11/1/2022 – It seems we have arrived at the strongest of all chess star signs. No less than three World Champions are Scorpios - Mikhail Tal, Alexander Alekhine, and Raoul Capablanca - and there are several other top players joining them - Ding Liren, Alexander Grischuk, Vincent Keymer, Lev Polugaevsky, Salo Flohr, and Ernst Grünfeld - to name but a few. But why are scorpions so brutally strong?| Photo: Pixabay

11/1/2022 – The diagram shows a position which can often occur in rook endings. Both sides have passed pawns and it all seems to come down to a race between the passed pawns. However, in the diagram position White has a winning maneuver that one should know. How should White proceed?

11/1/2022 – Using an engine to find out how many moves in a game match its top choice, is but one way to measure a move's quality with an engine. Another key way is what analysts such as Ken Regan use: a tool to compare the engine's evaluation of a move with its own choice of best move, and see by how much the evaluations differ. Now you can do this too using the Centipawn Analysis tool in ChessBase 16!

10/31/2022 – After an accident, former World Champion Anatoly Karpov was rushed to the hospital with multiple head injuries in which he was placed in an induced coma. Karpov was put on a ventilator now, and has been diagnosed with cerebral edema, fractures of the right parietal and right temporal bones, multiple head hematomas, and traumatic subarachnoid hemorrhage. We will update this report as the news trickles in.

10/31/2022 – Last Wednesday, 26 October, British International Master Michael Basman died of cancer at the age of 76. A prolific chess writer, he left his mark in the chess world as an uncompromising, inventive player. Among other endeavours, he will be remembered as a founder and organizer of the UK Chess Challenge, a tournament for juniors of all standards and ages. | Photo: David Llada / FIDE

10/31/2022 – Next year Ding Liren will play Ian Nepomniachtchi in a match for the World Championship title. Magnus Carlsen's withdrawal and Ding's second place in the 2022 Candidates Tournament made it possible. High time to take a closer look at the top player from China and especially his playing skills in ChessBase Magazine! In the current issue our authors comment on their favourite game of the Chinese player. In addition, "Ding Liren's Positional Play" (Mihail Marin's strategy column incl. video) and "Endgame Highlights of Ding Liren" (by Karsten Müller, also with a video) are awaiting you. You can enjoy Romain Edouard's analysis of the game Ding Liren - Sergei Movsesian from the World Cup 2019 in full here!

10/28/2022 – Chess Olympiad 2022: Review with analyses by more than 20 players - Ivan Sokolov's writes about "Steps to Gold" - "Special" on World Championship candidate Ding Liren: exclusive collection of 18 annotated games + contributions on strategy and endgame - "The Indian Gambit": Daniel King presents a fresh and exciting idea in the English Opening: 1.c4 e5 2.Sc3 Sf6 3.Sf3 e4 4.Sg5 c6!? (Video) - "Practical Tips for the Tournament Player" Episode 3: How to play against a stronger opponent (Video by Jan Markos + small collection of exercises) - "Full Throttle in the Open Spanish": Robert Ris examines the highly topical Dilworth Variation, and much more.

10/28/2022 – The world champion Svitlana is talking about today, is one of the world's best chess players, since the late 80s. The five-time world chess champion has played some gorgeous games, and we will take a look at two of them. Anand beat Aronian with the Black pieces in 2013, and it is one of Svitlana's favourite games used for teaching. The second game is from 1997 against Joel Lautier, and Anand managed to trap the opponent's bishop for the whole game, without ever having the need to capture it.

10/28/2022 – From 19 to 26 November, the World Team Championship will be held in Jerusalem in a new format. Twelve national teams are taking part Some federations are coming with their top stars. Others are sending up-and-coming players. The US team is led by Hans Niemann.

10/28/2022 – After the incident at the Sinquefield Cup, strict controls for technical aids are undertaken at the Fischer Random World Championship. But how well do these controls work? A journalist from the Norwegian TV station NRK tried it out.

10/28/2022 – The group stage of the World Fischer Random Championship came to an end on Thursday. Besides Nodirbek Abdusattorov, who secured his spot in semis on the second day of action, Magnus Carlsen, Hikaru Nakamura and Ian Nepomniachtchi moved on to the knockout stage by finishing among the top two in each group. In Saturday’s semis, Abdusattorov will face Nakamura, while Carlsen and Nepomniachtchi will play a rematch of last year’s confrontation for the Classical World Championship title. | Photo: FIDE / David Llada

10/27/2022 – This week Robert Ris will have a look at a brilliant sacrifice in the Caro-Kann Advance Variation, which helped Pavel Eljanov to a fine win in the German Bundesliga. | "Fast and Furious" is available on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here.