8/27/2020 – A new chess film will be released soon: Critical Thinking. The film tells the story of the Miami Jackson High School chess team, which was the first inner city team to win the US National Chess Championship despite incredible adversity, motivated by a dedicated teacher. It was directed by John Leguizamo.

8/26/2020 – Our summer special continues with the Fritztrainer on the Nimzo-Indian by Grandmaster Rustam Kasimdzhanov. The charismatic star from Uzbekistan presents a complete Nimzo-Indian repertoire for the black pieces. This opening is part of every serious chess player’s arsenal. Our special offer also includes the Nimzo-Indian Powerbook 2019 (300.000+ games) and the Nimzo-Indian Powerbase 2019 with almost 10.000 games to replay, analyse and add to your own repertoire. If you were not sure what you were going to do in the next couple of weeks, now you know!

8/26/2020 – In his “Game of the Week” show, Merijn van Delft relives a game played by “Viktor the Terrible”. Korchnoi was one of the top grandmasters that firmly believed that White is better against the King’s Indian Defence. In 1993, against Friso Nijboer, he proved how the strong white centre can create havoc on Black’s position. | Merijn's show is freely available at 15.00 UTC (17:00 CEST, 11:00 EDT) for a limited time, and on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here. | Pictured: Korchnoi in Hoogovens 1985 | Photo: Rob Croes / Anefo

8/26/2020 – Online chess is most fun when you know your opponents: less anonymity means less cheating! In the virtual club room on PlayChess, clubs can meet and play blitz tournaments among themselves. To improve your playing experience we now present the video function! All players can log in with their webcam and you can hear and see each other! Suddenly you experience a blitz chess evening almost like in the old days: trash-talk, noises from the next board, cheering, frustration — it all feels more real because you see and hear each other. And everything starts with 2 mouse clicks. Just try it out: create a virtual room with one mouse click, activate the video function with another mouse click, and off you go! The only requirement: to have a premium account!

8/26/2020 – The young German grandmasters are making headlines with their successes. Some players come from the successful “Hamburg Grandmaster’s Forge”, but it is not only young players who have obtained the grandmaster title there. | Photo: Frank Hoppe

8/25/2020 – On his DVD “King’s Indian: A modern approach”, Victor Bologan presents a complete repertoire for those wanting to try their hand at the exciting King’s Indian Defence. Jana Schneider watched the DVD to prepare this opening. Here is her opinion about the DVD.

8/25/2020 – In his weekly show IM Lawrence Trent recaps what has been going on in the chess world, and focuses on a game from the Charlotte GM Invitational — a win that helped IM Craig Hilby get his second GM norm, an encounter that featured attacking chess, tactical brilliancies and a tricky endgame. | Lawrence’s show is available at 17:00 UTC (19:00 CEST, 13:00 EDT) on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here. | Photo: Charlotte Chess Center & Scholastic Academy

8/25/2020 – If Arpad Elo were still alive he would be 117 years old today – 15 years past the age of 102 that he was supposed to survive to, as foretold by a Budapest gypsy when he visited Hungary in 1970. In reality, he died in Wisconsin, USA at the age of 89. A close associate and family friend, Elmer Dumlao Sangalang, looks back at the man who revolutionised chess. | Pictured: Arpad Elo and Fred Cramer

8/25/2020 – A bishop is often much stronger than a knight when passed pawns are trying to promote on two different flanks of the board. Endgame specialist Karsten Müller demonstrates the winning technique to convert this position into a win, and shows how reacting wrongly to a ‘spite check’ can completely change the evaluation in a single move.

8/25/2020 – A new series has entered the stage with "Guess the right price!". You have to guess the correct price of a chess-related object. We start our journey with four chess sets of different origins, material and obviously — price. Do you have a good feeel of how much the different chess objects can cost? | Photo: VintageChessShop

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

8/24/2020 – In this "Simon Says", Simon looks at a selection of highlights from the FIDE Online Olympiad, including games by the likes of Baadur Jobava, Alexei Shirov and Gawain Jones, among others. | Watch "Simon Says" for free and on-demand (for a limited time, or forever with a ChessBase Premium account). (Normally 18:00 UTC (20:00 CEST / 14:00). | Photos: Rupali Mullick / Lars OA Hedlund