1/29/2024 – Wouldn’t it be great to convert all your chess pieces into better pieces on every move? Markus Reinhardt’s Variaschach is actually based on this principle. But, of course, it’s not really that simple. Reinhardt himself presents his variation and plays a blitz game against GM Elisabeth Paehtz.
1/8/2024 – Each year we try to have something unusual for the final article of the year. While the endgame studies this time may not fulfill this criterion, your author wanted to provide some deeper, partially philosophical, thoughts. | Photo: Midjourney
12/6/2023 – Soon after Carl Schlechter's early death the wish arose to organise a memorial tournament in his honour. In 1923 several important chess masters met at the Café Universale and played such a tournament that ended on 4 December with a victory of Savielly Tartakower. Michael Ehn invites you to travel back in time to Vienna in the early 1920s. | Photo: The building with the former Café Universale | Photos: Archive Michael Ehn
11/26/2023 – After eleven exciting rounds, the World Youth Championships — under 14, 16 and 18 — in the open and girls categories concluded in Montesilvano, Italy. A number of honorary guests delivered awards to the newly crowned world champions and the top-finishers. | Photos: Przemek Nikiel
11/22/2023 – Playing against Fritz is enjoyable because the program incorporates hidden errors. There could always be a tactical strike against it. However, Fritz 19 adds a new exciting dimension to your games: The hunt for "achievements". There's a competition for 136 different chess achievements, testing your tactical and strategic versatility. And there are rewards for it too.
11/7/2023 – With a last-round-win Czech Grandmaster Jiri Stocek won the 26. Open International Bavarian Championships ahead of GM Maxime Lagarde from France. Both players finished with 7.5/9, but Stocek had the better tiebreak. German International Master Roven Vogel won bronze and made his third and final GM-norm. | Photos: Sandra Schmidt
8/3/2023 – Gukesh is one of the most promising youngsters in the world of chess. He is no longer just a talent, but has confidently marched to the very top of the chess world, where he is currently ranked no. 11, with an Elo of 2751. In March 2023, Gukesh visited the ChessBase India studio in Mumbai and together with IM Sagar Shah they recorded a video course on how to attack like a super GM. The video course was well received – here are some reviews, from a strong IM to an unrated player.
7/14/2023 – The 2023 World Chess Software Championship was just held in Valencia, Spain, and impressively Fritz defended its title by winning it a second year straight. This event saw a very high number of draws, which might lead you to think it was a dull affair, but as you will see in one of them, it was a guns ablazing fight in OK Corral with two rook sacrifices spaced four moves apart no less!
5/8/2023 – Dommaraju Gukesh is currently world no.19 with an Elo of 2730 (April 2023). But the most amazing thing is that he is just 16 years old! How did the youngster manage to achieve so much at such a tender age? While Gukesh is a universal player, there are three qualities of his play that stand out - Attack, Calculation, and Imagination.
3/28/2023 – Castling in endgame studies is a rich and entertaining topic - be it real castling, the threat of castling, or even just retroanalysis that proves that castling is impossible. Last year we began a new series in which we chronologically explore the most interesting endgame studies with castling ideas. We aim at a mix between informative and interesting endgame studies again this month, a mostly light-hearted article without too much text. | Photo: Pixabay
3/21/2023 – In Eugene Manlapao's previous articles, he has featured the leading players of 19th century British chess. Among them were Amos Burn, Isidor Gunsberg, and the London residents Johannes Zukertort of Poland and Wilhelm Steinitz of Austria. Another one of their great contemporaries was Joseph Henry Blackburne, Britain's strongest player for nearly three decades. "The Black Death" was always a dangerous rival to his British and foreign peers in local and international tournaments, as well as one-on-one matches. | Picture: Wikipedia
1/18/2023 – Can a massive volume of lengthy chess interviews, some dating back to over two decades, attract chess enthusiasts today. Can they be of interest to a heavily satiated chess audience? You bet they can. Frederic Friedel started reading the 476-page book – and was immediately hooked. He describes the reason for his fascination and tells us what is unique about this work.
