2/2/2023 – Who doesn't know Sesame Street, the American educational children's television series that premiered in 1969 and runs on animation and puppetry. It is one of the longest-running shows in history. And it has been adapted for dozens of other countries. In a must-read new book Natasha Lane Rogoff describes the harrowing conversion to Ulitsa Sezam for Russia and Ukraine. And yes, there is a chess connection.

5/28/2022 – 75 years ago, on 28 May 1947, the American Grandmaster and renowned writer Andrew "Andy" Soltis was born in Hazleton, Pennsylvania. In an extensive interview Soltis talks about his chess and his writing career, chess in New York, the Marshall Chess Club, playing blitz against Bobby Fischer and about Fabiano Caruana and Magnus Carlsen. | Photo: Marcy Soltis

5/25/2021 – This is a 12-year-old on a mission: to become the youngest chess grandmaster in history. Abhimanyu Mishra has made two norms, but in his latest tournament suffered a setback: in time trouble refused a draw offer by a GM and discovered that this is not such a great idea. Abhi lost the game, and a second one to boot, but staged a remarkable comeback with four back-to-back wins. He gained nine rating points and is currently just eight points from his goal. Read the messages of encouragement the lad from Englishtown, New Jersey, is getting from well-known personalities from all over the world.

2/15/2021 – Adrian Michalchishin is one of the world's most renowned trainers. He has worked with players such as Alexander Beliavsky, Anatoly Karpov, Alisa Maric, Ilja Nyzhnyk, Richard Rapport, Mateusz Bartel, Susan and Sofia Polgar, to name just a few. In part II of an extensive interview he talks about the work of a trainer, psychology in chess, and reveals how Kasparov once forced him to play cards throughout the night, and why computers may be damaging for chess.

10/20/2020 – There are 40 living U.S.-born grandmasters listed by the International Chess Federation (FIDE) as playing for the USA. WIM Alexey Root and IM John Daniel Bryant researched their educational backgrounds and careers. They also asked the grandmasters to give advice to today’s high-rated high school players. | Pictured: John Harvard statue at Harvard University | Photo: Jessica Williams

8/24/2020 – In an open letter to the chess community, FIDE President Arkady Dvorkovich states, “I believe there is a consensus that computer-assisted cheating is a real plague of contemporary chess”. He then addresses the fact that the online chess boom has created new challenges for all involved, and presents the main questions regarding the sanctions that should be applied to the players that get caught cheating. You may answer the questions raised in this letter or simply submit your proposals to an official email account. | Photo: David Llada

8/2/2020 – What do you get when you celebrate a birthday? What happens when it is an especially auspicious birthday, e.g. one marking that you have made it to 3/4 of a century? Champagne, gifts, family party with the grandkids (in pandemic times in the garden). Chess friends have special things in store. They will write you a column in a national newspaper, or compose "number problems" for the years you have reached.

11/2/2019 – The Global Chess Festival 2019 returned to the Hungarian National Gallery and featured all the usual events for children, including simuls and appearances by all three Polgar sisters — Judit, Sofia and Susan. Singer/songwriter Juga performed and Vladimir Kramnik gave a simul and was Judit's guest for a live question and answer session. ALINA L'AMI reports in exquisite detail from Budapest. | Photos: Alina l'Ami

10/11/2019 – Judit Polgar's Global Chess Festival culminates on Saturday in a colourful finale at the Hungarian National Gallery in Budapest after a series of side events and an online record attempt. In addition to the three Polgar sisters, Vladimir Kramnik will be a guest. Here's a brief preview. | Photos: Global Chess Festival

4/26/2019 – Today FIDE has released new regulations for the upcoming World Championship cycle (both Open and Women). The overall championship match is being extended from 12 to 14 games, and draws will no longer be permitted before move 40. Players can qualify to the Candidates Tournament via the revised Grand Prix, now a series of knockout tournaments, and a new "Grand Swiss" to be held in October on the Isle of Man.

3/23/2018 – Harvard professor Ken Rogoff is also a grandmaster who has appeared in the pages of ChessBase on numerous occasions, despite not being an active player since the 1970s. On March 22nd, he turned 65 years old, and we reached him by phone at his office in Cambridge, Massachusetts, to chat about the Candidates, ageing, Harvard, cheating, and a lesson learned 45 years ago. | Photo: INSM (CC BY-ND 2.0)

11/19/2016 – Game No. 6, draw No. 6 - Tiger Hillarp Persson, who has spent his entire life as a chess player trying to find asymmetry where he can find it, is our man to annotate this technical issue. Read about his preferences on books for dungeon situations and follow his notes until a state of zero entropy is unavoidable. Check out our newsblog with game annotations.

