7/30/2119 – From July 20th to the 31st, the Swiss watch metropolis of Biel/Bienne will once again be a focus of chess activity in Europe. The festival features many interesting and young players as well as a new format that combines rapid, classical and blitz chess. Vidit won again with Black adding to his immpressive run. Shankland is second. Live games and commentary from 12:00 UTC (14:00 CEST / 8:00 AM EDT).

9/23/2022 – The International Chess Federation has shared a statement regarding the scandal that has taken over the chess over. FIDE wrote: “As the world’s chess governing body, it is our duty to protect the integrity of the game and its image, and in view that the incident keeps escalating, we find it necessary to take a step forward”. | Photo: Amruta Mokal

9/23/2022 – FIDE has announced a new world championship: an Open World Team Championship in which club teams can participate. The partner of the World Championship, which will offer a prize fund of 250,000 euros, is the logistics company WR Group based in Düsseldorf, Germany, where the tournament is "tentatively" scheduled to be played in May 2023.

9/1/2022 – The Chess Olympiad has brought movement into the world rankings. The top junior players in particular gained a lot of rating points while a number of established top players lost rating points. Magnus Carlsen remains the clear number one by a large margin.

6/1/2022 – The claim to be the best ever in chess, in any category, is usually backed up by either hard numbers (Karpov's number of grandmaster tournament wins is not open to debate), or strong opinions such as the best absolute player. But the debate on the greatest prodigy seems to lie somewhere in between, depending on your criteria. Read this article and see if you agree. (photo: Capablanca at age four)

7/4/2022 – On 1 July the FIDE published the new world ranking list. Magnus Carlsen and Hou Yifan continue to lead the "Top 100" and "Top 100 Women" by a large margin. Alireza Firouzja, who turned 19 at the beginning of the Candidates, is still the best junior, while Zhu Jiner from China continues to lead the "Girls'" list.

6/16/2022 – The 2022 FIDE Presidential election will be held on August 7, 2022, at the FIDE General Assembly in Chennai, India. The Electoral Commission, after a preliminary exam, approved the following list of valid Presidential ticket candidacies: Mr. Andrii Baryshpolets and Mr. Peter-Heine Nielsen; Mr. Inalbek Cheripov and Mr. Lewis Ncube; Mr. Arkady Dvorkovich and Mr. Anand Viswanathan; Mr. Bachar Kouatly and Mr. Ian Wilkinson.

5/23/2022 – At the FIDE Congress during the upcoming Chess Olympiad in Chennai, the elections for the FIDE Presidium are on the agenda. Arkady Dvorkovich is standing for re-election and is supported by Viswanathan Anand. In view of the candidacy of the Russian President, the election has a strong political colour. Now a Ukrainian, GM Andrii Baryshpolets, has announced his candidacy. | Photo: US Chess Federation

5/19/2022 – Munich will host the third leg of the FIDE Women’s Grand Prix 2022-23, to be held from February 1-14, 2023. The venues, dates, and details for the other three legs in the WGP Series will be announced at the end of May. | Photos: FIDE

4/4/2022 – At the beginning of April, the FIDE published its new ranking list. With a rating of 2864 Magnus Carlsen continues to lead the Top 100 by a wide margin - he is exactly 60 points ahead of Alireza Firouzja, who has a rating of 2804 and is officially the world's number two. Richard Rapport climbed to seventh place and now has a rating of 2776. Hou Yifan leads the women's ranking list, Firouzja is the best junior and Zhu Jiner is number one on the girl's list.

