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

5/28/2022 – 75 years ago, on 28 May 1947, the American Grandmaster and renowned writer Andrew "Andy" Soltis was born in Hazleton, Pennsylvania. In an extensive interview Soltis talks about his chess and his writing career, chess in New York, the Marshall Chess Club, playing blitz against Bobby Fischer and about Fabiano Caruana and Magnus Carlsen. | Photo: Marcy Soltis

10/26/2019 – A Britannica Special Feature: ChessBase has received special permission from Encyclopaedia Britannica to highlight several sections from the classic article by Grandmaster ANDREW SOLTIS on chess, aimed at newcomers to the game. In Part 3: Hypermodernism, the Soviet school, and the pragmatists. | Read Part 1 | Part 2 | Chess theory consists of opening knowledge, tactics (or combinations), positional analysis (particularly pawn structures), strategy (the making of long-range plans and goals), and endgame technique (including basic mates against the lone king).

10/16/2018 – 110 years ago, on October 16th, 1908, the Soviet Master and famous opening theoretician Vsevolod Rauzer was born in Kiev, Ukraine. Rauzer died in 1941 but during his short career, he discovered a number of new ideas in the opening and the endgame. Rauzer was convinced that 1.e4 is better than 1.d4 and wanted to prove that with all his might. | Diagram: The starting position of the Richter-Rauzer Attack

8/9/2018 – Lubomir Kavalek was born in Prague, but left his country in 1968 and found a new home in the USA. In the 1970s, he was one of the world's best players and also successful as a second and coach, including Bobby Fischer, and a prolific writer with dozens of columns shared on ChessBase over the years. Today he celebrates his 75th birthday. | Photo: (left) Kavalek and (right) World Chess Hall of Fame

2/17/2018 – Fedor Bohatirschuk was a strong Ukrainian chess player and a doctor by profession. He inspired Boris Pasternak to parts of his character of Doctor Zhivago. In 1944 Bohatirschuk played a handicap simul in Prague against eight Czech players. Vlastimil Hort shares memories of the eight players and translates a passage of Bohatirschuk's autobiography in which the chess master meets Nikolai Krylenko, prosecutor for Stalin and promoter of Soviet chess.

10/6/2015 – The chess books published by McFarland are special. They are carefully designed and edited and attract excellent writers. If you are interested in chess history or the lives of outstanding chess personalities they are an absolute must. Recently, the American publisher presented a number of new titles that are definitely worth reading and offer fascinating insights.