9/27/2021 – The Norwegian Grandmaster Simen Agdestein coached Magnus Carlsen, and at a chess school in the Norwegian town of Bærum he still coaches some of the most promising Norwegian talents. Agdestein regularly travels with his pupils to tournaments, and from the 3rd to the 5th of September, Agdestein and his students took part in the Grand Prix Tournament in Kragerø, which Agdestein won with 6.0/6. | Photo: The last round game between 12-year-old Martin Holten Fiskaaen and Agdestein. FM Ward Altarbosh in the background. | Photos: Tanja Cecilie Kveim

9/21/2021 – Gukesh D won the masters’ section of the Norway Chess Open in Stavanger. He scored 8½/10, remained undefeated, performed at 2743 and gained 17.5 Elo rating points. His compatriot Iniyan P scored 7½/10 to finish at second position. He performed at 2550 and increased his rating by 6.7 points. Gukesh is currently playing for Prilep (North Macedonia) at the European Club Cup. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

9/18/2021 – Magnus Carlsen beat Ian Nepomniachtchi in Armageddon to secure first place at the 2021 Norway Chess Tournament. This is the world champion’s third straight triumph in his home super-tournament. Alireza Firouzja had a great performance, ending the tournament with four wins in a row to get sole second place and climb to ninth place in the world ranking. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

9/17/2021 – A fourth straight win prompted Magnus Carlsen to grab the lead at the Norway Chess Tournament in Stavanger. The world champion had an inferior position in the middlegame against Sergey Karjakin, but ended up making the most of his material advantage after the Russian gave up an exchange for the initiative. Meanwhile, Ian Nepomniachtchi beat Richard Rapport in Armageddon, and Alireza Firouzja scored his third consecutive win in classical chess. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

9/16/2021 – By scoring a third straight win — taking down sole leader Richard Rapport — Magnus Carlsen is now only a half point behind the Hungarian with two rounds to go at the Norway Chess Tournament. Round 8 also saw Alireza Firouzja beating Sergey Karjakin and Aryan Tari getting the better of World Championship challenger Ian Nepomniachtchi. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

9/14/2021 – Richard Rapport has a 3-point lead over Ian Nepomniachtchi with four rounds to go at the Norway Chess Tournament (a win in classical chess is worth 3 points). The Hungarian star beat Aryan Tari with the white pieces in round 6. Magnus Carlsen also won his classical game, while Sergey Karjakin got the better of Nepomniachtchi in Armageddon. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

9/13/2021 – An eventful fifth round at the Norway Chess Tournament saw Sergey Karjakin beating Magnus Carlsen in their classical encounter. Meanwhile, Alireza Firouzja also won his classical game and Ian Nepomniachtchi got the better of Richard Rapport in Armageddon. At halftime, Rapport is still in the sole lead, a point ahead of Nepomniachtchi. Carlsen stands in fourth place, below Karjakin. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

9/12/2021 – Ian Nepomniachtchi beat Sergey Karjakin on the rest day of the Norway Chess Tournament. The round-1 game had to be rescheduled after Nepo could not make it in time to Stavanger due to visa issues. Thanks to the victory in the classical game, the next challenger for the World Championship climbed to sole second place in the standings table. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

9/11/2021 – Richard Rapport beat Alireza Firouzja in their round-4 classical encounter to increase his lead atop the standings of the Norway Chess Tournament. In the stellar contest of the day, Magnus Carlsen beat Ian Nepomniachtchi in the Armageddon decider after drawing the classical game out of a Berlin Defence. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

9/10/2021 – The third round of the Norway Chess Tournament saw three draws in the classical games, two of them by perpetual check. Magnus Carlsen played 18 moves of a King’s Indian before signing a draw against Richard Rapport on move 18. The Armageddon tiebreakers that followed all favoured the black player. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

9/9/2021 – An action-packed second round in Stavanger saw all three classical games ending in draws, with Aryan Tari and Richard Rapport failing to make the most of clearly superior positions against Magnus Carslsen and Sergey Karjakin respectively. In the Armageddon tiebreakers, Carlsen, Rapport and Ian Nepomniachtchi won and collected 1½ points. Nepo played the King’s Gambit to take down Alireza Firouzja in their sudden-death encounter. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

