3/2/2026 – All five games ended decisively in round five of the Masters at the Prague Chess Festival. Jorden van Foreest kept the lead after capitalising on a single opening mistake by Hans Niemann, while Nodirbek Abdusattorov defeated world champion Gukesh Dommaraju in another tense encounter. David Navara (pictured) also scored, producing one of the most memorable wins of the tournament so far. | Photo: Petr Vrabec / Prague Chess Festival

3/2/2026 – A clear leader has emerged in the Challengers tournament at the Prague International Chess Festival, as 16-year-old Vaclav Finek moved a full point ahead of the field after defeating Daniil Yuffa with the white pieces. Divya Deshmukh, meanwhile, scored her first win of the event, while the remaining games ended drawn. The players now get a rest day before the final four rounds of the event take place from Tuesday to Friday. | Photo: Petr Vrabec / Prague Chess Festival

3/1/2026 – Is calculation becoming a strength that turns into a weakness? In this opinion piece, Ravi Abhyankar explores the delicate balance between calculation and instinct in modern chess. Can today’s elite players afford to rely only on deep calculation and ignore speed? Why does blitz matter so much for a classical World Champion today? By blending data, history, and modern realities, the article explains what dominance means in modern chess. | Photo: Grand Chess Tour / Lennart Ootes

3/1/2026 – With ChessBase´26, you can not only analyse your own games professionally – as we have already shown in the first four parts of the tutorial – you can also comment on them individually. There are several methods for doing this, and they can be linked together. The comments can be entered as text or using the commonly used chess symbols. In this fifth part of our tutorial series, we will show you how easily you can integrate all types of comments into your notation.

3/1/2026 – Two decisive results and three hard-fought draws were seen in round four of the Masters at the Prague Chess Festival. Jorden van Foreest moved into sole first place after defeating Nodirbek Yakubboev with the black pieces, scoring his third win in four games. Vincent Keymer secured his first victory, while the remaining encounters included sustained pressure and a notable tactical sequence in Hans Niemann's draw with Parham Maghsoodloo. | Photo: Tomáš Krist / Prague Chess Festival

3/1/2026 – Round four of the Challengers tournament at the Prague Chess Festival featured two decisive games. Benjamin Gledura (pictured) bounced back from two consecutive losses by defeating Jonas Buhl Bjerre, while Daniil Yuffa claimed his second consecutive victory as he beat Zhu Jiner. Vaclav Finek remains the sole leader of the tournament on 3/4 points after drawing Divya Deshmukh with black. | Photo: Tomáš Krist / Prague Chess Festival

2/28/2026 – This episode trains you to think more creatively by first testing obvious ideas, understanding precisely why they fail, and then searching for a small adjustment that removes the opponent’s defensive resource. Through tactical and endgame examples, Svitlana shows that imagination isn’t about random brilliance, but about spotting loose pieces, hidden interference ideas, and unexpected candidate moves that change the evaluation completely. The learning effect is practical: by repeatedly challenging your first instinct and actively looking for alternatives, you reduce careless mistakes and expand your tactical vision in real games.

2/28/2026 – On Sunday KCF Academy subscribers will have the chance to meet Evgenij Miroshnichenko, one of the most analytically sharp and pedagogically gifted chess minds in the game today, during a live, interactive Sunday session. Mark your calendar: 17:00 CET, March 1, 2026.

2/28/2026 – Round three of the Masters at the Prague International Chess Festival produced a single decisive result, as Jorden van Foreest defeated world champion Gukesh Dommaraju out of a Ruy Lopez. With no player exceeding plus-one after three rounds, the standings remain tightly grouped, as Van Foreest shares the lead with Nodirbek Abdusattorov, Nodirbek Yakubboev and David Navara. | Photo: Petr Vrabec / Prague Chess Festival

2/28/2026 – Round three of the Challengers tournament at the Prague Chess Festival featured five decisive games. Vaclav Finek, aged 16, took over as sole leader after defeating former pace-setter Stepan Hrbek, while four players now make up the chasing group a half point back. Besides Finek, Jonas Buhl Bjerre, Jachym Nemec, Daniil Yuffa and Zhu Jiner also collected wins on Friday. | Photo: Petr Vrabec / Prague Chess Festival

2/28/2026 – Chris Ward flips the usual “Monthly Dragon” perspective by studying why White wins against the Sicilian Dragon, using the classic Karpov–Korchnoi game to highlight recurring mating themes. He then shows how those same ideas transfer across openings and how he used the lessons in his own games to punish opponents who weren’t aware of the patterns—especially tactics involving sacrificesand mating nets. The takeaway for Dragon players: don’t avoid White’s best wins, learn the “warning signs,” so you can prevent them and steer the positions toward Black’s counterplay instead.| Photo: John Upham

2/27/2026 – The Prague International Chess Festival has started and both in the Masters and in the Challengers group fantastic games are being played right from the start. In the first two rounds, a remarkable amount of sacrifices were played. It was difficult to select just one Game of the Week, but in the end it was the creative performance by IM Jachym Nemec against GM Jiner Zhu that was most unusual of all. Black lost the opening battle, but then started to find amazing recources. Merijn's show is available on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here.