Game of the Week: Fischer vs Spassky

11/11/2020 – In his "Game of the Week" show, Merijn van Delft takes a look at a classic encounter with the Queen's Gambit: Bobby Fischer's win against Boris Spassky in the sixth game of their legendary match in Reykjavik 1972. Fischer deviated from his usual 1.e4, and dared to play a Queen's Gambit against Spassky, at that time the world's greatest expert of that opening. Fischer won a model game. | 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. | Photo: Skáksamband Íslands – Icelandic Chess Federation

Ju Wenjun for Newsweek: “I’m the 2020 women’s chess world champion”

11/11/2020 – “I prefer to play strong chess players, because after the game no matter whether you win or lose you learn something. Like Beth, I read many books by chess world champions, I tend to admire playing styles more than the individual”, writes women’s world champion on a new article published on Newsweek. By Beth, she refers to the main character in “The queen’s gambit”, the hit series on Netflix. | Photos: FIDE

Centenary of Capablanca's "My Chess Career"

11/11/2020 – One hundred years ago, in 1920, one year before he became the third World Champion in the history of chess, José Raúl Capablanca, published his famous book "My Chess Career", which is considered as one of the classics of chess literature. In this book Capablanca talks about his career and reveals how his style and play developed. Uvencio Blanco Hernández explains why the book became a classic and is still worth reading.

Playchess Autumn: Win a training session with Kasimdzhanov!

11/11/2020 – What do Fabiano Caruana and the winner of the next tournament in the Playchess Autumn Series have in common? The trainer! On Wednesday, November 11, you have the chance to win a training session with Rustam Kasimdzhanov, trainer and second of Fabiano Caruana. The Playchess Blitz tournament on last Wednesday, November 4, was won by the young German Felix Meißner, who decided that it was a good idea to follow Fischer's example - Meißner won all his games and finished the tournament with 9.0/9!

The Weekly Show: The Queen's Gambit

11/10/2020 – Inspired by the Netflix series "The Queen's Gambit" IM Lawrence Trent takes a look at a fine game with this opening: A. Karpov vs A. Yusupov, USSR Championship 1988. | 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.

ChessBase 16 - The new features (Part 1)

11/10/2020 – 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 the video. Part 1 of the five-part series (in which ChessBase programmer Jeroen Van Den Belt is also involved) deals with "opening novelties" at the highest level.

50th anniversary of the Interzonal in Palma de Mallorca

11/10/2020 – Yesterday, November 9, was the 50th anniversary of the 1970 Interzonal Tournament played in Palma de Mallorca, Spain. The best players in the world participated, including four giants of the chess world hailing from the Soviet Union: Vasily Smyslov, Efim Geller, Mark Taimanov and Lev Polugaevsky. | Photo: Chessy Publishing House

A Journey to Elista (4)

11/10/2020 – The Candidates 2007 took place in "City Chess" in Elista, Kalmykia, a large residential complex devoted to chess and chess competitions. It was built by the then President of the country, and then President of FIDE Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, who invited Frederic Friedel to attend the tournament. After the event was over Ilyumzhinov showed him around the city. Pictorial impressions.

Rook endings: Often drawn but hardly ever simple

11/10/2020 – Rook endings have drawish tendencies and often being one or even two pawns up is not enough to win. However, rook endings are also complicated enough to offer both sides a lot of opportunities to go wrong and good chances to win or draw if the opponent does not find the best moves.

Alekhine rocks the Philidor Defence

11/10/2020 – Attacking artist Alekhine playing the Philidor Defense, an opening that is reputed to be slightly passive? Really? Yes, indeed! Stephan Oliver Platz had a look at the games which Alekhine played with the Philidor and concludes that the 4th World Champion was very successful with this opening!

Simon Says: The Queen's Gambit: A life-long love affair

11/9/2020 – The Netflix series "The Queen's Gambit" continues to be popular with critics and public alike. For Simon Williams, the Ginger GM, the title of the series evoked memories, and in this "Simon Says" show he looks back to his experiences with the Queen's Gambit, an opening that has been part of his life. | Watch "Simon Says" on-demand and with a ChessBase Premium account). (Normally 18:00 UTC (19:00 CET / 14:00 ET).

Proposal For The World Championship Cycle

11/9/2020 – Chess is often unfavourably compared to tennis. Unlike the tennis world, chess lacks an open, all-inclusive cycle that would encompass the top and the bottom of the pyramid. In chess there is a well-established upper part of the pyramid, with the World Championship match being the cherry on the top. It is an elitist system. Now the Association of Chess Professionals has a proposal to make open tournaments part of the World Championship cycle. This would ensure that chess is as meritocratic as it can be and as it should be.

