Carlsen on The Queen’s Gambit: “A little too unrealistic”

11/22/2020 – The $1.5 million Champions Chess Tour kicks off today with the Skilling Open. World champion Magnus Carlsen is the top seed. Shortly before the start of the much anticipated tournament, the Norwegian talked about Netflix’s hit series ‘The Queen’s Gambit’. Carlsen found it extremely enjoyably, but also a little too unrealistic. | Photo: Play Magnus Group

Vahap Sanal is the 2020 Turkish chess champion

11/22/2020 – Vahap Sanal obtained his second consecutive Turkish Chess Championship on Saturday in Kemer, a seaside resort and district of Antalya Province. The 22-year-old was the rating favourite and duly dominated the field by scoring five wins and four draws in the 10-player single round robin. IM Melih Yurtseven finished the tournament in style, winning three in a row to get sole second place. | Pictured: Cem Kaan Gokerkan (3rd), Vahap Sanal (1st) and Melih Yurtseven (2nd) | Photos: Official site

Understanding before Moving 2: How to improve the activity of my pieces

11/22/2020 – 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 second part of his new ChessBase show "Understanding before Moving" Herman explains how to find ways to improve the activity of your pieces. | Photo: Hans Hoornstra

FIDE launches the first Online Olympiad for People with Disabilities

11/21/2020 – The first Online Chess Olympiad for People with Disabilities, organized by the International Chess Federation, kicks off today (November 21) and will run until December 3, a day recognized by the United Nations as the International Day of Persons with Disabilities. The competition brings together 400 players from all over the world, including two grandmasters. | Photo: David Llada

The Queen’s Gambit in Berlin

11/21/2020 – Netflix’s ‘The Queen’s Gambit’ has been praised by viewers and critics as the best chess movie in history. The series is set in an orphanage in the United States and in tournament halls in Paris and Moscow. But where was the film shot? To a large extent, in Berlin! | Photo: Netflix

Nakamura and Firouzja complete the lineup of the Skilling Open

11/21/2020 – The $1.5 million Champions Chess Tour, a series of ten online tournaments featuring elite players, kicks off November 22 with the Skilling Open. The 16 participants will first play a single round robin to decide who moves on to the knockout stage. World champion Magnus Carlsen and Magnus Carlsen Chess Tour runner-up Hikaru Nakamura will both be playing in the 9-day inaugural event.

Throwback Thursday: Ivanchuk triumphs in Havana

11/20/2020 – Since 2005, fan favourite Vassily Ivanchuk has played ten times at the Capablanca Memorial. Playing in Cuba seems to bring out the best of the Ukrainian genius, who won the event no fewer than eight times, including the most recent edition in 2019. We look back on his two most dominating performances, in 2005 and 2007, when he scored +6 and +7 respectively.

Daniel King’s Power Play Show: The tactics of Hou Yifan

11/20/2020 – In this Power Play Show, GM Daniel King takes a look at the play of Hou Yifan, currently the world's best women player. | Power Play is on air most Fridays at 17:00 UTC (18:00 CET, 13:00 ET). All the usual puzzles, games and instruction will be on offer. | Photo: Hou Yifan after winning the Chess Festival Biel 2017 | Photo: Pascal Simon

Calm and powerful

11/20/2020 – Objectively, the diagram position in which Black is to move, might be equal but it is certainly tricky and complicated. Therefore, Black should find a good and powerful move - Richard Rapport was up to the task. How about you?

Irina Bulmaga: Playing and loving chess during the pandemic

11/20/2020 – Irina Bulmaga loves chess. Before corona, the Romanian IM and WGM used to travel all over the world to play in tournaments and league events. But the pandemic brought all that to a halt. In a passionate article Bulmaga wonders how corona changed her life as a chess professional, and how the pandemic affected her love for the game. | Photo: David Llada

Speed Chess Championship: So defeats Duda

11/20/2020 – In the first third of the quarterfinal Speed Chess Championship match between Wesley So and Jan-Krzysztof Duda, the young Polish player kept his own in the 5+1 blitz games, and in bullet he was even slightly better. But this was not enough because So dominated Duda in the 3+1 blitz games, which helped So to win the match 16-10 and to qualify for the semifinals. | Picture: Chess.com

Play against Lawrence Trent!

11/20/2020 – The ChessBase Playchess server now offers a "Video & Audio" option which allows you to see your opponents and to talk to them. With this function, playing online comes as close as it can get to playing in real life. After successful Playchess tournaments with Elisabeth Pähtz, Vincent Keymer and Simon Williams, Lawrence Trent waits to play against ChessBase readers. If you are a premium member, and if your computer has a microphone and webcam, apply to join the tournament on Monday!

Learn the best opening traps

11/19/2020 – When you start playing chess, when you are still a beginner, it is useful to know a few openings tricks – move sequences that lead your opponent astray and give you a quick win. It is equally important to know such traps so that your opponent cannot use them on you. We start you on a course that is useful and at the same time quite entertaining. Take a little time to learn dozens of traps you can use in your club tournaments.

