With two rounds left, the race for first place remains closely contested in both sections of the Tata Steel Chess tournament. In the Masters, Javokhir Sindarov caught Nodirbek Abdusattorov in the lead after beating Arjun Erigaisi, while Hans Niemann scored a full point to join Matthias Bluebaum and Jorden van Foreest in the chasing pack. […]
Monthly Archives: January 2026
ChessBase Magazine offers a window to the world of professional chess. Nagesh Havanur takes a look at the current issue, CBM 229. All games from the FIDE World Cup, 27 annotated, 11 opening surveys, 3 opening videos, demo lectures and several exercises for training. Annotators include Sam Shankland, Wei Yi, Nodirbek Yakubboev and Gabriel Sargissian […]
Matthias Blübaum is currently stunning the chess world with his performance at the Tata Steel Masters in Wijk aan Zee. After ten rounds, he shares second to fourth place and is half a point behind leader Nodirbek Abdusattorov. In the last two rounds, Blübaum defeated Gukesh and Anish Giri, which helped him break the 2700 […]
You are playing in a tournament, and have just seen who your opponent in the next round is. Do you go to your database and simply scan through to spot his strengths and weaknesses, to decide which opening to play? With ChessBase´26 you get a full dossier with recommendations in less than one minute. And […]
Deboushnik De describes his rating rise from 1927 to 2430, which gained him two IM norms within a single year. He highlights the importance of mindset, planning and trusting the process during difficult phases. Deboushnik comes from North East India, where access to top-level tournaments and training resources is limited. That is why his journey […]
Last week, the news broke out that Daniel Naroditsky’s toxicology report had been seen exclusively by NBC News, and the verdict was that a variety of drugs had been found in his system at the time of death: amphetamines, kratum, and more. The news went rampant that a ‘drug cocktail’ was coursing through his veins. […]
In this video course, Grandmaster Ivan Sokolov explores one of the most intriguing and under-examined areas of modern chess: reversed opening systems, focusing on the Reversed Grünfeld and the Reversed Dutch. At first glance, these two systems seem unrelated. However, they share a common strategic challenge: the value of tempi, structure, and psychology when familiar […]
This lesson shows how to customize the look of your notation in ChessBase to make it clearer and more comfortable for everyday use. It covers changing notation styles, piece symbols, fonts, colours, and using quick zoom for better readability.
14-year-old German IM Christian Gloeckler remains perfect in the Qualifiers Tournament in Wijk aan Zee: six rounds have been played, and he has won all six. This gives him a performance rating of 3228, and with three rounds to go he leads Henry Edward Tudor by 1.5 points; Tudor is in sole second place with […]
Today is a rest day in Wijk aan Zee. A good opportunity to revisit some of the finest games played in the tournament’s long history. Robert Ris helps. The popular Dutch IM, author, and trainer has selected and annotated seven outstanding games from Wijk aan Zee. As a gift, for free!