Daniel King’s Power Play Show: Beautiful games in the Kalashnikov

1/14/2022 – In his second Power Play Show of the year, Daniel King looks at sharp, beautiful games in the Sicilian Kalashnikov. And a critical position in one of these games reminds him of a famous combination played by the legendary David Bronstein! | Power Play is on air most Fridays. Watch it on-demand with a ChessBase Premium account. All the usual puzzles, games and instruction will be on offer.

ChessBase Magazine #205: Special on Robert Huebner

1/14/2022 – Robert Huebner is considered Germany’s most successful player since Emanuel Lasker. From 1971 to 1988 he constantly belonged to the world’s top 20, achieving his all-time high in 1981 when he was number 3 on the Elo list. Huebner participated in four World Championship candidates cycles and in 1980 advanced to the final where he faced Viktor Kortschnoj. In ChessBase Magazine #205 our authors comment on their personal favourite Huebner game - resulting in an exclusive collection of 16 games from 1970 to 2017. In addition, Karsten Mueller presents a selection from Huebner's best endgames. And Mihail Marin in his strategy check comes to a surprising result for himself! Here we show you an excerpt from Marin's video as well as Karsten Müller's analysis of his favourite game: Huebner-Kasparov (Dortmund 1992). We hope you enjoy it!
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Karsten Müller's Endgame Dictionary: The "Knight Check Shadow"

1/14/2022 – There are so many endgame terms that Karsten Müller decided to gather them in a slowly growing "Endgame Dictionary", in which he explains these terms with short videos and practical examples. This time, Karsten explains what a "Knight Check Shadow" is. Admittedly, at first glance this is an unusual and somewhat unwieldy term, but it helps to explain and to remember an important endgame motif.

A brand new tiebreak format in Wijk aan Zee

1/13/2022 – The first super-tournament of the year is about to kick off, and the organizers have just announced that they will be using a new tiebreak system. After last year’s edition finished with an unpleasant controversy, the organizers of the Tata Steel Masters have decided to avoid chaotic time scrambles to break a potential tie for first place. | Photo: Official website

Blockchain, Looted Art, Civil Rights, Kortchnoi

1/13/2022 – The auction of the World Champion NFTs, in which ChessBase acted as a kind of digital art gallery, has been completed. The 14 works raised 7.2 Ether, which is currently around €21,000. Thank you and congratulations to all successful bidders! The creative process behind the development of the NFTs was inspiring, the technical background fascinating, the discussion with critical readers refreshing. Now the series has been released into the world, and it will be exciting to see what happens with it in the years to come. Finally, the raffle of the Viktor Korchnoi NFT, which was not included in the auction, has found a winner.

Robert Ris’ Fast and Furious: 15-year old Eline Roeber wins Untergrombach Open

1/13/2022 – Last week, 15-year old Eline Roeber from the Netherlands surprisingly won the Untergrombach Open in Germany. Eline is a student of Robert Ris, and in his "Fast & Furious" show the experienced trainer takes a look at the crucial game of the tournament in Untergrombach: Eline's turbulent win against Russian Grandmaster Vyacheslav Ikonnikov. | "Fast and Furious" is available on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here.

What we learned in 2021, the trends for 2022

1/13/2022 – After the World Championship in classical chess finished in mid-December, three tournaments attracted the attention of chess enthusiasts: the Sunway Festival in Sitges, and the Rapid and Blitz World Championships in Warsaw. A chess review by Thorsten Cmiel. | Photos: FIDE

How to use: Mega Database 2022

1/13/2022 – Chances are that like most ambitious chess players all over the world you already have Mega Database 2022, with 9.2 million high quality games, more than 100,000 with expert analysis. But do you know how to use Mega properly, how to conduct instant preparation for your next opponent? How you can use it to improve your repertoire. Let an experienced chess trainer show you how: IM Sagar Shah does it in this tutorial video. Watching it can be the most profitable 7½ minutes you have spent on your chess improvement in a long time.

The Fritz 18 Brilliancy Winners!

1/12/2022 – At the end of last year, ChessBase launched a Fritz 18 brilliancy competition, and the winners have now been drawn. We got games from 30 years ago, including photos of original documents, online blitz games and many games against the new Fritz 18 engine. The winners will receive private training with GM Kasimdzhanov, an online blitz tournament against a GM, and vouchers worth 25-50 euros.

Game of the Week #498: A fine miniature from the Prague Open

1/12/2022 – In the "Game of the Week" show Merijn van Delft presents a nice game from the Prague Open, in which Dutch IM Arthur Pijpers demonstrates why it is important to develop his pieces swiftly. | Merijn's show is available on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here.

The Winning Academy 4: Handcuffs for your opponent

1/12/2022 – What is the soul of chess? André Philidor back in the 18th century answered: "Pawns!" Aaron Nimzowitsch a century ago claimed in My System: "Overprotection of strategically important squares." Jan Markos' answer to this question is rather different. He is convinced that the essence of chess manifests itself best in domination. | Photo: Evan Amos (Wikipedia)

Svitlana's Smart Moves - The Scotch Game Fritztrainer!

