Chess News

1. "The Indian Way" - A review of RB Ramesh's "Improve Your Pieces"
   The Indian Grandmaster RB Ramesh is regarded as one of the best and most successful coaches in the world, and he has played a significant role in the many successes of talented Indian players. In the ChessBase course "Improve your Pieces" he now reveals his chess and training philosophy. Harry Schaack watched the course and was impressed.
2. Anish Giri in conversation with Shagar Shah: Live from 16:00 CEST (10:00 ET)
   Anish Giri has recorded a two-volume Fritztrainer course in which he gives an overview of all the openings. The course is now available, also in ChessBase Book format. In a live stream, Anish Giri and his co-author Sagar Shah talk about Giri's Fritztrainer and what else is important in the chess world.
3. Women’s Candidates R12: Tan escapes with a draw to keep the lead
   Three out of four games ended drawn in round 12 of the Women’s Candidates Tournament, as Vaishali R scored her third win in a row in her encounter with black against Anna Muzychuk. The games that featured Tan Zhongyi and Lei Tingjie could have easily ended with decisive results — Tan escaped with a draw from a losing position against Nurgyul Salimova, while Lei failed to make the most of clear winning chances against Kateryna Lagno. Thus, Tan kept her half-point lead over Lei. | Photo: FIDE / Michal Walusza
4. Candidates - Nakamura and Gukesh join the lead, Caruana scores
   Hikaru Nakamura and Gukesh D joined Ian Nepomniachtchi in the lead at the Candidates Tournament after beating Alireza Firouzja and Nijat Abasov, respectively. Fabiano Caruana defeated Vidit Gujrathi and now stands a half point behind the leaders. Tan Zhongyi still has a half-point lead over Lei Tingjie in the women’s event. | Replay all the games with computer-assisted analysis. Full reports to follow shortly.
5. Chess in Canada: Great tournaments, impressive personalities
   It came as something of a surprise that Toronto was chosen by FIDE as host of both Candidates Tournaments, but Canada has a rich chess history and has produced some great players over the years. Here's a brief outline:
6. Adrian Mikhalchishin: The Sharp Arkhangelsk Variation in the Ruy Lopez
   The Sharp Arkhangelsk variation, utilized by chess masters like Magnus Carlsen and Fabiano Caruana, emerges from a series of strategic moves beginning with 1.e4 e5. This rich variation offers multiple playstyles, making it a challenging preparation for opponents, with model games highlighting its diverse strategies and concepts for players of all levels.
7. Why Chess Players Blunder
   We have seen them, haven’t we? The howlers? Amateurs and professionals alike in the aftermath of a game, trying to explain their blunder, shaking their heads in disbelief, scratching their brows, sighing while trying to come up with a rational explanation. Blunders happen because humans are fallible and ill-founded impulses prove stronger than the ability to abort them – as is explained in this scientific paper.
8. Anish Giri: A Supergrandmaster's Guide to Openings Vol.1 & 2
   When you begin your journey of building an opening repertoire, how nice would it be to get a glimpse of what each opening looks like through the eyes of a super GM. It would help building your opening repertoire and understanding the vast world of chess openings. It is exactly with this thought that "A Supergrandmaster's Guide to Openings with Anish Giri" was made. Pre-order now! Delivery on 18 April 2024.
9. Anish Predicts
   In this New In Chess podcast episode, after the first half of the Candidates, Super-grandmaster Anish Giri gives his take. In an hour-long interview by Dirk Jan ten Geuzendam, he candidly shares his assessment of the players so far. Anish sees Ian Nepomniachtchi as one of the top favourites to win the Candidates and qualify for the World Championship match. But he also speaks at great length about the other players.
10. Giri's ChessBase Book on the Caro-Kann and King's Indian
    Anish Giri's Opening Fritztrainer's are available 18th of April. But we added a sneak peek to his take on the Caro-Kann and King's Indian openings. Since this is still quite a new feature, we made a video which explains the setup in just 3 minutes.
11. Svitlana's Smart Moves - The Anti-Bird: Nh6!? against 1.f4
    Arne recently played in a chess tournament, and one of his opponents played the unusual 1.f4, which was quite a surprise. Sadly, he didn't film this Smart Moves episode before the tournament, to get to know the surprising answer Nh6!? The so called - Horsefly Defence in the Bird Opening. Even the engines think that this counter is absolutely legit, and the Mega Database shows excellent results as well. Svitlana shows, why it is a powerful move!
12. Yet another 12-year-old grandmaster
    He was born on 3 June 2011 in Bursa, Turkey. On April 1st (no April Fool's joke) the twelve-year-old, playing in the very strong GRENKE Chess Open, Yagiz Kaan Erdpgmus scored 7.0/9 points with a 2646 performance. With that he had fulfilled his final GM norm and become the youngest grandmaster in the world – the fourth youngest in chess history. We will be watching this young boy carefully. | Photo Ugur Medya
13. Svitlana's Smart Moves - The best tactics of all candidates! Double Edition!
    Svitlana dug deep to find some outstanding, beautiful tactics, by all the men's and women's candidates, who will compete in Toronto soon. Arne is trying hard to solve all the puzzles, and get 8 out of 8 in both videos. Will he succeed? And how will you do, dear viewer? These two videos are the perfect start to get into the mood for the candidates tournament!
