A number of tournaments are traditionally organised at the turn of the year. The Staufer Open in Schwäbisch Gmünd, Germany took place for the 34th time. Well over 500 chess enthusiasts took part in two competitions. Eltaj Safarli was the clear winner in the A Open. Bettina Trabert reports.
Monthly Archives: January 2024
The thirteenth edition of the London Chess Classic saw 52-year-old Michael Adams becoming the first Englishman to win the now traditional tournament. Shreyas Royal (pictured with his father), at 14, collected his second GM norm, and showed excellent endgame technique when required. GM Karsten Müller selected some of the most instructive endgame positions to share […]
The ChessBase Christmas Puzzle week has concluded, but one final competition remains! To all amateurs and aspiring composers, now is your chance to gain fame by submitting a composition with chance for prizes too – with ChessBase publications in the brand-new eBook format up for grabs! The deadline for submission is January 21st – this […]
An eventful chess year lies behind us. And an equally eventful chess year lies ahead of us. Many dates for the major and somewhat smaller international tournaments have already been announced. Here is a preview of the 2024 tournament calendar. | Photo: FIDE
Almost 30 years ago, at the 1995 edition of the Hoogovens Tournament in Wijk aan Zee, Roberto Cifuentes and Vadim Zvjaginsev played an astounding game. Known as the ‘Pearl of Wijk aan Zee’, the encounter features a number of sacrifices, including a successful queen sacrifice. Zvjaginsev went all-in for the attack once Cifuentes made an […]
Each year we try to have something unusual for the final article of the year. While the endgame studies this time may not fulfill this criterion, your author wanted to provide some deeper, partially philosophical, thoughts. | Photo: Midjourney
The 51st edition of the Rilton Cup came to an end in Stockholm on Friday. The winner of the nine-round event was the Ukrainian GM Vitaly Sivuk, who now plays for Sweden, with a score of 7½/9. Israeli IMs Yahli Sokolovsky and Yair Parkhov (both with 7/9) finished second and third, respectively. | Photos: Lars […]
ChessBase Magazine is breaking new ground. For almost 30 years, a Windows operating system and a ChessBase program were a must for reading the CBM. The new issue #217 (January 2024) is the first one to include full mobile access, so you can load it directly via the web browser on your iPad, tablet, Mac, […]
In general, a queen and one pawn equal two rooks – this leads us to nearly always prefer the two rooks. Is this always the case, and when it is, how can we take advantage of it. If you want to learn more about the tactics and strategy involved, it will be well to carefully […]
The Caplin Masters, part of the Hastings International Chess Congress, came to an end on Friday with a triumph for Abhijeet Gupta. The 34-year-old Indian grandmaster was the only one of 100+ participants in the event to achieve a score of 7½/9, thus getting outright victory. Pengxiang Zhang from China (7/9) came second. Behind Zhang, […]