3/26/2026 – The oldest surviving chess book is Lucena's "Repetición de Amores y Arte de Ajedrez" from 1497. One of the few remaining copies is now being auctioned at Sotheby's. Anyone looking to spruce up their chess book collection should seize this opportunity. | Photo: Sotheby's

3/24/2026 – The great tradition of chess cafés seemed to be something of the past, but now Sven Rehders, together with several other chess activists, is attempting to revive cafés and restaurants as meeting places for chess enthusiasts. And it is working. A smart app is helping to make it happen.

3/20/2026 – Bruno Parma passed away on 6 February this year. Born in Ljubljana, he was one of Slovenia's strongest chess players. Parma competed in eight Chess Olympiads for Yugoslavia, winning four silver medals and two bronze medals with the team. | Photo: Dutch National Archive

3/14/2026 – One hundred years ago, a major chess tournament was held at the Semmering mountain pass, a meeting place of Vienna's high society. It was not the top favourite and future world champion Alexander Alekhine who came out on top, but the great tactician Rudolf Spielmann. The players left behind a wealth of games that are now regarded as classics.

3/11/2026 – Last Sunday, on 8 March, Serbian grandmaster Slavoljub Marjanovic passed away. In the 1980s he was one of Yugoslavia’s strongest players and won a team bronze medal at the 1980 Chess Olympiad. After the end of his professional career, he made a name for himself as a coach. | Photo: ECU

3/3/2026 – The new FIDE world ranking for March includes the tournaments played in Wijk aan Zee. Among the biggest gainers are Nodirbek Abdusattorov and Javokhir Sindarov, as well as Matthias Bluebaum. The top of the women's world ranking remains firmly in Chinese hands. World Champion Gukesh, in his final year as a junior, is still number one on the U20 list. The (temporary) return of Sergey Karjakin caused some irritation.

2/21/2026 – Wilhelm Steinitz had lost his World Championship title to Emanuel Lasker in 1894, but he still retained the right to a return match. That rematch was scheduled to take place in Moscow at the end of 1896. Before that, however, Steinitz played a training match against Emanuel Schiffers. Join us on a brief journey back in time to Rostov-on-Don in 1896.

2/16/2026 – On 16 February 1906, Vera Menchik was born. After the Russian Revolution, her family lost their property, her parents separated, and Vera Menchik moved to England with her mother. As she did not have a good command of the English language, she devoted herself to chess. In this way, she became the first woman to be invited to top tournaments. Today marks the 120th anniversary of her birth.

2/6/2026 – The President of the Georgian Chess Federation and FIDE official Akaki Iashvili visited the ChessBase office in Hamburg to familiarise himself with the company’s training and educational programs. He was particularly impressed by the children’s chess learning program Fritz & Chesster. ChessBase CEO Rainer Woisin (pictured, on the right) and Akaki Iashvili (pictured, on the left) agreed on a cooperation in the field of scholastic chess.

2/3/2026 – The results of this year’s Tata Steel tournament could not yet be taken into account in the FIDE rating list of 1 February. There was, however, some movement in the women’s world ranking. With her results in the Chinese League, Hou Yifan has fallen below 2600 for the first time since 2013, but remains number one ahead of four other Chinese players. World Champion Gukesh is the top junior, ahead of Erdogmus. In the girls’ junior ranking, 15-year-old Lu Miaoyi leads.

1/30/2026 – Matthias Blübaum is currently stunning the chess world with his performance at the Tata Steel Masters in Wijk aan Zee. After ten rounds, he shares second to fourth place and is half a point behind leader Nodirbek Abdusattorov. In the last two rounds, Blübaum defeated Gukesh and Anish Giri, which helped him break the 2700 rating barrier for the first time in his career. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

1/26/2026 – The long-standing tournament in Wijk aan Zee offers a wealth of chess content, stories, images and interesting personalities. The following report takes a look behind the scenes, with background information and interviews. For example, you can meet the man behind the fantastic live experience on the Tata Steel Chess website, Menno Pals (pictured). | Photos: Nils Rhode / Interviews: André Schulz and Arne Kähler

1/23/2026 – Magnus had recently seemed somewhat weary of tournaments with classical time controls, but the organisers of the TePe Sigeman & Co Tournament (1–7 May 2026) have now rather surprisingly announced the participation of the world number one. Carlsen last played in Malmö as a 14-year-old. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

1/17/2026 – Today, on 17 January 2026, Maia Chiburdanidze celebrates her 65th birthday. For a long time, she was the best female chess player in the world, a world champion and a multiple gold medallist at Chess Olympiads. Like no other, Maia Chiburdanidze represents the golden era of Georgian women's chess, though she initially competed under the Soviet flag.

1/15/2026 – The Estonian diplomat and chess enthusiast Mart Tarmak organized a consultation game between politicians and diplomats at the Estonian Embassy in Vilnius in commemoration of Paul Keres on the occasion of his 110th birthday. Viktorija Cmilyte and Peter Heine Nielsen led the teams. | Photos: Embassy of Estonia in Vilnius

1/13/2026 – The Tata Steel Masters is the youngest Masters tournament in Wijk aan Zee history. With Yagiz Kaan Erdogmus, a 14-year-old has even qualified as a participant. And in the Challengers, twelve-year-old Faustino Oro (pictured) is hoping to follow in his footsteps. Which of the young guns from ten years ago have made it to the world elite? | Photo: Tata Steel Masters/ Jurriaan Hoefsmit

1/12/2026 – The former fishing village of Wijk aan Zee is world-famous, at least in the chess world. Virtually all world-class players, including almost all world champions, have passed through here. The long-standing sponsor has always been the steelworks in IJmuiden. The chess tradition is very old. Fifty years ago, some things were different from today, but much was already much the same as it is now. | Photo: Rob Mieremet, Anefo

1/7/2026 – At Christmas 2025, Stefan Löffler delighted readers of his chess column in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung—one of Germany’s leading national newspapers—with a Christmas story. Forty years earlier, Garry Kasparov, still not yet world champion, had played a clock simul against the Bundesliga team of Hamburger SK and lost. Two years later, Kasparov returned to Hamburg as world champion. This time he won the rematch, and during the visit encountered a remarkable new development that was to change the game profoundly: a chess database.