Speed Chess Championship: Artemiev beats Giri

11/17/2020 – In the last match of the round of the last 16 at the chess.com Speed Chess Championship Vladislav Artemiev played against Anish Giri. The blitz matches were close but the bullet games helped Artemiev to win the match and to qualify for the quarterfinal. | Picture: Chess.com

King's slalom

11/17/2020 – Connected passed pawns can be very dangerous - in the middlegame but of course also in the endgame. However, as dangerous as connected passed pawns may be, sometimes they need a little help from their king. Do you see how the white king can effectively support his pawns in the diagram position?

NEW: Mega Database 2021

11/17/2020 – Welcome to the new Mega Database 2021! Learn from annotated games, enjoy top tournaments or have a look at the opening repertoire of the world's best! The Mega Database 2021 contains more than 8,4 million games. With a current ChessBase program and our update service you can regularly update the database with new games – round about 5,000 every week!
More...
 8

Simon Says: A Quick Guide to the Jobava London System

11/16/2020 – In this "Simon Says" show the Ginger GM takes a look at another interesting and dangerous opening weapon: the Jobava London System. | Watch "Simon Says" on-demand and with a ChessBase Premium account). (Normally 18:00 UTC (19:00 CET / 14:00 ET).

Speedchess: Duda dominates Caruana

11/16/2020 – The Sunday chess.com Speed Chess Championship match between Fabiano Caruana and Jan-Krzyszof Duda ended with a surprisingly clear win of the young Polish player who won 17-9 against the world's number two. Duda particularly dominated in the bullet games. | Picture: chess.com

ChessBase 16 - The new features (Part 5)

11/16/2020 – ChessBase 16 is already in the starting blocks and will be released on 17th November 2020. Now everyone wants to know: what are the new features in this version? What innovations are on the horizon? And what is the "key to new ideas"? Jeroen Van Den Belt, who has been active for ChessBase since Fritz 7, presents interesting innovations in the video. The last part of the five-part series deals with the new "chat" design and its features.
More...
 8

Vlastimil Hort: Memories of Prague's chess café U Nováků

11/16/2020 – For decades, the chess café at the U Nováků shopping mall had been the center of Prague's chess community. This is where the bohemian society used to meet to play billiards, cards and chess, and it is also where the career of more than one world famous player began. Vlastimil Hort reminisces about the "golden age".

Hackery (Pt. 2)

11/15/2020 – Star columnist Jon Speelman continues to look at games where hacking (or hackery — the two are more or less interchangeable in his mind) plays a key role. “In a time still dominated by lockdowns we need entertainment, and a blood sport which doesn’t spill real blood seems ideal”, asserts Speelman. | Pictured: Thai Dai Van Nguyen | Photo: iSport.cz

Speedchess Live: Caruana vs. Duda

11/15/2020 – World number 2 Fabiano Caruana and Polish star Jan-Krzysztof Duda are facing each other in the seventh match of the round-of-16 at the Speed Chess Championship. They will play 90 minutes of 5+1 blitz, 60 minutes of 3+1 blitz, and 30 minutes of 1+1 bullet chess. Follow the games live, with commentary. Start: 18:00 CET, 9 a.m. Pacific.

CBM 197: Opening preparation

11/15/2020 – ChessBase Magazine offers a window to the world of professional chess and it also provides arsenal for the tournament player. We are pleased to inform readers that we have just released CBM #198. Meanwhile, we have received an article on the treatment of openings by Prof. Nagesh Havanur. As this may be of practical use to young players, we are offering it to our readers. | Pictured: Richard Rapport | Photo: Georgios Souleidis

Champions Chess Tour with $1.5 million in prizes to kick off next week

11/14/2020 – Following the success of the Magnus Carlsen Tour, chess24 and the Play Magnus Group announced the $1.5 million Champions Chess Tour, a series of ten online tournaments featuring elite players. The action kicks off November 22 with the first ‘Regular’ tournament, the Skilling Open. Six ‘Regular’ tournaments, three ‘Majors’ and the ‘Finals’ will take place from November 2020 until September 2021.