11/19/2119 – When Magnus Carlsen decides to leave the Norwegian Chess Federation or gives interviews in Norway or plays for his new club in Norway's second league it is usually Tarjei Svensen who shares the news with the world, via his twitter account @TarjeiJS, which has thousands of ardent followers. STEFAN LOEFFLER spoke with the Norwegian chess journalist about Carlsen, chess in Norway and his wish to be always up-to-date. | Photos: Lennart Ootes

9/22/2119 – The 2019-2020 FIDE Women's Grand Prix, part of the Women's World Championship cycle, takes place in Skolkovo, a business centre in Moscow also known as the Russian Silicon Valley. Twelve players are competing in the first of four single round-robin events that will grant two spots at the next Women's Candidates Tournament. In the final round, Humpy Koneru earned the final half point needed to clinch victory ahead of Ju Wenjun. | Photo: Official site

4/6/2022 – In an interview for the Norwegian newspaper VG, Magnus Carlsen talked about the recent developments involving Sergey Karjakin. The world champion clearly stated that he disagrees with his colleague’s stance, but also noted that he is not sure whether banning him from official tournaments was the right decision. | Photo: Albert Silver

9/8/2022 – In the last few days the chess world has been in enormous upheaval after the World Champion Magnus Carlsen withdrew from the Sinquefield Cup in protest after three rounds, with an unspoken accusation of cheating of the player who had defeated him, US rising star Hans Niemann. Lines were drawn, accusations made and defenses stated. Here is a full overview of both sides of this explosive controversy.

9/20/2022 – It is the story that refuses to die, and with the renewed silent protest by World Champion Magnus Carlsen it is little wonder too. Could he be justified in these dramatic gestures? The world's greatest expert on cheating detection in chess, Professor Kenneth Regan, has analyzed all of Hans Niemann's games over the last two years, online and offline, and renders his verdict.

9/26/2022 – A day after getting a convincing victory at the Generation Cup, as he anticipated, Magnus Carlsen has shared a public statement regarding the polemic surrounding his withdrawal from the Sinquefield Cup and his quick resignation against Hans Niemann. The world champion wrote: “I believe that Niemann has cheated more — and more recently — than he has publicly admitted”. | Photo: Amruta Mokal

7/21/2022 – Ending months of speculation, Magnus Carlsen has officially announced he will not be defending his title in a rematch against Ian Nepomniachtchi come the end of 2022. As a result, the second-place winner of the 2022 Candidates Tournament, Ding Liren, will face the Russian to determine the new World Champion. (Photo: Albert Silver)

9/21/2022 – Right after dominating the preliminary stage of the Generation Cup, Magnus Carlsen gave his first interview since his sudden withdrawal from the Sinquefield Cup. Carlsen did not confirm he had resigned his game against Hans Niemann due to suspicious of cheating, but added that “people can draw their own conclusions, and they certainly have”.

7/11/2022 – Half a century ago, exactly on this day, the most famous chess match in history began: Boris Spassky vs Bobby Fischer in Reykjavik, Iceland. Five year ago we celebrated the event by reporting on it, game for game, as if it was all taking place live. Today we bring you links to all the reports we published at the time, starting with our full report on the drama that surrounded game one. It contains original film footage which nobody should miss.

9/20/2022 – The much anticipated direct encounter between Magnus Carlsen and Hans Niemann, following Carlsen’s sudden withdrawal from the Sinquefield Cup, took place in round 6 of the Generation Cup. The game was indeed played, but it lasted only two moves, as Carlsen resigned with black after 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4. It was yet another unfortunate incident, which leaves the chess world wondering when this whole passive-aggressive quarrel will come to an end. Meanwhile, Arjun Erigaisi climbed to sole first place after grabbing two wins and two draws in rounds 5 to 8.

9/17/2022 – In the fourth episode of “Olympiad Stories with Saravanan”, we focus on the 14th world champion, Vladimir Kramnik. Kramnik arrived at the world scene in 1992 at the Manila Olympiad, with a score of 8½/9. His performance rating was over 2900! This was the stage where he broke through, before eventually defeating Garry Kasparov in the World Championship. In this episode, you get to know not only about the 1992 Olympiad and Kramnik’s games, but also about Vladimir’s personality.

