5/9/2025 – The second round of the Superbet Chess Classic saw Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (pictured) and Bogdan-Daniel Deac bouncing back from first-round losses with victories over Wesley So and Levon Aronian, respectively. Vachier-Lagrave converted a very slightly favourable rook and knight endgame, while Deac prevailed in a long battle out of a Nimzo-Indian Defence. Alireza Firouzja is now the sole leader with 1½ points after drawing a tense, 55-move encounter against Jan-Krzysztof Duda. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

5/8/2025 – Boris Spassky (30 January 1935 - 27 February 2025), the tenth World Champion in chess history, was a versatile player who could attack and defend and was equally at home in sharp and in quiet positions. The ChessBase Master Class on Boris Spassky presents and analyses his rich chess legacy. Eugene Manlapao took a look at the course and was surprised and impressed.

5/8/2025 – In his new Fast & Furious show, Robert Ris looks at the encounter between World Champion Gukesh and Praggnanandhaa in the first round of the Superbet Classic in Bucharest. An interesting opening quickly turned into a complicated and highly entertaining tactical slugfest. | Fast & Furious is available on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here.

5/8/2025 – It is well known that the knight is a piece that cannot win/lose a tempo. The position you see on the board was a study by the great Samuel Loyd, published in 1860. Can you imagine what White (to play) must do to draw? The same theme appeared in a number of subsequent studies, and the very interesting ending of knight and rook pawn vs. bishop, has been analysed over the years. In this series GM Eftratios Grivas tells us how it all developed.

5/8/2025 – The Superbet Chess Classic in Bucharest got underway with a mixed set of results, as Alireza Firouzja and Wesley So emerged as early co-leaders following the first round. Firouzja's convincing win over Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and So's fortunate victory against wildcard Bogdan-Daniel Deac set the pace, while the remaining games ended in draws. The all-Indian clash between Gukesh Dommaraju and Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu provided plenty of excitement. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

5/8/2025 – In the latest episode of the Power Play Show, GM Daniel King looks at some of the highlights from the Women's World Championship match between defending champion Ju Wenjun and her challenger Tan Zhongyi. After a shaky start, Ju Wenjun defended her title with a clear 6.5-2.5 victory. | Watch Power Play on-demand with a ChessBase Premium account. All the usual puzzles, games and instruction will be on offer.

5/5/2025 – "The BBC has posted a 1972 interview with Fischer by James Burke on YouTube," our friend Yasser Seirawan told us. BBC Two had was broadcast this video, which is 35 minutes long, on 2 July, 1972, nine days before the epic match began. "Personally, I thought that it is fantastic, vintage stuff. You see the Fischer that I met in 1992. Engaging, funny, self-assured. But also aware of his own shortcomings." It is really something you don't want to miss.

5/5/2025 – Chess has played an important role in the development of information technology, computer hardware and software. For example, in 1903, shortly after the invention of radio, a long-distance game was played between chess players on the ships Philadelphia and Lucania (photo). Rolf Beran reports on this and other early transmissions in information technology. | Photo: United States Library of Congress (via Wikipedia)

5/5/2025 – The 2025 Superbet Chess Classic in Bucharest marks the second stage of this year's Grand Chess Tour and the first of two classical tournaments in the series. Held on 6–16 May, the event brings together ten top grandmasters in a single round-robin format. With high stakes and a strong international line-up, including reigning champion Fabiano Caruana and world champion Gukesh Dommaraju, the tournament will play a key role in shaping the race to qualify for the season-ending finals in São Paulo. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

5/4/2025 – The 2025 Canadian Chess Championships took place in Toronto on 17-22 April, bringing together 90 players from across nine provinces. IM Nikolay Noritsyn (pictured) claimed his third national title in the open section, while WIM Li Yunshan secured her first women’s title on tiebreak. The championships featured strong performances from both established and emerging players in two parallel 9-round Swiss tournaments. Close contests in both events led to final-round deciders. | Photo: John Upper

5/4/2025 – Herman Grooten is an International Master, a renowned trainer and the author of several highly acclaimed books on chess training and strategy. In episode 228 of his "Understanding before Moving" show Herman looks at the career of Uzbek Grandmaster Nodirbek Abdusattorov. | Photo: Pascal Simon

5/4/2025 – Have you admired how beautifully the authors colour fields and insert arrows in the ChessBase videos? Would you like to be able to do the same? In this tutorial series, we show you how you can improve your own analyses in ChessBase 18 with clear graphical elements.