Back rank weakness

4/24/2021 – Black's weak back rank is shielded only by the Ne6 - basically that's all you need to have in mind to work out how White wins from the diagram position. Especially the first move is a toughie, though. Have fun!

Candidates Round 11: Giri in sole second place after brilliant win

4/24/2021 – Anish Giri climbed to sole second place at the Candidates Tournament in Yekaterinburg thanks to a brilliant win over Ding Liren in round 11. While Ian Nepomniachtchi and Fabiano Caruana drew their direct encounter, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave was defeated by Alexander Grischuk in a sharp battle. In a crucial face-off, Caruana will have the white pieces against Giri in Saturday’s twelfth round. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

The ChessBase News Review (16.04. - 23.04.)

4/23/2021 – Lawrence Trent and Arne Kaehler talk about what happened chess-wise last week. They give their opinions on various topics, and encourage you to think about the subject, analyse games, or read the articles thoroughly yourself. This week some topics are Schwarzenegger vs. Tyson, who Bob Wade was, and some analysis of the Candidates Tournament, including some further predictions.

Daniel King’s Power Play Show: Wang Hao vs Grischuk

4/23/2021 – In this Power Play Show, GM Daniel King takes a look at the game Wang Hao vs Alexander Grischuk, played in round 10 of the Candidates. In this game Grischuk thought for 72(!) minutes in a theoretically known position, and Wang Hao later tried to win with a queen sacrifice that was certainly dangerous and creative - but was it really sound? | 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.

Rapid Interview - Svitlana Demchenko

4/23/2021 – Rapid interviews are fun: interviewer and guest face each other in an epic rapid chess battle. The chess guest not only has to face the interviewer's questions, but also concentrate on the chess game at the same time. This leads to surprising answers and sometimes to curious chess positions. Svitlana Demchenko tells us why she can speak five languages, What her connection to Biomedical Sciences is, and how she met Ugandan chess player Phiona Mutesi, the "Queen of Katwe". Very soon, Svitlana will teach us some smart moves with her new channel on ChessBase, called "Svitlana's Smart Moves".

A heavyweight chess match: Arnold Schwarzenegger vs Mike Tyson

4/23/2021 – Last year, Arnold Schwarzenegger asked people to "Stay at home" to fight against the spreading of the coronavirus, and to make this campaign better known, Schwarzenegger published videos that showed him playing chess with his donkey. Now a much stronger chess partner, "Iron Mike" Tyson, world heavyweight champion from 1987 to 1990, tested the chess skills of the "Terminator". | Photo: Henry Cejudo (Instagram)

Robert Ris’ Fast and Furious: Najdorf Poisoned Pawn

4/22/2021 – In this week’s show, well-known Dutch trainer Robert Ris takes a look at the Poisoned Pawn Variation in the Najdorf (1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 a6 6.Bg5 e6 7.f4 Qb6!?), a very sharp and heavily analysed line that often leads to exciting and fantastically complicated positions. | “Fast and Furious” is available on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here.

The Ruy Lopez for ambitious players

4/22/2021 – With eleven opening surveys, the ChessBase Magazine #200 offers a large variety of interesting repertoire ideas, e.g. the Kasparov Gambit in the English Opening, the Sicilian Richter-Rauzer or the Gruenfeld. And GM Adrien Demuth has an tempting proposal for the ambitious player: the delayed Schliemann Defence (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 f5). He also checks whether it is true that "thanks to the computers everything is equal nowadays".
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Gawain Jones wins Bob Wade Memorial in New Zealand

4/22/2021 – While over-the-board chess is at best only gradually making its way back in most parts of the world, due to the still raging Covid-19 pandemic, chess life in New Zealand has normalised quite a bit in the past few months. This allowed New Zealanders to organise a tournament to celebrate the 100th birthday of the International Master and author Bob Wade, who was born on April 10, 1921, in Dunedin, in the South Island of New Zealand. British GM Gawain Jones (pictured) won the memorial. | Photo: Lennart Ootes (Archive)

Sagar Shah: This is the very best way to learn chess openings

4/22/2021 – A lot of players want to get better at openings, but they don't know what the right resources are: which books they should buy, which DVDs. "I can tell you with confidence that here is one product which is going to help you to become a very strong opening player," says chess trainer Sagar Shah. "It's the Opening Encyclopedia 2021!" In a 27-minute video he tells you why, and shows you how to use this great tool to improve your openings skills.

Candidates Round 10: Nepomniachtchi widens the gap

4/22/2021 – In the only decisive game of round 10, Ian Nepomniachtchi widened the gap at the top of the standings by beating Kirill Alekseenko in 31 moves. Russia’s number one thus goes into the final four rounds a full point ahead of Fabiano Caruana, Anish Giri and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave. Thursday will be a rest day. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

Game of the Week: Anish Giri vs Wang Hao, Candidates, Rd. 8

4/21/2021 – This week Merijn van Delft takes a look at the Candidates and presents the highlight of round 8: Anish Giri's fine win against Wang Hao. Instructive and pleasant. | Merijn's show is available on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here.

