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.

A brilliant year: Alireza Firouzja’s rise to the very top

1/9/2022 – In a year that saw Magnus Carlsen defending the Classical World Championship title for a fourth consecutive time, a young player became the most dangerous potential challenger for the Norwegian. 18-year-old Alireza Firouzja climbed to the second spot in the world ranking by showcasing incredible results throughout 2021. We look at how the Iranian-born grandmaster gained 55 rating points in 12 months. | Photo: Jurriaan Hoefsmit

Tata Steel Chess to kick off in less than a week

1/9/2022 – The Tata Steel Chess Tournament 2022 will take place in Wijk aan Zee on January 14-30. The Masters and the Challengers sections will be played concurrently. The Open had to be cancelled. World Champion Magnus Carlsen leads the field. Alireza Firouzja is not taking part. | Photos: Tata Steel Chess

Understanding before Moving 61: Light-square strategy

1/9/2022 – 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 61st instalment of his ChessBase show "Understanding before Moving", Herman talks about "Simple Chess" and light-square strategy. | Photo: Tommy Grooten

Historias de Ajedrez: A Cuban Chess Movie

1/8/2022 – "Historias de Ajedrez" is a Cuban movie from 2019 by Emmanuel Martin Hernandez. In the movie, Hernandez, a passionate chess player himself, offers an intimate look at the stories of chess players in Santiago de Cuba.

The perfect start

1/8/2022 – In the diagram position it is White to move and he has to react to Black's threat of ...g4 which would trap the bishop on h3. But with the right pawn push White can gain the upper hand. Which pawn should White push ahead?

Daniel King’s Power Play Show: Rapid Attacks

1/7/2022 – In his first Power Play Show of 2022 Daniel King looks at games by the winners of the Women's World Rapid - Aleksandra Kosteniuk; and the Women's World Blitz - Bibisara Assaubayeva. Daniel also shows a nice study by Leonid Kubbel (not too difficult!). | 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.

How the AI Revolution Impacted Chess (1/2)

1/7/2022 – In 2017, AlphaZero shocked the chess world by crushing Stockfish in a 100-game match. Since then, chess engines have undergone a substantial revision based on deep learning methods to develop a neural network. Joshua Doknjas examines the impact of the AI revolution in chess. | Graphic: Europe Echecs

Trent's Tactics - Recap of 2021 and finding creative patterns

1/7/2022 – Trents Tactics is back in 2022! Lawrence and Arne decide to talk about the chess year 2021, the tournaments, and the best male and female player. They then move directly to highly creative tactical patterns, and finally play some ChessBase training, trying come closer to the rating of 2400.

92nd FIDE General Assembly: results and decisions

1/7/2022 – Parallel to the Rapid and Blitz World Championships in Warsaw, FIDE held its annual congress. Delegates participated mostly online. On its website, FIDE recently published the "results and decisions" of the congress. Despite the Corona pandemic, FIDE is solidly financed, now largely from sponsorship, donations and broadcasting rights, less so from membership fees. The World Chess Federation has reacquired the rights to the World Championships. | Photos: David Llada

MegaBase 2022: Three Epic Matches

1/7/2022 – The MegaBase 2022 is Chess History in Action: It offers 9.210.512 games, the earliest played in 1475 and the most recent played October 2021, many of them annotated. Here our columnist, offers an introduction to three epic matches from the MegaBase with six annotated games. There is a lot more to discover in this treasure trove, grand battles, opening novelties and exemplary endgames.

Robert Ris’ Fast and Furious: My favourite game of 2021

1/6/2022 – In the first episode of his "Fast & Furious" show in 2022, Dutch trainer Robert Ris presents his favourite game of 2021, that features an impressive attack in a sharp line of the Sicilian Najdorf. | "Fast and Furious" is available on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here.

Vergani Cup: When the mobile rings twice...

