Global Chess League - Live!

9/6/2026 – The Tech Mahindra Global Chess League returns for its fourth season from 5 to 13 September in Bengaluru, continuing its franchise-based format that combines elite male and female players. Featuring a team structure, the league brings together elite grandmasters and rising stars, with the title to be decided through a double round-robin stage followed by a two-match final. | Follow the action live starting at 12.00 CEST (6.00 ET, 15.30 IST)
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England and Slovenia win European Senior Team Championships

9/6/2026 – England and Slovenia claimed the titles at the European Senior Team Championships in Crete. England finished unbeaten to win the 50+ section with 17/18 match points, one ahead of Italy. In the 65+ competition, Slovenia and England both scored 16/18, with the Slovenian team taking gold on tiebreaks after having defeated their English rivals in their direct encounter. | Photo: Zetta Grapsa / European Chess Union

ChessBase´26 – Tips for Beginners, part 30: Use "Folders"

9/6/2026 – ChessBase´26 is amazingly versatile and often surprisingly user-friendly — as the first 29 parts of this tutorial series have already shown! One particularly important feature in this context is the “Folders” window, which lets you quickly locate anything you want to use within your storage directories. In this episode, we’ll show you how to activate the window (in case it’s been disabled) and what you can view and work with there.
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Global Chess League: American Gambits win both their matches on opening day

9/6/2026 – The fourth season of the Tech Mahindra Global Chess League got under way on Saturday, with the FYERS American Gambits making the strongest start. They won both of their opening-day matches, including a victory over the Triveni Continental Kings, who lost twice. The Ganges Grandmasters and Alpine APL Pipers also began with wins as the six-team double round-robin stage commenced at the Lalit Ashok hotel in Bengaluru. | Pictured: Javokhir Sindarov (American Gambits) defeated Viswanathan Anand (Alaskan Knights) | Photo: Amruta Mokal
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Pouya Idani switches federations from Iran to France

9/5/2026 – Iranian grandmaster Pouya Idani has switched federations and will now represent France. The 30-year-old, who has lived in Brest since 2023 and has long been active in French club chess, enters the country's top group of players with a rating above 2600. Idani, a former World Under-18 champion and Iranian Olympiad representative, will nevertheless have to wait before becoming eligible for the French national team. | Photo: Amruta Mokal
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Game of the Week #738: Fier vs Pechac

9/5/2026 – Our Brazilian friend Alexandr Fier is known for his samba way of playing chess: playing active chess, looking for adventure, taking risks, going for the direct attack whenever possible. Since he plays his moves very fast, he puts additional pressure on the clock. His games are not always correct, but surely entertaining. Our Game of the Week is his great fight with Jergus Pechac, in which both players found many creative moves, until eventually Fier found a lovely finish. Merijn's show is available on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here.

Daniel King - All my ChessBase courses on offer

9/5/2026 – British Grandmaster Daniel King has been one of ChessBase's most popular and respected trainers for decades. In this Summer Special, all of his video courses are available at heavily reduced prices, including the complete 28 volume Power Play series, opening repertoires, tactical training and endgame courses. A great opportunity to explore Daniel’s best training material and save up to 50%.
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Newly reviewed: Robert Ris' FritzTrainers on openings, calculation and strategic thinking (Part 1)

9/5/2026 – Calculating variations, assessing positions accurately and finding the best move at the critical moment: few aspects of practical chess pose a greater challenge to players than concrete calculation. Robert Ris first addressed this topic in his 2018 Fritz Trainer, "Calculation Training", laying the foundations for a series of further courses. Lukas Koepl has taken a closer look at the various training programmes and, in this multipart overview, explains the main focus of each course and who they are particularly suited to.

