5/14/2023 – On 14 May 1937 Grigory Levenfish won the 10th Soviet Championship, defending the title he had won two years earlier at the 9th Soviet Championship in 1935. In 1937 Levenfish also drew a match against Botvinnik and hoped to play in the 1938 AVRO tournament. At that time Levenfish was probably one of the best players in the world, but the Soviet authorities stifled his career. To mark the 86th anniversary of Levenfish's victory that made him a two-time Soviet Champion Eugene Manlapao looks at the tragic life and career of this fascinating player. | Photo source: Douglas Griffin.

5/13/2023 – Andrzej Filipowicz is one of the most interesting chess personalities in the world. He has been a chess player, arbiter, organizer, editor and writer, as well as a civil engineer specializing in steel structures. Endowed with a strong personality, clear intelligence, well-defined convictions and a curious sense of humour, he is turning 85 today, on 13 May 2023. Uvencio Blanco conducted a lengthy interview with the Polish chess polymath.

5/5/2023 – This weekend the Grand Chess Tour starts with the Superbet Chess Classic in Bucharest. Eduard Frey takes a look at the great chess history of the Romanian capital. | Photo: Panoramic view of the city centre of Bucharest - University Square with the University of Bucharest building on the right, the National Theatre on the left and the Palace of Parliament on the far right in the background. | Photo: Wikipedia

4/30/2023 – Herman Grooten is an International Master, a renowned trainer and the author of several highly acclaimed books about chess training and chess strategy. In the 123rd instalment of his ChessBase show "Understanding before Moving", Herman continues his series "Chess history in a nutshell". | Photo: Pascal Simon

4/23/2023 – Pia Cramling, the Grande Dame of Chess is celebrating her 60th Anniversary today. Heartfelt congratulations! Looking back and forward, our author, who was a spectator at the tournament where she made her final GM norm to obtain the Grandmaster title as fifth woman on earth, presents fantastic facts and funny figures from an unparalleled biography. | Photo: Carolina Byrmo via hemtrevligt.se

4/18/2023 – When tension is at its highest, even the very best players in the world can blunder games in one move. Now that four out of six games have finished decisively at the World Championship match in Astana — with no lack of strategic and tactical errors — let us take a look at the top 10 blunders from World Championship history.

3/24/2023 – The "Special" of the current ChessBase Magazine is dedicated to Anthony Miles. In addition to a collection of 21 extensively analysed brilliant games of the first English grandmaster, you will also find a multifaceted contribution by Mihail Marin on Miles' chess understanding and playing style. Marin's database of 12 games from the years 1978 to 2000 is peppered with many training exercises. For the first time for ChessBase Magazine, our author also offers two interactive videos in which you can put your strategic understanding to the test. And of course Marin again introduces the "hero" of this issue in the introductory video to his contribution - you can watch the 20-minute video here.

3/21/2023 – In the current ChessBase Magazine #212 you will find new repertoire ideas for eleven different openings - from the English Opening to the King's Indian. In his search for a suitable weapon against the Scotch, Lars Schandorff has come across a fresh idea with which Black immediately seeks active play: After 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 exd4 4.Nxd4 Bc5 (Schandorff's favourite) 5.Nb3 Bb6 6.Nc3 7.Qe2 he recommends 7...a5!?. In his analysis, this idea has proved so successful that he even sees White facing the task of looking for new ideas in the alternative variations with 5.Nxc6 or 5.Be3. Take a look!

3/17/2023 – What should you do if your opponent offers a draw at an early stage of the game? What aspects should you take into account when making your own decision? GM Jan Markos gives you a series of rules of thumb in the fifth part of his series "Practical Tips for the Tournament Player" to help you go for the full point more often - or accept the offer if it is advisable. You can watch an excerpt from his video here!

3/14/2023 – In the current ChessBase Magazine #212 you'll find new repertoire ideas for eleven different openings - from the English Opening to the Scotch to the King's Indian. In his article, Roven Vogel examines a trendyline against the Reti Opening: more and more often Black played the "somewhat strange" move 2...b6!? after 1.Nf3 d5 2.g3. White can of course build up in the most varied ways here, and the position types that Vogel analyses are correspondingly diverse. His conclusion: "So far I don't see in which direction Black should really have problems and can therefore warmly recommend this little side variation, at least as a secondary idea for one's own repertoire against 1.Nf3." Take a look!

3/12/2023 – Karsten Mueller continues his training series for ambitious amateurs in ChessBase Magazine #212. This time it's about basic techniques in the endgame with rook and pawn against rook. You've probably heard about the "Lucena win", "Vancura's draw" - but do you still know how the whole thing works and which details you have to pay attention to? Karsten Mueller's contribution consists of an introductory video in which the techniques and motifs are presented and five interactive training videos in which it is your task to enter the solution on the board. You can watch the introductory video here. The interactive part with video feedback is only available in CBM#212!

