ChessBase Magazine offers a window to the world of professional chess. Our columnist Nagesh Havanur takes a look at our recent issue, CBM 218. 540 games from Tata Steel Chess and Chessable Masters 2024, 12 opening surveys, 3 opening videos, 6 demo lectures and several exercises for training. Annotators include Wei Yi, Anish Giri, Nordibek […]
Monthly Archives: April 2024
The top duels in the fifth round of the Women’s European Championship ended in draws. This allowed 15-year-old Ukrainian WCM Bozhena Piddubna (pictured) to catch the leaders with a win. Piddubna is now sharing the lead with Ulviyya Fataliyeva (Azerbaijan) and Marta Garcia (Spain). Piddubna will play black against Fataliyeva in Thursday’s sixth round. | […]
Cheating in chess took centre stage when Magnus Carlsen lost to Hans Niemann in September 2022, and then tweeted about it. Now, top grandmasters Vladimir Kramnik and Fabiano Caruana are sharing numbers about how many cheaters there are. What is being debated, what is known, and what is only a feeling? In its latest issue, […]
It is a famous game, played between Siegbert Tarrasch and Akiba Rubenstein in 1911. It ended in a draw, and is given as a model example for an active defence in rook endings in the books of Levenfish/Smyslov and Averbakh. However, matters are not that easy. Can you find the mistakes in the game play […]
Records were shattered and history was made at the 2024 FIDE Candidates. Two events — open and women’s — took place simultaneously for the first time at the same hall. We saw the first brother-sister duo, R Praggnanandhaa and R Vaishali, participating. In the end, D Gukesh broke a number of records: he was the […]
A couple of weeks ago Leon Mendonca turned 18. After many spectacular successes — like a 9.0/9 score in a very strong GM Open a year ago and winning the Challegers group in Wijk aan Zee — Leon just won the Spring Chess Classic 2024 at the Saint Louis Chess Club, outright. The round robin […]
During the endgame, stalemate is a resource that can enable the player with the inferior position to draw the game rather than lose. In more complex positions, stalemate is much rarer, usually taking the form of a swindle that succeeds only if the superior side is inattentive. Chess Trainer GM Efstratios Grivas shows us how […]
The FIDE Candidates Tournament, which captivated audiences for three weeks, is in the books. The closing ceremony was held at 1 Hotel Toronto, the residence of the players for almost a month. The champions, Gukesh D and Tan Zhongyi, were honored with unique trophies crafted from reclaimed Toronto wood, symbolizing their achievement and the enduring […]
It is not very common to have an article focused solely on one specific square. Today, we will make an exception. We will speak about the d5-square, or rather about the weakness that often forms on this square in various lines of the Sicilian defence.
Gukesh D, an incredibly level-headed 17-year-old from Chennai, became the World Chess Championship challenger by winning the very strong 2024 Candidates Tournament in Toronto. Gukesh entered the final round as the sole leader, and safely held a draw with black against direct contender Hikaru Nakamura. Either Fabiano Caruana or Ian Nepomniachtchi could have caught the […]