Do you know the feeling? You often come out of the opening with a promising position, only to struggle to convert your advantage because you do not fully understand the resulting middlegame. Jochen Schwarz, a club player from Bremen, wants to improve this aspect of his game and has enlisted Ivan Sokolov as his “coach” […]
Monthly Archives: August 2026
Dear chess friends! We’ve got another great offer for you: this week (until August 9th, 2026), you can get over 25% off all Fritz Trainer courses by Ivan Sokolov!
Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu remained in sole first place after six rounds of the Saint Louis Rapid & Blitz, extending his lead to 2 points over Javokhir Sindarov. The Indian grandmaster defeated Awonder Liang and drew his other two games on day two, including a 117-move encounter with Wesley So. Despite several missed opportunities and fluctuating positions, […]
In his latest column, Jon Speelman moves from Hatfield House and Queen Elizabeth’s Oak to a series of chess puzzles, with rook endings, defensive choices and a spoof opening line among the themes. He also introduces the idea of a “Fluffy Duck” opening, inspired by an advocaat-based cocktail, and invites readers to suggest a suitable […]
Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu took the outright lead after the first three rapid rounds of the Saint Louis Rapid & Blitz, scoring 5 points from a possible 6. The Indian grandmaster defeated Levon Aronian and Fabiano Caruana after opening with a draw, while Javokhir Sindarov and Wesley So finished 1 point behind. Five games were decisive on […]
We’re planning the next chapters of ChessBase and we want input from the people who actually use it, before we decide what to build first. Help us by taking part in a survey that asks how you work day to day: your setup and hardware, how you use engines and databases, and which parts of […]
The Saint Louis Rapid & Blitz is taking place on 2-6 August at the Saint Louis Chess Club. The 10-player event sees three days of rapid chess (single round-robin) followed by two days of blitz (double round-robin). A stellar lineup features, among others, World Championship challenger Javokhir Sindarov, Fabiano Caruana and Vincent Keymer. Follow the […]
Of the five players rated above 2600 at the main event of the Dortmund Chess Festival, only three began the tournament with a win on Saturday. Matthias Bluebaum (2689, last year’s winner) defeated Alfred Parvanyan (2200), Rasmus Svane (2618) beat Robert Prieb (2196) and Andrew Hong (2604) overcame Junyi Zhang (2191). Dmitrij Kollars (2627) and […]
ChessBase´26 offers a wide range of technical features and training tools. To get the most out of them, it helps to know where to look. In this tutorial, we show you how just a few clicks can enhance your ChessBase experience. Explore the “View” menu across different sections of the program to design your own […]
The top seeds made a solid start to the British Chess Championship in Coventry, with Luke McShane, defending champion Michael Adams and four other top contenders winning their opening games. Most results on the leading boards followed the ratings, although 11-year-old Bodhana Sivanandan was held to a draw by George Zhao after recovering from a […]