4/4/2025 – Our composing tourney, My First Endgame Study, has come to a close, and we are excited to announce the award winners. This inaugural event, a joint venture between the World Federation for Chess Composition (WFCC) and ChessBase India, drew an impressive response from the chess community, with 35 budding composers submitting a total of 60 entries. The tourney provided a platform for newcomers to showcase their skills and creativity in endgame study composition. We are delighted to present the standout entries that caught the attention of our judge and mentor, Gady Costeff. We would like to extend our heartfelt gratitude to all participants for their enthusiastic participation. Special thanks are due to Marjan Kovačević, president of the World Federation for Chess Composition (WFCC), without whose invaluable support and encouragement this event would not have been possible.

3/29/2025 – Pentala Harikrishna, one of India's finest chess grandmasters, has built a life in Prague, blending his passion for chess with a deep connection to the city. In an insightful interview with Sagar Shah, Harikrishna shares his journey - from his rise in the global chess rankings to his experiences working with world champions Gukesh and Ju Wenjun. As they explore Prague's landmarks, he reflects on the challenges of professional chess, the evolving landscape of Indian chess and the importance of unwavering support from family. | Photo: Amruta Mokal

1/18/2025 – Indian chess celebrates a remarkable milestone as Gukesh Dommaraju and Vantika Agrawal are honoured with prestigious national awards for their outstanding achievements. Gukesh, the youngest undisputed world chess champion in history and a double gold medallist at the 45th Chess Olympiad, received the Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award 2024. Vantika, who also clinched double gold at the Olympiad and a silver at the 19th Asian Games, received the Arjuna Award 2024.

1/17/2025 – 13-year-old Tymoteusz Kalata from Poland has been fighting Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) since he was six months old. Despite the struggles this condition brings, his love for chess has remained unaffected. However, due to the high costs of his medical treatment, Tymek’s family is reaching out for support from the chess community. A chess tournament will be held in Warsaw, Poland to raise funds for his treatment. Read the article to learn more about how you can join the tournament or donate to support Tymek’s fight. Photo: Dominik Kosiorek

9/5/2024 – Surya Shekhar Ganguly defeated Sam Shankland in their 8-game online match with the unique scoring system devised by Venceslav Rutar - which changes the scoring of draws into three categories based on the material disparity. Surya won the match by a 26-11 score, after grabbing 5 wins. Shankland collected 1 win, and 3 games ended in 'equal draws'. While there were no 'favoured' nor 'unfavoured' draws in the match, the format advocated for fighting chess as we got to see so many interesting games.

9/2/2024 – Venceslav Rutar from Slovenia is organising a match between GM Sam Shankland and GM Surya Sekhar Ganguly on 2-3 September. What's so special about this event? As Venceslav says, "Draws are not the problem, the problem is how we score them!" A unique scoring system will be used in this match. The traditional system with 1 point (to the winner), ½ point (to both the players) and 0 points (to the loser) will be replaced by five possibilities: win, favoured draw, equal draw, disfavoured draw and loss. Live transmission of the first game starts at 8.30 pm IST (17.00 CEST, 11.00 EDT). | Photos: Austin Fuller & Lennart Ootes / Saint Louis Chess Club

8/30/2024 – On the 15th of August 2024, as Indians celebrated Independence Day, another celebration quietly took place in Mumbai. While one group was busy hoisting the National Flag, the other group was busy cutting the ribbon to launch a special place. GM Vidit Gujrathi inaugurated the 'Temple of Chess', a new concept by ChessBase India for all chess lovers. The main attraction of this place is the vast collection of books. A very kind and generous person named Deodatta Modak from Nashik donated thousands of books to this temple. ChessBase India's Rasika Ratnaparkhi travelled to the home of Deodatta Modak and had the privilege of speaking with him about his chess journey, book collection, and his views on the Temple of Chess. Read on to discover his inspiring story.

8/15/2024 – The chess world is set to witness a historic shift after the announcement on Thursday, 25th July: ‘Magnus Carlsen raises $12 Million for Freestyle Chess Grand Slam.’ This project promises to bring high-level, exclusive chess tournaments to the global stage. While the format was initially introduced in February 2024, certain developments will make it exciting for players, fans, media, organizers, sponsors, and everyone involved. Jan Buettner is the co-founder of this project along with Magnus and in a candid interview with ChessBase India, he shares his journey of starting Freestyle Chess to raising US$12 million!

5/24/2024 – The Candidates Tournament 2024 took place last month in Toronto, Canada. The tournament turned out to be quite exciting, with many twists and turns. Sanket Nawle lives in Toronto, and is an excellent photographer. He tried to capture a few moments outside the playing hall — and managed to take some beautiful photos! In this article, he takes you through some of his most favourite photos from the Candidates, shortly describing why he likes them. | Photos: Sanket Nawle

1/13/2024 – The hyperactive ChessBase India team provides a wealth of content for chess fans all over the world. A couple of weeks ago, the team led by Sagar Shah made it to Samarkand and recorded numerous videos from the World Rapid and Blitz Championship. Want to feel the tension of elite blitz games caught on tape from start to finish? Find here a few examples, featuring Daniil Dubov, Dommaraju Gukesh and Divya Deshmukh.

8/17/2023 – Over the course of his career, Daniel King has written many books that have been chess bestsellers! This time, the world-famous grandmaster, writer, commentator and coach has come up with another book: “How to Win at Chess: From First Moves to Checkmate”. The short, 54-page book is ideal for someone who is just starting out in chess. Before examining tactics like forks, pins, and skewers, it describes each piece and its movements and clarifies fundamental concepts like check and how to open a game. We recently had a conversation with Daniel about his new book, his writing process, and more.

10/9/2021 – The Chess Super League is a grand event which will be held online from the 11th to the 17th of October 2021. Samay Raina, ChessBase India and Nodwin Gaming have come together to launch the league which will be known as the Chess Super League. Each team will be owned by a well-known celebrity and will consist of top international and Indian players, like Ding, Giri, Radjabov, Nakamura, Hou Yifan, the Muzychuk sisters, Gujrathi, Harika, Gukesh, and many more.

3/30/2020 – There are very few individuals in the chess world who have met and known the many legends of the royal game as closely as the ChessBase co-founder Frederic Friedel. As editor of the ChessBase newspage he rubbed shoulders with greats like Kasparov, Karpov, Korchnoi, became friend and mentor to talents like Anand and Short, who often stayed in his home. Knowing also that Frederic is an unmatched raconteur, IM Sagar Shah always pesters him to tell a story or two every time they meet. The Knowing the Chess Greats series is an effort to bring some of these priceless conversations with Frederic to the general chess audience!

4/30/2019 – Which is the most popular chess video on the Internet? How many people watched the record-breaking YouTube video? And who is the star of the show? Magnus Carlsen? Garry Kasparov? Neither. It is a 13-year-old boy named Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu. Really! A single video of him beating a 2650 GM in blitz chess was watched by close to 21 million viewers — chalking up 82 million watch minutes. And that's not all: other games by Pragg have been watched many millions of times as well.

12/6/2018 – The Sunway Sitges International Chess Festival returns next week for a 5th edition in Sitges, Barcelona, Spain from December 13th to the 23rd. There are still a few places available in the tournament which is rapidly becoming one of the strongest open events in the chess world, and this year will feature Russian GM Dmitry Andreikin, Ukrainian GM Vassily Ivanchuk and Indian super-talents GM Nihal Sarin and GM R. Praggnanandhaa. | Photo: Sharath Elumulai