The Queen's Journey

11/19/2020 – A journey in fantasy and harmony, that is the chess and music project "The Queen's Journey" by musician and chess lover Jason Kouchak. The main target group of the project are children, especially girls. The message is that chess is fun and helps you to develop your personality. Spice Girl Geri Halliwell supported the project. | Photo: Julian Paix

Judit Polgar and Garry Kasparov talk about "The Queen's Gambit"

11/18/2020 – The well-known US journalist Christiane Amanpour invited Garry Kasparov and Judit Polgar for an online talk on CNN and spoke to the two chess legends about the success of the Netflix series "The Queen's Gambit", women in chess, and their encounters at the board.

Outdoor chess: Algeria

11/18/2020 – This article is the first in a series about outdoor chess. After a brief discussion of its advantages and disadvantages, a blitz tournament in an Algerian forest is described. Photos and the tournament report are by International Arbiter Nasreddine Announ; additional text by WIM Alexey Root. | Pictured: Achour Anis, winner of the outdoor tournament at the Sidi Slimane forest

Historical riddle: Was Fischer’s 22.Nxd7 winning?

11/18/2020 – One of the most amazing moves in Bobby Fischer’s rich career was 22.Nxd7+ in the seventh game of the Candidates final match against Tigran Petrosian. Endgame specialist Karsten Müller wonders whether the move was objectively the best in the position or if an alternative pawn push might have been a better try. You can help him solve the historical riddle!

Game of the Week: Steinitz vs Lasker, a classical Queen's Gambit

11/18/2020 – In his "Game of the Week" show, Merijn van Delft takes a look at a classical game with the Queen's Gambit: Steinitz vs Lasker, 1896. | Merijn's show is available at 16.00 UTC (17:00 CET, 12:00 EDT) and on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here.

Netflix’s The Queen’s Gambit a hit on mainstream media

11/18/2020 – In a recent review for ChessBase, Albert Silver stated that Netflix’s ‘The Queen’s Gambit’ was “the best chess-related movie or series to grace the screen, from the tour de force performance by Anya Taylor-Joy to the gorgeous cinematography”. But, is this opinion shared only by the loyal legions of chess fanatics? Or is the series actually a hit? According to the ratings and the reviews on mainstream media, it is one of the best releases of the year!

Autumn Series on Playchess – Your way to PowerPlay training

11/18/2020 – 90 minutes online chess training with PowerPlay author Grandmaster Daniel King. This is the first prize in the 4th tournament of the Autumn Series on Playchess, a nine round Swiss blitz tournament that will start on Wednesday, November 18, 20.00 CET (19:00 UTC, 14:00 ET). As in all tournaments of the Autumn Series, the games will be played under real names.

Grandmaster Chess Ep 1: Vidit's flawless win over Kramnik

11/18/2020 – Grandmaster Chess is a series hosted by IM Sagar Shah on the ChessBase India YouTube channel. The idea of the series is to give you a peek into the mind of a world class grandmaster. Every episode has a GM who shows his immortal game with 10 critical questions. Four famous stand-up comedians of India - Samay Raina, Biswa Kalyan Rath, Vaibhav Sethia and Anirban Dasgupta are the participants. It's a synthesis of great chess education by the GM along with a liveliness of the comedians! The first episode had GM Vidit Gujrathi who showed his immortal win against GM Vladimir Kramnik. We have all the 10 critical moments for you to solve! Try your hand and see how you fare!

Vahap Sanal leads Turkish Championship after five rounds

11/17/2020 – The 2020 Turkish Championship is taking place in Kemer, a seaside resort and district of Antalya Province on the Mediterranean coast. The event is a 10-player single round-robin. Defending champion and rating favourite Vahap Sanal is leading the standings table on 4 out of 5. Kivanc Haznedaroglu is in sole second place after beating women’s national champion Ekaterina Atalik. | Pictured: Vahap Sanal facing Ataberk Eren in round 4 | Photo: Official site

New: ChessBase 16

11/17/2020 – ChessBase 16 has the key to fresh ideas, precise analyses and targeted training! With the new repertoire recommendations, main variations, secondary variations, attacking, gambits, and brand new, "fashion", you can focus on openings better than ever. Furthermore, recognition to detect weak points against your opponents can be added to your opening preparation. With the Novelty-Mining feature, you can dig deep for opening treasures. And there are many more novelties...
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The Weekly Show: Happy Birthday Mickey Adams!

11/17/2020 – In his "Weekly Show" IM Lawrence Trent congratulates Mickey Adams, who celebrates birthday today. Lawrence looks at the game J. Polgar vs M. Adams, 1999 and talks about the career of the English top grandmaster. | Lawrence's show is available at 18:00 UTC (19:00 CET, 14:00 ET) on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here. | Photo: Ray Morris-Hill