11/8/2025 – "The perfect sacrifice is every chess player's dream," says Grandmaster Krishnan Sasikiran in the description of his Fritz Trainer! But when exactly is a sacrifice perfect? How can you correctly assess and evaluate sacrifice ideas, and how can you handle them when complications arise? The Grandmaster from India now wants to show ambitious chess players the answer to this question with his Fritz Trainer. Lukas Köpl has summarised the essence of the Fritz Trainer in his review.

11/8/2025 – Round three of the FIDE World Cup began on Friday in Goa, with 64 players still in contention. Out of 32 matches, 13 produced decisive results, including a notable upset. Peruvian-born grandmaster Jose Martinez, now representing Mexico, defeated eighth seed Nodirbek Abdusattorov with the black pieces, while Peter Leko, Alexey Sarana and Pouya Idani were also among the day's winners in a round that saw both experience and resilience rewarded. | Photo: Michal Walusza

11/7/2025 – FIDE has announced that the World Women's Team Championship will take place in Linares, Spain, from 17 to 24 November. The event will feature 12 national teams, including China, India, the United States and the host nation Spain. With top players such as Hou Yifan, Carissa Yip and Sarasadat Khademalsharieh expected to compete, the championship promises a strong field in a city long associated with elite chess.

11/7/2025 – In his C-Squared podcast on YouTube, Fabiano Caruana recently discussed the results of recent chess events and then shared his observations and analysis of the ongoing FIDE World Cup. Finally, he was tempted to make a prediction about the possible winner. After some consideration, he chose...

11/7/2025 – Tension ran high in Goa on Thursday as the second round of the 2025 FIDE World Cup came to an end with a marathon day of tiebreaks. While several favourites advanced smoothly - including Nodirbek Abdusattorov, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov and Vidit Gujrathi - a string of surprises kept spectators on edge. Lorenzo Lodici's victory over Hans Niemann stood out, as lengthy matches and near upsets marked an eventful close to round two. | Photo: Michal Walusza

11/6/2025 – The World Cup is quickly gaining momentum and most likely next week we will have a rich choice of games, but for this week we selected a game from the Dutch League. 15-year-old Tommy Grooten, who is the son of IM Herman Grooten and FM Petra Schuurman, is playing his first season in the highest league for Apeldoorn. Our Game of the Week is his first win against a grandmaster (Arthur Pijpers) and was conceptually very interesting, with a pretty finish. | Merijn's show is available on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here.

11/4/2025 – A tense day of tiebreak battles brought the opening round of the FIDE World Cup to a close on Monday in Goa. Rapid and blitz games decided the fate of 20 hard-fought encounters, as most favourites advanced but a few unexpected heroes emerged. Among them were India's Aronyak Ghosh, Argentina's 12-year-old prodigy Faustino Oro and Kazakhstan's Alisher Suleymenov, each earning a remarkable victory to move into round two. | Photo: Michal Walusza

11/3/2025 – At the start of the 28th Open International Bavarian Chess Championships (OIBM) on the picturesque shores of Lake Tegernsee, there was palpable tension on the first day of the tournament, both around the chessboards and during the breaks when the more than 500 participants from over 30 countries gathered together. As soon as the first move was made, it was clear that this was a tournament where a passion for chess met international standards. It deserved special attention not only because of its size, but also because of the quality of the competitors. The historic Gut Kaltenbrunn estate provided the perfect setting for a tournament that skilfully combined leisure and competition. | Photos: Organiser / Stev Bonhage, Sandra Schmidt, Sebastian Siebrecht

11/3/2025 – FIDE Grand Swiss 2025: analyses by Giri, Bluebaum, Vaishali, Abdusattorov, Mishra, Vidit and many more – "The double blockade": Mihail Marin highlights scenarios in which it is advantageous to block passed pawns with a knight and bishop – Action in the Nimzo-Indian: Balázs Csonka examines 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.Qc2 0-0 5.e4 d6 6.e5!? – "The key defender": In his ‘Practical Tips for Tournament Players’, Jan Markos shows how to identify and eliminate your opponent's most important piece – All in One: Romain Edouard himself was amazed at how well 1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nd2 e5!? works, and much more.

11/3/2025 – Bringing together veteran masters from across the globe, the World Senior Championships concluded in Gallipoli, Italy, after eleven rounds of classical play. The event attracted a record 467 participants from 67 countries. Victor Mikhalevski, Alexander Reprintsev, Ketevan Arakhamia-Grant and Galina Strutinskaia claimed the world titles, rounding off a memorable edition rich in experience and international spirit. | Photos: FIDE

11/3/2025 – The European Club Cup is always an interesting event, featuring all levels running from strong amateurs to absolute elite players. Both Germany's Vincent Keymer and Dutch Anish Giri used the opportunity to further rise in the world rankings, currently being 4th and 5th respectively. Giri started playing more aggressively recently, playing great Najdorf games against 1.e4. In our Game of the Week against Bobby Cheng he showed how you can attack with Black against the Catalan. | Merijn's show is available on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here.

11/3/2025 – The opening round of the 2025 FIDE World Cup neared its conclusion on Sunday, with most matches already producing a winner after the second classical game. Out of 78 encounters, 58 were decided without the need for tiebreaks, while 20 remain level and will continue on Monday. A few players managed to level their matches after early setbacks, and China's IM Wang Shixu (pictured) delivered the day's biggest surprise by eliminating Leon Luke Mendonca. | Photo: Michal Walusza