10/16/2025 – Wilhelm Steinitz, born in Prague in 1836, is regarded as the first official World Chess Champion after winning the historic 1886 match against Johannes Zukertort. He founded modern chess theory by replacing romantic, attacking chess with strategic and positional thinking, formulating numerous principles that still shape the game today. The Master Class, featuring four international experts, presents his most important openings, strategic ideas, endgames, and combinations through engaging video lessons.

10/16/2025 – Hans Niemann was the sole winner in Round 4 of the Open section at this year’s U.S. Championships. Playing Black, he defeated Sam Shankland to move into a tie for second place with defending champion Fabiano Caruana and Levon Aronian, half a point behind leader Wesley So, who drew his game against Abhimanyu Mishra. In the Women’s Championship, by contrast, five players scored victories. With second-placed Alice Lee drawing against defending champion Carissa Yip, leader Anna Sargsyan extended her lead to a full point thanks to her win over Megan Paragua. Thursday is a rest day in St. Louis. | Photos: Lennart Ootes / St. Louis Chess Club

10/16/2025 – In the diagram position, Black found a brilliant way to give his attackers access to the white king h1. Please copy!

10/16/2025 – Richard Rapport had the best individual result at the European Team Chess Championship in Batumi. Playing on board 1 for Hungary, he scored 5.5 points from 7 games and had a performance rating of 2869, the highest of all players in Batumi. In the final round, he won a nice and theoretically interesting game against Maksim Chigaev. | Photo: Lennart Ootes (Archiv)

10/15/2025 – The European Team Championship was exciting from start to finish and in the end the well deserved winner was Ukraine. Their top scorer Igor Kovalenko has a very impressive life story, having served at the front lines of the war for 2.5 years and now returning to top level chess. Our Game of the Week is his positional masterpiece from the important seventh round encounter against the Netherlands, in which he outplayed Loek van Wely with a very creative manoeuvre. | Merijn's show is available on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here.

10/15/2025 – The Colle and Zukertort Systems offer White a simple yet powerful setup with d4–Nf3–e3–Bd3, aiming for rapid development and a strong kingside attack. The Colle-Koltanowski focuses on c3 and e4, while the Zukertort System employs b3 and a fianchettoed bishop for added strategic depth. Easy to learn and highly effective for club players, this course teaches key sacrifices, maneuvers, and attacking ideas through classical and modern grandmaster games.

10/12/2025 – Already in the second round of the famous Hastings tournament of 1895, two of the favourites faced each other in a tough and complex battle. After just thirteen moves, the game had reached a semi-endgame with two rooks and two minor pieces each. Lasker held the pair of bishops, but it was Chigorin with the pair of knights who emerged victorious in the end. The game made history, and its course has been interpreted very differently over time. We invite our readers to join us in the search for new insights.

10/12/2025 – In this episode of Svitlana's Smart Moves, Svitlana Demchenko and Arne analyze a classic 1991 game between Garry Kasparov and Viswanathan Anand, inspired by their current exhibition match. They explore the tactical richness of the Sicilian Taimanov, focusing on key moments like Kasparov's brilliant knight sacrifice on b5 and his creative attacking manoeuvres leading to a decisive win. The discussion highlights Kasparov’s precision, Anand’s resilience, and the timeless instructive value of their games for learning dynamic chess play.

10/11/2025 – After six rounds of play at the European Team Chess Championship in Batumi, Ukraine have strengthened their position at the top of the open standings, while Poland have taken firm control of the women's competition with a commanding victory over their closest rivals. The final three rounds of the championships in Batumi will take place from Sunday to Tuesday. | Photos: European Chess Union

10/11/2025 – The Saint Louis Chess Club will soon host the 2025 US Chess Championship and the 2025 US Women's Championship, running from 12 to 24 October in its newly expanded venue. With a prize fund exceeding $400,000, the 12-player fields feature America's elite, including Fabiano Caruana, Wesley So, Carissa Yip, Alice Lee and Irina Krush. Alongside the competitions, Hall of Fame inductions and cultural events promise a historic month for American chess in Saint Louis.

10/11/2025 – The Ragozin Defence is one of those opening systems that are very popular in modern tournament chess. It combines solid classical elements with dynamic ideas. For those looking for active and dynamic play against 1.d4 without taking any significant risks, Grandmaster Surya Ganguly has created a high-class Fritz trainer in "Reinventing the Ragozin". The course impresses not only with its modern repertoire against the Queen's Gambit Declined in impressive depth, but also with valuable insights into the modern opening preparation of current top players. Lukas Köpl has taken a close look at Ganguly's Fritz trainer.

10/10/2025 – Two former world champions, Viswanathan Anand and Garry Kasparov, face each other in "Clutch Chess: The Legends", a 12-game chess960 exhibition match held from 8 to 10 October at the newly expanded Saint Louis Chess Club. The event features rapid and blitz games with increasing point values and prize stakes each day. | Follow the action live starting at 19.00 CEST (13.00 ET, 10.30 IST)