12/22/2021 – The rapid tournament at the Vugar Gashimov Memorial ended with an exciting and close finish. In the sixth and penultimate round tournament leader Richard Rapport lost against Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, which allowed Fabiano Caruana to catch up. But in the final round Caruana also lost against Mamedyarov while Rapport and Karjakin won their matches. In the end, Rapport and Karjakin shared first place with 16 points each. | Photos: Tournament page

12/21/2021 – In his "Weekly Show" IM Lawrence Trent will take a look at the Sitges tournament, in which a number of the world's brightest stars take part. The game of the day will be Niemann-Puranik where the young Indian GM gets the better of, to quote Lawrence, "the greatest American natural talent since Nakamura". | Lawrence’s show is available on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here

12/21/2021 – ChessBase is launching a unique NFT series of the world chess champions, united with their iconic games and moves that have made history in their sublime beauty. Each NFT is authorized by the player himself. A font specially designed for this series allows historical portraits and private photographs to merge with the moves. Behind the notation, the key position of a very famous game appears in 3D ray tracing technology from ChessBase. Alternating with this is an intense portrait of the world champion from his active time. You can read. You can see. You can feel. The moment of genius. And you can now bid for them on Opensea.

12/21/2021 – Yesterday's Reti study could be solved with Rd2, or even Rd3. Of course, almost everyone knew that. And today there is another study that even more should know how to solve. Please confirm you know it! And this short study, in this short video, is on the shortest day of the year.

12/21/2021 – Playing styles in chess are an important and thus often discussed topic. GM Dr. Karsten Müller and GM Luis Engel take up a model by GM Lars Bo Hansen based on 4 player types - namely ‘activists’, ‘pragmatics’, ‘theoreticians’ and so-called ‘reflectors’. Their respective strengths and weaknesses are explained with the help of many examples, enabling the reader to try and assign himself or herself to one or the other player type.

12/21/2021 – In the diagram position it is White to move and draw. Black's passed pawns are far advanced and it seems as if one of them will queen soon. However, White still has a way to draw. What should he do?

12/21/2021 – For a fourth year in a row, Hikaru Nakamura won the online Speed Chess Championship organized by chess.com. His opponent in the deciding match was Wesley So, who lost a third final against his compatriot. It was a one-sided affair, as the online blitz and bullet specialist won by an impressive 23-8 score.

12/20/2021 – In the Endgame Magic Show #176 Karsten Müller and Arne Kähler take a look at fascinating rook endings. They start with the last game of the World Championship match between Magnus Carlsen and Ian Nepomniachtchi, and then focus on the game Spielmann vs Rubinstein, St. Petersburg 1909, in which Rubinstein worked his rook endgame magic. | You can watch the Endgame Magic Show on-demand with a ChessBase Premium account.

12/20/2021 – A pre-requisite for an organization to become world class is to have competent people working for it in key managerial positions. This is exactly what FIDE has done by roping in Dana Reizniece-Ozola as the managing director. A look at her credentials and you can have no doubts about her competency. Dana is a former Minister of Economics of Latvia as well as its Finance Minister! She has a Masters in Business Administration, has been the head of space programs and her list of achievements is quite huge. To add to all of this, she is also a strong chess player - a WGM with an Elo of 2283. At the World Championship 2021 in Dubai, IM Sagar Shah met with Dana and had a detailed interview about her journey of life, becoming FIDE's managing director, her vision for FIDE and much more.

12/20/2021 – Only four more days and our beautiful endgame magic calendar is over. Could you find the move for the "King of the Umbrellas" yesterday? It was Ke6! Today we have an absolute classic in door 20. But who actually made this study?

12/20/2021 – 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 58th instalment of his ChessBase show "Understanding before Moving", Herman talks about Aaron Nimzowitsch and his famous "Hemmungsstrategie". | Photo: Tommy Grooten

12/20/2021 – At the European Rapid Championship in Katowice, three grandmasters finished level on points atop the standings: Alexander Motylev (Russia), Alexander Donchenko (Germany) and Paulius Pultinevicius (Lithuania), each with 9½ points after 11 rounds. According to the tiebreak criteria, Motylev was declared European Champion, Donchenko got the silver medal and Pultinevicius took home the bronze. | Photos: Michał Walusza