1/5/2023 – Can a unit of our army be a friend or foe depending on the circumstances? From experience, we know that the answer is a resounding yes! GM Sundararajan Kidambi explains the beautiful concept of using your opponent’s piece to your advantage instead of always being bent on automatically going for the recapture.

11/18/2022 – The news from Russia about Karpov's accident and state of health have been confusing and contradictory. In the end, it appears as if everything was far less serious than reported and Karpov was able to send greetings to the Karpov Festival in Cap d'Agde. Now the 12th world champion is back home. A chronicle of the news. | Photo: Susan Polgar

11/12/2022 – Anatoly Karpov was the sixth 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.

11/8/2022 – At the end of October, former World Champion Anatoly Karpov had a severe accident that caused a traumatic brain injury and a fractured neck of the femur. Moreover, he has been battling pneumonia. But according to current news Karpov is on the road to recovery and was even able to complain about the bad hospital food. | Photo: Anatoly Karpov with his wife Natalia and his daughter Sofia

6/2/2022 – Anatoly Karpov and Tigran Petrosian are two Gemini world champions with outstanding positional and defensive skills. Alireza Firouzja and Hans Moke Niemann are also Gemini but will they be able to follow the path of Karpov and Petrosian and become world champion? Gemini are sometimes the fastest thinkers of all the signs of the zodiac, but they sometimes also have to deal with lapses of concentration. | Photo: Pixabay

4/13/2022 – Who am I? Tactician or position player? Attacker or defender? Should I play 1.d4 or 1.e4? Sicilian or French? If you know your strengths and weaknesses you will score more points and you will be more successful. In their "Player Types" ChessBase course Karsten Müller and Luis Engel take a close look at playing styles, and in an extensive interview Karsten Müller reveals a few things they discovered.

1/21/2022 – Anatoly Karpov is one of the World Champions who is featured in the ChessBase NFT series. The 12th World Champion is a passionate stamp collector and immediately understood the idea. In an interview Karpov talks about NFTs, the story behind his brilliant win against Viktor Kortschnoi in the Candidates Final 1974, the World Championship match Carlsen vs. Nepomniachtchi, and Carlsen's statements about defending the title.

1/7/2022 – The MegaBase 2022 is Chess History in Action: It offers 9.210.512 games, the earliest played in 1475 and the most recent played October 2021, many of them annotated. Here our columnist, offers an introduction to three epic matches from the MegaBase with six annotated games. There is a lot more to discover in this treasure trove, grand battles, opening novelties and exemplary endgames.

6/20/2021 – A comment in the previous column prompted Jon Speelman to share with the readers which players he considers to be the best to have ever lived. He starts with Bobby Fischer, whom he characterizes as having “precise power”; and with Anatoly Karpov — “deft control”. Chime in your thoughts in the comments section and, if you like, characterize your favourite players’ styles in a couple of words! | Artwork: Unknown (via Quora)

5/23/2021 – Today, on 23 May, Anatoly Karpov turns 70! The 12th World Champion is still very active and on 31 May 2021, he will give a simul at the Karpov Children’s Cup, an event supported by FIDE. Which made Alexey Root remember a remarkable Karpov simul in Austin, Texas, back in 1994. | Photo: V. Savostianov, Novosti Press (via D. Griffin)

5/5/2021 – On Sunday, 2 May, Magnus Carlsen won the New in Chess Classic Online Tournament, the first of the so far five Meltwater Champions Chess Tour tournaments the World Champion, who is as spoilt for success as he is hungry for it, could win. But Carlsen did not only entertain and impress at the board (or screen). In short video clips, shown during the live broadcast, he revealed what he thinks about previous World Champions and showed his amazing chess memory. | Image: Screenshot

4/29/2021 – If Bobby Fischer had not retired after becoming World Champion in 1972 we would have seen a decade dominated by Fischer, Anatoly Karpov and Viktor Kortschnoi. What would have happened, if there had been a match Fischer - Karpov or Fischer - Kortschnoi? And why did Fischer not play against Karpov in 1975? And how would Fischer's decision have turned out if the challenger had not been Karpov, but Kortschnoi? Some thoughts by Stephan Oliver Platz.

3/23/2021 – Karsten Müller once again asked our readers for help to solve an endgame riddle. This time, he looked at the 27th game of the first World Championship match between Anatoly Karpov and Garry Kasparov. Was Kasparov right when he claimed that the endgame contains a number of mistakes? Turns out he was as, after all, he could have held the draw!

