Category Archives: News

The Thinking Game – How DeepMind Transformed Artificial Intelligence

DeepMind Technologies has revolutionized AI research and, in its still relatively short history, produced many valuable results and breakthroughs. With its Go and chess programs AlphaGo and AlphaZero, DeepMind caused quite a stir in the gaming world, but of course the aim is about far more than winning games. A compelling film on this was […]

Riddle: Korchnoi-Karpov 1978

As chess players occasionally do, Alex Fishbein, the U.S. grandmaster, was recently looking at a classic game from the past: Viktor Kortschnoj’s victory over Anatoly Karpov in the 21st game of their 1978 match. Something was wrong. Charles Sullivan had done some intense research on this volatile encounter and asks for your assessment on the […]

London Chess Classic – Live!

The XTX Markets London Chess Classic is a 10-player all-play-all tournament taking place from 26 November to 5 December at the Emirates Stadium, home to Arsenal Football Club. Four English players and six international representatives make up the lineup, which includes top seeds Alireza Firouzja and Nodirbek Abdusattorov. | Follow the games live with expert […]

World Cup: Esipenko wins again, gets last Candidates spot

A decisive result in the match for third place marked Tuesday’s action at the FIDE World Cup in Goa, as Andrey Esipenko secured qualification for the 2026 Candidates Tournament. The Russian grandmaster completed a 2–0 victory over Nodirbek Yakubboev with another confident performance in the rematch, while the second classical game of the final between […]

The Monthly Dragon – How Fashionable Is the Dragon in 2025?

In this episode, Arne briefly “takes over” the Monthly Dragon and, together with Chris, uses ChessBase 26’s new Opening Report to explore the history and current relevance of major Dragon and Dragadorf setups, checking how fashionable they are today across different rating levels. They showcase the tactics feature on Dragon positions, with Chris solving sharp […]

Speed Chess Championship: Carlsen, Naka, Firouzja and Lazavik in semis

The quarterfinals of the 2025 Speed Chess Championship have concluded, producing two compelling semifinal pairings for the live stage in London this February. Magnus Carlsen will face Denis Lazavik, while Hikaru Nakamura is set to meet Alireza Firouzja in a clash of leading speed-play specialists. The event, organised by chess.com, continues to combine online matchplay […]

World Cup: Esipenko beats Yakubboev

The final stage of the FIDE World Cup began in Goa on Tuesday, with Wei Yi and Javokhir Sindarov opening their title match and Andrey Esipenko and Nodirbek Yakubboev starting their fight for the last remaining Candidates spot. Both encounters produced entertaining struggles: Wei pressed slightly in a Petroff Defence before the game was drawn, […]