Dutch Championship: Four players move on to final stage

10/24/2021 – The Dutch Championship will be played in two stages this year. On Saturday, the three-round knockout phase was completed in the town hall of Hoogeveen. The field of participants was thus reduced from 16 to 4, who will determine the new champion in a double round-robin in Rotterdam at the end of November. The qualified players are Roeland Pruijssers, Max Warmerdam, Robin Swinkels and Hing Ting Lai. Meanwhile, the Women's Championship, which was played concurrently, was organized as a round robin tournament — the event was won by WGM Anne Haast. | Photos: Frans Peeters

Understanding before Moving 50: Typical Sacrifices

10/24/2021 – 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 50th instalment of his ChessBase show "Understanding before Moving", Herman talks about typical sacrifices. | Photo: Tommy Grooten

A review: The Saemisch Variation by Jan Werle

10/23/2021 – The Saemisch Variation is a very stable response to the King’s Indian Defence. And the Benoni can also be answered with the same setup and the same underlying ideas. Jan Werle presents the white setup thoroughly on his DVD. Philipp Hillebrand has looked at the FritzTrainer just as thoroughly!

Icelandic isolani

10/23/2021 – In the diagram position White's knight is about to occupy the blockade square in front of the pawn d5. How would you react with Black?

DuoBeniaján wins Spanish Team Championship

10/22/2021 – The Spanish Team Chess Championship ‘División de Honor’ took place on October 11-17 in Toledo. DuoBeniaján, a team from Murcia headed by David Antón and Parham Maghsoodloo, got first place after obtaining 12/14 match points in the 8-team single round robin. Bosch Serinsys (Anton Korobov, Alexei Shirov) and Andreu Paterna (Paco Vallejo, David Howell) finished second and third respectively. | Photo: Patricia Claros

Daniel King’s Power Play Show: Tactics

10/22/2021 – In this week’s show, GM Daniel King, looks at tactical positions from the recent Bundesliga rounds. | 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.

Were Tal, Korchnoi and Geller 2200 rated players?

10/22/2021 – This was the question that a friend, grandmaster Alex Yermolinsky, posed after being inquired about a comment by another grandmaster. It was meant as irony, but was the logical result of a series of questions and comments that led to him posing this. He had explained with hard data how one could even ask this. If you want to know how we got to this point, read on!

Mongolian team wins Online Chess Championship for prisoners

10/22/2021 – Team Mongolia became the winner of the first Intercontinental Online Chess Championship for Prisoners after defeating Team Zimbabwe in the final of the biggest ever chess event among correctional facilities. In the women’s section, the Georgian team won all three matches and finished in clear first place.

Robert Ris’ Fast and Furious: The Improved Milner-Barry Gambit

10/21/2021 – This week, well-known Dutch trainer Robert Ris takes a look at the improved Milner-Barry Variation (1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.e5 c5 4.c3 Nc6 5.Nf3 Qb6 6.Bd3!? cxd4 7.0-0, an interesting and aggressive way to fight the French Defense that has recently become more and more popular. | "Fast and Furious" is available on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here.

Interview with Jovanka Houska

10/21/2021 – In an exclusive interview with Tatiana Flores, Jovanka Houska talks about her career as a chess player, author and commentator. She also talks about some of her most important and memorable games and reveals how it feels to get free chess lessons from Judit Polgar. | Photo: Alina l'Ami

Annotating in ChessBase: Variations, moves, and more

10/21/2021 – Adding symbols, evaluations and comments may be important, but without variations and moves to depict the possibilities that could have taken place or should have taken place, describing chess as a science would have no meaning. Yet knowing how to organize and re-organize those variations and moves sensibly and efficiently is no less essential. Learn how to do it like a pro!

Grand Swiss in Riga will take place despite lockdown

10/21/2021 – On Monday, 25 October, the Grand Swiss Tournament in Riga is scheduled to begin. 114 players have registered, the two best qualify for the Candidates Tournament 2022. But due to a sharp rise in the numbers of COVID-19 cases, the Latvian authorities have introduced a strict four-week lockdown, from Thursday 21 October until 15 November. However, the Grand Swiss is exempt from these restrictions and the tournament can take place.

Svitlana's Smart Moves - "Material Imbalances": S. Shankland vs F. Caruana, St. Louis 2021

10/21/2021 – Recently, Svitlana came to Hamburg to record her new Fritztrainer: "Understanding Material Imbalances". The DVD will appear soon, probably in a couple of weeks. But this is a good opportunity for a preview, including some recent examples of the themes Svitlana presents, e.g. the entertaining topic of "Material Imbalances". At the US Championship 2021 that just ended in St. Louis Sam Shankland and Fabiano Caruana played a fascinating game with material imbalances - it ended in a draw when the queen was unable to win against two minor pieces.

