6/3/2024 – Magnus Carlsen climbed to sole first place in the standings of the Norway Chess super-tournament after inflicting what was Ding Liren’s fourth consecutive classical loss in Stavanger. The world champion blundered a mate-in-two in a balanced position to lose the game. Meanwhile, Fabiano Caruana and Alireza Firouzja prevailed in Armageddon tiebreakers against Hikaru Nakamura and R Praggnanandhaa, respectively. | Photo: Stev Bonhage / Norway Chess

6/2/2024 – Study composition is one of the aspects of chess that has been both most helped and most muddied by computers. Sometimes it turns out that a study is actually unsound or at least has dual(s), and sometimes there are complications regarding the 50-move rule, for example. But if you have an idea, then it has never been easier to test it, so that a process that would once have taken days can now be finalised in mere minutes. | Photo: John Upham

6/2/2024 – Herman Grooten is an International Master, a renowned trainer and the author of several highly acclaimed books on chess training and strategy. In the 179th episode of his ChessBase show "Understanding before moving" Herman continues his series "Chess history in a nutshell" and continues to look at the career and games of Anatoly Karpov, World Champion from 1975 to 1985. | Photo: Pascal Simon

6/2/2024 – Anna Muzychuk collected a second consecutive classical win in round 5 of the Norway Chess Women tournament. The Ukrainian GM beat Pia Cramling to climb to sole second place in the standings. R Vaishali is still the sole leader in Stavanger, as she prevailed in the Armageddon tiebreaker against Lei Tingjie. Ju Wenjun, now in third place, won a fifth rapid tiebreaker in a row. | Photo: Stev Bonhage / Norway Chess

6/2/2024 – For a second round in a row at the Norway Chess event in Stavanger, all three classical games ended decisively. Hikaru Nakamura, Magnus Carlsen and R Praggnanandhaa each grabbed 3 points after beating Ding Liren, Alireza Firouzja and Fabiano Caruana respectively. Nakamura thus kept the sole lead — his victory over Ding also saw him surpass the 2800-rating barrier and climb to the second spot in the live ratings list. | Photo: Stev Bonhage / Norway Chess

6/1/2024 – The diagram position appeared 64 times in the Mega and 52 times Black recaptured on d6 in the wrong way - so it's high time to warn you about this opening trap!

6/1/2024 – Radosław Wojtaszek and Alina Kashlinskaya, who are husband and wife, won the 2024 edition of the Polish Championships, in the open and the women’s section respectively. Wojtaszek won his sixth national title and is now just one tournament victory short of Wlodzimierz Schmidt’s record. kashlinskaya, on her part, claimed her maiden gold in this prestigious event. | Photo: Michal Walusza

5/31/2024 – Along with the usual puzzles, this week GM Daniel King takes a look at two pawn endgames played by Hans Niemann at the Sharjah Open. As ever in such cases, the only way through is to calculate. In one game he was successful, in the other... not so successful. | 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.

5/31/2024 – R Vaishali grabbed her second classical win at the Norway Chess Women event on Thursday. The Indian star now has a 2½-point lead over women’s world champion Ju Wenjun and Anna Muzychuk, who got the better of Humpy Koneru (also in classical chess) in round 4. Curiously, Ju has prevailed in Armageddon deciders in all four rounds played so far in Stavanger. | Photo: Stev Bonhage / Norway Chess

5/31/2024 – The Hungarian Chess Federation is delighted to have pulled off a coup. For the forthcoming Chess Olympiad in their own country (10-23 September) they have managed to persuade Richard Rapport to return to the Hungarian team from Romania. And they have also managed to re-engage Peter Leko. Hungary, with its long chess history, wants to be among the best!

5/31/2024 – Vladimir Fedoseev (photo), Pavel Eljanov and Giga Quaparadze are the three leaders after six rounds of the Munich Open (5 points each). German grandmasters Dmitrij Kollars, Frederik Svane and Marco Baldauf are half a point behind. | Photo: Tournament page

5/31/2024 – Do you know the typical mistakes made by club players when choosing their opening? They follow fashionable variations; they stick to one opening because it's the only one they've learnt at some point; or they play secondary variations out of fear of their opponent's supposed knowledge. Things do not have to be this way. Play what suits you. Let yourself be inspired! The series of opening tutorials in the new, web-based ChessBase books format offers you a highly competent and innovative guide to opening theory. This is an updated new edition in the new web-based ChessBase-books format!