4/21/2021 – Magnus Carlsen loves chess and he loves a challenge. On Monday, after commentating round 8 of the Candidates for several hours live, the World Champion played a 22 game 3+0 Banter Blitz match against the "Challengers", 20 of the world's most promising juniors. Carlsen convincingly won the match with a score of 19.5-2.5. He only lost against Nihal Sarin and Awonder Liang and drew against Vincent Keymer.

4/19/2021 – The Julius Baer Chess Challenge is the counterpart to the Magnus Carlsen Chess Tour - for young players and talents. Tonight World Champion Magnus Carlsen will play Banter Blitz against all challengers, one after the other. Live from 20:00 CEST (14:00 EDT)

4/1/2021 – Magnus Carlsen was born on 30 November 1990 and played his first tournament when he was eight and a half years old. At the age of 13 he became a Grandmaster, and since July 2011 he has been the world's number one. In 2013 Carlsen became World Champion. His successes have made him a star, his way of playing and presenting chess has changed the chess world. Now, "The Magnus Carlsen Story" was published on YouTube, seven short videos that review Carlsen's amazing career. | Photo: Screenshot from the video series

3/23/2021 – Magnus Carlsen still lacks a tournament victory at the Meltwater Champions Chess Tour. Four tournaments have been played so far, but the World Champion, who is so used to success, has not been able to win one of them. At the Magnus Carlsen Invitational, which ended at the weekend, he lost in the semi-finals against Ian Nepomniachtchi, who then lost to Anish Giri in the final. But then Carlsen scored a surprisingly smooth win against Wesley So in the match for third place. Particularly surprising was the first game, in which Carlsen won with a stunning mating attack. Daniel King took a closer look. | Photo: Lennart Ootes, Archiv

3/21/2021 – In the first set of the Magnus Carlsen Invitational finals on Saturday all the games played between Anish Giri and Ian Nepomniachtchi ended in draws. In the first game, Giri missed a chance to win, while the remaining three games were evenly matched. In the match for third place, Wesley So had no chance against Magnus Carlsen: the World Champion won the first set 3:1. | Photo: FIDE

3/18/2021 – It was a short day at the office for the quarterfinalists of the Magnus Carlsen Invitational, as three out of the four mini-matches lasted three games each, while in the only contest to go to game 4 Anish Giri beat Maxime Vachier-Lagrave in only 20 moves. Giri will face an in-form Wesley So in semis, while Magnus Carlsen will fight for a spot in the finals with Ian Nepomniachtchi. | Photo: Niki Riga

3/17/2021 – Magnus Carlsen and Wesley So got off to winning starts in the quarterfinals of the Magnus Carlsen Invitational, as both of them scored 2½:½ victories on Tuesday. The first mini-matches in Anish Giri v Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and Hikaru Nakamura v Ian Nepomniachtchi finished drawn. | Photo: Lennart Ootes / Grand Chess Tour

3/16/2021 – Half the field moved on to the knockout stage of the Magnus Carlsen Invitational after three days of preliminary action. Carlsen himself won the round robin after scoring 3/5 points on day 3 to finish atop the standings a half point ahead of former sole leader Anish Giri. Levon Aronian was the last player to secure his spot in the knockout — the Armenian will face the world champion in quarterfinals. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

3/15/2021 – Anish Giri, Magnus Carlsen and Wesley So all scored 4/5 points on day 2 of the Magnus Carlsen Invitational preliminaries. Giri thus kept his spot as leader of the event, with Carlsen still a half point behind in sole second place. The last five rounds of the preliminary stage will be played on Monday, when half the field will be eliminated before the knockout stage kicks off the day after. | Photo: Eteri Kublashvili

3/14/2021 – Anish Giri is the sole leader of the Magnus Carlsen Invitational preliminaries after finishing day 1 with three wins in a row, including one over Wesley So and one over the world champion. After five rounds, Levon Aronian and Carlsen are sharing second place, a half point behind the Dutchman. | Photo: Jurriaan Hoefsmit

2/24/2021 – This week Merijn van Delft takes a look at a fine attacking game in which Dutch player Manuel Bosboom found a number of unusual, surprising and pleasing positional sacrifices. | Merijn's show is available at 16.00 UTC (17:00 CET, 12:00 EDT) and on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here.

