5/7/2023 – In ChessBase Magazine #213 you can find three video analyses of current opening variations: Christian Bauer recommends the trendy 5...Nh5 against the London System. Leon Mendonca uses one of his games from the current Bundesliga season to show how one should play against the King's Indian sideline 6...Bg4. And Mihail Marin takes the game Esipenko-Aronian from the WR Masters 2023 as an opportunity to take a closer look at a Catalan variation that was popular in the 80s and 90s. You can watch an excerpt from Christian Bauer's video here!

9/19/2022 – The Jobava London System (1.d4 Nf6 2.Nc3 d5 3.Bf4) is itself still a young opening. In his video, Daniel King presents a fairly new gambit within this system: with 4.e4! (instead of the usual 4.e3) White offers a pawn sacrifice. A "shocker" for every player with the black pieces who sees the move on the board for the first time, says Daniel King in his contribution to ChessBase Magazine #209. You can watch an excerpt from his almost half-hour video analysis here!

3/8/2022 – ChessBase Magazine #206 once again offers a wealth of ideas and recommendations for your repertoire. Besides the three opening videos by Jan Werle, Daniel King and Mihail Marin as well as Rainer Knaak's collection of "Topical opening traps", the new issue contains eleven opening articles covering a broad spectrum: Reti, Caro-Kann, Sicilian Nimzowitsch and Taimanov Variation, Petroff, Ruy Lopez, London System, Slav, Gruenfeld and King's Indian - everywhere there are exciting ideas to get to know. In his article Evgeny Postny examines the queen sortie 5...Qb6 in the London System. In the highly topical variation, White sacrifices a pawn after 6.dxc5 Qxb2 7.Rb1 Qc3 8.Bb5. So it's straight to the point! The variation is "absolutely okay" from Black's point of view, according to Postny, but you shouldn't get involved without prior knowledge! Otherwise the danger is too great that you will lose the queen already in the opening. Take a look!

2/12/2022 – The "Lucky bag" of ChessBase Magazine Extra has never been so extensively and diversely filled as in Extra #205! The new issue offers no less than 73 annotated games, including two tricky training exercises by GM Sasikiran. GM Kapnisis presents various opening ideas ("Scotch advance", "Benoni strikes", "Petroff rook shifts", "English castling"), plus analyses by Edouard, Krasenkow, Sumets and many more. However, Imre Hera's analysis of his game against his compatriot Zoltan Almasi from the Hungarian League - "The brilliancy" of this issue - is right at the top of the "Lucky bag". For his success against the higher-rated opponent, Hera employed a surprise in the popular London System: after 1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 e6 3.Bf4 b6 4.e3 Be7 5.h3 c5 he went for the unusual 6.Nc3, which immediately posed problems for the nine-time Hungarian Champion. Take a look!

1/5/2022 – The new ChessBase Magazine #205 offers a wealth of ideas and recommendations for your repertoire. The topics of the eleven opening articles in the new issue range from the Benko Gambit (4.cxb5 a6 5.b6 e6), the French Tarrasch (8.0-0 g5!), the Ruy Lopez (5.Qe2) to recipes against the King's Indian (after 6.Be2). Sergey Grigoriants looks at a topic that will interest many chess fans: He presents an active repertoire against the London System! However, you have to be ready to sacrifice a pawn with 6...e5! and to continue playing "precisely and powerfully" afterwards. But that shouldn't be difficult for you after reading Grigoriant's article!

12/23/2021 – The "Special" in the new ChessBase Magazine #205 is dedicated to Robert Huebner, the best German player since Emanuel Lasker: an exclusive collection of 16 games, with analyses by Michal Krasenkow, Romain Edouard, Viktor Moskalenko, and others. And there's the best of the FIDE Grand Swiss 2021: tournament winner Alireza Firouzja annotates his victory against Nijat Abasov, and Grigoriy Oparin, Yu Yangyi, Alexandr Predke, Samuel Sevian, Nikita Vitiugov, and others annotate their best games. In a video Markus Ragger reveals a brand-new update in the Gruenfeld Defence with 5.Bd2. Plus 11 opening articles ("Surprise in the London System: 6...e5!", "Benko Gambit with open centre: 5.b6 e6!?", "News in the French Tarrasch: 8...g5" ), as well as training columns on tactics, strategy and endgame.

2/23/2020 – Traps, tricks, pattern recognition, all in one FritzTrainer! And of course a deeper understanding of the London system! Finding the right ideas for each position starts with knowledge of the typical tactical patterns. But equally important is to anticipate Black's plans and be able to neutralize them! DAVIDE NASTASIO takes a first look at a FritzTrainer on his iPad!

12/18/2019 – This week IM Merijn van Delft once again brings you his analysis of one of his own games, from the recent Dutch League weekend this time, which he considers quite sharp. Plus a bonus "experimental rook sacrifice"! The live show is free to watch, and available on-demand for ChessBase Premium account holders (but FREE for a limited time!). Merijn is live this week starting at 19:00 UTC (20:00 CET / 4 PM EST).

12/11/2019 – This week IM Merijn van Delft brings you his analysis of one of his own games from the recent German League weekend which he considers quite instructive. The live show is free to watch, and available on-demand for ChessBase Premium account holders (but FREE for a limited time!). Merijn is live this week starting at 19:00 UTC (20:00 CET / 4 PM EST).