11/11/2016 – The World Championship is about to begin from the 11th of November 2016. But Magnus Carlsen and Sergey Karjakin are not the only two super elite grandmasters playing chess on American soil. Four top players are battling it out in Saint Louis in a very interesting tournament that makes the participants play against each other in different time controls. On the first day we witnessed only one decisive game, but what a game it was! Topalov played like Mikhail Tal, sacrificed a piece for no visible compensation and beat Fabiano Caruana.

9/8/2016 – He used to be a very strong chess grandmaster, one of the 40 best in the world. But at eighteen he abandoned chess to study economics, and went on to become a leader in the field. We met Kenneth Rogoff over a year ago in Munich, Germany, where he and GM Helmut Pfleger exchanged chess memories. Ken also delivered a remarkable lecture on the curse of paper currency. Today his book on the subject has been released – to keen world-wide attention.

10/5/2015 – The 19th of September was a special day: ChessBase India invited all players in Mumbai to celebrate the greatest chess player that ever lived – Bobby Fischer. The movie Pawn Sacrifice premiered in the city, and in spite of very short notice a number of chess players gathered to watch it together – and then follow one of our most popular biographical DVDs.

10/2/2015 – In a previous article we reproduced a report on the 1969 US Junior Championship in which Ken Rogoff, today a world famous economist, won the title with a two-point lead over the field. The key game in the final round was witnessed by a kibitzing chess columnist, who expressed his admiration for the sixteen-year-old and annotated his game – with advice for budding chess players.

9/30/2015 – If you own a television set and watch news you will know him: Prof Kenneth Rogoff, who is interviewed on a weekly basis by the biggest news outlets in the world – CNN, CNBC, New York Times, Bloomberg – regarding world economics. But did you know that this famous economist started off as a chess player – and a highly successful one at that? Mini-series on Rogoff and chess.

9/18/2015 – Harvard professor Kenneth Rogoff is a world famous economist – and a chess grandmaster. He thinks that in the Hollywood movie actor Toby Maguire portrays Fischer with remarkable authenticity "indeed, pitch-perfect for those of us who met Bobby in his prime" (as Rogoff did). In his review Ken speculates how Fischer would not be Fischer in today's world.

2/13/2015 – He was a giant of broadcast journalism, who over a 47-year career at CBS News earned more than 40 major awards, including 27 Emmys and four Peabodys. Bob Simon, who died tragically in a car accident on Wednesday night, covered most major overseas conflicts from the late 1960s to the present. In 2011 he did a wonderful 60 Minutes segment on chess, which you should watch again.

12/13/2014 – In the days of Fischer and Spassky chess stars had national celebrity. In the years since it has flourished in schools and clubs, but interest has languished at the highest levels. It is just a tough sell as a spectator sport, and champions are perceived as esoteric talents without much relevance in the real world. But that may be changing, because of two young GMs. Interesting read.

4/4/2014 – Indeed we were, in the traditional spirit of April Fool (or "April Fish", as the French call it). The announcement that the Carlsen-Anand 2014 World Championship match would be held in the middle of the North Sea was a carefully faked hoax by a ChessBase editor. We've been perpetrating April pranks for at least thirteen years now, and provide you with links to all of them. Prepare to waste a lot of time.

10/7/2012 – "Two hundred years of breathtaking innovation have produced rising living standards for ordinary people," says a renowned economist (and chess grandmaster), "with no sharply rising trend for unemployment." As an example, Ken Rogoff looks at the world of professional chess, where technology has actually contributed to equalizing incomes of player and trainers. Must-read article.

9/6/2012 – They could barely reach the other side of the chessboard, but playing against the world's top-rated grandmaster Magnus Carlsen was a thrilling experience for many New York kids. Carlsen also played with billionaire investor and philanthropist George Soros, and a blitz game against one of the world's leading economists, Kenneth Rogoff. Lubomir Kavalek reports in The Huffington Post.

7/21/2012 – U.S. chess lost one of its major figures with the passing of Jacqueline Piatigorsky at age 100. Her accomplishments as an organizer, benefactor, and player were legion. As a player she came second in the US Women's Championship in 1965, but worldwide she is most famous for organizing, among others, the Piatigorsky Cups in the 1960s with Fischer and Spassky. Obituary.