9/21/2022 – With three rounds to go, a combative final day of preliminaries awaits us in the Generation Cup, as most participants still have chances to reach the knockout stage. Meanwhile, Magnus Carlsen already clinched a spot in the knockout after retaking the lead ahead of Arjun Erigaisi, who nonetheless continues to impress in the online event. | Photo: FIDE / Niki Riga

9/29/2022 – On Sunday (October 2), the European Club Cup begins in Mayrhofen (Austria). The event consists of an Open Tournament and a Women's Tournament, and some of the world's best player will come to Austria, including Magnus Carlsen and Viswanathan Anand. The venue of the tournament is the "Europahaus". | Photo: Google

9/14/2022 – Alexander Alekhine was one of the greatest in chess. The skill of the world champion, who died under mysterious circumstances in 1946, emanates to this day, as proved by a letter that chess enthusiast Ludger Bröring discovered on Alekhine’s grave at the Cimetière du Montparnasse in Paris.

9/19/2022 – Magnus Carlsen ended day 1 of the Julius Baer Generation Cup in the sole lead with 10/12 points. Carlsen won three games and drew Anish Giri on Sunday. Four players stand close behind on 9/12 — Praggnanandhaa, Arjun Erigaisi, Hans Niemann and Vasyl Ivanchuk. Eight out of the sixteen participants will move on to the knockout stage, which is set to kick off on Thursday. | Photo: Anna Shtourman / FIDE

9/9/2022 – Wesley So is the only player with a +2 score at the Sinquefield Cup after his win over Hans Niemann in Thursday’s sixth round. With three rounds to go, two players stand close behind on +1: Ian Nepomniachtchi and Alireza Firouzja. While Nepo drew Fabiano Caruana in round 6, Firouzja got a rather quick, albeit bumpy, victory over Shakhriyar Mamedyarov. Levon Aronian also scored a full point, as he defeated Maxime Vachier-Lagrave to return to a fifty-percent score. | Photo: Grand Chess Tour / Crystal Fuller

7/24/2022 – Today we offer readers a glimpse of what had been happening behind the scenes of “The Match of The Century”, especially in the Russian camp, exactly fifty years ago. A tense Boris Spassky, cajoled by seconds Efim Geller and Nikolai Krogius, nevertheless failed to perform, to the dismay of his friends and admirers. It’s also the story of a gamble that could have hurtled Bobby down the precipice in that fateful Game 6 of the match. A cautionary tale and object lesson for aspiring players.

9/26/2022 – Magnus Carlsen won the final match of the Julius Baer Generation Cup in the lowest possible number of games. The world champion beat Arjun Erigaisi 2½-½ in the first set, and then scored back-to-back wins in the second set to secure tournament victory as quickly as it is allowed by the rules. Despite losing the match, Arjun gained a spot in the final major of the Champions Chess Tour season, set to take place in November in San Francisco.

9/17/2022 – Some readers may have heard of this special tactics training regime, while others will wonder about the gimmicky sounding name. This is the name given to an intensive but very effective training method by the Swedish grandmaster Tikkanen, which just so happens to be a dream fit for the Replay Training feature in ChessBase 16. See how you can get this best of both worlds and watch the video to demonstrate!

9/27/2022 – In the diagrammed position it is Black to move. Endgames with bishops of opposite colours have large drawish tendencies but here Black's passed b-pawn and the active black king are more important. How should Black proceed?

9/26/2022 – In the diagrammed position it is Black to move and he destroyed the white kingside in a most impressive way - I wish you happy sacrificing!

10/6/2022 – The last time Alexei Shirov chose the Moscow Variation in the Semi Slav, Jorden van Foreest was just 13 years old. This June - and thus ten years later - the two players met for a mini-match over four classical games. The veteran, who had played the Botwinnik Variation over all these years, came up with a surprise and resorted to the Moscow Variation for the first time against the top player from the Netherlands. In the new ChessBase Magazine Extra #209 Shirov reviews this game in a 50-minute video. You can watch an excerpt here!

9/16/2022 – Fritz has fascinated the chess world for thirty years. And the success story continues. In Vienna, the most popular chess program ever was once again able to underline its premier position: the newly developed neural engine with NNUE technology won the official Chess Software World Championship! With Power Fritz 18 you have the world champion program on your PC!

9/13/2022 – In rook endgames, activity is (almost) everything. In the diagrammed position it is White to move. How should he proceed?

