5/19/2025 – The 2025 Sharjah Masters has drawn 82 chess players with ratings ranging from 2453 to 2771, offering a platform for elite grandmasters and rising talents to compete for a $15,000 prize. After two rounds, several unexpected outcomes have highlighted the event's competitive nature, with lesser-known players such as Dai Changren and Visakh N R (pictured) taking the lead alongside 2024 European champion Aleksandar Indjic. Meanwhile, 11-year-old Faustino Oro has delivered a standout performance, and Bibisara Assaubayeva has emerged as the top-performing female player thus far. | Photos: Himank Ghosh / ChessBase India

5/18/2025 – GM Daneshvar Bardiya of Iran and IM Song Yuxin of China emerged as the champions of the 2025 Asian Chess Championship, held on 6-15 May at the Danat Resort Hotel in Al Ain, UAE. Bardiya claimed gold in the open section with 7/9 points, edging out top seed Nihal Sarin on tiebreaks. In the women's section, Song Yuxin secured the title after a tightly contested final round, prevailing based on the highest average opponent rating. | Photos: Asian Chess Federation

5/18/2025 – In his new Fast & Furious show, Robert Ris looks at the encounter between Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and World Champion Gukesh at the Superbet Classic in Bucharest. Gukesh tried a popular line in the Scotch, but things soon went wrong for the World Champion. | Fast & Furious is available on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here.

5/18/2025 – When you are on the move, it is particularly important that your computer does not consume too much power when analysing. With ChessBase 18, you can conserve your battery and connect to top-quality hardware via a remote engine whenever you need it. This means that the engine installed on your computer can remain off and the computing power is provided by an Internet server. But there are advantages at home too: the wide selection is sure to include engines that are more powerful than the one on your own computer, and the fan stays quiet. In this tutorial series, you will learn how convenient and resource-efficient you can analyse with your engine of choice.

5/18/2025 – Herman Grooten is an International Master, a renowned trainer and the author of several highly acclaimed books on chess training and strategy. In episode 230 of his "Understanding before Moving" show Herman looks at the many achievements of Anish Giri. | Photo: Pascal Simon

5/17/2025 – We are thrilled to announce that GM Antoaneta Stefanova, former Women's World Chess Champion, will be delivering a live lecture at the Kasparov Chess Foundation Academy! Antoaneta is one of the most distinguished figures in contemporary chess. She was a true chess prodigy, won the World Under-10 Championship in 1989 in Puerto Rico and the European Under-14 Championship in 1992. Listen to her live this Sunday.

5/14/2025 – In the fourth world championship match between Garry Kasparov and Anatoly Karpov, played in Seville in 1987, the score was 12–11 in Karpov’s favor, putting Kasparov in a must-win situation to retain his title. This game was the subject of our previous article. We invited our readers to analyze with us, to solve a historical riddle. Here are the results.

5/14/2025 – The city of Barlinek ("Berlinchen") and the LASKER Chess Club in Barlinek invite all chess enthusiasts to the birthplace of Emanuel Lasker, Barlinek. For the sixth time, a rapid chess festival will be held in memory of Emanuel Lasker. Date: August 23, 2025. Here's the invitation...

5/14/2025 – Zhu Jiner's fifth consecutive win against Nana Dzagnidze propelled her to co-leadership alongside Anna Muzychuk, both with five points, as the Women's Grand Prix in Austria enters its final two rounds. Tan Zhongyi is just half a point behind after defeating Lela Javakhishvili, while Alexandra Kosteniuk secured her second straight win by beating Vaishali Rameshbabu. Mariya Muzychuk claimed her first victory, capitalising on Olga Badelka's mistakes in a chaotic encounter. | Photo: Przemysław Nikiel

5/14/2025 – Following round six of the Superbet Chess Classic in Bucharest, Alireza Firouzja joined the group of co-leaders with a win over world champion Gukesh Dommaraju in a complex struggle from an Italian Opening. With three rounds remaining, Firouzja, Fabiano Caruana, Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave share the lead with 3½ points, while Wesley So, Levon Aronian and Bogdan-Daniel Deac are just half a point behind. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

5/14/2025 – In this episode of Svitlana’s Smart Moves, Svitlana Demchenko introduces the Hedgehog pawn structure, a strategic setup common in the Sicilian Defense, featuring black pawns on a6, b6, d6, and e6. She emphasizes the educational value of understanding pawn structures for overall middle-game improvement, using a Kasparov–Kramnik game as a case study. Svitlana explains typical plans for both sides: white often uses space advantage and looks for a queenside breakthrough with moves like b4 and c5, while black prepares central or queenside pawn breaks like d5 or b5, and, much to Arne's delight, may even launch a kingside attack with …g5. But it might be better to stick to the queenside pawn advancing!

5/13/2025 – In the Endgame Magic Show #297, Karsten Müller continues to analyse endgames from the Women's World Championship match between Ju Wenjun and Tan Zhongyi. Defending champion Ju Wenjun won the match 6.5-2.5 and impressed with her endgame skills. | You can watch the Endgame Magic Show on-demand with a ChessBase Premium account.