1/6/2022 – In the second week of December Nigel Short caught Corona though he was vaccinated twice. Short's infection was so severe that he had to go hospital, but it did not stop the English Grandmaster from playing at the 6th Vergani Cup in Cattolica, Italy, at the beginning of the year. However, he needed some help from chess goddess Caissa when the tournament began. But Short did not forget his duties as a chess ambassador. | Photos: Circolo Scacchistico Forlivese, Rupali Mullick

Endgame Riddle: Unzicker vs Botvinnik, Amsterdam 1954

1/6/2022 – "One of the most difficult games I have ever played." That is how Mikhail Botvinnik described his encounter with Wolfgang Unzicker from Germany at the Chess Olympiad 1954 in Amsterdam. Botvinnik wound up in a difficult rook ending in which he was a pawn down. However, he managed to save the endgame, once again proving his analytical abilities and his endgame skills. But was the endgame really drawn? Or did Unzicker miss a win? Karsten Müller invites you to take a look at this fascinating endgame. | Photo: Botvinnik at the Chess Olympiad 1960 in Leipzig

Svitlana's Smart Moves - Smartest moves of 2021

1/6/2022 – Svitlana is back, and in her first episode of 2022, she shows us a couple of beautiful, and memorable games of 2021. Players like Firouzja, Caruana, and Kosteniuk had some magnificent games, and it always delightful to check them out again. What was your favourite game with the smartest moves of 2021?

Game of the Week #497: N. Abdusattorov vs I. Nepomniachtchi

1/5/2022 – In this first "Game of the Week" show of the new year Merijn van Delft takes a final look at the World Rapid Championship. Magnus Carlsen pushed a little too hard and lost against 17-year old Nodirbek Abdusattorov, and in the end Abusattorov qualified for his third tournament playoff in a row (earlier in December twice in Spain) and again he won to become the youngest Rapid World Champion ever. In the final game of the playoff he impressively beat Ian Nepomniachtchi, which is Merijn's Game of the Week. | Merijn's show is available on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here.

Daniel King: World Championship Blunders

1/5/2022 – In the 2021 World Championship match between challenger Ian Nepomniachtchi and defending champion Magnus Carlsen, Nepomniachtchi blundered in a couple of games. He is in good company. In his Power Play Chess show on YouTube Daniel King takes a look at blunders that happened in previous World Championship matches and found a number of amazing, amusing and entertaining mistakes made by the best players in the history of chess.

Statistics and numbers: The World Chess Championship in 5 Charts

1/5/2022 – The World Championship match between Magnus Carlsen and Ian Nepomniachtchi was the chess highlight of the year 2021, and chess fans all over the world followed the games and the match avidly. Carlsen won 7.5-3.5 and defended his title. Shortly after the match, Oliver Roeder and Simran Parwani took a look at some statistics of the match and presented their findings on www.538.com, a statistics-oriented website that focuses on American politics and sports. | Image: FIDE

Surprise in the London System

1/5/2022 – The new ChessBase Magazine #205 offers a wealth of ideas and recommendations for your repertoire. The topics of the eleven opening articles in the new issue range from the Benko Gambit (4.cxb5 a6 5.b6 e6), the French Tarrasch (8.0-0 g5!), the Ruy Lopez (5.Qe2) to recipes against the King's Indian (after 6.Be2). Sergey Grigoriants looks at a topic that will interest many chess fans: He presents an active repertoire against the London System! However, you have to be ready to sacrifice a pawn with 6...e5! and to continue playing "precisely and powerfully" afterwards. But that shouldn't be difficult for you after reading Grigoriant's article!
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The Weekly Show: The World Rapid and Blitz Championships 2021

1/4/2022 – This "Weekly Show" is all about the World Rapid and Blitz Championships and a look ahead to 2022. Lawrence takes a close look at the battle Gukesh-Abdusattorov from the World Rapid, "a great display of resilience from the young Uzbek who went on to shock the field and win the entire tournament". | Lawrence’s show is available on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here

Misratdin Iskandarov wins in Sousse

1/4/2022 – In 1967 the city of Sousse (Tunisia) organised one of the most talked about Interzonal Tournaments in the history of chess. After 10 rounds Bobby Fischer led with 8½/10 but after quarrels with the organisers, the eccentric American decided to withdraw from the tournament and to wait for three more years before making his final attempt to become World Champion. The first Bicapawn International Chess Tournament that was played in Sousse at the end of 2021 went much more smoothly and was won by GM Misratdin Iskandarov from Azerbaijan.