2/27/2022 – The most exciting and talked-about game of the 2021 World Championship was game 6. Statistically, the sixth game of a World Championship match has yielded more decisive results than any other game. This one proved to be no exception, as records kept tumbling. The game had various layers of action and consequences. GM Sundararajan Kidambi explains the game arising out of a Catalan opening. | Photo: Shahid Ahmed

2/26/2022 – Magnus Carlsen won the first event of the 2022 Meltwater Champions Chess Tour as he beat Ian Nepomniachtchi in the finals of the Airthings Masters. After drawing the first set on Friday, the world champion won the second 4-game mini-match by a 2½-½ score. Nepo did not go down easy, though it was Carlsen who performed at a higher level at the critical points in games 2 and 3.

2/26/2022 – While the quarterfinals and the semifinals of the Airthings Masters lasted a single day, the finals consist of two ‘sets’. The first one, played on Friday, saw Magnus Carlsen and Ian Nepomniachtchi signing four straight draws. But the lack of decisive results does not mean there was a lack of excitement. To the contrary, the games were hard-fought and enthralling. | Photo: Niki Riga

2/25/2022 – It has been a tough day for everyone. Vladimir Putin’s appalling decision to invade Ukraine has shocked the world, and his actions have been condemned by most world leaders. At the Airthings Masters, three out of four semifinalists hail from Russia, with Ian Nepomniachtchi confessing after beating Andrey Esipenko, “I can’t think”. Nepo will face Magnus Carlsen in the finals of the online tournament, in a rematch of the recent contest for the World Championship title. | Photo: Niki Riga

1/30/2022 – Magnus Carlsen beat Fabiano Caruana to claim his eighth tournament title in Wijk aan Zee with a round to spare. The world champion will not even need to show up for Sunday’s final round, as the organizers of the tournament confirmed that Daniil Dubov will not be playing despite testing negative to a second Covid-19 PCR test. Meanwhile, Arjun Erigaisi clinched the title in the Challengers, thus getting an invitation to next year’s main event. | Photo: Jurriaan Hoefsmit

1/26/2022 – In a crucial confrontation, Magnus Carlsen beat Shakhriyar Mamedyarov to reclaim the sole lead at the Tata Steel Masters tournament. The one player keeping up the pace with the world champion is Anish Giri, who got the better of Sam Shankland to remain a half point behind the Norwegian. Sergey Karjakin and Fabiano Caruana also won in round 9. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

1/23/2022 – An eventful seventh round in Wijk aan Zee saw Daniil Dubov forfeiting his game against Anish Giri after declining to wear a mask during the game as requested by the organizers — someone in the Russian’s inner circle had tested positive for Covid-19. Later on, wins by Magnus Carlsen, Jorden van Foreest and Fabiano Caruana left the world champion in the sole lead. | Photo: Jurriaan Hoefsmit

1/22/2022 – Three well-known names collected full points in round 6 of the Tata Steel Masters tournament, as Magnus Carlsen, Sergey Karjakin and Anish Giri all won their Friday games in Wijk aan Zee. Carlsen’s victory over Richard Rapport allowed him to catch the leaders in the standings table. Meanwhile, in the Challengers, Arjun Erigaisi continues to dominate as he scored his fifth win in a row! | Photo: Lennart Ootes

1/5/2022 – The World Championship match between Magnus Carlsen and Ian Nepomniachtchi was the chess highlight of the year 2021, and chess fans all over the world followed the games and the match avidly. Carlsen won 7.5-3.5 and defended his title. Shortly after the match, Oliver Roeder and Simran Parwani took a look at some statistics of the match and presented their findings on www.538.com, a statistics-oriented website that focuses on American politics and sports. | Image: FIDE

12/28/2021 – After nine rounds, played on Sunday and Monday, Magnus Carlsen is the sole leader at the World Rapid Chess Championship in Warsaw as the only player to have collected 7½ points. On the second day of play, Alireza Firouzja and Jan-Krzysztof Duda were two of the players defeated by the world champion. In the women’s tournament, Alexandra Kosteniuk is in a class of her own.| Foto: FIDE / Anna Shtourman

12/22/2021 – In a blog post for his sponsor Simonson Vogt Wiig, Magnus Carlsen reiterated and explained his announcement that he might not play another World Championship match because he lost his passion for this form of competition over the years. But "passion must be the main driver. I have always liked to compete, but chess was for me mainly driven by passion for the game." | Photo: Eric Rosen (FIDE)

12/16/2021 – Judit Polgar followed the World Championship match between Magnus Carlsen and Ian Nepomniachtchi in Dubai particularly closely. She was in Dubai and commentated the match live. In an interview with Sagar Shah after the match she talks about criticial moments of the match, claims that it is sometimes good to be a "bad boy", and reveals what it takes to win a match against Carlsen. | Photo: Screenshot from the interview

