Game of the Week #505: A. Grischuk vs D. Andreikin

3/3/2022 – In his "Game of the Week" show, Merijn van Delft looks at the interesting Sicilian A. Grischuk and D. Andreikin played in the first round of the FIDE Grand Prix in Belgrade. | Merijn's show is available on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here.

Trent's Tactics - Paul Keres masters openings

3/3/2022 – Due to the current events, Lawrence and Arne decided to show this episode from early February today, instead of last week. Lawrence built his setup up in Barcelona, and shows us some golden Keres tactics right from the openings. The more often we keep repeating, and recognizing the patterns, the better we will get. In the tactics training, we slowly move towards 2500.

FIDE ratings March 2022

3/2/2022 – FIDE published its new World Ranking List. World Champion Magnus Carlsen remains the clear number one but did not make any significant progress towards the 2900 mark - Carlsen gained points by winning in Wijk but lost these points again in one game in the Norwegian league. The winner of the Challengers in Wijk, Arjun Erigaisi, is now among the top 100, and Hikaru Nakamura is back in the top 20.

Svitlana's Smart Moves - How to build a fortress

3/2/2022 – Magnus Carlsen famously stated:"I Don't Believe in Fortresses". But obviously, he was referring to positions which look like a fortress, but are nothing else than a "Papier-mâché". Svitlana shows us some real fortress ideas, positions, how to build them up, and defend them correctly.

The Winning Academy 6: Hypnotised by the bishops

3/2/2022 – The love of most chess players for the bishop-pair is both strong and irrational. We all know that having the "bishop-pair" advantage should be beneficial, but – as discussed in the previous part of The Winning Academy – we barely know how to make full use of them. I would like to show you how this irrational love for the two bishops leads to poor practical decisions. The price players are willing to pay for the bishop-pair is quite often far too high. An arm and a leg. And more.

Lucas van Foreest wins Kragero Resort International

3/2/2022 – From 23rd to 27th February a strong international Open took place in Kragero, Norway. After nine rounds Dutch Grandmaster Lucas van Foreest and GM Boris Chatalbashev from Denmark shared first place but van Foreest won the tournament on tiebreak. | Photo: (from left to right) Geir Sune Tallaksen Ostmoe, Chatalbashev, van Foreest | Photos: Chess Club Kragero

Belgrade GP: Andreikin stuns Grischuk

3/2/2022 – Half the games ended decisively on opening day at the second leg of the FIDE Grand Prix in Belgrade. Dmitry Andreikin and Vidit Gujrathi are leading their pools after beating Alexander Grischuk and Alexei Shirov respectively. Meanwhile, both games finished decisively in pool C, with Anish Giri and Nikita Vitiugov scoring full points in the first round. Two draws were seen in pool D. | Photos: Mark Livshitz

"Chess the way I like it most"

3/1/2022 – Tata Steel 2022 is the top tournament in ChessBase Magazine #206, with Jan-Krzysztof Duda, Arjun Erigaisi, Anish Giri, Nils Grandelius, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu, Sam Shankland and Roven Vogel commenting on their best games from Wijk aan Zee. In addition, Peter Heine Nielsen and Dorian Rogozenco (video) analyse two Catalan wins by the World Champion and clear tournament winner. "The Analysis" of the issue this time is contributed by Nils Grandelius, who got the chance to test his "own invention" against Magnus Carlsen. Take a look!
More...
 1

India offers to host 44. Chess Olympiad

3/1/2022 – FIDE has issued a statement condemning Russia's attack on Ukraine, terminating all sponsorship contracts with Russian companies and excluding Russia and Belarus as venues for FIDE tournaments. This also affects the 2022 Chess Olympiad. The Indian Chess Federation is now offering to host the event at short notice.

Second leg of Grand Prix kicks off in Belgrade

3/1/2022 – The second leg of the FIDE Grand Prix series kicks off today in Belgrade, as the fight to get the two final spots in the Candidates Tournament continues. Three strong contenders to get the coveted spots begin their campaign in the series — i.e. Anish Giri, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave. | Photo: The opening ceremony, held in the ballroom of ‘Dom Grade’, a building from the 1920s which was once home to the Serbian Royal Guard

Octogenarian puzzle master solutions

3/1/2022 – Last Tuesday Werner Keym, one of the most creative problemists we know, turned 80, and we celebrated his birthday with samples from his book "Anything but Average". Today we give you the solutions to the truly unique problems, hoping you enjoyed them and were able to come up with the solutions yourself.

A magic knight

3/1/2022 – Sometimes it is difficult to convert an extra knight into a full point: Black to move and win.

French Chess Federation organizes “Chess for Mental Health” conference

2/28/2022 – In the second week of March, the French capital will host the “Chess for Mental Health” international event. The conference will cover various topics related to mental health, including autism, DYS, concentration, hyperactivity. The event’s keynote is how chess can improve multiple aspects of mental health.

