You have the opportunity to guess, count, and conduct research every day for a chance to win one of 90 ChessBase prizes. Your chances of winning one of the major prizes increases, the more questions you can correctly guess. | Photo: Original by World Chess Hall of Fame

12/22/2022 – The Sunway Chess Festival, sponsored by Chessable, is taking place on December 12-22 at the Playa Golf Hotel in Sitges, Catalonia. Two massive open tournaments will be played at the resort southwest of Barcelona. Over 300 players have registered to participate in the main group, with the likes of Andrey Esipenko and Vasyl Ivanchuk in the mix. | Follow the games live with expert commentary. The final round starts at 9.30 CET (4.30 ET, 15.00 IST)

12/21/2022 – Kirill Alekseenko’s winning streak in Sitges came to an end in round 8, as Amin Tabatabaei held the Russian to a draw on Tuesday. Nonetheless, Alekseenko still has a full-point lead over a five-player chasing pack. Top seeds Yu Yangyi and Hans Niemann are among the chasers, after both winning their round-8 encounters. | Photo: Amruta Mokal

12/21/2022 – The 1972 World Championship match between Bobby Fischer and Boris Spasski is regarded as one of the most critical moments in the history of chess, occurring 50 years ago. To present you with this year's Christmas calendar in the proper setting, Arne swiftly constructed a time machine, and went back 50 years. Of course, the 1972 World Cup is the main calendar focus this time! You have the opportunity to guess, count, and conduct research every day for a chance to win one of 90 ChessBase prizes. Your chances of winning one of the major prizes increases, the more questions you can correctly guess. | Photo: Original by World Chess Hall of Fame

12/21/2022 – On Tuesday, the ten participants of the Gashimov Memorial played the last three rounds of 15+10 rapid chess in Baku. Nodirbek Abdusattorov, who had grabbed the lead early on, scored a win and two draws to remain atop the standings. Paco Vallejo and Rauf Mamedov shared second place, two points behind the youngster (points count double in the rapid). Following the rest day, 18 rounds of blitz will take place on Thursday and Friday. | Photo: Official site

12/18/2022 – By beating former co-leader Karthikeyan Murali, Kirill Alekseenko became the first sole leader at the main event of the Sunway Chess Festival in Sitges. After six rounds, the Russian grandmaster still has a perfect score. Standing in sole second place is Karen Grigoryan, who defeated Anton Demchenko on Saturday. Nine players stand a half point further back, including top seeds Yu Yangyi and Hans Niemann. | Photo: Biel Chess Festival

12/18/2022 – The 1972 World Championship match between Bobby Fischer and Boris Spasski is regarded as one of the most critical moments in the history of chess, occurring 50 years ago. To present you with this year's Christmas calendar in the proper setting, Arne swiftly constructed a time machine, and went back 50 years. Of course, the 1972 World Cup is the main calendar focus this time! You have the opportunity to guess, count, and conduct research every day for a chance to win one of 90 ChessBase prizes. Your chances of winning one of the major prizes increases, the more questions you can correctly guess. | Photo: Original by World Chess Hall of Fame

12/17/2022 – The Dragon grandmaster is back with an interesting game for all you Sicilian lovers. Two U16 talents battled it out in the last European Youth Chess Championship 2022. But before this game is thoroughly presented by Chris Ward, first, we take a closer look at a recent game between Arjun Erigaisi and Fabiano Caruana. Nonetheless, in the second game, the Topalov Variation is on the board, and the British GM shows us some very interesting lines, plans, and ideas with this system. | Photo: John Upham

12/17/2022 – Clear activity advantages for White in the diagram position - please find White's best continuation!

12/17/2022 – The 1972 World Championship match between Bobby Fischer and Boris Spasski is regarded as one of the most critical moments in the history of chess, occurring 50 years ago. To present you with this year's Christmas calendar in the proper setting, Arne swiftly constructed a time machine, and went back 50 years. Of course, the 1972 World Cup is the main calendar focus this time! You have the opportunity to guess, count, and conduct research every day for a chance to win one of 90 ChessBase prizes. Your chances of winning one of the major prizes increases, the more questions you can correctly guess. | Photo: Original by World Chess Hall of Fame

12/17/2022 – This week, Daniel King examines games from the Sitges Open, featuring some nice tactics. Then, in more detail, two games that feature the Rossolimo. For the unwary, this is a dangerous opening! | Power Play is on air most Fridays. Watch it on-demand with a ChessBase Premium account. All the usual puzzles, games and instruction will be on offer.