12/15/2021 – After Magnus Carlsen convincingly won the World Championship match 7.5-3.5 against challenger Ian Nepomniachtchi, the old and new World Champion seems to be tired of defending his title. In a Norwegian podcast interview with his friend Magnus Barstad, Carlsen indicated that he lacked the motivation to defend his title again. Unless the next challenger would be Alireza Firouzja. | Photo: FIDE | Niki Riga

12/14/2021 – Peter Heine Nielsen has been Magnus Carlsen's head coach and second since 2013, and in an in-depth interview with IM Sagar Shah the Danish grandmaster and ChessBase author has now revealed some background on Carlsen's World Championship match against Ian Nepomniachtchi: Nielsen reviews the critical moments of all eleven games, discusses what makes a good coach and talks about the upcoming World Championship cycle and Alireza Firouzja's chances in it. | Photo: Hartmut Metz | Archiv

12/13/2021 – On Sunday, December 12, Magnus Carlsen of Norway lifted the trophy for the World Championship aloft for the fifth time in a row. The closing ceremony was broadcast live on a range of media and culminated with the champion, a gold medal around his neck, trophy raised, in a long, breezy shower of gold confetti. | Photo: Niki Riga

12/10/2021 – Magnus Carlsen picked up a fourth win at the World Championship match in Dubai to secure overall victory with three games to spare. Playing black, the world champion saw Ian Nepomniachtchi all but self-destructing for a third time in the match. This was Carlsen’s fourth consecutive successful defence of the title after becoming world champion in 2013. | Photo: Eric Rosen / FIDE

12/10/2021 – The new ChessBase Magazine Extra #204 offers two opening videos on Scandinavian and Catalan as well as a total of 26 games with detailed commentary, including analyses by Anish Giri, Romain Edouard and Michal Krasenkow. Peter Heine Nielsen, Magnus Carlsen's second, contributes "The brilliancy". And of course it's about am extraordinary game by the World Champion. In the final of the Meltwater Tour 2021 Carlsen outplayed Jan-Krzysztof Duda after a novelty ("At first it looks close to insanity.") in only 18 moves. Take a look!

12/9/2021 – "A short and quite uneventful draw, which totally makes sense as Magnus is on the verge of match victory." This is how Wesley So summed up game 10 of the World Championship match between Magnus Carlsen and Ian Nepomniachtchi. However, in his analyses he still managed to dig deep and indicates a lot of hidden subtleties of the game, particularly in regard to opening theory and match strategy. | Picture: FIDE

12/8/2021 – An uneventful draw in game 10 of the World Championship match kept Magnus Carlsen’s 3-point lead going into the fourth rest day of the contest. The defending champion only needs to score 1 point in the remaining 4 encounters to keep his crown. | Photo: Niki Riga

12/8/2021 – After blundering in game 8 of his World Championship match against Magnus Carlsen, Ian Nepomniachtchi also blundered and lost in game 9. Carlsen now leads 6-3 and with five games to go the match is practically over. Wesley So took a close look at game 9 and concludes: "Ian was playing very well early on in the match but ... game 6 was clearly the turning point in this match as before that both players were playing equally well and it seems that Ian was no inferior to Magnus. ... Ian is a great player and even the greatest players make mistakes. Unexpected and miserable stuff happens to us all, and we hope Ian will be able to move on and get his mojo back asap!" | Photo: Wesley So (Archive) | Photo: Lennart Ootes

12/7/2021 – The World Championship match in Dubai might theoretically finish after 11 (out of 14) games, as Magnus Carlsen scored a third victory in four games after Ian Nepomniachtchi inexplicably blundered a piece in an equal position on Tuesday. The challenger now needs to win 3 out of the 5 remaining encounters to take the match to tiebreaks. | Photo: Niki Riga

12/5/2021 – Magnus Carlsen now has a two-point lead at the World Championship match in Dubai, after beating Ian Nepomniachtchi’s Petroff Defence in Sunday’s game 8. Nepo made a couple of inexplicable moves in positions that seemed to be all but forcefully heading to an inevitable draw. Find here the crucial encounter analysed by elite grandmaster and theoretical expert Anish Giri. | Photo: Eric Rosen

12/4/2021 – After a gruelling fight on Friday, Magnus Carlsen and Ian Nepomniachtchi played a rather uneventful game at the World Championship match in Dubai. The 41-move draw they signed marks the halfway point of the event, as Nepo now has seven games tu surmount the one-point deficit on the scoreboard. Saturday’s encounter was analysed by Dutch star Anish Giri. | Photo: Niki Riga

12/4/2021 – Magnus Carlsen is leading the World Championship match against Ian Nepomniachtchi after scoring a memorable win. In our fourth and final instalment of Carlsen’s previous matches, we look at his 2018 confrontation against Fabiano Caruana. For the first time in a match for the crown, all the classical games finished drawn. The defending champion won the rapid tiebreaks categorically though, and thus kept his title. | Photo: Niki Riga