1/12/2022 – After her first Fritztrainer: "Understanding Material Imbalances", Svitlana surprises us with her second course:"The Scotch Game"! The Canadian WIM gives us a little sneak preview in this episode as an appetizer. If you enjoy the content she created so far, it is highly appreciated if you purchase her Fritztrainers.

New: The Scotch Game by Svitlana Demchenko

1/12/2022 – The Scotch Game (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4) is a great repertoire addition for any player looking for a solid yet active opening, which relies more on understanding rather than pure memorization. The popularity of the Scotch rose exponentially after Garry Kasparov employed it in the World Championship match against Anatoly Karpov in 1990, and the opening has stayed in style ever since.

The Weekly Show: The Vergani Cup

1/11/2022 – In his "Weekly Show" Lawrence Trent takes a look at the Vergani Cup, focusing on the performance of Nurgyul Salimova who scored a GM norm. A fantastic performance by the Bulgarian youngster! The game of the day is Nigel Short's encounter with Salimova. | Lawrence’s show is available on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here

The perfect score: Keres wins Tallinn 1942 with 15.0/15

1/11/2022 – Paul Keres (January 7, 1916 – June 5, 1975) was the clear favourite in the 1942 Estonian Championship in Tallinn. At the time he was considered a possible challenger to World Champion Alexander Alekhine and was the only world-class player in the field. Nevertheless, it is astonishing how clearly Keres dominated the tournament: he won all 15 games without conceding a single draw. | Photo: Valter Heuer (Archive)

Time to learn the Grunfeld from a World class GM?

1/11/2022 – Sometimes bad performance at a tournament can spur you into action. It can make you have a close look at the holes and weaknesses in your play. This is exactly what happened with our reviewer Aanjaneya Phatak. 20-year-old Aanjaneya, who works on chess without a coach, decided to go to the MP Masters Chess 2021. He lost 47 Elo point making his rating fall from 2212 to 2165. But from that experience he realized that he needed to add new openings to his arsenal. That's how he got his hands on Markus Ragger's latest Fritztrainer for ChessBase on the Grunfeld Defence. In this article Aanjaneya narrates his experience of working with Austria's first ever 2700+ GM.

Match in neon limelight

1/11/2022 – A new Russian film, written and directed by Aleksey Sidorov, called “The Champion of the World” was released on December 30. The film tells the story of the bitter rivalry between Anatoly Karpov and Viktor Korchnoi, focusing on their memorable match in Baguio. Eteri Kublashvili had access to the shooting and shared a number of remarkable photos and impressions on the website of the Chess Federation of Russia.

The Phantom Queen

1/11/2022 – Sometimes it would be nice to have another queen on the board, especially if things went wrong in the first part of the game. In a YouTube video on optical illusions, Matt Pritchard reveals how you can suddenly conjure up a queen on the board by using means of disguise that have a long tradition in chess but are rather unusual in modern tournament play.

Never miss a check...

1/11/2022 – Pawn races often have a flavour of their own and taking pawns is not always the most important. In the diagram position it is Black to move and win. What would you do?

Thirty years! Happy Birthday Fritz (6.1)

1/10/2022 – Four years after his epic match against Fritz in Bahrain, which ended in a hard-fought 4-4 draw, World Champion Vladimir Kramnik, who had in the meantime twice defended his title, once again took up the gauntlet to face his computer opponent. In a two-part pictorial article, Frederic Friedel describes the intense million-dollar battle that was fought between them in 2006 in Bonn, Germany. Finance Minister Peer Steinbrück called it a cultural battle between outstanding representatives of human and technical intelligence.

Can you own Byrne-Fischer?

1/10/2022 – On Tuesday, January 11, 2022, the first auction of the Chess World Champion NFTs (Wilhelm Steinitz) will end at 12:00 CET. The other auctions will follow roughly every hour. So let's summarize what makes this series unique. In one sentence: It will remain the first of its kind for all times! Also: What is the deeper meaning of NFTs? And a short but hefty guide to the technical side of the auction.

Karsten Müller’s Endgame Magic Show #177: The fourth phase of the game

1/10/2022 – In the Endgame Magic Show #177, Karsten Müller and Arne Kähler look at a fascinating position played at the 2021 FIDE World Cup in Sochi. Sometimes you need to calculate what will happen in the fourth phase of the game, when newly promoted queens appear on the board, and every single check is crucial! | You can watch the Endgame Magic Show on-demand with a ChessBase Premium account.

Indian Grandmaster Lalith Babu wins Vergani Cup

1/10/2022 – The Indian Grandmaster Lalith Babu won the "Vergani Cup" in the Italian Adriatic resort of Cattolica which finished on Sunday. With 7.0/9 Lalith shared first place with Hans Moke Niemann (USA), Vitaliy Bernadskiy (Ukraine) and Nurgyul Salimova (Bulgaria), but he had the best tiebreak and therefore won the tournament and the first prize of €2,500. | Photos: Rupali Mullick

What’s next: top tournaments in January and February

1/10/2022 – With the Tata Steel Masters kicking off next Saturday, chess aficionados are set to enjoy another year of elite tournaments. Besides the traditional event in Wijk aan Zee, a tournament with a new format will take place in Gibraltar, while the first two legs of the FIDE Grand Prix will be played in close succession in February.