3/12/2021 – Karsten Müller once again sets out to find truth in a famous endgame. This time he looks at the 27th game of the 1st World Championship match between Anatoly Karpov and Garry Kasparov, which is generally regarded as a fine example of Karpov's outstanding technique. But how well did Karpov and Kasparov really play the endgame in this famous game?

3/3/2021 – The traditional TePe Sigeman & Co tournament will take place at the Malmö Live Concert Hall on April 24-30. A highly attractive 8-player lineup will battle it out in a single round robin with a classical time control. Most notably, 69-year-old former world champion Anatoly Karpov will be participating. Alexei Shirov, Jorden van Foreest and Nihal Sarin will be among the Russian legend’s rivals! | Photo: Andrei Nikerichev / Moskva news Agency

2/15/2021 – Adrian Michalchishin is one of the world's most renowned trainers. He has worked with players such as Alexander Beliavsky, Anatoly Karpov, Alisa Maric, Ilja Nyzhnyk, Richard Rapport, Mateusz Bartel, Susan and Sofia Polgar, to name just a few. In part II of an extensive interview he talks about the work of a trainer, psychology in chess, and reveals how Kasparov once forced him to play cards throughout the night, and why computers may be damaging for chess.

12/31/2020 – Adrian Michalchishin is one of the world's most renowned trainers. He has worked with players such as Aleksander Beliavsky, Anatoly Karpov, Alisa Maric, Ilja Nyzhnyk, Richard Rapport, Mateusz Bartel, Susan and Sofia Polgar, to name just a few. In an extensive interview he talks about his life, trainers who have influenced him, and what you need to be a successful coach and player. | Photo: Pascal Simon

12/2/2020 – Football star Diego Armando Maradona passed away last Wednesday at age 60. Regarded worldwide as one of the greatest players of all time, he was glorified in his home country, Argentina. After his retirement as a professional footballer, Maradona worked as a manager first in 1994-95 and then from 2011 until his death. In the meantime, among other activities, he was a talk show host — in September 2005, former world chess champion Anatoly Karpov was one of his guests. | Pictured: Lorenzo Insigne, Napoli’s forward, placing flowers at a section of the San Paolo Stadium that donned a picture of Maradona. | Photo: Alessandro Garofalo/LaPresse

10/17/2020 – In 1988, eight Hollywood celebrities, including Erik Estrada and William Windom, played in a Los Angeles chess tournament. Although Michał Kanarkiewicz had never heard of that 1988 celebrity chess tournament, he created the 2019 “Chess Championship of the Stars” in Poland. WIM Alexey Root tells how both celebrity chess tournaments, 31 years and thousands of miles apart, promoted chess. | Pictured: Michał Kanarkiewicz with Anatoly Karpov at the airport in Warsaw

8/18/2020 – In 1983 rookie chess journalist Frederic Friedel wrote an article for a German magazine, defining and celebrating "Super Grandmasters" – players who were rated 2600 or higher. There were 13 such players, and they were led by World Champion Anatoly Karpov, with a young upstart named Garry Kasparov hard at his heels. The top female player in the world, Pia Cramling, was rated 2355. Today things have changed somewhat – to put it mildly.

8/12/2020 – The ChessBase Master Class deserves its name. On twelve DVDs our top experts had a close look at some of the best players in the history of chess. You now have the opportunity to get these twelve DVDs with lessons about the world's best chess players per download - and for a short while you can buy the complete "Master Class Bundle" for a reduced price! Per download, right to your computer. And whoever buys the bundle, automatically takes part in a raffle!

4/17/2020 – Thirty years ago, because of health risks, the International Chess Federation (FIDE) banned smoking at its events. Since handshakes spread the coronavirus, should FIDE ban them when in-person chess tournaments resume? WIM Alexey Root considers the history and the future of smoking and handshakes.

3/11/2020 – A successful tourist company in Tunisia has organized, for a second year, an impressive tournament promoting both chess and tourism in the country. The winner of the Master tournament, scoring 7½/9, was GM Maxime Lagarde (pictured receiving the prize of €2,500 euro and a medal from Anatoly Karpov). DIANA MAHAJLOVA has the details.

3/3/2020 – The 80th Noteboom tournament took place in Leiden last weekend. In addition to the Open, a four-way battle was carried out by the "old masters". Nikolic won ahead of Hübner, Karpov and Timman. Casper Schoppen won the Open. | Photos: Harry Gielen