11/17/2019 – This week Jon goes solo on annotating, with five games for your review, including the popular Alapin and London. | Send in your own games! Jon welcomes submissions from readers. If your games are selected for the Agony column, not only will you get free detailed commentary of your games by one of chess’s great authors and instructors, and former world no. 4 player, but you also win a free three-month ChessBase Premium Account!

11/4/2019 – The latest FritzTrainer in our ever-growing library is from GM Simon Williams who returns to update his best-selling presentation of the London System. Watch live for free (or on-demand for a limited time) starting at the usual hour: 17:00 UTC (18:00 CET / 12 Noon EST).

3/26/2019 – The London System, which for a long time had been the reputation of a rather harmless sideline, has developed into a very popular opening, and World Champion Magnus Carlsen is only one of many top players who plays it regularly. The London System indeed suits the modern approach to openings very well: White does not necessarily strive for an opening advantage but is content to develop his pieces and hopes to outplay his opponent in the middlegame. However, the London System is more dangerous than it seems and if Black is not careful he can easily wind up in a bad position. Theory develops fast today, even in less concrete systems.

3/3/2019 – This week, JON SPEELMAN takes a gander at the games of an Indian junior rated 1628. The Agony is a London System that turned into a difficult rook endgame. Send in your own games! Jon can always use more material from readers. If your games are selected for the Agony column, not only will you get free detailed commentary of your games by one of chess’s great authors and instructors, and former world no. 4 player, but you also win a free three-month ChessBase Premium Account!

2/20/2019 – Today, the London System (1.d4 Nf6 - or 1...d5 - 2.Bf4) is a very popular opening but it took a while before it was taken seriously. Though it is a rather old line, and James Mason, one of the strongest players of the 19th century, used to play it regularly and with success. Stephan-Oliver Platz tells more about Mason and the development of the London System.

2/9/2019 – The Gibraltar Masters was the first very strong open of 2019 and it might indicate which openings will be particularly popular in 2019. THORSTEN CMIEL had a look which openings were "trendy" in Gibraltar and how the Grandmasters started the new year. Yesterday we looked at Black's choices after 1.e4. Now Thorsten tackles 1.d4 and 1.c4/1.Nf3 openings.

1/30/2019 – Daily training to improve and keep us in shape has to be fun as well as intellectually enlightening. We need to keep up our interest in order to perform well in tournaments. Reviewer DAVIDE NASTASIO likes to do that by engaging with a variety of learning tools. This time he turns his training eye on the new ChessBase Magazine. CBM encompasses different training methods covering all areas, from theoretical opening articles, to tactical and endgame training with video feedback. CBM 187 is a great way to translate your training time into practical success. Here's an overview with examples.

9/19/2018 – Feel like trying out a new opening? How about learning a few basic tips on the London System from a GM? Here's the deal: you invest a small amount of time, reading a few paragraphs about an interesting opening line, selected for you by one of the world's great chess trainers. After that, you try it out, right there in your browser, against an engine that matches the playing strength of you potential opponents. You can play any number of games and test different ideas, as far as possible following the instructions of an experienced chess trainer. We have a brand-new application to support this kind of learning. Take a look – and admit: it is great fun!

5/22/2018 – In the last few months, we have published a number of "Special Powerbooks" for various openings, e.g. for the London System, the French Defence or the Nimzo-Indian. These Powerbooks are very popular, which is no real surprise because they contain lots of information that you will not find elsewhere. Moreover, with Fritz 16, the opening trees and statistics in the Powerbooks are ideal to practise your repertoire. | Photo: ChessBase

5/1/2018 – As we are privileged with so many interesting visitors and authors coming to the ChessBase office in Hamburg and frequenting our studio, we often try to grab them for a few quick questions to see how they are and what's new. This time it was GM Simon Williams who visited us in Hamburg in order to prepare two new FritzTrainer video series. Of course, he also took time out for an impromptu interview. | Photo: ChessBase

1/15/2018 – In this Simon Says Simon Williams takes a look at amusing chess problems! Watch live from 18:00 CET (12 Noon EDT). Puzzles, free sample and information inside the article. | Photo: Alina L'Ami

1/8/2018 – In a series of articles we'll present the different shows we produce throughout the chess year. We'll begin with "Simon says" (mondays at 6pm CET). The english GM Simon Williams is one of the most popular commentators in chess. He's a regular to do live commentary in Gibraltar and Reykjavik as well as on playchess.com. | Photo: Alina L'Ami

9/20/2017 – In an attempt to sidestep mainline opening theory, a lot of today’s 1.d4 players have switched to systems like the Trompowsky or the London. Therefore players — whether amateur or professional GMs — can no longer rely on their Nimzo-Indians or Queens Gambits and have had to look for antidotes to these systems. One such club player, Davide Nastasio, got his hands on Daniel King's Powerplay 25. Going through the contents of the DVD, he found that King's work not only provides an easy-to-learn remedy against these systems but also helps amateurs get a better understanding of themes like pawn breaks, destroying opponent's centre, opening and closing lines, etc.

4/7/2017 – For a long time the London System (White plays d4, Nf3, Bf4 etc.) enjoyed the reputation of being solid but dull and boring. But World Champion Magnus Carlsen and a lot of other players have discovered the possibilities of White's set-up. On his new DVD Simon Williams shows the many advantages of 2.Bf4, looking first of all at lines that are "simple but aggressive".