1/2/2022 – The Ukrainian Championships took place in Kharkiv on 8-17 December 2021. The tournaments were nicely organized in the library of the Yaroslav Mudryi National Law University. Andrei Volokitin clinched first place in the open section by winning both his games in the two final rounds, while Kateryna Dolzhykova surprisingly got the gold in the women’s tournament. | Photos: Ukrainian Chess Federation

1/2/2022 – In his ChessBase Magazine column "Topical opening traps", GM Rainer Knaak regularly examines examples from current tournament practice. He also presents three of them in the video analysis in each CBM. Especially for club players, his contributions offer exciting suggestions. Thanks to the range of topics, you should be able to find something for your own repertoire in every issue! In addition, the trap expert often shows variations that are rarely seen in top-level chess but must be on one's mind as a club chess player. We offer you an excerpt from Rainer Knaak's collection from ChessBase #205 here, including a video on the Budapest Gambit.

1/2/2022 – 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 60th instalment of his ChessBase show "Understanding before Moving", Herman shows how to convert the advantages of having the pair of bishops. | Photo: Tommy Grooten

1/1/2022 – In the diagram position White can start fireworks to hunt down the black king, and you are invited to ignite all the rockets - have fun!

12/31/2021 – Nona Gaprindashvili wrote referring to Milunka Lazarevic: “A literary person by profession, lively and impressionable, Lazarevic is one of the brightest figures in women’s chess of the sixties”. Milunka attracted attention by her exciting, uncompromising style: sacrificing pawns and pieces and despising draws, which made her famous and endeared her to chess audiences! | Photo: Balkan Chess

12/31/2021 – On the last day of 2021, GM Daniel King looks at games from the World Blitz Championship, including two fascinating King’s Gambits played by Ian Nepomniachtchi and a fabulous queen sacrifice by Levon Aronian. Happy New Year! | 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.

12/31/2021 – Duplex problems are loosely defined as satisfying the same stipulation with the colours reversed, and are typically found in helpmates. In this article, Azlan Iqbal expounds on the much rarer variety that applies to direct mates. Using incidental examples taken from his computer-generated chess problem collection and a couple by human composers, he challenges readers to compose some of their own. For starters you can try to solve the problem shown in our picture. Both White and Black can mate in five, if they have the first move.

12/31/2021 – Maxime Vachier-Lagrave won the world title in blitz chess after beating Jan-Krzysztof Duda in a playoff. Alireza Firouzja scored as many points as MVL and Duda, but had an inferior tiebreak score. The women’s world title went to 17-year-old Kazakh star Bibisara Assaubayeva. | Photos: Rafał Oleksiewicz, Anna Shtourman / FIDE

12/30/2021 – In the final episode of the year, Dutch trainer Robert Ris looks at a nice miniature in the Queen’s Gambit Accepted, played at the World Rapid and Blitz Championships in Warsaw. | "Fast and Furious" is available on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here.

12/30/2021 – One of the most anticipated events in the chess calendar, the FIDE World Rapid and Blitz Championship, is taking place on December 25-31 in Warsaw, Poland, at the PGE Narodowy Stadium. Follow the games live with expert commentary starting at 15.00 CET (9.00 ET, 19.30 IST). | Photo: Rafal Oleksiewicz

12/29/2021 – What a unique idea: decorate a Moscow metro train to convert it into a chess museum. Each of the five cars of this train is dedicated to different chess-related themes — game history, chess development in the Soviet Union and in Russia, VIP names in the world of chess, and, of course, the elegant chess pieces. In addition, the train displays noteworthy facts about chess in cinema, visual arts, theatre, literature, and in the life of celebrities. | Photos by Eteri Kublashvili

12/29/2021 – This week, Merijn van Delft takes a looks at an unusual game by Boris Gelfand: at a certain point of time there were no less than four queens on the board! | Merijn’s show is available on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here.