14. The American Cup: Live!
    The American Cup, one of the United States’ premier chess tournaments, returns to Saint Louis. Now in its third year, the event runs from March 12-21, 2024, at the iconic World Chess Hall of Fame, featuring sixteen of America’s top chess talents. With $400,000 in prize money up for grabs, the competitors will prove their mettle under mounting pressure in the double-elimination knockout format. | Follow the games live with expert commentary starting at 19.00 CET (14.00 ET, 23.30 IST)
15. ChessBase Puzzle Challenge – 02
    Chess is a really fun game to play, but equally enjoyable is solving artificial positions – problems and studies – many that defy the imagination. In this ChessBase Challenge instalment, we have a set of puzzles that can challenge your brain. Can you solve the position? Can you find the mind-boggling strategy that is required to reach the goal? You have a week to do so. Then we will provide the full solution.
16. What can you learn from Vidit
    Have you ever finished last in a tournament? Well, it happened to Vidit Gujrathi at the Prague Masters 2024. As Vidit himself pointed out, this might be the first time ever that he finished last in his entire chess career. And it happened 20 days before the most important event of his life - the Candidates, this cannot really be a good sign, can it?
17. How to work with the Laws of Chess
    "As arbiters, we must first and foremost have full knowledge of the Laws of Chess. The Laws of Chess are like the Bible, everything starts there." In this article IA Alon Shulman shares his thought process in dealing with cases, on implementing the Laws of Chess. Arbiters must first and foremost have full knowledge of them, everything starts there. Those laws are the basis of every decision that are make. "Secondly, we must always bear in mind that those laws don’t cover everything, and we need to impose the rational of the laws as a whole." | Photo Mark Livshitz
18. Behind the board: An interview with GM Daniel Fernandez
    Chess players have certainly heard of Daniel Fernandez, who has already published a couple of Fritztrainers for ChessBase. But recently, non-chess players also got to know him because of a YouTube video with the title - "We Used An Adult Toy To Beat A Chess Grandmaster". How did this video happen? Are chess players cheating more often nowadays? And why can Daniel speak at least five languages, and helped out in a koala sanctuary? This, and many more questions, you can see in the interview with the English Grandmaster.
19. A Heart-Racing Experience! (4)
    Magnus Carlsen has been the World #1, since 2011! Apart from his tremendous chess talent, he also has a relatively higher HRV: his heart rate is typically between 75 bpm – 95 bpm, which enables him to balance alertness (for tactical danger and opportunities) and calmness (to optimize logical thinking and decision-making)! Calm heartbeats during critical moments lead to better decisions!
20. Prague Chess Festival - Abdusattorov triumphs, 1½ points ahead of the field
    Nodirbek Abdusattorov is the sixth champion of the prestigious chess festival. In the process the the 19-year-old Usbek grandmaster rose to the fourth position in the world live ranking, ahead of the reigning world champion Ding Liren. All games of the final round were drawn, and can be replayed, with engine commentary, in this report. You can also watch the live commentary by ChessBase India, if you missed it.
21. New: ChessBase Magazine #218
    Tata Steel 2024: Analyses of the tournament winner Wei Yi as well as Nodirbek Abdusattorov, Alexander Donchenko, Alireza Firouzja, Anish Giri, Erwin l'Ami, Praggnanandhaa, Eline Roebers and Vidit Gujrathi - Mihail Marin looks back at Linares 1992: Kasparov vs. the young generation - French à la Erigaisi: Sergey Grigoriants serves up a fresh idea in the Advance Variation: 1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.e5 c5 4.c3 Nc6 5.Nf3 Bd7 6.Be2 f6!? - Inviting Nimzo-Inder: In the fashionable variation 4.f3 d5 5.a3 Be7 6.e4 dxe4 7.fxe4 c5 White gets a protected passed pawn on d5; Jan Werle shows why Black can afford it! - "Fundamental Endgame Knowledge" Part #8: What you need to know in the endgame with bishop and pawn; video course with Karsten Mueller and much more. Enjoy CBM #218 in the new ChessBase book format on any device: iPad, tablet, Mac. Windows PC or laptop!
22. A Heart-Racing Experience! (2)
    In the recent Freestyle event, heart rates of the players were measured in classical chess, with slow time controls. In bullet and blitz formats, where intuition prevails, heart rates remain relatively low compared to slower time controls like Rapid or Classical, which allow more contemplation during critical positions. Here are observations provided by the leading expert on the heart rate data shared during the Weissenhaus event.
23. A Heart-Racing Experience! (1)
    Chess is often considered a calm and quiet game, where the only sound is the clicking of the pieces. But what if we could hear the heartbeat of the players, and see how their body reacts to the tension and excitement of the game? That is exactly what was done in the Freestyle Chess 2024 event in Weissenhaus, where the heart rate of some of the world’s best chess players were monitored as they faced each other! We start this series with a look back at how it all started. | Photo Lennart Ootes
24. Elisabeth Paehtz interview on Kasparov Chess Foundation
    The Kasparov Chess Foundation Academy invites you to watch an interview with grandmaster Elisabeth Paehtz, one of the strongest German female chess players since her youth. On February 25, 17:00 CET, Elisabeth will give a live interview at KCF Academy. Add it to your calendar!
25. ChessBase Puzzle Competition winners
    In the concluding article for the Christmas Composition Contest, we see the final prize-winning compositions, which were a touch ahead of the others! Like always, all compositions were evaluated on the basis of economy, harmony and aesthetics! We also included a special prize for the best story behind the composition, and the cook-stopping that took place! Hope you enjoyed reading the article and playing through the excellent compositions.