10/24/2024 – In the future, the new ChessBase Fritztrainers and programmes will no longer be installed from a DVD, but using an installer downloaded from the Internet. This is faster and less complicated than installing from a DVD. Most ChessBase users have already ordered via download anyway. Nonetheless, those who previously installed by DVD can still order the programmes and Fritztrainer by post and will then receive a nice package with instructions and an activation number!

10/23/2024 – The US Chess Championships are taking place on 11-24 October at the World Chess Hall of Fame in Saint Louis, Missouri. Both the open and the women's tournaments are 12-player round robins. Fabiano Caruana and Wesley So are the top seeds in the open section, while defending champion Carissa Yip and Alice Lee are the highest-rated players in the women's category. | Follow the action live with expert commentary starting at 20.15 CEST (14.15 ET, 23.45 IST)

10/23/2024 – In the Women's US Championship, Carissa Yip secured her third national title with a round to spare, despite suffering two consecutive losses after a dominant start. Meanwhile, in the open section, Fabiano Caruana holds the lead going into the final round, as Awonder Liang, Sam Sevian and Hans Niemann still have theoretical chances of winning the tournament. Two games ended decisively in the open, with Ray Robson beating Abhimanyu Mishra and Sevian getting the better of Sam Shankland. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

10/23/2024 – In the third round of the European Club Cup, top favourite SuperChess had to play against team Vugar Gashimov from Azerbaijan, a challenging task which SuperChess, however, solved with ease: they won 5-1. Vincent Keymer scored the winning point for Novy Bor against the Vados Chess Club. In the women's tournament, Garuda Ajka won the top match against SuperChess and Elisabeth Pähtz scored the winning point for the Monte Carlo team. | Photo: Gukesh takes a critical look at the game of Praggnanandhaa | Photos: European Chess Union and Gerd Densing

10/23/2024 – In our short interview with Sethuraman S P, the winner of the Weissenhaus Young Masters, he shares his experience of winning the bronze medal at the Chess Olympiad, a significant milestone for the Indian team. He talks about growing up in Chennai, often called the chess hub of India, where he was inspired by world champion Viswanathan Anand. The Indian GM also reflects on his ambitions to reach a 2700 rating despite the challenges of competing against a new generation of young, talented players.

10/23/2024 – The Weissenhaus on the Baltic Sea coast is certainly one of the most beautiful venues for chess tournaments. Recently, the Weissenhaus Young Masters took place there. The games were played in the castle. The players were also accommodated either in the castle or in one of the houses of the ensemble. At the end of the tournament, the German national team visited.

10/22/2024 – In the open tournament of the European Club Cup, the top clubs continued to win comfortably in the second round. But on some boards, the underdogs managed to stage some upsets. Benedict Krause, for example, took a grandmaster scalp for St. Pauli. In the Women's Cup, Monte Carlo had to concede its first point. | Photo: Ivan Sokolov watches the action | Photos: European Chess Union and Gerd Densing

10/22/2024 – It has happened after all - Carissa Yip's great winning streak came to an end. In an intense game, Megan Lee had the better end of the stick and defeated the leader of the Women's US Champioship. In the open tournament, Sam Sevian had a better position against Leinier Dominguez, but ran into a counterattack. Fabiano Caruana is still atop the standings. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

10/22/2024 – Indian Grandmaster Sasikiran Krishnan (which is the actual correct name order), reflects on his remarkable chess journey, from learning the game as a child in Chennai to becoming one of India's top players. He shares personal stories about overcoming challenges both on and off the board, highlighting key moments in his career and life, like reaching 2700+ rating, winning the bronze medal at the Olympiad, and his impressive weight loss journey, where he dropped 35 kg, only to become too weak and end up in the hospital.

10/22/2024 – Queens are very peculiar pieces. They love to attack and hate to defend. The difference in the value of this piece when attacking and defending is striking. An attacking queen is perhaps twice as valuable than a defending one. In a way, it makes a lot of sense. A queen is a very mobile and precious piece. Being mobile, it can attack very well, creating double attacks, forks, moving from one side to the other with ease. Being precious, it is barely able to cover anything. (For the same reason we don’t use golden locks to protect our bicycles. Thieves would gladly steal both the bike and the lock.) The qualities of a queen are very visible in situations when it must fight less valuable pieces. Let's have a look at some examples! | Photo: Ecolinho (Pixabay)

10/22/2024 – In the diagram position White has still all the pawns he had at the beginning of the game, but he also has a bad bishop because he put all those pawns on the colour of his bishop. And though he is a pawn up, White is in trouble and has to fight for a draw. What should he do?

10/21/2024 – With 7 points from 9 games, Indian Grandmaster P.T. Sethuraman won the Weissenhaus Young Masters ahead of Pavel Eljanov. The young players of the Weissenhaus Chess Acadamy, Marius Deuer and Leonardo Costa finished third and fourth. 13-year old Hussain Besou narrowly missed an IM-norm, but gained tournament experience. Just as 12-year old Christian Glöckler. | Photo: WEISSENHAUS Chess Academy