9/8/2021 – The 9th edition of the Norway Chess Tournament kicked off on September 7 at the Clarion Hotel in Stavanger. Richard Rapport grabbed the lead by beating Aryan Tari in their classical encounter. Meanwhile, Magnus Carlsen and Alireza Firouzja drew their classical game — the world champion won the Armageddon decider (drew with black) after surviving a dead-lost position. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

8/2/2021 – Alexandra Kosteniuk took a huge step towards winning the Women’s World Cup, as she defeated Aleksandra Goryachkina with the black pieces on Sunday. The remaining three games played in Sochi — both semifinals in the open and the women’s match for third place — finished drawn. | Photo: Anastasiia Korolkova

2/28/2021 – Two strong grandmasters from different generations, currently living in countries far apart from each other, gave an online masterclass about a week ago. Levon Aronian and Oscar Panno discussed two impressive wins obtained by Aronian with the help of Robert Hungaski, who served as translator.

12/29/2020 – ChessBase Magazine is the most comprehensive and most sophisticated chess magazine there is. World class players analyze their brilliancies and explain the ideas behind their moves, opening specialists present the latest trends in opening theory and offer exciting ideas for your repertoire. Experts of tactics, strategy, and the endgame show you the tricks and techniques a successful tournament player needs! DVD with several hours of video + booklet. Also available for download, including the booklet in pdf!

12/8/2020 – The Russian Superfinals, for men and women, are 12-player single round-robin events currently taking place at the Central Chess Club in Moscow. After three rounds, the one player in both tournaments to have kept a perfect score is Polina Shuvalova (pictured), who remarkably defeated Alina Kashlinskaya and Alexandra Kosteniuk in consecutive rounds. Meanwhile, in the open tournament, Sergey Karjakin is the sole leader on 2½/3. | Photo: Eteri Kublashvili

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

11/5/2020 – In the last months only a few over-the-board tournaments took place, but in October 30 of the top 100 players were active again and played in FIDE-rated "real" tournaments. Magnus Carlsen is still the clear number one but it was Alireza Firouzja who made the biggest jump ahead by gaining 20 Elo-points in Stavanger.

10/17/2020 – The 2020 Altibox Norway Chess tournament came to an end on Friday. Magnus Carlsen had secured tournament victory with a round to spare, but finished the event with a loss to Levon Aronian. 17-year-old Alireza Firouzja came in second place thanks to a final-round win over Jan-Krzysztof Duda. In the only matchup that went to Armageddon in round 10, Fabiano Caruana defeated Aryan Tari. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

10/14/2020 – With two rounds to go after the rest day, two players still have realistic chances to win the tournament — Magnus Carlsen and Alireza Firouzja. Firouzja was leading the tournament before round 7, but lost in Armageddon against Fabiano Caruana on Tuesday, while the world champion collected 3 points by beating Aryan Tari in classical chess. Carlsen now has a one-point lead over his 17-year-old colleague. Firouzja and Carlsen will face each other on Thursday. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

10/13/2020 – Alireza Firouzja continues to impress at the Norway Chess Tournament as he beat Levon Aronian in Armageddon to keep the sole lead in the standings. Meanwhile, the main event of the day, Magnus Carlsen versus Fabiano Caruana, saw the world champion defending a tough position in classical chess and winning the Armageddon decider. Jan-Krzysztof Duda defeated Aryan Tari in their classical encounter. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

10/10/2020 – Round 4 of the Altibox Norway Chess tournament in Stavanger saw Levon Aronian and Alireza Firouzja playing an Armageddon tiebreaker after drawing their classical game. Karsten Müller assessed the final phase of the encounter as a “fascinating knight endgame”. The endgame specialist examined the sequence in detail and now shares it with all ChessBase readers. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

10/8/2020 – Levon Aronian beat Jan-Krzysztof Duda from an equal rook endgame to catch Fabiano Caruana in the lead of the Altibox Norway Chess tournament. Caruana lost against Alireza Firouzja in Armageddon. Meanwhile, Magnus Carlsen was worse in a complicated position against Aryan Tari, but ended up getting a win after his young opponent mishandled his advantage. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

10/7/2020 – Fabiano Caruana took the sole lead of the Altibox Norway Chess tournament by beating Jan-Krzysztof Duda with the white pieces to reach a perfect 6/6 score. Meanwhile, on his 38th birthday, Levon Aronian inflicted Aryan Tari’s second loss, and Magnus Carlsen defeated Alireza Firouzja in Armageddon after the latter failed to make the most of a very favourable position and lost on time. | Photo: Lennart Ootes