In an exciting twist, Fabiano Caruana beat former sole leader Alireza Firouzja in the open section of the FIDE Chess.com Grand Swiss to set up a thrilling final weekend in Riga. Now Caruana and Firouzja are sharing the lead with David Howell, while no fewer than ten players are standing only a half point back […]
Monthly Archives: November 2021
In November 1991 ChessBase launched its first chess playing program for PCs. It was a modest start, but one that went on to completely change the chess world. Today, we start retracing the steps that led to the development of a fledgling chess program that went on to become one of the most powerful entities […]
At the end of October, the 139th “Varsity Match” Oxford vs Cambridge was played at the Royal Automobile Club in London. All in all, Cambridge is slightly ahead in matches, but this year Oxford won 5.5-2.5. The match was a real event, with dinner and music by the famous pianist, composer and chess fan Jason […]
The Rubinstein Variation of the French Defence (1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 dxe4 4.Nxe4) often proves difficult for White to crack. Sure, you have a lot of space, but Black’s position is very solid. After the main moves 4…Nd7 5.Nf3 Ngf6 6.Nxf6+ Nxf6, White has so far mostly tried 7.c3 or 7.Bd3. In the new […]
Both sections of the FIDE Chess.com Grand Swiss have sole leaders going into round 8 (out of 11). Alireza Firouzja made the most of a slight edge in an endgame against Evgeniy Najer to reclaim the sole lead in the open section, while Lei Tingjie got the better of Nino Batsiashvili to collect her fifth […]
The 2021 FIDE Grand Swiss in Riga, Latvia has featured many exciting new opening ideas and double-edged games, as the world’s best players fight for spots in the World Championship cycle. Canadian FM and opening expert Joshua Doknjas analyzes five interesting games from the first half of the event. | Photo: Mark Livshitz
Endgame specialist Kasten Müller continues to find instructive examples from the FIDE Chess.com Grand Swiss. The players are having a rest on Tuesday, so it is a good opportunity to find answers to a few technical questions: when to exchange down into a winning pawn endgame, how to defend with a bishop against a rook […]
One highlight of each issue of the ChessBase Magazine is “The Analysis”, a deeply analysed, particularly interesting game, selected from the many annotated and interesting games in every issue. Not an easy task – just take a look at the list of authors who contributed analyses to CBM #204: Anton Demchenko, Romain Edouard, Viktor Erdos, […]
Patrick Bet-David, CEO of Valuetainment, sits down with Garry Kasparov, in what was easily one of the best interviews by the former world champion in years. He candidly discusses topics such as chess today compared to his day, AI and why it is not the boogeyman, politics, Putin, the US, and truth. “I’m not a […]
After six rounds, the participants of the FIDE Chess.com Grand Swiss will get a rest day on Tuesday. In the open section, five players are tied atop the standings on 4½/6 points, with Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and Krishnan Sasikiran (pictured) the latest to have joined the leading pack. Among the women, Lei Tingjie reclaimed sole first […]