Awonder Liang on chess, statistics, AI and the pursuit of small gains

9/4/2026 – In a candid interview from January 2026, 2700-level chess prodigy Awonder Liang reflects on his unique journey from a teenage sensation to a serious competitor while balancing a degree in economics and applied math. Liang challenges the notion that elite chess requires sacrificing a normal life, arguing that at the low 2700s, massive gains are still possible through fundamentals and doing what you enjoy. | Photo: Underpromoted on YouTube
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Svitlana's Smart Moves - Complete control like Petrosian

9/4/2026 – In this episode of Svitlana's Smart Moves, Svitlana Demchenko explores how to keep complete control of a position through the classic game Petrosian vs. Unzicker. She shows how Petrosian calmly neutralized every source of counterplay, dominated the open c-file and gradually improved his pieces before creating a second weakness on the kingside. A remarkable king walk from g1 all the way to b1 clears the way for a pawn storm and demonstrates how even the king can play an important role in a long term strategic plan. The lesson highlights prophylaxis, the principle of two weaknesses and the art of turning a small positional advantage into a winning attack.
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Thomas Paehtz turns 70

9/4/2026 – Thomas Paehtz was one of the leading players in East Germany, winning the East German Championship twice and the German Championship once. He later worked as a chess coach. His most successful pupil was his own daughter Elisabeth, who for decades was Germany's leading female chess player. One of his current pupils is Christian Gloeckler. Today, Thomas Paehtz celebrates his 70th birthday. | Photo: John Saunders
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Watch the corner

9/4/2026 – It's easier to see why 30.Bxf7?? leads to a loss for White in the diagram position when the move is on the board—but perhaps you can already do it here!

ChessBase Summer Special! – Part 9

9/4/2026 – Dear chess friends! When discussing ChessBase authors and content creators, no name is more synonymous with high quality than British Grandmaster Daniel King. His courses, videos, and articles, have been essential viewing for decades! This week only, you can get ALL of his video courses at our lowest ever price. Save up to 50 percent!

Game of the Week #737: Sindarov vs Van Foreest

9/4/2026 – Last week we studied how Vincent Keymer created an impressive amount of chances from his five white games at the Sinquefield Cup. Jakhovir Sindarov obviously cannot reveal the same amount of prep because of his upcoming World Championship match, but still he played something very interesting against Jorden van Foreest, which is our Game of the Week. The theme of sacrificing a pawn with d5 against the Queen's Indian is widely known, but he came up with a rare version. Merijn's show is available on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here.
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Solvay score 14/14 to win Spanish Primera División, Ivanchuk excels on board one

9/3/2026 – Club Ajedrez Solvay completed a perfect campaign at the Spanish "Primera División" in Linares, winning all seven matches to secure the title and promotion to the "División de Honor". Andreu Paterna finished second to claim the other promotion place, while Platja d'Aro took third. Vasyl Ivanchuk led the champions on board one, scoring 5/7 and gaining 13 rating points. | Photo: Spanish Chess Federation
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Does AI understand chess humour?

9/3/2026 – I have been generally investigating AI's ability to appreciate humour. Do AI clients catch the point in jokes and cartoons, and do they interpret them correctly? Do they consider the jokes funny, or do they merely know what humans find funny? After doing some general research on these questions, I turned to chess. I showed these cartoons to AI. Here the reactions. My experiments were not conclusive, but at least a lot of fun. You should try it our yourself.

Opening Encyclopaedia 2026: Introduction and Open Games

9/3/2026 – The Opening Encyclopaedia 2026 presents you with a wealth of new ideas for your opening repertoire. From May 2025 to March 2026, 62 new repertoire suggestions and 46 new videos have been added to the Opening Encyclopaedia! In total, you have access to 1586 opening articles, 100 videos and 8274 surveys covering a period of over 26 years!
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Grischuk's stroke of genius

9/3/2026 – As early as the end of 2024, at the Blitz World Championship in New York, Alexander Grischuk played the piece sacrifice 9.Nd5! in the Sicilian Kan Variation – a move that had never before been played at Grandmaster level. To the surprise of our author, Petra Papp, this ‘brilliant idea’ has apparently remained virtually unknown to this day. In the ChessBase Online Database, you’ll find a grand total of five games with this move! Petra Papp has examined the variations following 9.Nd5! and presents her findings in the article ‘Grischuk’s stroke of genius’ in the new ChessBase Magazine #233. You can now read the full article, including all the game analyses, in this week’s CBM free sample!
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ChessCare.com launches: New management agency brings professional support to chess players

9/3/2026 – ChessCare.com, a new player management agency dedicated to professional chess players, has been launched by grandmaster Sebastian Siebrecht and marketing expert Oliver von Wersch. The agency will offer services covering career planning, contracts, travel logistics, sponsorship, communications and talent development. Its stated aim is to support players as the chess world becomes increasingly professional, allowing them to focus more fully on competition while receiving structured commercial and operational support.
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