1/30/2025 – Suhani Shah is one of the finest mentalists we know. Certainly one of the most entertaining. In one of her acts she proceeded to read the minds of two chess World Champions – Vishy Anand and D.Gukesh. Check out the videos in our report to see how she fared works – and try to explain the techniques she uses. A word of caution: this is one really clever lady!

1/24/2025 – A real life Queen’s Gambit, this captivating memoir tells the story of one of the most renowned women in chess history. Susan Polgar takes on a sexist establishment, standing up to an authoritarian empire and rewriting the rules of what women could achieve against the oppressive backdrop of Cold War Eastern Europe. A must-read book, coming out on March 11. Pre-orders available on Amazon.

1/21/2025 – Judit Polgar, the strongest female chess player of all time, wishes our readers a "Happy 2025, which will hopefully be filled with exciting challenges and successes – both on and off the chessboard!" To kick off the year she has prepared something special for us: you can get Judit's books, personally signed by her, at discounted prices in her Webshop. This exclusive offer is valid until January 31, 2025.

1/20/2025 – After the Moscow 1925 tournament, World Champion José Raúl Capablanca wrote an account of the event, together with proposals for a new form of chess. "Capablanca Chess" was to be played on a 10×8 board with two new pieces: the "archbishop," combining the powers of a bishop and a knight, and the "chancellor," combining the powers of a rook and a knight.

1/13/2025 – The 1925 chess tournament held in Moscow was a groundbreaking event in chess history. The International Chess Tournament was the world's first state-sponsored chess tournament. It featured 21 players –eleven international stars and ten Soviet masters. It was won by Efim Bogoljubow, who finished ahead of Lasker and Capablanca, the reigning world champion. Against him Bogoljubow played one of the most and complex one of the most widely discussed games in history.

1/9/2025 – At the start of the World Championship in Singapore, on November 25th 2024, a new chess puzzle game, inspired by the incredibly popular 'Wordle', was launched. It was developed by a young lad from Singapore, a problem expert, together with a member of the ChessBase family. We have been experimenting with the World Championship game, to see how people who are confronted with it, react. We recorded a strong chess player's first interaction with the game. It was instructive and entertaining.

12/29/2024 – After our Christmas Puzzles, involving kings and a couple of pawns, you may be tempted to call Ding Liren's oversight in the final game of the World Championship match a gross blunder. It was a catastrophic mistake that cost the World Champion millions of dollars of potential future income. How it came about is explained by ChessBase Magazine author GM Dorian Rogozenco in this video reconstruction.

12/28/2024 – Simple pawn endings are vital, and can win you a World Championship. Ask Gukesh. So can you understand and play them proficiently? Do you recognize winning chances in your calculations? In the second part of our Christmas pawn endgame puzzle suite, we bring you new and entertaining positions that will test your skills. And hopefully leave you a better, more effective player.

12/27/2024 – Would you know that Black (to play) in this position can win? Would you recognize that, instantly, in your calculations? And would you be able to play it to victory? That could win you a World Championship! Today we want to check your pawn ending skills, with positions to solve and techniques to learn. It is an entertaining and instructive pastime in the Christmas week.

12/14/2024 – On Monday the 2024 Nobel Prizes were awarded in a Stockholm, Sweden. The prize for chemistry went to three scientists, one of whom has an illustrious background in chess. Demis Hassabis was a chess prodigy with a 2300 rating at the age of 13. He founded DeepMind, a subsidiary of Google, and went on to develop the groundbreaking artificial intelligence program AlphaZero. Frederic Friedel has known Demis since he was 17. | Photo European Biotechology/Nanaka Adachi

11/24/2024 – Just in time for the great event, a new chess puzzle game, inspired by the incredibly popular 'Wordle', is being released. It was developed by a young lad from Singapore, a problem expert, together with a member of the ChessBase family. Today we will show you how it works, on Monday, November 25, you will get a daily puzzle to solve.

11/13/2024 – Chess was invented in India, and brought to Europe in the 9th Century by the Arabs – who also introduced the first “mansuba” – middle or endgame puzzles with well-defined tasks, with stories and legends surrounding them. Today we give you three of the oldest mansuba to solve – in your head or against our live chess diagrams.

11/4/2024 – England’s record-breaking crop of chess talents scored another incredible milestone this week when nine-year-old north London schoolboy, Ethan Pang, became the youngest-ever to pass the 2300 rating mark in an official list and earn the FIDE Master (FM) title. At an event last month, Ethan beat no less than three grandmasters. They come younger every year!

10/31/2024 – ARTE Culture, the French-German film production and TV channel, recently made a full six-part dramatic re-enactment of the epic 1997 match between Garry Kasparov and the super-computer Deep Blue. At the same time they broadcast a 50-minute portrait that traces the extraordinary life and career of the global icon. The film contains many historically interviews by personalities from the time. It is well worth watching.

10/17/2024 – We told you about the six-part dramatic re-enactment of the epic 1997 match between Garry Kasparov and the super-computer Deep Blue. The movie, due for broadcast today, and can also be viewed in full on the ARTE web site or on Youtube. As someone who experienced practically every minute of the drama in real life, back in 1985-86, I could track all the discrepancies. But on the whole the movie was well told and enjoyable.

10/7/2024 – ARTE, the French-German film production and TV channel, has made a six-part dramatic re-enactment of the epic 1997 match between Garry Kasparov and the super-computer Deep Blue. The movie, due for broadcast on October 17, can already be viewed in full on the ARTE Internet web site. Mind you, it will take almost five hours to watch, but it is definitely worth the invested time.

9/23/2024 – Can you mate with two bishops? And how about with bishop and knight? Really, can you do it, if it comes up in a tournament game? Before that happens, it would be well to check. You can do it easily by playing it against our diagrams. And if you have trouble, let Gauri Shankar, chess trainer from Chicago, give you instructions. In addition try and solve our puzzle by finding the long-range strategic solution.

8/27/2024 – Take a look at this position. Looks simple enough – just five pieces on the board. But we are asked to find a clear and forced win for White. That requires some unusually subtle strategic moves. Try and solve it, and two other similarly clever problems, which you are sure to find pleasing. Full video explanations will follow in a week.