Karsten Müller’s Endgame Magic Show #183: Endgame highlights from the Airthings Masters

2/28/2022 – In the Endgame Magic Show #183 Karsten Müller presents endgame highlights from the Airthings Masters, the online rapid tournament which World Champion Magnus Carlsen won last Saturday by defeating Ian Nepomniachtchi in the finals. | You can watch the Endgame Magic Show on-demand with a ChessBase Premium account.

Robert Ris’ Fast and Furious: The Ukrainian Immortal

2/28/2022 – This week Robert Ris presents the "Ukrainian Immortal", a fantastic game, in which White slowly develops a strong attack, which he crowns with a series of sacrifices. | "Fast and Furious" is available on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here.

Harvard mathematician solves 150-year-old chess problem

2/28/2022 – You know the problem: can you place eight queens on a chessboard so that now two queens threaten each other. There are 92 distinct ways of doing this. But how about on larger chessboards? For 27×27 board people have worked out that there are exactly 234,907,967,154,122,528 ways. Now a Harward mathematician Michael Simkin has come up with an almost-definitive answer for any number queens on a corresponding chessboard. Warning: his result can lead to dizziness and fainting spells.

Player Types - The Summary

2/28/2022 – The Grandmasters Dr. Karsten Mueller and Luis Engel have set a ball rolling in Germany with their latest Fritztrainer. GM Lars Bo Hansen designed the four-player model in 2005, and was perhaps ahead of his time. In the 5-part interview with Dr. Karsten Mueller, all four player types are discussed in detail. Today - The Summary, and questions about all four types.

FIDE Council condemns Russia’s military action

2/28/2022 – An extraordinary meeting of the FIDE Council took place on Sunday to address the issues related to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Among other decisions, the council decided to ban Russia and Belarus from organizing official FIDE competitions, to terminate sponsorship agreements with Belarusian and Russian sanctioned and/or state-controlled companies, and to condemn public statements from members of the chess community who support unjustified military action — i.e. Sergey Karjakin and Sergey Shipov.

An epic Catalan battle

2/27/2022 – The most exciting and talked-about game of the 2021 World Championship was game 6. Statistically, the sixth game of a World Championship match has yielded more decisive results than any other game. This one proved to be no exception, as records kept tumbling. The game had various layers of action and consequences. GM Sundararajan Kidambi explains the game arising out of a Catalan opening. | Photo: Shahid Ahmed

Understanding before Moving 68: Ideas in the King's Indian

2/27/2022 – 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 68th instalment of his ChessBase show "Understanding before Moving", Herman shows some ideas of how to play against the King's Indian. | Photo: Tommy Grooten

Full speed against the Reti!

2/27/2022 – The new ChessBase Magazine #206 once again offers a wealth of ideas and recommendations for your repertoire. Besides the three opening videos by Jan Werle, Daniel King and Mihail Marin as well as Rainer Knaak's trap collection, the new issue contains eleven opening articles covering a broad spectrum: from a sharp gambit in the Caro-Kann Advance Variation via "Ruy Lopez for structuralists" (Delayed Exchange Variation) to the new Gruenfeld trend 5.Bd2 c5!?. Imre Hera, meanwhile, takes up a radical idea against the Reti Opening with which David Navara shocked his opponent, GM Markowski, in 2011: after 1.Nf3 d5 2.c4 d4 3.b4 the creative artist continued with the novelty 3...g5!? and then also let his h-pawn rush towards the opponent's castling. "One of the most interesting innovations in modern theory", our author thinks. You should take a look at it!
More...
 6

Magnus Carlsen convincingly wins Airthings Masters

2/26/2022 – Magnus Carlsen won the first event of the 2022 Meltwater Champions Chess Tour as he beat Ian Nepomniachtchi in the finals of the Airthings Masters. After drawing the first set on Friday, the world champion won the second 4-game mini-match by a 2½-½ score. Nepo did not go down easy, though it was Carlsen who performed at a higher level at the critical points in games 2 and 3.

Study of the Month: The Centennial

2/26/2022 – Humans formed belief systems based on stellar bodies. If you ask an astrologer about it, he might tell you his beliefs which of those have the most influence on your life. If you ask a scientist, he will likely name at least two: Sun and Earth. Ancient cultures already measured a phenomenon that - relative to each other - Earth rotates around the sun as well as around its own axis. A full rotation around itself is called a "day", a full rotation around the sun a "year". Relatively speaking, that is in relation to the sun, Earth returns to its current position after one year. One hundred such rotations are called a "century". A man who is on Earth for such a time is called a "centennial". A centennial who contributes to endgame theory is called... Yuri Averbakh. | Photo of Averbakh: Eteri Kublashvili

Airthings Masters Finals - Games and results

2/26/2022 – The Airthings Masters tournament kicks off this year’s Meltwater Champions Chess Tour. Sixteen players in total will battle it out in the round-robin stage of the online event before eight go forward to the knockout stage. The tournament will take place on February 19-26, with the action kicking off daily at 18.00 CET.