1/4/2023 – The 3rd World Chess Championship between Wilhelm Steinitz and Isidor Gunsberg that ran from December 9, 1890 to January 22, 1891 was a closely fought match. At the end of 19 games, Steinitz emerged victorious, 6-4, to retain his title. Gunsberg's good result in this match was no coincidence. Gunsberg was one of the strongest players of his time though today he is almost forgotten. Eugene Manlapao takes a look at the life and career of this relatively unknown World Championship challenger. | Photo source: Wikipedia
12/11/2022 – If you don't have Chessbase 17, and failed to take advantage of the Discount Day sale, wishing you had, then this is the post to read. In a last offer before Christmas, you can take advantage of the Christmas Sale to gift yourself something special. You know you deserve it!
12/9/2022 – Amos Burn was one of the world’s leading players in the late 19th century. Competing mainly as an amateur in his long career, he was a highly successful player, theoretician, and journalist. Eugene Manlapao takes a look at the life, the career, and the games of this great English player. | Photo Source: www.liverpoolmuseum.org
11/25/2022 – Few tournaments brought as much stake to its host nation as Moscow 1925 did to Russia. The event brought a Russian into world title contention, but, more importantly, it proved vital to Russia’s rise as dominant force in chess. Eugene Manlapao takes a look at the tournament and its history. | Photo: Tournament winner Efim Bogoljubov (left) and Akiba Rubinstein during their game | Photo: Wikipedia
10/20/2022 – You've seen videos using it, and articles displaying it, and here is the tutorial on how to use it in all its glory. The Engine Correlation in Let's Check can be a wonderful tool when used properly and comes with a variety of options in both ChessBase 16 and the Fritz interface. Here is the easy-to-use definitive guide.
10/17/2022 – There are several ways to check a player's performance using an engine. One is to simply ask an engine to analyze every move and highlight every disagreement however small. Another is to use the tool in ChessBase and Fritz known as Let's Check. Here are the results from the recent Sinquefield Cup including a 100% match and the curiously high results by...
8/26/2022 – İş Bankası, one of the biggest commercial companies in Turkey, is celebrating its 98th anniversary on 26th August 2022. It was established by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the founder of the Turkish Republic (now known as Türkiye), on 26th August 1924. The Bank became the sponsor of the Turkish Chess Federation on 24th December 2005.
8/22/2022 – Robocop. This was what GM Yermolinksy dubbed IM Conor Murphy as he followed his superlative result. While the 2022 Olympiad was dominated by the performance of the youthful and brilliant Gukesh, and other stars on the rise, it is also much more than a collection of super grandmasters, so let us sing the praises of the unlikely heroes who rose to the occasion.
8/10/2022 – The 2022 World Computer Chess championship was just held, and was the first edition since 2019 and the outbreak of the pandemic. After over two years, the traditional event took place in Vienna, Austria, and the winners were Ginkgo AKA Fritz using new neural net technology, and a powerful new Komodo (free update today!). Don't miss Komodo's fantastic knight sacrifice (with video!). (photo: Erdo Gunes, operator of Komodo)
7/22/2022 – Years back, when the first iteration of the Fritz Online app came out, it was a barebones deal: Attractive, and good for a game, but not the most compelling option to train against. A bit problematic as this was its purpose, but it has undergone many revisions since, and revisiting it you will be surprised at how interesting and fun it can be.
6/29/2022 – The German Grandmasters Karsten Müller and Luis Engel developed a model that allows to classify players according to their playing style: The 4 Player Types model. According to Müller and Engel there are "Activists", "Pragmatists", "Theorists", and "Reflectors". Each group of players has distinctive strengths and weaknesses and knowing which type of player you are - and the opponents you play against - can be extremely helpful. Tanmay Srinath liked the model.
4/7/2022 – In the last weeks, we added a lot of chess interactivity to the ChessBase news pages. Replaying games is now optimized for mobile devices. There is a pleasing new layout for annotated games. Social sharing has been radically improved. Diagrams have grown a dirty little secret. Live broadcasts with multiple boards can be configured easily.
Anyone who seriously deals with openings cannot avoid the opening encyclopaedia. Whether beginner or grandmaster. The Opening Encyclopaedia is by far the most comprehensive chess theory work: over 1,463(!) theory articles offer a huge fund of ideas!
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