1/18/2023 – Can a massive volume of lengthy chess interviews, some dating back to over two decades, attract chess enthusiasts today. Can they be of interest to a heavily satiated chess audience? You bet they can. Frederic Friedel started reading the 476-page book – and was immediately hooked. He describes the reason for his fascination and tells us what is unique about this work.

1/1/2023 – We have been trying to keep track of incredible playing strength and title wins at a very early age. It started with Capablanca and Reshevsky, and today we are seeing full grandmasters aged thirteen — and in two cases even just twelve! Most recently it was Abhimanyu Mishra who achieved the title at twelve years and just under five months. It is time to update our prodigy page, with better graphics and a few telling graphs. We also invite our readers to contribute.

11/21/2022 – ...until ChessBase 17 is released! Be prepared for some very exciting news. The new program is not just a routine update – it brings you revolutionary features that take us to a new dimension in chess training. The release will be announced on Tuesday, and you will be able to order it at a premium price. Together with any other product on our grand autumn Discount Day service, on Wednesday, where everything is 25% off. Don't miss your chance.

11/20/2022 – This is a picture of the two greatest football players of our generation – perhaps in the history of the game. Rivals on the field, here they are engaged in a chess match. Well, not really. It was for a photo shoot, staged by Louis Vuitton, the French luxury fashion house, specializing in handbags. Sagar Shah tells us what the campaign was all about. | Photo: Annie Leibovitz for Louis Vuitton

10/4/2022 – Last week we presented you with a second set of unusual and interesting positions. They are clever and somewhat difficult to solve. But all of them are fun. Today you get the solutions, presented in a way that is particluarly easy to follow. You do not have to be a champion player or problem expert to follow.

9/30/2022 – A few days ago Europe's biggest news portal, SPIEGEL Online, had YACS – yet another cheating story. It concentrated on a portrait of the accused Hans Niemann, and traced his chess development over the years. Did you know you can easily track the Elo progress in the ChessBase Players service? And also his best games, his best and his most difficult opponents, his favourite openings and most/least successful openings. If not, take a look at what you have been missing.

9/27/2022 – This book contains a revealing self-portrait of Abhimanyu Mishra. The youngest grandmaster in the history of chess tells the story of a highly ambitious family project. Supported by his father, mother and sister, Abhi sets out to beat a nineteen-year-old world record. In June 202, at the height of the Covid pandemic, he succeeded against all odds: ‘I should have been jumping with excitement, but my heart was so full that I ended up teary-eyed in my father's arms.’ Book review.

9/26/2022 – Once again we will be presenting you with some unusual and interesting positions. They are clever and somewhat difficult to solve. But all of them are fun. We will present the studies on replay diagrams, where you can move the pieces to analyse. In one case there will be an engine that will defend against your attempts to win. The solutions with full explanations will be provided in a few days.

9/14/2022 – When the organisation of the 2022 Sinquefield Cup decided, after Round 3, to implement a fifteen-minute delay for the broadcast of moves, we felt some gratification. Hadn't we suggested exactly this to FIDE, seventeen years ago, as one possible measure to counteract cheating in chess? At least to make it more difficult? Not everybody was happy with the proposal and with its implementation in Saint Louis. What do you think?

9/9/2022 – Now, jumping on the bandwagon, Tesla CEO Elon Musk, the richest and arguably most successful innovator on the surface of the planet, has weighed on the conspiracy theory surrounding the cheating allegations in Saint Louis. In a recent interview, Hans Niemann said that in order to prove himself innocent, he was prepared to play naked. The ever provocative Elon had a comment on that as well. It is quite embarrassing to describe. | Photo of Musk by Andrew Kelly / REUTERS

9/5/2022 – Last Friday we showed you some unusual and interesting studies. You may have found them somewhat difficult to solve, on our replay diagrams, where in some cases an engine would defend against your attempts to win. Today we bring you the solutions, with full explanations, provided in video streams that anyone can follow.

9/2/2022 – Today we start with an experiment. We will be presenting you with some unusual and interesting studies. They are clever and rather difficult to solve. But all of them are fun. We will present the studies on replay diagrams, where there will be an engine that will defend against your attempts to win (or draw), as the studies demand. The solutions with full explanations will be provided in a few days.

9/1/2022 – After twenty games the score was 11½-8½ for Challenger Bobby Fischer, who needed 12½ to win the title. In game 21 he had the black pieces, gained a distinct advantage, but then allowed Boris Spassky to get a drawn position. However, when the still-reigning World Champion adjourned, he sealed a losing move. The next day, September 1st, 1972, resigned by telephone on. At 2:35 p.m. Chief Arbiter Lothar Schmid congratulated Fischer and announced in the hall that Bobby was the new champion.

8/25/2022 – After draws in games 14 and 15, Fischer still had a three-point lead in the World Championship match, and the Spassky side was getting nervous. The Champion was fighting hard, but not getting any points. Suspicion arose that Fischer might be using secret weapons: hypnosis, devices planted in the lights or the chairs, and even perhaps assistance from an "IBM" (Russian for "computer" at the time). All this was formally investigated, while Fischer continued to coast.

8/18/2022 – Fischer leads by three points. The Match of the Century was coming to a head, with Spassky, despite all his efforts, unable to reduce the deficit. "I felt that Fischer was like a large fish in my hands," he lamented, "one that was slippery and hard to hold on to. At certain moments I let him slip. And then again the psychological torment would begin. Everything had to be begun again from the start ..." Spassky was beginning to feel despondent. | Photo: Skáksamband Íslands

8/15/2022 – How fast and how reliably can strong chess players recognize chess positions? How good are world-class grandmasters at identifying games? And how do they compare with amateurs in this respect. The very successful science and engineering channel Veritasium has picked up this subject and made a very interesting video on it. To which we add our own research, conducted almost forty years ago.

8/13/2022 – After ten games in the World Championship match in Reykjavik, 1972, the score was 6½-3½ for Challenger Bobby Fischer. The match seemed virtually over – in the last eight games Boris Spassky had only managed to score 1½ points. In game 11 Spassky took on the Poisoned Pawn variation of the Najdorf Sicilian. "Fighting with the desperation of the doomed: he sensationally crushed his opponent in the 11th game" (Kasparov). In the twelfth he held Fischer to a comfortable draw. And then came the 13th round. Fischer played, for the first time in a top-level game, the Alekhine Defence. It turned into one of the most exciting battles of the match, and is beautifully annotated by GM Robert Byrne.

8/4/2022 – The game was invented in the 6th century in north-western India, from where it migrated to the west and conquered the world. In the country of origin, however, chess descended into mediocracy – until it in the 1980s it suddenly produced its first grandmaster and World Champion. Now India is on the verge of becoming the ultimate super-power of chess. Our report includes a nice video summary of the performance of the Indian teams at the Chennai Olympiad so far.