12/27/2020 – She was a remarkable lady: an Armenian from Karabakh, living in Azerbaijan. After the early death of her husband she brought up her son alone – and what a job she did! She recognized his talent at an early age and quit her job to devote herself completely to the task of helping him become World Chess Champion. She passed on Christmas day 2020, and her son Garry Kasparov writes: "I am bereft. She was my role model, my greatest champion, my wise counsel, and the strongest person I will ever know."

12/27/2020 – 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 seventh part of his ChessBase show "Understanding before Moving" Herman shows how strong a strong pawn center can be. | Photo: Hans Hoornstra

12/27/2020 – In the venerable tradition of our Christmas Puzzles, a tradition that has endured for over twenty years, we always strive to provide you with "computer-resistant" problems. You must not be able to solve them by pressing Alt-F2 or clicking on a fan icon. They should also be different from traditional chess problems. Today you have to add a piece or retract a move. Today's problems present logical challenges.

12/26/2020 – The first day of the Airthings Masters was rather peaceful: 17 of the 24 games ended in draw, only seven had a decisive result. Magnus Carlsen also finished the day without a win and drew all his four games. After the first four rounds five players share first place with 2½/4 each: Hikaru Nakamura, Levon Aronian, Wesley So, Teimour Radjabov, and Daniil Dubov. They all won one game and drew the other three. | Photo: Lennart Ootes (Archive)

12/26/2020 – In the diagram position Black just played 45...Rxc5 and now White has a tricky choice: he can play 46.Qxc5, 46.Qxf7+ or 46.Rxf7+. What would you do?

12/26/2020 – Columnist Siegfried Hornecker wonders, What is it that which motivates me, and others? What is this mysterious thing that is called ‘beauty’? Why do we perceive something as beautiful? He then goes on to share the opinions of people who have delved into these thought-provoking questions. | Photo: Bas Beekhuizen / Batavia Tournament 2016

12/22/2020 – Vishy Anand has ruled the number one spot in Indian chess for over three decades now. The five-time World Champion is now 51 years old and is still very much one of the best in the world. But Anand also wants to ensure that there are youngsters in India who rise quickly to the top of the world rankings in the years to come. It is with this objective in mind that the Westbridge Anand Chess Academy has been created. Nihal Sarin, Praggnanandhaa, Raunak Sadhwani, Gukesh and Vaishali are the five youngsters who received a fellowship and will be personally mentored by Vishy Anand.

12/22/2020 – In his “Weekly Show” IM Lawrence Trent looks at a couple of games from the over-the-board tournament taking place in Sitges, paying special attention to the remarkable victory obtained by 17-year-old Hans Niemann over Matthieu Cornette in round 6. | Lawrence's show is available at 17:00 UTC (18:00 CET, 12:00 ET) on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

12/22/2020 – The second event of the Champions Chess Tour — an online series of tournaments organized by the Play Magnus Group — will kick off on December 26. Unlike the Skilling Open, which was a ‘Regular’ event and included 16 players, the Airthings Masters will have 12 players in its lineup, as it is the first ‘Major’ in the schedule. The tournament will run until January 3.

12/22/2020 – Remember what it was like to find new ideas and opening novelties in the past. First you had to go through a pile of books, making notes on lines of interest. When ChessBase was launched (over 30 years ago) you could do it on a computer – but it still took hours and days to find a powerful weapon for your next tournament. Now ChessBase 16 has reduced the search to a few clicks of the mouse. Let Sagar Shah tell you how to use this powerful feature to dramatically improve your results in the next tournament.

12/22/2020 – This year we are launching our "Christmas Fritztrainer Calendar". For the next 24 days, you can open one of our Fritztrainer doors daily, and guess: Which Fritztrainer is this? If you send us the correct answer by email, you are participating in a raffle to win plenty of prizes, including our big Christmas surprise packages!

12/22/2020 – Recently music brought a critic and a guest together in a conversation about Bach, Beethoven: she a journalist of the New York Times, he a relatively well-known chess grandmaster. Each participant suggested a single piece of music for the other to listen to ahead of the chat, where they vigorously discuss classical music. Your task was to guess, from snippets of the conversation, who the grandmaster was. | Photo: alto