9/29/2022 – Over an hour of video training: Mihail Marin explains how Caruana achieved a clear advantage with a novelty in the Rossolimo Variation against Gukesh - and then missed the right continuation. Alexei Shirov shows with one of his games against Jorden van Foreest why you have to reckon with the Moscow Variation against him in the Semi-Slav again! "The brilliancy" comes from Greek GM Nikolas Theodorou, who led his team to the championship title in the 2022 Final Four of College Chess in the USA. The "Lucky bag" with 29 annotated games - among others Romain Edouard, Mihal Krasenkow and Spyridon Kapnisis analyse 17 games from the German Bundesliga - is again full of surprises and suggestions. ChessBase Magazine Extra is the perfect complement to ChessBase Magazine. Available as a single issue or by subscription (6 issues per year). Available as download or on DVD.

9/20/2022 – In the diagrammed position, which shows the end of a game Magnus Carlsen and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave played at the Norway Chess Tournament 2022, it is Black to move and he has to find a way to make use of his far advanced pawns before White manages to coordinate his forces. But what exactly should Black do?

9/24/2022 – In the diagrammed position, White has a clever way to destabilize Black's minor piece block and win material. Have a go!

9/15/2022 – When you are solving an exercise in a book, or guessing a move in Solitaire Chess, and your move is wrong, the first thing you want to know is why it was wrong, and what the refutation was, but unless the author included your exact choice, you will be left scratching your head. A new feature in ChessBase solves this brilliantly and can become a powerful tool to your improvement.

9/10/2022 – In the diagram position, Black can ensure the promotion of her passed d-pawn with three precise queen moves, the last one being the trickiest. Technique meets tactics - your call!

9/22/2022 – In the ChessBase Magazine column "All in one" you can learn everything you need to know about a specific opening variation on the basis of a single, extensively annotated game in order to be able to add it to your repertoire or even try it out directly in practice! In the current CBM #209, for example, the Ukrainian GM Yuriy Kuzubov presents a surprise weapon against the Alekhine Defence. 4.a4 followed by 5.Ra3 - have you ever seen that before? You can find a short version of his analysis here.

9/19/2022 – The Jobava London System (1.d4 Nf6 2.Nc3 d5 3.Bf4) is itself still a young opening. In his video, Daniel King presents a fairly new gambit within this system: with 4.e4! (instead of the usual 4.e3) White offers a pawn sacrifice. A "shocker" for every player with the black pieces who sees the move on the board for the first time, says Daniel King in his contribution to ChessBase Magazine #209. You can watch an excerpt from his almost half-hour video analysis here!

9/17/2022 – In the diagram position, Black has active heavy pieces, and his bishops are dying to join in. Help them to do so - and win the game!

8/29/2022 – In chess we are taught there are two main ways of thinking about a position: conceptualization for broader overviews of the situation at hand, and calculation/tactics that are the cogs behind every move. These are often taught as choosing one method or the other, yet sometimes this dogmatism must be cast aside and flexibility is required.

9/16/2022 – In ChessBase Magazine #208, our new author, GM Jan Markos, started his video training series "Practical Tips for the Tournament Player" with an article on "Time Management". In the new issue, CBM #209, he reveals how you should play in must-win situations. You certainly know such situations too - what would you tend to do? Play a risky opening line? Seek sacrifices? Try to put your opponent under time pressure? Jan Markos' recommendations go in a completely different direction. You can watch an excerpt from his video here. Have a look!

9/12/2022 – Alongside a variety of videos and training columns, ChessBase Magazine #209 offers 32 deeply annotated games. One focus of these analyses is the Prague Chess Festival 2022 with contributions by Pentala Harikrishna, Vincent Keymer, David Navara and Sam Shankland. Another is the "Special" with 21 games of Anna and Mariya Muzychuk with analyses by various CBM authors. "The Analysis" of the current issue comes from David Navara: in his encounter with Saleh Salem an unusual structure came on the board, which had already proved comfortable for White in Navara’s preparation. Take a look!

9/6/2022 – Two minor pieces that fight against a rook like it if both sides still have their second rook as this offers tactical possibilities. In the diagrammed position it is White to move and win. What would you do?