10/2/2025 – The German Bundesliga season has started last weekend and as usual many world class players take part. These days there are several teams with incredibly strong line-ups, but Baden-Baden has had one for decades. For instance, Vincent Keymer is currently number 10 in the world and number 7 at Baden-Baden. Our Game of the Week is the instructive positional win by Richard Rapport with White against German top grandmaster Niclas Huschenbeth. | Merijn's show is available on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here.

10/2/2025 – Grandmasters Wang Hao and Hou Yifan triumphed in the Open and Women's sections of the chess competition at the 15th National Games of China, held in Shenzhen from 23 to 28 September. Featuring leading players such as Ding Liren, Wei Yi, Yu Yangyi, Ju Wenjun, Lei Tingjie and Zhu Jiner, the event saw Jiangsu win the team title ahead of Shandong and Hebei. The competition combined round-robin preliminaries with knockout finals, producing tense matches and surprise results. | Photos: Chinese Chess Association

10/2/2025 – In the diagram position White is threatening mate, and Black has to put a lot into the bargain to get away with a draw - under your expert direction!

10/2/2025 – The first classical games of the final and the match for third place in São Paulo both ended drawn, though in contrasting ways. Levon Aronian and Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu quickly simplified their Sicilian Defence encounter into a level ending after queens left the board on move 15. Meanwhile, Fabiano Caruana pressed for more than five hours against Maxime Vachier-Lagrave in a lengthy queen endgame, but despite holding an extra pawn, he could not convert his advantage into a win. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

10/2/2025 – While Magnus Carlsen's embrace of freestyle chess has sparked questions about the future of established theory, traditional openings remain central to top-level play. The ChessBase Opening Encyclopaedia 2025 offers over 1500 articles, 7850 surveys and recent repertoire ideas to help players navigate both classic and modern systems. From deep analysis of the Spanish Berlin to a revisited Evans Gambit tested by Carlsen and Anand, this resource balances instruction with inspiration.

10/2/2025 – Magnus Carlsen no longer wants to compete for the World Championship title, but remains the clear number one in the world ranking. With an Elo rating of 2839, he continues to lead the FIDE world rankings by a clear margin. He has led the rankings continuously since July 2011 and is currently 23 points ahead of Hikaru Nakamura, who is number 2 in the world with 2816. In the women's rankings, Hou Yifan from China remains at the top. The best junior is Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu from India, while the best junior girl also hails from India – Divya Deshmukh.

10/1/2025 – The 11th Judit Polgar's Global Chess Festival drew thousands to the Hungarian National Gallery for a day of creativity, community and competition under the motto play, inspire, experience. Highlights included the debut of RubikChess, a live human–robot match and Judit Polgar's worldwide Community Simul. With events ranging from concerts and art performances to youth tournaments and workshops, the festival once again showcased chess as a cultural bridge across generations and nations.

10/1/2025 – After the classical portion of the Grand Chess Tour Finals had concluded with all games drawn, the semifinals were left to be decided in rapid and blitz play. With six games to follow - two rapid encounters worth four points each, and four blitz games worth two points each - the margins for error became smaller and the intensity greater. The two matches followed different paths: Maxime Vachier-Lagrave defeated Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu with a convincing score, while Fabiano Caruana overcame Levon Aronian only in the final stages. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

10/1/2025 – After the first weekend of the 2025/26 Chess Bundesliga, three clubs share the lead on maximum points. Promoted Schachfreunde Wolfhagen joined established contenders SC Viernheim and OSG Baden-Baden at the top, each securing two victories. Defending champions Düsseldorfer SK dropped ground after being held to a draw by Bayern München in round two, while Deizisau were twice held to 4–4. The season is set to resume in December. | Photo: Reinhard Ahrens / Hamburger SK

9/30/2025 – In the boxing ring, he learned what it means to pick yourself up again and again and draw new strength from setbacks. On 7 October, former world boxing champion Wladimir Klitschko will tell us about his life, the current situation in Ukraine and resilience in times of crisis. Vladimir is an old friend who visited ChessBase a number of times, together with his brother Vitaly. We look forward to seeing him again.

9/30/2025 – Hikaru Nakamura, currently ranked second in the world, gained nine Elo points in the FIDE world rankings over the last two months by scoring 11 points from 11 games in weaker tournaments; his strongest opponent had an Elo rating of 2250. Each win earned him 0.8 Elo points. However, following a rule change by FIDE, such Elo gains will no longer be possible from 1 October. Previously, when calculating Elo ratings for players with 2650+ points, a maximum difference of 400 points from the opponent's rating was assumed. For example, for a player with 2750 points, all opponents, regardless of their actual strength, were assumed to have a minimum rating of 2350. According to the new rule, the actual Elo rating difference now counts.

9/30/2025 – This is the main guideline in the endgame rook and knight against rook and knight. In the diagram position White has the initiative - how can he use it to win?