Candidates, Rd. 9: Ding Liren missed a win

4/21/2021 – In round eight of the Candidates, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave had a difficult endgame against Fabiano Caruna. "MVL" could have drawn but lost. In round nine, "MVL" again had a difficult endgame, this time against Ding Liren. The game ended in a draw but Ding Liren could have won. Karsten Müller took a closer look. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

Carlsen vs. The Challengers: 19.5:2.5

4/21/2021 – Magnus Carlsen loves chess and he loves a challenge. On Monday, after commentating round 8 of the Candidates for several hours live, the World Champion played a 22 game 3+0 Banter Blitz match against the "Challengers", 20 of the world's most promising juniors. Carlsen convincingly won the match with a score of 19.5-2.5. He only lost against Nihal Sarin and Awonder Liang and drew against Vincent Keymer.

Candidates Round 9: Giri wins, climbs to shared second place

4/20/2021 – Anish Giri beat Wang Hao to climb to shared second place a half point behind sole leader Ian Nepomniachtchi at the Candidates Tournament in Yekaterinburg. Fabiano Caruana and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave are the other two players who make up the chasing pack, as they both drew their games in round 9 — while Caruana failed to make the most of his advantage against Kirill Alekseenko, MVL defended fiercely against Ding Liren. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

A difficult endgame: Fabiano Caruana vs Maxime Vachier-Lagrave

4/20/2021 – Fabiano Caruana had a lot of time to prepare for his game against Maxime Vachier-Lagrave in round 8 of the Candidates, and he used it to find a new and dangerous idea in the Poisoned Pawn variation of the Najdorf, a favourite of the French player. "MVL" survived the opening and escaped into an endgame that objectively was a draw but difficult to defend. Karsten Müller took a closer look.

The Weekly Show: The Candidates Tournament

4/20/2021 – In his "Weekly Show" IM Lawrence Trent will of course take a look at Kirill Alekseenko's win against Alexander Grischuk from the first round of the Candidates. | Lawrence's show is available on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here.

Room to move

4/20/2021 – In the fight bishop against knight the bishop is often superior, when it can operate on both wings. In the diagram position White is better. But can she win?

Candidates Round 8: Caruana impresses, wins marathon

4/20/2021 – Fabiano Caruana defeated former co-leader Maxime Vachier-Lagrave in round 8 of the Candidates Tournament, once the event resumed a year after having been postponed due to the sanitary crisis. Caruana played a sharp novelty out of a Najdorf Sicilian and eventually got a slightly superior endgame, which he turned into a remarkable victory. In the other decisive game of the day Kirill Alekseenko defeated Alexander Grischuk. Ian Nepomniachtchi is now the sole leader of the event. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

Magnus Carlsen vs. The Challengers: Banterblitz live

4/19/2021 – The Julius Baer Chess Challenge is the counterpart to the Magnus Carlsen Chess Tour - for young players and talents. Tonight World Champion Magnus Carlsen will play Banter Blitz against all challengers, one after the other. Live from 20:00 CEST (14:00 EDT)

Victor Bologan wins European Parliamentary Tournament

4/19/2021 – Friday, 16 April, 32 Members of Parliament from a total of 15 European countries played "European Parliamentary Friendship Online Chess Tournament", a seven-round 10+2 online tournament on the Tornelo platform. Among the participants were three Grandmasters: Victor Bologan (Moldova), Loek van Wely (Netherlands) and Antoaneta Stefanova (Bulgaria). Bologan won the tournament with 6.0/7, van Wely finished second with 5.5/7 and Stefanova finished fifth with 4.5/7. | Photos: European Chess Union

Let's talk about the Candidates... with Douglas Griffin

4/19/2021 – On the occasion of the Candidates Tournament 2020-2021 that will resume today, Monday, 19 April 2021, in Yekaterinburg, Russia, Eric van Reem, host of the "Lets Talk about Chess" podcast, spoke with Scottish historian Douglas Griffin about the history of the Candidates Tournaments, chess history in general and the charm and value of good tournament books.

Ovi-ready

4/18/2021 – With the Candidates Tournament resuming this week, all eyes are turning to Yekaterinburg. Bravely, star columnist Jon Speelman decided to add his voice to the hubbub of predictions, “thus preparing to get egg all over my face or, as you might say, becoming Ovi-ready”. Who do you think will be Magnus Carlsen’s next challenger? | Image: FIDE

Understanding before Moving 23: "V" stands for Victory!

4/18/2021 – 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 23nd instalment of his ChessBase show "Understanding before Moving", Herman takes a look how Tigran Petrosian, World Champion from 1963 to 1969, played against the King's Indian. | Photo: Tommy Grooten