Chess Base

• "A Karpovian move"

  In the current ChessBase Magazine #230, Nico Zwirs analyses the game between his compatriots Jorden Van Foreest and Anish Giri from the Tata Steel Masters 2026 in the video. The focus is on the opening, as Van Foreest had clearly prepared something special against the Najdorf Variation – known to be one of Giri's specialities. After 11...Qc7, he continued with 12.a3 – ‘A Karpovian move!’. White's idea is to move the b3 knight via c1 and a2 to b4 and from there to target the light squares d5 (and c6). Van Foreest thus invested four moves in improving his knight and securing his king's...

• Can you handle pawns?

  Were you able to solve the challenge positions we gave you last week? Were you able find the way to promote the pawns to win? Today we bring you all solutions, with very instructive video explanations by Jared Modica, a chess content creator from Austin, Texas. He shows us how to solve tatical lines of play, and how to handle pawns in endgames.

• Late surge gives Ulviyya Fataliyeva outright victory at strong women's round-robin in Uzbekistan

  Ulviyya Fataliyeva claimed clear first place at the IV International Women's Chess Championship in Bukhara, Uzbekistan, finishing strongly to score 6½/9 and a 2590 performance rating. The Azerbaijani representative secured the title with three consecutive wins in the closing rounds, overtaking Nana Dzagnidze, who remained unbeaten and finished second on 6 points. Harika Dronavalli took sole third place with 5½/9 in a compact, high-level round-robin event. | Photo: OSF via Women's Chess Coverage on X