1/19/2022 – Remember what "Sensory board chess computers" were like, four decades ago? Bulky, heavy, with complicated installation, and very expensive to buy. Today you get elegant, flat boards, which run on rechargeable batteries. And they are immediately ready to play. The one we are looking at today even adjusts its playing strength to match yours. It is a pleasure to operate.

1/10/2022 – Four years after his epic match against Fritz in Bahrain, which ended in a hard-fought 4-4 draw, World Champion Vladimir Kramnik, who had in the meantime twice defended his title, once again took up the gauntlet to face his computer opponent. In a two-part pictorial article, Frederic Friedel describes the intense million-dollar battle that was fought between them in 2006 in Bonn, Germany. Finance Minister Peer Steinbrück called it a cultural battle between outstanding representatives of human and technical intelligence.

1/3/2022 – We know that our latest version of Fritz has a special mode that allows you to actually win games – which no 3500+ program would ever do. A lot of amateurs are having loads of fun, learning to spot combinations and by brilliancies in the process. We are also experimenting with strong GMs: will they too enjoy using Fritz 18 as a training partner? Here's someone who has tried.

12/26/2021 – In November we launched a new edition of our flagship program, Fritz. Version 18 has a special mode in which Fritz allows its opponent to actually win games, if he is able to find clever moves. Many amateurs and club players have sent in games that they won with brilliant ideas. But how about grandmasters? Fritz determines the playing strength of its opponent, and makes him find more difficult brilliancies. Iniyan Panneerselvam, a young GM, has written a report on his experience with Fritz 18.

12/25/2021 – A few weeks ago we announced a Brilliancy Challenge: send us brilliant games you have recently played and compete for some valuable prizes. Here's a festive example: Andreas Krentel, a physiotherapist, used to play in a chess club 15 years ago. He was looking for an opponent to test his wits against. Suddenly he found the prefect chess partner: Fritz 18! And it became like the good old days in the chess club. Andreas has sent us a couple of games to show how the program encouraged him to execute brilliancies.

12/9/2021 – The adventures we have had with Fritz! A unique experience was a match our program played in the Gulf state of Bahrain, back in 2002. The eight-game struggle ended in a hard-fought 4-4 draw. In a large pictorial article Frederic Friedel describes the intense battle against the reigning World Champion Vladimir Kramnik, and the three weeks spent by the ChessBase/Fritz team in a luxury hotel in Bahrain.

12/13/2021 – When Beth Harmon defeated a series of top male grandmasters, and then went on to wrest the title from Russian world champion Vasily Borgov, it was not real life. It happened in the Queen’s Gambit, a Netflix series that did more for chess than anything else in 2020. In reality, today there is not a single active female player in the top 100. But FIDE wants to change that, as the Guardian reports.

11/29/2021 – Look at this position. Black still has all his pieces on the board, while White has just a single pawn, on its original square. So what is the task? "White to play and win" says the composer, one of the most imaginative in history. Born in 1860, Ottó Titusz Bláthy composed a large number of "Grotesques", extremely unusual positions in which White must win against much larger black forces. These problems are generally intended to be humorous. We hope you enjoy our examples, which should also serve to remind you how you can move the pieces, play and analyse right there on our news page diagrams.

11/23/2021 – After staging the highly successful man-vs-machine match Garry Kasparov vs X3D Fritz, the ever enterprising Armand Rousso launched a search engine, intended to challenge the supremacy of Google. The launch of "Accoona" in New York in 2004 had a glittering array of special guests (Kasparov, Bill Clinton). The next year Armand did a second publicity event, this time pitting the latest version of Fritz against the newly crowned FIDE World Champion Rustam Kasimdzhanov.

11/21/2021 – Sometimes watching a game of chess is inspiring – and instructive. A recent blitz game between two hot Indian talents will illustrate this. The second part of this game, which has an interesting underpomotion, was recorded, and commented on by IM Sagar Shah of ChessBase India. We have added a replay board on which you can analyse yourself. A most enjoyable way to improve your skill, don't you think?

11/13/2021 – In 2003 there was a gigantic man vs machine match in New York. Garry Kasparov faced "X3D Fritz", a chess program that used new hardware and software which allowed radically lifelike 3D images, floating hologram-like in front of the screen. The match was an unprecedented success, generating more media coverage than any chess game previously in history. It was also full of adventure for the ChessBase team.

11/9/2021 – In November 1991 ChessBase launched its first chess playing program for PCs. After a modest start it picked up strength and started challenging the best players in the world. In 1992 the reigning World Champion Garry Kasparov played 35 blitz games, on his notebook, a beta of Fritz 3. He won 31, the computer won four. In 1994 Fritz was equal first with Kasparov in the strongest blitz tournament of all time (17 GMs, Elo average of 2625). In a supreme effort, Garry won the playoff.

11/5/2021 – In November 1991 ChessBase launched its first chess playing program for PCs. It was a modest start, but one that went on to completely change the chess world. Today, we start retracing the steps that led to the development of a fledgling chess program that went on to become one of the most powerful entities that has ever played the game – one that top players consult when preparing for their next tournament or match.

10/5/2021 – The story captured headlines twenty years ago. Many people believe that Bobby Fischer has returned to chess and was performing miracles on the Internet. Nigel Short said he was "99 per cent sure" he has had played Fischer, author Tim Krabbé, who was initially sceptical, went on to see the light. In September 2001 we took a closer look at the evidence.

9/18/2021 – Nona Gaprindashvili, a history-making chess champion, has sued the giant video portal Netflix over a line in the series ‘The Queen’s Gambit’, where it was claimed that the female world champion had never faced men. Nona and her attorneys called the statement grossly sexist and belittling. "By 1968, the year in which the episode is set, she had competed against at least 59 male chess players." The international news is full of the story.

9/11/2021 – Twenty years ago, on September 12, 2001, we launched our brand new database-driven news page. The very first report we were forced to file was about the destruction of the World Trade Center in New York, which had been perpetrated on the previous day. It had a special meaning for chess. Six years earlier the World Chess Championship had been staged on the Observation Deck on the 107th floor.

9/7/2021 – Fridrik Ólafsson may be the strongest chess player of the 20th century about whom until now no book existed, in any major language. It feels great to present this first book outside of Iceland about the chess career of their first and most prominent grandmaster. It is full of important narrative and wonderfully annotated games, which highlight his personal attacking style, which he used to beat the likes of Keres, Tal, Petrosian, Fischer, Korchnoi and Karpov.

8/25/2021 – The legend, the 13th World Champion, and arguably the greatest chess player ever, Garry Kasparov, is coming to ChessBase India for the 18th episode of Grandmaster Chess. The livestream will take place on the 25th of August at 6.45 p.m. (3:15 p.m. European time, 9 a.m. New York). Dont't miss it – you can see Garry in relaxed banter with chess amateurs. And he is doing this for a second time! Take a look at how the first session went.