CBM #206 Special: Levon Aronian

3/4/2022 – Levon Aronian, is the "hero" of ChessBase Magazine #206. In the new issue, our authors - David Navara, Adhiban Baskaran and Romain Edouard among others - comment on their favourite games of the top player. This has resulted in a collection of 19 special encounters from 1994 (U12 World Championship!) to 2021. In addition, Mihail Marin's contribution is entitled "Levon Aronian's strategic universe" and Karsten Mueller presents a selection of the Armenian's best endgames. You can watch the video from Mueller's endgame contribution as well as Adrien Demuth's analysis of the game Aronian-Ponomariov (Lausanne 2001) here - enjoy!
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Leading chess players of Russia appeal to Putin for peace and ceasefire

3/3/2022 – In an appeal to Vladimir Putin, the President of Russia, a large number of prominent Russian chess players call for a ceasefire and peace in Ukraine. "It is unbearably painful for us to see the catastrophe that is happening these days to our peoples." The courageous appeal appeared on the Russian sports site "Championat".

Robert Ris’ Fast and Furious: A miniature between two top players

3/3/2022 – This week Robert Ris takes a look at a miniature played at the highest level: at the Airthings Masters Online Rapid Tournament World Champion Magnus Carlsen defeated Jan-Krzysztof Duda with a swift attack and won a short and instructive game. | "Fast and Furious" is available on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here.

Double attack on the Taimanov Variation

3/3/2022 – In the current ChessBase Magazine the Sicilian Taimanov Variation (1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 e6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nc6 5.Nc3 Qc7 6.Be3 a6) is taken to task from two sides at once. The super-modern 7.g4 came onto the board at the Tata Steel 2022 in the game Grandelius-Carlsen, we have already presented the Swede's analysis to you recently. There is also a complete opening article by IM Christian Braun on precisely this variation in CBM #206. A "dangerous weapon for White", because Black has development problems, whereas White can quickly castle long... The concept, which Jan Werle looks at in his opening video on the basis of a game by Alireza Firouzja, is completely different: after 7.Nxc6 bxc6 8.Qd3 Nf6 9.Qg3 Qxg3 10.hxg3 White achieves a small but lasting positional advantage, which can be played comfortably. Take a look!
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Belgrade GP: Vidit and Giri sole leaders in their pools

3/3/2022 – Two players have a 1-point lead in their respective pools going into round 3 of the FIDE Grand Prix preliminaries in Belgrade. Anish Giri and Vidit Gujrathi kicked off the event with back-to-back wins and are the sole leaders in pools B and C. In pool A, Sam Shankland joined Dmitry Andreikin in the lead thanks to a win over Alexander Grischuk. In pool D, both games were drawn for a second consecutive day. | Photos: Mark Livshitz

ChessBase for Coaches: Creating a Worksheet

3/3/2022 – Whether for in-class work or for homework, worksheets help students review and practice chess. Creating worksheets—then printing, formatting, and sharing them—are tasks that every chess coach undertakes. In this article, National Master Jeffrey Ashton shows how ChessBase makes these tasks easier.

FIDE postpones World Team Championship to November 2022

3/3/2022 – The International Chess Federation (FIDE) has decided to postpone the World Teams Championship 2022 to November 2022. The rights to host the tournament are retained by the Israeli Chess Federation. Press release.

The band is back together! – Nigel Davies and Andrew Martin start Master Chess Web Show

3/3/2022 – IM Andrew Martin and GM Nigel Davies are a good team of experienced trainers. In the 1990s, they formed the "Master Chess Roadshow" and toured England to help players all over the country to get better and to have fun with chess. Now, the band is back together: with the Chess Web Show, three weekly shows on Twitch and a YouTube channel!

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!
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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.