Nikita Vitiugov and Valentina Gunina are the 2021 Russian champions

10/20/2021 – All but one game in both sections of the Russian Superfinals finished drawn in Wednesday’s final round, and the one decisive game (which was played in the open section) did not alter the situation at the top of the standings table. Thus, Nikita Vitiugov and Valentina Gunina, who were the sole leaders after the penultimate round, were crowned as the 2021 Russian chess champions. | Photo: Eteri Kublashvili

Game of the Week 486: A. Lenderman vs F. Caruana

10/20/2021 – This week, Merijn van Delft takes another look at the US Championship and analyses the encounter between Alekandr Lenderman and Fabiano Caruana, a tactically and positionally rich battle, in which Caruana showed great fighting spirit. | Merijn’s show is available on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here.

Wesley So dominates playoffs, wins 2021 US Championship

10/20/2021 – Wesley So beat both Fabiano Caruana and Sam Sevian in the playoffs of the 2021 US Championship to win the national title for a third time, since his transfer to the United States in 2014. A hard-fought tournament saw the three players sharing first place on 6½ points after 11 rounds. A round robin with a rapid time control took place on Tuesday to decide the winner of the national championship. | Photos: Lennart Ootes

Nick Pert wins British Championship

10/20/2021 – This year, the British Chess Federation organised two national championships, an online championship in July/August, and an "Over-the-Board" championship at the beginning of October. Nicholas Pert (pictured) won the Open Championship, Harriett Hunt became Women's Champion. | Photos: John Stubbs (Tournament page)

Superfinals - Round 11

10/20/2021 – All but one game in both sections of the Russian Superfinals finished drawn in Wednesday’s final round, and the one decisive game (which was played in the open section) did not alter the situation at the top of the standings table. Thus, Nikita Vitiugov and Valentina Gunina, who were the sole leaders after the penultimate round, were crowned as the 2021 Russian chess champions. | Follow the action live starting at 12.00 CEST (6.00 ET, 15.30 IST)

Baden-Baden wins Bundesliga

10/20/2021 – Last weekend, Baden-Baden won the German Team Championship, the Bundesliga. Again. In fact, since 2006 the team from Baden-Baden, sponsored by GRENKE Leasing, only failed to win the league in 2016, when Solingen finished first. This year, at the end of a season that due to the pandemic lasted from 2019 to 2021, Baden-Baden was three team points ahead of their closest rivals but securing the title was more difficult than the final result suggests. | Photos: Pascal Simon

Superfinals: Matlakov joins the fight for the title

10/20/2021 – Going into Wednesday’s final round in the Russian Superfinals, both the open tournament and the women’s championship have a sole leader with a half-point edge over two players sharing second place. In the open, Nikita Vitiugov leads, with Maxim Matlakov and Vladimir Fedoseev standing close behind; among the women, Valentina Gunina is the frontrunner, with her closest chasers being Evgenija Ovod and Polina Shuvalova. | Photo: Eteri Kublashvili

US Championship - Playoffs

10/19/2021 – Fabiano Caruana, Wesley So and Sam Sevian finished the 2021 US Championship sharing first place on 6½/11 points. A rapid round robin tournament (10 minutes plus 2-second increments) will decide the winner. In case of a tie, blitz and Armageddon will follow. | Follow the action live with commentary starting at 13.00 local time (14.00 ET, 20.00 CEST)

US Championships: Sevian, Caruana and So go to playoffs

10/19/2021 – The last round of the US Championship was played on Monday. The US Champion, however, has not yet been decided, as Fabiano Caruana, Wesley So and Sam Sevian finished tied on points atop the standings and will play a rapid-chess tiebreak to find the winner of this year’s national event. | Photos: Lennart Ootes

The Weekly Show: Carissa Yip wins US Women's Championship 2021

10/19/2021 – In his "Weekly Show" IM Lawrence Trent focuses on the US Championships, especially on Carissa Yip's victory in the Women’s event. The game of the day is Yip's win against Nazi Paikidze. Lawrence will also talk about Pragg’s victory at the Julius Baer challenge, and other events. | Lawrence’s show is available on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here

Pawn race in a rook ending

10/19/2021 – Rook endings often have drawish tendencies, but pawn races usually spice things up. In the diagram position it is Black to move. Should he protect his pawn on g6 or should he attack White's pawn on b3?