On 16 February 1906, Vera Menchik was born. After the Russian Revolution, her family lost their property, her parents separated, and Vera Menchik moved to England with her mother. As she did not have a good command of the English language, she devoted herself to chess. In this way, she became the first woman to […]
Monthly Archives: February 2026
How do grandmasters organize their opening files? Inspired by Vishy Anand Austrian GM Felix Blohberger shares advice how to use databases that might help you to study more efficiently and play better.
Magnus Carlsen secured the 2026 FIDE Freestyle Chess World Championship title in Weissenhaus after defeating Fabiano Caruana 2½–1½ in the final. The match turned on a dramatic third game in which Caruana failed to convert a completely winning position and ended up losing. In the contest for third place, Nodirbek Abdusattorov overcame Vincent Keymer to […]
Alongside the main event in Weissenhaus, Bibisara Assaubayeva and Alexandra Kosteniuk contested a four-game Freestyle Chess exhibition match over the weekend. Played at the same time control as the world championship knockouts, the encounter ended 2½–1½ in Assaubayeva’s favour. The result secured her a place in the forthcoming Women’s FIDE Freestyle Chess World Championship later […]
Converting a winning position is one of the toughest skills in chess. Many players build an advantage only to see it slip away at the final stage. This article looks at how Andy Woodward mastered this crucial aspect of the game. From solving endgame studies at a young age to relying on classic chess books, […]
We have a new author at ChessBase: Harshit Raja. And the Indian grandmaster is ambitious – he offers a complete 1.d4-repertoire! In addition, new episodes of Ivan Sokolov’s Middlegame Strategy series were released in January, and ChessBase Magazine fans can look forward to CBM Extra #229, packed with a rich “Lucky Bag”. | All photos: […]
The second day of action at the FIDE Freestyle Chess World Championship in Weissenhaus saw he start of the knockout phase, with the two semifinal matches deciding who will compete for the 2026 title. Magnus Carlsen and Fabiano Caruana emerged victorious and will meet in Sunday’s final. In addition to a world title, a place […]
If you’ve only been using ChessBase for a short time and want to benefit from as many of its unique functions as possible, our series offers you valuable, short and easy-to-digest tips for a successful start with ChessBase´26. In the third part of our new tutorial series, we show you how easily and conveniently you […]
The rapid round-robin on the opening day of the FIDE Freestyle Chess World Championship determined the four semifinalists for the 2026 title. Magnus Carlsen finished first on 4½/7, followed by Vincent Keymer, Fabiano Caruana and Nodirbek Abdusattorov on 4 points. Qualification was only settled in the final round, setting up Saturday’s knockout matches: Carlsen chose […]
In this episode of Svitlana’s Smart Moves, Svitlana introduces the concept “move first, think later,” encouraging players to start with concrete candidate moves based on intuition and pattern recognition, and only afterward justify them with general principles. Through several tactical examples, she shows how strong moves arise naturally from experience rather than abstract reasoning about […]