3/10/2023 – This time ChessBase Magazine's "Special" is dedicated to the first Englishman who succeeded in winning the title of International Grandmaster: Anthony Miles (1955-2001). Our authors (David Navara, Yannick Pelletier, Spyridon Kapnisis, Julio Sadorra and many others) comment on their favourite games of the creative Englishman - thus an exclusive collection of 21 duels from the period 1978 to 2001 has come together. You can watch Robert Ris' analysis of the game Miles - Spassky (1978) here. Enjoy! | Photo: Dutch National Archive

3/6/2023 – The current ChessBase Magazine #212 offers three opening videos: Rustam Kasimdzhanov examines the Ruy Lopez with 8.a4 b4 9.a5, which was played twice in the Tata Steel Masters 2023 (So-Keymer and Caruana-Carlsen). Nico Zwirs checks Magnus Carlsen's idea 7...Bg4 in the Queen's Gambit Exchange Variation. And Mihail Marin puts the Evans Gambit from the game Beerdsen-Pechac from the Challengers to the test. You can watch an excerpt from Kasimdzhanov's video analysis here. Have fun!

3/6/2023 – Bobby Fischer is certainly the most famous of the Pisces chess players. But other top players include Bent Larsen, Veselin Topalov, Vasyl Ivanchuk, Teimour Radjabov, Hou Yifan, Anna Muzychuk and David Bronstein. Those who are Pisces can sometimes be as brilliant as Albert Einstein. With the Pisces-born, the circle of the twelve signs of the zodiac has come full circle, making this our final instalment.| Photo: Pixabay

3/4/2023 – The new ChessBase Magazine #212 provides, among many other things, 50 games with detailed commentary, a large part of which comes from the Tata Steel Masters and Challengers. Anish Giri is also an excellent analyst: he takes a close look at nine games from Wijk aan Zee as well as at games from current rapid chess events in CBM #212. Other authors are Jorden van Foreest, Praggnanandhaa, Alexander Donchenko and Peter Heine Nielsen. "The Analysis" of the issue comes - how could it be otherwise - from the winner of the Tata Steel Masters: it's Giri's long-awaited victory over Magnus Carlsen. Find an abridged version of his analysis here. Enjoy!

3/1/2023 – Tata Steel 2023: The tournament winner of the Masters, Anish Giri, comments on his best games as well as Jorden van Foreest, Praggnanandhaa and many more. In addition, video analyses by Dorian Rogozenco – "Special" on Anthony Miles: exclusive collection of 21 commented games + contributions on strategy and endgame – "English for Attackers": Alexey Kuzmin shows the highly topical gambit 1.c4 e5 2.Nc3 Nf6 3.Nf3 e4 4.Ng5 c6!? – "Theory Update from Wijk aan Zee I": Rustam Kasimdzhanov brings Spanish with 8.a4 b4 9.a5 up to date – Endgame series "Fundamental Endgame Knowledge" Part 2: Learn the most important rules and techniques in the ending Rook + Pawn vs. Rook from Dr. Karsten Mueller and much more.

2/3/2023 – Artur Jussupow belonged to the absolute top of the world during his active time and after moving to Germany he opened a successful chess school together with his wife. At the Staufer Open Martin Hahn had the opportunity to interview the former World Championship candidate. Among other things, the grandmaster talked about chess training, cheating in chess, and the best junior players. | Photos: German Chess Federation (Bernd Vökler)

2/2/2023 – Today, chess legend Svetozar Gligoric, who passed away in 2012, would have turned 100 years old. In World War II he fought as a partisan against the Germans, and after the war he became one of the world's best chess players. He was very popular among his peers and even managed to be friends with Bobby Fischer. Dagobert Kohlmeyer remembers the King's Indian expert. | Photos: Dagobert Kohlmeyer

2/1/2023 – Most of all grandmasters were born under the sign of Aquarius. Among them romped the legends Taimanov, Eliskases and Sveshnikov. There is also a world champion - Boris Spassky. With Abhimanyu Mishra, we have not only the youngest grandmaster, but we also had Yuri Averbakh, the oldest, who died at the age of one hundred.| Photo: Pixabay

1/19/2023 – The 37th edition of the Reykjavik Open will be held from March 29th until April 4th, 2023 in Harpa, the 28.000 sq. m. concert and conference hall in downtown Reykjavik. The tournament has been the flagship of Icelandic chess for many years and one of the most prestigious and well-liked open tournaments on the calendar every year. | Press release, Icelandic Chess Federation.

1/1/2023 – We have been trying to keep track of incredible playing strength and title wins at a very early age. It started with Capablanca and Reshevsky, and today we are seeing full grandmasters aged thirteen — and in two cases even just twelve! Most recently it was Abhimanyu Mishra who achieved the title at twelve years and just under five months. It is time to update our prodigy page, with better graphics and a few telling graphs. We also invite our readers to contribute.

11/26/2022 – Garry Kasparov was the eight of the twelve World Chess Champions whom Frederic met. In our new weekly series he tells us how he met and befriended the top players, and the adventures they experienced together. Frederic has written a new book, together with Professor Christian Hesse, with fascinating chess stories from the last 50 years. It appeared (first in German) in October.

11/22/2022 – The Meltwater Champions Chess Final in San Francisco was visited by a chess fan whose uncle is a legend in the chess world: Bobby Fischer. Nicholas Targ, son of Joan Fischer Targ, the sister of Bobby Fischer, came to visit the tournament and met Magnus Carlsen. In a short interview with Tania Sachdev Nicholas Targ also talked about his love for chess and his encounters with his uncle.

11/19/2022 – Garry Kasparov was the eight of the twelve World Chess Champions whom Frederic met. In our new weekly series he tells us how he met and befriended the top players, and the adventures they experienced together. Frederic has written a new book, together with Professor Christian Hesse, with fascinating chess stories from the last 50 years. It appeared (first in German) in October.