12/14/2022 – Hikaru Nakamura, Nihal Sarin and Magnus Carlsen already qualified for the semi-finals of the chess.com Speedchess Championship. Today Wesley So and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave will play in the last quarter-final. Here live from 19:00 CET (10:00 am PT) with video commentary from chess24 and chess.com. | Graphics: chess.com

12/14/2022 – The recently released ChessBase 17 offers a wealth of new and interesting functions. In the last weeks IM Sagar Shah from ChessBase India took a closer look at the program to understand the features deeper. To share his insights he made a video that covers most of the new features of ChessBase 17 and explains how these features can be used. He concludes: "I think ChessBase 17 is amazing."

12/14/2022 – The result of the eagerly awaited rematch of the 2018 World Championship match between Magnus Carlsen and Fabiano Caruana in the quarterfinals of the chess.com Speedchess Championship was one-sided. Caruana didn't take his chances, Carlsen took them all and demonstrated world championship level chess in 5+1 blitz, in 3+1 blitz and in bullet. He even managed to satisfy his harshest critic. | Graphics: Chess.com

12/14/2022 – No fewer than 54 players have won both their first encounters at the main event of the Sunway Festival in Sitges. However, round 2 saw five 2600+ rated players draw against much lower-rated opponents. Russian rising star Andrey Esipenko was held to a draw by French FM Mathieu Phileas, who in fact could have won the game had he made the most of his chances in a queen and rook endgame. | Pictured: The first blitz tournament of the festival took place on Tuesday night

12/14/2022 – 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

12/14/2022 – In the Julius Baer Challenge Championship match between Pranav Venkatesh and Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa the favourite Praggnanandhaa clearly dominated. After winning the two best-of-three rapid matches 2,5-0,5 and 2-0 Pragg lost the first game of the first blitz match but then won the next two blitz games and with that the entire match.

12/12/2022 – Since a couple of weeks Elisabeth Pähtz is a full chess grandmaster. She has been among the strongest German female chess players since early youth. In 2002, she became the World Youth Champion of the girls' under-18 age group, and in 2005, the World Junior Girls Champion. She won the 2018 European Women's Championship in rapid chess. Now Elli has published her autobiography. Interview by Lilli Hahn in the ECU Magazine.

12/11/2022 – Herman Grooten is an International Master, a renowned trainer and the author of several highly acclaimed books about chess training and chess strategy. In the 103rd instalment of his ChessBase show "Understanding before Moving", Herman continues to explain why it is good to study and to play the Sicilian. | Photo: Pascal Simon

12/11/2022 – If you don't have Chessbase 17, and failed to take advantage of the Discount Day sale, wishing you had, then this is the post to read. In a last offer before Christmas, you can take advantage of the Christmas Sale to gift yourself something special. You know you deserve it!

12/11/2022 – 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

12/11/2022 – The Sunway Chess Festival, sponsored by Chessable, is set to take place on December 12-22 at the Playa Golf Hotel in Sitges, Catalonia. Two massive open tournaments will be played at the paradisaic resort southwest of Barcelona. Over 300 players have registered to participate in the main group, with the likes of Yu Yangyi, Andrey Esipenko and Vasyl Ivanchuk looking to claim the 5.000 € first prize. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

12/10/2022 – Tan Zhongyi won the fourth classical game of her semifinal match against Aleksandra Goryachkina on Saturday at the Women’s Candidates Tournament in Khiva. It was also the last game of this competition. In view of the three draws previously signed, this victory qualified Tan to play the tournament’s final, where she will face her compatriot Lei Tingjie. | Photo: Timur Sattarov / FIDE