ChessBase’26 is certainly the highlight of the new releases in November, but the other databases also offer a wealth of study material. There are many new options to discover, such as the new episodes of Karsten Müller’s Endgame Academy and Ivan Sokolov’s middlegame strategy series that have helped a lot of players to improve. | […]
Category Archives: News
In this reflective column, GM Jon Speelman examines sportsmanship and self-control at the highest level of competition. Drawing on recent examples from the FIDE World Cup and the Candidates Tournament, as well as personal experience, he contrasts online habits with over-the-board conduct under pressure. Speelman argues that blunders are part of chess, even for elite […]
The Kasparov Chess Foundation Academy Preseason Special is now in full swing. This is a unique opportunity for ambitious players to get a head start before the Main Season kicks off in January 2026. The Preseason program runs on nine Saturdays, with 90-minute interactive sessions focused on practical thinking, providing students a strong foundation and […]
Dorian Rogozenco explains how to access the ChessBase Magazine directly in the browser via the ChessBase Books page and shows that it works on PC, tablet, and even on a phone, including board display and videos. He demonstrates that with just a few clicks you can reach a huge range of training material: opening articles […]
In a recent “Ask Me Anything” session organised by FIDE, Hou Yifan addressed a wide range of questions from chess fans, touching on her competitive career, views on elite play and her current relationship with the game. The discussion also covered her academic path, advice for younger players and her approach to balancing chess with […]
Levon Aronian won the Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Finals in South Africa after defeating Magnus Carlsen in a controlled 1½–½ match, securing the event’s $200,000 top prize. The final brought the four-day competition to a close, with Vincent Keymer taking third place against Javokhir Sindarov. Further down the table, Fabiano Caruana beat Arjun Erigaisi to […]
11 December 2025 marks the 120th anniversary of Ludwig Engels’s birthday. He was one of the best German chess players in the 1930s. Following the 1939 Chess Olympiad, he, like many others, remained in South America due to the outbreak of the Second World War and settled in Brazil. At the height of his career, […]
Anastasia Corotcova explains how ChessBase allows beginners to easily enter, edit, and save chess games, starting from creating a new board to recording moves directly on the screen. She highlights powerful ChessBase features such as assisted analysis, automatic move recognition, colour-coded move quality, and tools for correcting or inserting moves, showing that the software isn’t […]
Day three of the Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Finals in South Africa clarified the lineup for Thursday’s concluding matches. Magnus Carlsen and Levon Aronian advanced to the championship decider after winning their respective semifinals, while Javokhir Sindarov and Vincent Keymer will contest third place. In the lower bracket, Fabiano Caruana and Arjun Erigaisi secured victories […]
Dorian Rogozenco demonstrates how ChessBase 26’s Monte-Carlo analysis can rapidly generate thousands of short engine games to obtain a statistically reliable evaluation of an opening line. In the example, it becomes clear that a previously promising surprise weapon for Black performs objectively much worse, providing a second, more realistic perspective to decide whether the line […]