8/10/2022 – An important part of chess is about conquering squares! But what do you do once you have gained control over them? How can the advantage of a new stronghold be exploited? All this and much more is shown on this DVD by one of the top five trainers in the world. He tells us how to create weaknesses, how to conquer and exploit important squares, and other related techniques. His package of three DVDs is available in our Discount Week for €49.90 instead of €69.90. Learn from GM Mikhalchishin now.

8/10/2022 – In his “Game of the Week” show #528 Merijn van Delft looks at another impressive game played at the Chess Olympiad in Chennai: Gukesh's convincing win with Black against Fabiano Caruana. | Merijn’s show is available on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here.

8/10/2022 – The 2022 World Computer Chess championship was just held, and was the first edition since 2019 and the outbreak of the pandemic. After over two years, the traditional event took place in Vienna, Austria, and the winners were Ginkgo AKA Fritz using new neural net technology, and a powerful new Komodo (free update today!). Don't miss Komodo's fantastic knight sacrifice (with video!). (photo: Erdo Gunes, operator of Komodo)

8/10/2022 – With Russia and China, two top teams were missing from the Women's Tournament at the Chess Olympiad in Chennai. So India was the top favourite and led the field for a long time. But in the last round, the Indians lost to the USA and Ukraine won gold ahead of Georgia while India had to be content with bronze. Oliwia Kiolbasa, who played on board three for Poland, had the best individual performance at the Olympiad, the two best players on board one were chess legend Pia Cramling from Sweden and young Eline Roebers from the Netherlands. | Photos: FIDE (Lennart Ootes, Stev Bonhage)

8/10/2022 – In the absence of Russia and China, the young Uzbek team surprised everyone by winning the gold medal at the Chess Olympiad in Chennai. The victory comes at the right time, as the 2026 Chess Olympiad will be held in Tashkent, reports FIDE. But gold for the best individual performances on board 1 and 2 went to Gukesh D. and Nihal Sarin from the team of India 2. | Photos: FIDE (Lennart Ootes, Stev Bonhage)

8/10/2022 – Do you know the Hippopotamus Defence. It is a series of irregular chess opening systems in which Black moves a number of pawns to the sixth rank, and keeps his pieces on the seventh rank. Many experts considered it basically losing, but it has maintained a solid fifty percent for Black, even at the highest level of competition. In the British Chess Magazine Raymond Keene reviews the book The Hippopotamus Defence by Italian IM Alessio de Santis on the subject. | Picture Samuele Giglio, Unsplash

8/9/2022 – The record-breaking 2022 Chess Olympiad came to an end in Chennai, India. After a fighting eleventh round, Uzbekistan and Ukraine were crowned champions in the open and women’s sections respectively. Armenia and India 2 got silver and bronze medals in the open, while Georgia and India completed the podium in the women’s tournament. It was a unique competition, which saw how much of a difference an enthusiastic, diligent organization can actually make! | Photo: Lennart Ootes

8/9/2022 – For some time now, we’ve known that the strongest chess engines like to push their flank pawns up the board. This has led to an interesting system, with which we can meet the Grunfeld and the King’s Indian. Studying the mainlines is time consuming, and it is possible that our opponents may know the typical plans in those openings better than us, right? Therefore, it is a great idea to take Grunfeld and King’s Indian players out of their comfort-zone right from the start!

8/9/2022 – In 1982, when he was 15 years old, Simen Agdestein won the Norwegian Championship for the first time and became the youngest Norwegian Champion of all time. Three years later, in 1985, he became a Grandmaster, the first Norwegian ever to secure the title. Now, in the 2022 Norwegian Championship, which took place in mid-July, Agdestein set another record: The 55-year-old won the tournament with 8 out of 9 to become the oldest player ever to win the Championship. | Photo: Anniken Westby

8/9/2022 – A piece that is attacked does not have to move - that sounds like a trivial little piece of wisdom but it is good to keep it in mind. In the diagrammed position Black just attacked White's rook with 49...Ke5, apparently forgetting that attacked pieces do not have to move. How should White react to Black's attack?

8/9/2022 – Uzbekistan grabbed gold in the open section of the Chess Olympiad after defeating the Netherlands, ahead of Armenia and India 2. In the women’s tournament, India gave away the lead in the last hurdle with a loss against the United States. Gold thus went to Ukraine thanks to a final-round win over Poland. Georgia and India completed the podium. | Photo: Stev Bonhage

8/9/2022 – By tying for first in the 2022 U.S. Open, Grandmaster Elshan Moradiabadi won a qualifying spot to the 2022 U.S. Championship. Then he lost an Armageddon playoff chess game with Grandmaster Aleksey Sorokin for an extra $200 and the U.S. Open title. Moradiabadi and Sorokin spoke to WIM Alexey Root, who also reports on U.S. Open committee meetings and awards. | Photos: Alexey Root