11/26/2022 – Pattern recognition is a major feat of the human brain, albeit one that can lead to wrong outputs. Examples include seeing faces where there are none, known as pareidolia. Once it was believed that the planet Mars has a face structure on it, speculations about former inhabitants of the planet ran wild, later it turned out that this isn't the case and could be attributed to the low resolution of the photo. | Photo: Pixabay

11/26/2022 – By beating Uzbekistan in the final match, China won the World Team Championship in Jerusalem. The Chinese squad won both sets by a 2½-1½ score to claim the title. Meanwhile, in the match for third place, Spain got the better of India in tiebreaks, with wins for Jaime Santos and David Anton in the blitz decider. | Photo: Mark Livshitz

11/26/2022 – Garry Kasparov was the eight of the twelve World Chess Champions whom Frederic met. In our new weekly series he tells us how he met and befriended the top players, and the adventures they experienced together. Frederic has written a new book, together with Professor Christian Hesse, with fascinating chess stories from the last 50 years. It appeared (first in German) in October.

11/26/2022 – In the diagram position, White just played Rd1 to d4, threatening to take the black knight on b4 and to play Rh4 with a mating attack. But it's Black to move and win - if he keeps calm and calculates the lines! How should Black proceed?

11/25/2022 – This week, Daniel King looks at a problem theme appearing in practical games, incredibly, twice within a week. Living legend Vasyl Ivanchuk and rising star Arjun Erigaisi both played the ‘Novotny’! | 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.

11/25/2022 – Few tournaments brought as much stake to its host nation as Moscow 1925 did to Russia. The event brought a Russian into world title contention, but, more importantly, it proved vital to Russia’s rise as dominant force in chess. Eugene Manlapao takes a look at the tournament and its history. | Photo: Tournament winner Efim Bogoljubov (left) and Akiba Rubinstein during their game | Photo: Wikipedia

11/23/2022 – Day 3 of the World Team Championships saw four teams leaving the competition as the preliminaries came to an end in Jerusalem. South Africa and the Netherlands did not make it through in Pool A, while Israel and the United States were eliminated in Pool B. Poland barely qualified, after tying in match points and individual points with Israel — a better tiebreaker score allowed the Polish team to move on. | Photo: Mark Livshitz

11/22/2022 – From 26th October to 3rd of November 2022 the 20th edition of the Capechecs chess festival took place in Cap d’Agde in France. A total of 879 players fought in the different tournaments, from the famous Capechecs Trophy to various open tournaments for players of all strength. The Trophy was won by GM Laurent Fressinet after a narrow final against GM Luca Moroni, and the Grand Prix Open was won by GM Maxime Lagarde ahead of 49 grandmasters from 32 nations. | Photos: Pierre Textoris

11/22/2022 – The Meltwater Champions Chess Final in San Francisco was visited by a chess fan whose uncle is a legend in the chess world: Bobby Fischer. Nicholas Targ, son of Joan Fischer Targ, the sister of Bobby Fischer, came to visit the tournament and met Magnus Carlsen. In a short interview with Tania Sachdev Nicholas Targ also talked about his love for chess and his encounters with his uncle.

11/22/2022 – In the diagram position it is Black to move and win. Do you see how? But be careful: Black's winning idea might be obvious but Black has to calculate precisely.

11/22/2022 – This is not just an update of the standard program that everybody uses – from rank amateurs to tournament players all the way up to world champions. Today we would like you to tell you about the major features of the new version, ChessBase 17: the improved analysis functions, data format, search mask and the very exciting feature of finding beauty in games. We even have an interview with the main programmers. You are sure to get your money worth by going for the new ChessBase 17. Order it this afternoon, from 15:00h CET, and get it at a premium discount price!

11/22/2022 – Two more rounds of the preliminaries were played on Monday at the World Team Chess Championship in Jerusalem. With one round to go, a number of teams have already secured a spot in the quarterfinals. However, there is plenty to fight for still, especially in Pool B, where even the US — currently in last place — still has chances to make it to the knockout. | Pictured: Li Di | Photo: Mark Livshitz