10/29/2025 – Magnus Carlsen took the sole lead after day two of the Clutch Chess: Champions Showdown in Saint Louis, reaching 11½ points following four wins from six games - despite expressing dissatisfaction with his play. Fabiano Caruana climbed from last place to second on 10½ points by scoring 9 points across the day, while Hikaru Nakamura and Gukesh Dommaraju slipped to joint last on 7. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

10/29/2025 – In this second October Monthly Dragon, Chris Ward let Arne pick two games. Game 1 (Yugoslav, Chinese variation) shows classic opposite-wing play, while Game 2 (Yugoslav, with g3) is a model Dragon win. The episode highlights practical Dragon themes—pawn sacs on the queen side, neutralizing Bh6 ideas, pinned-knight motifs on d5, and the power of coordinated rooks and queen on the b-file. | Photo: John Upham

10/29/2025 – The 33rd FIDE World Senior Championships are underway in Gallipoli, Italy, with a record 467 participants competing across four age-group categories. After seven rounds, the standings remain tightly contested, particularly in the largest section, the 65+ Open. Leading figures such as Victor Mikhalevski and Ketevan Arakhamia-Grant currently top their respective groups, but with four rounds still to play, the battle for the senior world titles remains wide open. | Photos: FIDE

10/28/2025 – We take a unique behind-the-scenes look at how top chess masters organize their digital workspace. Grandmasters and trainers like Svitlana Demchenko, Robert Ris, Michael Prusikin, Harald Schneider-Zinner, Frederik Svane, Felix Blohberger, and Dorian Rogozenco share their screens to reveal their personal ChessBase 18 setups — from meticulously clean desktops to chaotic databases full of ideas. They show us their board designs, current projects, and discuss their favourite or most-used ChessBase functions, offering fascinating insights into how great minds prepare, study, and work with chess every day.

10/28/2025 – Some days ago, we presented the tough and complex battle that ensued between Emanuel Lasker and Mikhail Ivanovich Chigorin. In a semi-endgame the young German world champion held the pair of bishops, but it was the Russian forefighter with the pair of knights who emerged victorious in the end. The game has been the subject of controversy for 130 years, so we asked readers five questions about critical positions to shed some more light on it.

10/28/2025 – Pawn races can be very sharp: White to move and win?

10/25/2025 – The European Club Cup is taking place on 19-25 October in Rhodes, Greece, bringing together no fewer than 122 teams and around 800 players from around the world. The seven-round event features a number of elite players, including Arjun Erigaisi, Anish Giri, Gukesh Dommaraju, Aleksandra Goryachkina and Zhu Jiner. | Follow the action live with expert commentary starting at 14.00 CEST (8.00 ET, 17.30 IST)

10/25/2025 – There is a lot of top level chess going on this week, including the US championship and the European Club Cup, but everything was overshadowed by the shocking death of Daniel Naroditsky at the age of 29. His story and his legacy should be told and shared by the people who knew him best, that's why this video is on another topic. At this point Caruana is leading the US championship and he is playing very creative and dynamic chess. We will discuss his impressive win against Niemann. | Merijn's show is available on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here.

10/25/2025 – Michael Kotyk is a young chess coach from Hamburg. Below, he reviews Robert Ris's video course on the Colle & Zukertort System, an often underestimated system, but one that Kotyk has very personal memories of from his early days as a tournament player... | Photos: ChessBase

10/25/2025 – FIDE President Arkady Dvorkovich has announced that recent public statements made by GM Vladimir Kramnik, both before and after the death of GM Daniel Naroditsky, will be referred to the FIDE Ethics and Disciplinary Commission for review. In a statement emphasising respect, dignity and accountability within the chess community, Dvorkovich reaffirmed FIDE's commitment to act against harassment or bullying and to uphold integrity and humanity as guiding principles of the sport.

10/24/2025 – The 2025 US Chess Championships are taking place on 12-24 October at the Saint Louis Chess Club. Each tournament is a 12-player single round-robin with a classical time control. Fabiano Caruana, Wesley So and Hans Niemann are the highest-rated players in the open, while Carissa Yip, Alice Lee and Tatev Abrahamyan head the women's field. | Follow the action live starting at 19.00 CEST (13.00 ET, 22.30 IST)

10/24/2025 – The Freestyle Chess Grand Slam 2025 will conclude in South Africa with a final event from 8 to 11 December. At the Grootbos Private Nature Reserve in the Western Cape Province, eight of the world's best players, including Magnus Carlsen and Fabiano Caruana, will compete both for the tournament victory and the series title. | Photo: Freestyle Chess/ Grootbos