Grandmaster Chef: Ding Liren

11/14/2020 – China’s top-ranked player, and number 3 in the world, Grandmaster Ding Liren has twice been a Candidate, first in 2018 and again in 2020. National Master Mike Walder annotates Liren-Caruana from the 2020 Candidates Tournament and presents a recipe for a dish that Liren might enjoy. WIM Alexey Root tells why Liren is a Grandmaster Chef honoree. | Photo: Lennart Ootes / Altibox Norway Chess

Daniel King’s Power Play Show: The artistry of Judit Polgar

11/13/2020 – In this Power Play Show, GM Daniel King takes a look at the artistry of Judit Polgar, the best women player in the history of chess. | 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: Global Chess Festival

Let's talk about Chess: Sabina Foisor

11/13/2020 – In his podcast "Let's talk abour Chess" Eric van Reem chats with various chess players and chess fans, and his latest guest was WGM Sabina Foisor. In a frank and open interview Foisor talks about her life as a chess professional in the US, her new book "Sherlock's Method", the "Queen's Gambit", women's chess, and the untimely death of her mother. | Photo: Saint Louis Chess Center

ChessBase 16 - The new features (Part 4)

11/13/2020 – ChessBase 16 is already in the starting blocks and will be released on 17th November 2020. Now everyone wants to know: what are the new features in this version? What innovations are on the horizon? And what is the "key to new ideas"? Jeroen Van Den Belt, who has been active for ChessBase since Fritz 7, presents interesting innovations in the video. Part 4 of the five-part series deals with "raytracing", what it means and what it can be used for.

Magnus Carlsen: “We’re trying to grow chess”

11/13/2020 – In a lengthy interview with Jon Tisdall for the US Chess Federation website, world champion Magnus Carlsen touches on a number of topical issues in the world of chess — his role as promoter and organizer, playing online and the future of classical chess. Carlsen also talks about his deal with Unibet and how this sparked problems between him and the Norwegian federation. | Photo: Lennart Ootes / Altibox Norway Chess

Nakamura vs. Martirosyan: A clear result

11/13/2020 – Hikaru Nakamura was simply a bit too strong for the Armenian Haik Martirosyan in their Speed Chess Championship match on chess.com. Nakamura won the blitz and bullet match 21-5, and lost only one of the 26 games. Despite the short time controls and the lopsided result the match offered many interesting and instructive games.

With minimal means

11/13/2020 – In the diagram position, Black can use mate motifs to achieve perfect coordination of his few remaining pieces. Spot Black's three power moves - and leave White no chance!

Throwback Thursday: Kamsky wins 2010 Chess Classic in Mainz

11/12/2020 – The last of ten “Chess Classic” events played in Mainz took place on August 6-8 at the Rheingoldhalle of the Congress Centre in the German city. An 11-round open tournament with a rapid time control was the main event. Gata Kamsky kicked off with nine consecutive victories and went on to secure first place with draws in the final two rounds. Vugar Gashimov, Levon Aronian and Evgeny Bareev finished a half point behind.

Speedchess Live: Nakamura vs. Martirosyan

11/12/2020 – Today, Hikaru Nakamura and Haik Martirosyan will meet in the sixth match of the round of the last 16. They will play 90 minutes of 5+1 blitz, 60 minutes of 3+1 blitz, and 30 minutes of 1+1 bullet chess. Follow the games live, with commentary. Start: 18:00 CET, 9 a.m. Pacific.

Robert Ris' Fast and Furious: The Queen's Gambit: Botvinnik shows the way

11/12/2020 – In this week's show, well-known Dutch trainer Robert Ris takes a look at a classical game, in which Botvinnik introduced a fascinating and aggressive idea in the Queen's Gambit into practice. | "Fast and Furious" is available from 18:00 UTC (19:00 CET / 16:00 EDT) on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here.

ChessBase 16 - The new features (Part 3)

11/12/2020 – ChessBase 16 is already in the starting blocks and will be released on 17th November 2020. Now everyone wants to know: what are the new features in this version? What innovations are on the horizon? And what is the "key to new ideas"? ChessBase co-founder Matthias Wuellenweber, who has developed all ChessBase versions since 1986 with his team, presents the most interesting innovations in a video. Part 3 of the five-part series (in which ChessBase programmer Jeroen van den Belt is also involved) deals with "Novelty-Mining" and how it is done.

White gambits versus the Benko!

11/12/2020 – The Benko Gambit (1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 c5 3.d5 b5) may be a rare guest an top-level chess but at amateur and club level, the pawn sacrifice continues to be popular. In fact, many 1.d4 players lack a clear concept against the dangerous gambit. In the new ChessBase Magazine #198 IM Christian Braun suggests to simply turn the tables and to offer the Benko player a few sharp gambits, which he should think about twice before accepting them!
More...
 4

Speed Chess Championship, last 16: Aronian wins against Nepomniachtchi

11/12/2020 – The second wave of the Corona pandemic prevents top players again from playing live tournaments, but they still play online. For example, in the Speed Chess Championship 2020, a knock-out blitz tournament in which 16 of the world's best players in the world fight on chess.com for a $100,000 prize fund. In the fifth match of the first round, Levon Aronian won 14-11 against Ian Nepomniachtchi. The match was not without mistakes, but exciting and entertaining. | Picture: chess.com