11/14/2023 – With over 10 million games the Mega Database 2024 is the indispensable chess database for every chess player, for preparation or chess training in all conceivable facets - now available in the updated 2024 edition, also as Big Database without annotated games and update service. Also new: the Corr Database 2024 Correspondence Chess Database with 80,000 tournaments and 2.3 million correspondence games - for players who want to know even more.

11/14/2023 – Poland and Germany scored 2½-1½ victories on Monday to go into round 4 of the European Team Championship as co-leaders. Both teams had to compensate for an individual loss with two victories to keep their perfect scores. Meanwhile, Norway suffered a second upset loss in a row, this time against Iceland — despite Magnus Carlsen winning on the top board. In the women’s championship, France and Azerbaijan are tied for first place with 6/6 match points. | Photo: Paul Meyer-Dunker

11/14/2023 – Leon Luke Mendonca fears nobody, not even the Grandmaster level of the brand new Fritz 19! The Indian Grandmaster faces the allrounder, which is one of six new player types, that Fritz 19 has to offer. Does Leon even have a tiny chance against the powerful GM-Level? Can the allrounder score, just by maintaining an innocent demeanor? You can find out in the video.

11/14/2023 – The engine that drives this program has just won the Computer Chess World Championship – in July it defended its title by winning it a second year straight. But the new software is not just super-strong: it also introduces a new era of chess training. It will help you maintain a repertoire, practice playing against it, teach you how to deal with different kinds of opponents. Let the programmer tell you exactly how this works.

11/14/2023 – The new Mega Database now contains over 10 million games and over 700,000 new games. With 112,000 annotated games, the Mega Database is also the largest annotated game collection in the world. The Mega Player Encyclopaedia contains 60,000 player names with over 40,000 player photos. Wow! All this is constantly being edited and expanded, e.g. with the automatic Mega Update!

11/14/2023 – In the diagram position White just played 53.g4+. Should Black take the offered pawn with 53...Kxg4 or should he ignore the potentially dangerous g-pawn and go for the white pawns on the queenside with 53...Ke4? What would you do?

11/10/2023 – In chess, there are many key elements: opening theory; endgame theory; middlegame strategy; and calculation of variations, based on tactics. In every area there are the most efficient and logical ways to perform chosen manoeuvres or improvements of the positions. Generally, we call these “technique”.

11/10/2023 – A bit over three years into his chess career, Faustino Oro, aged 10, continues to set record after record in Argentina. The “golden boy” (‘oro’ means gold in Spanish) became the youngest player to achieve an IM norm in history, as he broke the record previously set by Uzbek star Javokhir Sindarov. Oro is also referred to as “the Messi of chess”, since his incredibly quick ascent has created major expectations among Argentine chess fans! | Photo: Emmanuel Fernández / Clarín

11/9/2023 – Wally and Käthe Henschel were twins, born in Hamburg on 09.09.1893. In the 1920s and 1930s they were among the best players in Hamburg, and in 1930 Wally even beat Vera Menchik at the Women's World Championship Tournament in Hamburg - the only game Menchik ever lost in a Women's World Championship Tournament. But after the Kristallnacht pogrom on 9 November 1938, the twins, who came from a Jewish family, decided to flee to the USA, where they went on to play in the U.S. Women's Championships and where Wally may even have played against Bobby Fischer. | Photo: The Henschel family

11/9/2023 – Over the course of their careers, Hikaru Nakamura and Fabiano Caruana have played some epic games against each other. The last one was played in the penultimate round of the Grand Swiss Tournament on the Isle of Man. Nakamura won the game and later qualified for the Candidates. In Game of the Week #593, Merijn Van Delft takes a closer look at this encounter. | Merijn’s show is available on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here.

11/9/2023 – Jozsef Pinter is 70 years old today. He is known as a long-standing and important member of the Hungarian team, having won several strong international tournaments during his career, as well as an individual gold medal at the 1984 Chess Olympiad and the first World Team Chess Championship in 1985. Pinter is also a distinguished writer and teacher.| Photo: sakkmezo.hu

11/9/2023 – The 62nd edition of the Brazilian Women's Chess Championship took place between 29 October and 4 November in Timbó, in the state of Santa Catarina. The municipality, located in the southern region of Brazil, is recognised as an important centre for the promotion of chess. The event was organised by the Brazilian Chess Federation (CBX) and the Santa Catarina Chess Federation (FCX). In the end, FM Juliana Terao won her eighth national title. | Photo: (from left to right) Marlon Rahn (arbiter), Isabelle Tamarozi (runner-up), Kathiê Librelato (fourth place), Julia Alboredo (third place) and Juliana Terao (winner). | Photo: Kaiser Mafra