35 years ago: Kasparov becomes youngest World Champion in the history of chess

11/9/2020 – 35 years ago today, Garry Kasparov won the 24th game of his second World Championship match against Anatoly Karpov, and the 22-year old became the youngest World Champion in the history of chess. But Kasparov's road to success was anything but easy. | Photos: Kasparov.com

Donchenko dominates Tegernsee Masters

11/9/2020 – The Tegernsee Masters in Bad Wiessee ended with the expected victory of Alexander Donchenko. Despite his dominant performance in the first eight rounds, the German grandmaster did not miss his chances and defeated Ashot Parvanyan on Sunday — Donchenko finished with an impressive 6½/8 score and was the only undefeated participant in the field. Matthias Bluebaum and Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu came in second and third respectively. | Photo: Amruta Mokal (Archive)

A Journey to Elista (3)

11/8/2020 – Boris Grebenshchikov is a cult figure in the Russian rock scene, revered by millions (including a super-GM friend from Saint Petersburg). Telo Tulku Rinpoche is a Philadelphia-born Buddhist Lama, the highest religious authority in Kalmykia. On the final day of the FIDE Candidates Finals 2007 the former gave a concert and the latter a gala dinner. Big pictorial report.

Kramnik wins Razuvaev Memorial

11/8/2020 – An online blitz tournament was organized on Friday in memory of Yuri Sergeyevich Razuvaev, an enormously respected figure for his work as a coach and an author, besides his great accomplishments as a player. Vladimir Kramnik and Evgeny Tomashevsky finished in the top two places at the 8-player single round robin, and played a final 2-game match to decide the winner — Kramnik won with black and drew with white to take first place. | Photo: Alina l'Ami / Tata Steel Chess

A Journey to Elista (2)

11/7/2020 – The Candidates 2007 took place in "City Chess" in Elista, Kalmykia. This is a neighborhood-size complex consisting of a central, four-story domed City Chess Hall surrounded by an Olympic-style village of Californian-Mediterranean Revival Style architecture, all devoted to chess competition. Just getting there – in an ancient Yakovlev Yak-40 – was an adventure, as was experiencing the city and the FIDE center located there.

Tegernsee Masters: Donchenko takes big lead

11/7/2020 – Alexander Donchenko is on the verge of winning the Tegernsee Masters 2020, as he currently stands 1½ points ahead of his closest pursuer with two rounds to go. Nonetheless, due to Vincent Keymer’s withdrawal, the leader has a bye round on Saturday. The one player with realistic chances to catch up with Donchenko is Matthias Bluebaum, who will be paired up against Thai Dai Van Nguyen and Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu on the weekend. | Photos: Sebastian Siebrecht

This one will be on my tombstone when I die

11/6/2020 – "There might be a few viewers who are not aware of this game..." Sagar Shah says in a YouTube meeting. Nigel Short: "They don't exist! I've been to the Galapagos Islands, where the iguanas knew this game." In this entertaining 7½-minute video former World Championship challenger runs us through his most famous game, with two stand-up comedians watching. Pure enjoyment.

Daniel King’s Power Play Show: The Vera Menchik club

11/6/2020 – In this Power Play Show, GM Daniel King features Vera Menchik, the first Women’s World Champion. King analyses the game in which Menchik defeated Albert Becker, the founder of the “Vera Menchik Club” — Becker ridiculed her entry to the Carlsbad 1929 tournament by proposing that any player whom Menchik defeated in tournament play should be granted membership into the “club”. | 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: Menchik (centre) at a simul at the Bury and West Suffolk Chess Club in 1936 | suffolkchess.org.uk

Throwback Thursday: Kasparov wins Linares, retires

11/6/2020 – After twenty years as the world’s highest-rated player, Garry Kasparov decided to quit chess and go into politics in March 2005. His last event was the now legendary Linares Tournament. Kasparov had a one-point lead over Veselin Topalov going into their direct encounter in the last round — Topalov won that game, but Kasparov nonetheless won the tournament, as he had a better tiebreak score (more wins with black). | Photos: Nadja Wittmann

Blitz Challenge with Iniyan

11/6/2020 – Today, Friday, November 6, at 2:30 p.m. (in Europe) there will be another Blitz Challenge on Playchess. The player to beat is 18-year-old Iniyan Panneerselvam, who recently won the World Open, and played a 72-hour online Blitz Marathon to raise funds for the COVID crisis. The Playchess challenge games will be commented by host IM Sagar Shah, who will also be analyzing them with Iniyan afterwards. You too can play against him too, or simply watch and learn.

Herman Grooten - An interview with a chess authority

11/6/2020 – Herman Grooten’s first ChessBase show was launched two weeks ago. What makes the show special is Grooten’s teaching style. He uses elements of the “step method”, where players with zero chess knowledge can advance to strong club players, or even become a GM, as Jan Smeets has proven impressively. Furthermore, his whole life has been dedicated to chess from an early age! Herman will tell you more about this in a two-part video interview. The second part consists of two stunning positions, where knights move to the most unexpected spots on the chessboard.

Rook invaders

11/6/2020 – In the diagram position White can win with the line opener 37.f5!. However, after Black's answer 37...gxf5 White has to avoid one last pitfall. Which he can do if he follows the motto: keep calm!