Features
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Review
Pocket sparring partner – 12 Jan 2021
Among chess playing apps, the open source Black Diamond is your most versatile choice, but don’t expect any fancy graphics, writes Heinrich Tillack.
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Review
Quantity over quality – 03 Jan 2021
Lichess has published the world’s biggest collection of chess puzzles. Why you should not yet hold your breath, explain Stefan Löffler and Conrad Schormann.
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![If you miss your chess club, too, take consolation from this cartoon by Jan van Haasteren. Like many of the Dutch cartoonist’s works it has been made into a 500 piece jigsaw puzzle by [JVH-Puzzles][1]. Currently you can only get it [second hand][2].
[1]: https://www.jvh-puzzels.com/
[2]: https://www.marktplaats.nl/q/jan+van+haasteren++de+schaakclub/](/files/jan-van-haasteren-chess-club.240.jpeg)
Thank you
Merry Christmas! – 24 Dec 2020
By John Foley, Stefan Löffler, Gustaf Mossakowski and Conrad Schormann.
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Review
Sloppy on purpose – 22 Dec 2020
Why has a pricey collection of pirated and in some cases mutilated images of chess art received much praise, wonders Stefan Löffler.
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Interview
A social experience – 19 Dec 2020
ChessBase strives to make online play more friendly. Co-founder Matthias Wüllenweber spoke with Conrad Schormann.
Latest News
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Short news
Minecrafter tournament breaks Twitch record – 18 Jan 2021
The Canadian streamers Alexandra and Andrea Botez organised and streamed a tournament between streamers of the videogame Minecraft, named BlockChamps after the building blocks that are the essence of Minecraft, with which many gamers have created their own chess sets. The tournament stream attracted up tp more than 91,000 concurrent viewers, making it the most watched chess stream on Twitch. All streams together peaked above 150,000 concurrent viewers according to Chess.com.
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Short news
Pogchamps 3 announced – 16 Jan 2021
Chess.com has announced a third celebrities tournament to be broadcast on Twitch on 14–28 February. Apart from celebrity streamers (xQc, Pokimane) and youtubers (MrBeast) as in the first two editions an actor (Rainn Wilson) and a poker professional (Dan Negrescu) join the field which will share a doubled prize money of $100,000. In addition the event will be raising funds for non-profits, and Chess.com has pledged up to $100,000 to match incoming donations. The event already creates chess content on Twitch with the participants training while streaming or while their chess coaches are streaming.
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Short news
GM Gildardo García died – 15 Jan 2021
Ten-times Colombian champion Gildardo García passed away at the age of 66 at a clinic in Medellín after several weeks of battling Covid-19.
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Short news
Optimizing competitions for spectators – 13 Jan 2021
The Trophée Immopar, created thirty years ago in Paris, was arguably the first big chess event that was a viable tournament (not just a match) and at the same time a spectator event with live commentary, rapid time control and a k.o.-mode with tie-breaks, elements that are are still there in the Champions Chess Tour. This Thursday the creator and director of Trophée Immopar Dan-Antoine Blanc-Shapira will look back thirty years in a webinar, in French language, hosted by Léonard.
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Short news
Play Magnus expects break even by end 2022 – 09 Jan 2021
In an interview with Der Aktionär, a German investor magazine, Play Magnus CEO Andreas Thome said that he expects the group to become profitable by the end of 2022 but stressed that the priority is growth. He singled out Chessable as a driver of growth and that the e-learning platform is to launch an app next month.