2/18/2021 – Now that FIDE has announced that the second half of the Candidates Tournament will be played in April, it’s a good time to remember how Magnus Carlsen qualified to play for the World Championship title for the first time, in 2013. The Norwegian was the favourite and started strong, but Vladimir Kramnik made an impressive comeback in the second half. The Russian, however, fell barely short at the very end, and Carlsen won the tournament on tiebreaks. | Photos: Ray Morris-Hill

2/17/2021 – This week Merijn van Delft looks back to the final of the Opera Euro Rapid Tournament and presents a crucial game, in which Wesley So defeated Magnus Carlsen. | Merijn's show is available at 16.00 UTC (17:00 CET, 12:00 EDT) and on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here.

2/16/2021 – On Sunday, February 14, Wesley So added another tournament victory to the long list of his successes: he won the Opera Euro Online Tournament by beating Magnus Carlsen in the final. Which So also managed to do in the Skilling Open and in the final of the World Championship in Fischerrandom. But why is Wesley So so successful and how does he manage to beat Carlsen again and again? In an interview with Wesley So Sagar Shah and Amruta Mokal tried to find out!

2/14/2021 – Wesley So scored a win on demand to tie the score in the first mini-match of the Opera Euro Rapid’s finals against Magnus Carlsen. Meanwhile, Teimour Radjabov got ahead on the scoreboard against Maxime Vachier-Lagrave in the match for third place. Report with instructive analysis by Karsten Müller. | Photo: Lennart Ootes / Grand Chess Tour

2/13/2021 – Magnus Carlsen and Wesley So advanced to the final of the Opera Euro Rapid tournament, to be played on Saturday and Sunday starting at 17.00 CET. For a second time in a row, Carlsen knocked out his opponent in the Armageddon decider, while So had a much shorter day at the office, as it was impossible for Teimour Radjabov to win the match once the American collected two points in their second mini-match. | Photo: Lennart Ootes / frchess.com

2/12/2021 – Eternal favourite Magnus Carlsen needed luck to survive in the quarterfinals against Danniil Dubov, but on the first day of the semifinals he obtained a clear victory against Maxime Vachier-Lagrave. Wesley So also took the lead in his match against Teimour Radjabov. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

2/11/2021 – Two out of four quarterfinal matches at the Opera Euro Rapid tournament went to tiebreaks, with Magnus Carlsen and Teimour Radjabov eliminating Daniil Dubov and Anish Giri in the blitz section of their matches. Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and Wesley So also moved on to the semifinals. | Photo: Amruta Mokal

2/10/2021 – This week Merijn van Delft wonders how Magnus Carlsen plans to counter the original and creative style of Daniil Dubov in their quarterfinal match of the Opera Euro Rapid. | Merijn's show is available at 16.00 UTC (17:00 CET, 12:00 EDT) and on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here.

2/10/2021 – The imaginative Daniil Dubov is an uncomfortable opponent for all players, including Magnus Carlsen. On the first day of the Opera Euro Rapid quarterfinals, however, the world champion defeated the Russian convincingly. Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and Wesley So also won their mini-matches. | Photo: Niki Riga / World Chess

2/9/2021 – One of the pre-tournament favourites, online blitz specialist Hikaru Nakamura, did not make it into the knockout stage of the Opera Rapid tournament after failing to convert a winning position in the last round against Sam Shankland. Nakamura was eliminated on tiebreak criteria, as he got the same score as Daniil Dubov but won fewer games than the Russian. Ian Nepomniachtchi also had a tough day at the office and was eliminated. Magnus Carlsen won the preliminary stage; Anish Giri scored as many points as the world champion but collected fewer wins. | Photo: Eteri Kublashvili

2/8/2021 – The Opera Euro Rapid tournament saw rounds 6 to 10 of the preliminaries being played on Sunday. At the top of the standings table, Magnus Carlsen defended his half-point lead over Wesley So and Anish Giri. The remaining five rounds will be played today (Monday) at 17.00 CET. Do not miss Karsten Müller’s analyses of five highly instructive endgames! | Photo: Play Magnus Group

2/7/2021 – Day 1 of the Opera Euro Rapid tournament finished with Magnus Carlsen alone atop the standings table on 4/5. Carlsen had lost his first game against Wesley So, but managed to win four in a row to go into day 2 half a point ahead of So and Ian Nepomniachtchi. The preliminary round robin serves as a qualifier to the knockout stage — 8 out of 16 players will advance to the quarterfinals. | Photo: Crystal Fuller / Saint Louis Chess Club

2/1/2021 – For chess fans, the fact that the Tata Steel tournament was played over-the-board with a classical time control meant the return of high-quality games by the strongest players in the world. In the final round, world champion Magnus Carlsen showed what he is capable of in his game against Maxime Vachier-Lagrave. | Photo: Jurriaan Hoefsmit