8/24/2022 – Beating weaker opponents is important for having success in chess, and the better you play, the more important this skill is. However, even Magnus Carlsen (pictured), the world's number one since July 2011, sometimes goes wrong when facing much lower-rated opponents. In the 13th installment of his "Winning Academy" Jan Markos takes a look at typical mistakes that often occur when facing weaker opponents and indicates how to correct them. | Photo: Magnus Carlsen in Wijk aan Zee 2015 | Photo: Nadja Wittmann

8/24/2022 – The 2022 European Women’s Chess Championship is taking place on August 20-31 at the Don Giovanni Hotel in Prague, Czech Republic. The tournament is an 11-round Swiss open with 123 participants from 28 different countries. After four rounds, eight players are tied for first place with 3½/4 scores. Azerbaijan, with three players, is the country with the largest number of representatives in the leading pack. | Photo: ECU

8/23/2022 – Studying endgame theory can seem like one of those necessary evils, and about as fun as watching paint dry, but sometimes it is all about the teacher. Teachers such as GM Karsten Mueller or Mark Dvoretsky make all the difference, bringing magic and wonder into the lessons. Enjoy this shared moment of discovery.

8/23/2022 – Jules Moussard claimed his first French championship while Almira Skripchenko (pictured) won a record seventh women's national title at the French championship which was held from August 13 to August 21 in Albi, southern France. Skripchenko, who was tied on six national titles with Sophie Milliet prior to this year’s championship, defeated Natacha Benmesbah in the final round while Moussard got the better of Etienne Bacrot in a nail-biting encounter. | Photo: Lars OA Hedlund (Archive)

8/23/2022 – The video course presents a fine selection of 33 classic chess games, played between the 18th century and the beginning of the second world war. Starting with François-André Danican Philidor through to Mikhail Botvinnik, these significant games, played by the greatest players of their times, are treasures of chess history. They are also a part of chess culture, and every aspiring chess player or simply lover of the game of chess, should know them.

8/23/2022 – GM Ivan Sokolov is well-known for taking on challenging projects as a trainer. This year he turned his attention to the Uzbekistan team, a team that, like Iran (which Sokolov trained before), was very young. How did it so happen that the team surpassed all expectations and clinched the gold in the Chennai chess Olympiad? What was the role of Ivan Sokolov? How much time did he spend with the team? What were his training techniques? All of this and much more in this hour-long interview by IM Sagar Shah. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

8/23/2022 – ...but holding a difficult rook endgame at the board is often not easy. In the diagrammed position Black is a pawn down but can draw with precise play. What should he do?

8/22/2022 – In chess, you learn best by making mistakes. And best of all, through the mistakes of others - because that hurts less. That is the concept of Nicholas Pert, the English grandmaster, who is an experienced trainer and knows the problems at every chess level. In 3 Fritztrainer courses he presents the typical mistakes categorised according to playing strength in order to increase sensitivity to one's own sources of error. This week we offer all 3 courses as a bundle at a special price: instead of €79.90 this week only €59.90

8/22/2022 – In the Endgame Magic show #208 Karsten Müller and Arne Kähler take a look at endgame highlights from the Chess Olympiad in Chennai. | You can watch the Endgame Magic Show on-demand with a ChessBase Premium account.

8/22/2022 – Ever since the Fédération Internationale des Échecs (FIDE) emerged as chess’ governing body, the Candidates’ Tournament has been vital to the selection and making of the game’s world champion. Remade more than a few times in the seventy-two years that it has been running, the tournament has been a story on its own. Eugene Manlapao traces its history from its first edition in 1950, to its latest in 2022 that may have produced the combatants for the next world championship match. | Photo: The participants of the Candidates Tournament 1956 in Amsterdam | Photo: Herbert Behrens (ANEFO) (Cropped from GaHetNa (Nationaal Archief NL)) [CC0], via Wikimedia Commons

8/22/2022 – Robocop. This was what GM Yermolinksy dubbed IM Conor Murphy as he followed his superlative result. While the 2022 Olympiad was dominated by the performance of the youthful and brilliant Gukesh, and other stars on the rise, it is also much more than a collection of super grandmasters, so let us sing the praises of the unlikely heroes who rose to the occasion.

8/22/2022 – Magnus Carlsen won the FTX Crypto Cup in Miami after losing in tiebreaks against Praggnanandhaa in the final-round tournament-deciding match. Pragg stood two points behind the world champion before the round, so his victory was not enough to claim first place (he gained 2 points to Carlsen’s 1). The youngster nonetheless finished in second place, despite tying on points with Alireza Firouzja, as he had defeated the Frenchman in their round-1’s direct encounter.