3/9/2026 – We all know about the explosive growth of Indian chess: super-talents springing like mushrooms in the rain. But have you noticed that there are first signs of a similar development in Turkey? Is that going to be the next great chess hub? Well, yes, if things go the way investor and entrepreneur Evren Üçok has planned. Here's what he is doing for Turkish – and international – chess talents.

3/9/2026 – Can you stop the black pawn on a2 from promoting – and in fact win this position for White? Today we have a new challenge that will tell you if you can handle pawn promotions like a master. Test your skills on four tricky positions. The solutions, with full video explanations, will come in a week. Learn and enjoy.

2/20/2026 – Who is your favourite chess player – we asked you recently. Whose games do you enjoy the most? We got a lot of feedback, and will show you the choices that human chess players make – and compare them with what a chess AI chooses, after it has played through and evaluated millions of games.

2/19/2026 – Dutch grandmaster Jan Timman, an elite player from the 1970s, a nine-time national champion and former world number two, has passed away at the age of 74. He was known for his imaginative and attacking style of play, and his creative writings as a chess author. Timman was twice married and had two children. He will be sorely missed. | Photo: Lennart Ootes (2019)

2/9/2026 – Who is your favourite chess player – of all time, from the history of chess? Whose games do you enjoy the most? Is it one of the greats from the 19th century, the world champion legends of the twentieth? Or is it a player who is still active? Tell us your choices – and we will compare them with what a chess AI chooses, after evaluating millions of games.

1/7/2026 – In the final sections of our Christmas Puzzle Week we brought you a variety of famous and less well-known puzzles. Among them a mate problem that solves itself – literally. And one that looks deceptively simple, but requires a very subtle strategy to find the win. In no less than 46 moves! Can computers solve it?

1/5/2026 – Did you solve the famous retractor by T.R. Dawson? You had to retract White's last move and then deliver a mate in two. And the solution? Take back the move h2-h4 and then play exactly the same move: 1.h2-h4! g4×h3 e.p. 2.B×g6#. Outrageous! Today we bring you a second instalment of solutions from our Christmas Puzzle Week. With retractors, reflectors, missing pieces and more. Hoping you like such out-of-the-box puzzles.

1/1/2026 – Did you enjoy our Christmas puzzles? They were computer-resistant, which meant you could not simply ask a chess engine to solve them for you. Today we bring you a first batch of solutions – and reveal for the first time the solution to the decades-old problem of a game starting 1.e4 and ending on move five with knight takes rook mate. The solutions to the remaining problems will appear shortly.

12/31/2025 – Take a look at this relatively simple position. Can you figure out how White can win? And how many moves it will require to overcome Black's most resolute defence? You won't believe it. To relax we bring you the arguably easiest chess study ever composed, and other entertaining puzzles, many from the out-of-the-box legend Karl Fabel.

12/30/2025 – In August 2019 I spent a week in France, at the training camp I had organized (together with ChessBase India) for young Indian super talents. Former world champion Vladimir Kramnik did the chess training, while I pestered the kids with logic puzzles. Most did not involve chess, but some did. Here are a couple for you.

12/29/2025 – In rotary problems the board is rotated by 180° for a second position with a different solution. It is usually pawns that make a different when you turn the board around. Or the king/queen positions, or castling is involved. Can one devise problems where these factors do not play a role? Yes one can, as our expert for out-of-the-box problems, Werner Keym, proves.

12/27/2025 – There are chess puzzles which only consist of a line of text, asking you to construct a position or a game that it describes. Some can be awesomely difficult, like the puzzle we first posted 41 years ago. Two world champions were not able to solve it. We tell you about that, and present a new ones, not quite as tough, for you to solve.

12/3/2025 – Ed Schröder, pioneer of chess engine programming, has in his retirement turned his attention to a new and very exciting project: to extract games from a database collection that are especially aggressive – that are short and have daring sacrifices and king attacks. He shows us the kinds of result you can get. Best of all: you can download the utility and use it on your databases.

12/2/2025 – Ed Schröder is a pioneer in chess programming. In the 1990s his program Rebel won a number of World Championships in computer chess, and always had a special place in the community, due to its playing style. In 2003 he retired from competitive computer chess, only releasing freeware versions of Rebel. Now Ed has come out of retirement and is undertaking some interesting new projects – like extracting the most interesting games from historical databases. And he is sharing them with us.

10/27/2025 – Did you solve the endgame puzzles we gave you last week? In the position shown, White had to move his rook to one of nine squares. But only moving it to e6 retained the win. How come? Today we give you the full solutions of all the four problems, in video explanations and on a replay board with engine assistance. It's a good way to master such tricky endgame situations.

10/22/2025 – Did you find the only move in this very famous study, composed almost exactly a century ago, that allows White to draw? It looks like the stupidest move one could make – move the king to a square that takes it further away from the black pawn and blocks the promotion of his own pawn. Problem expert Werner Keym selected six studies in similar style for you to solve. Here, today, are the solutions.

10/20/2025 – Can you imagine writing about rising chess stars who are up to 86 years younger than you? The indefatigable Leonard Barden, who at 96 still fills his weekly London Guardian column, has been keenly following the youngest talents, players between ten and sixteen playing at GM levels. If you want to keep up-to-date on some mind-boggling developments in the game, it is definitely advisable to put Fridays on your schedule to read what Barden has to say.

10/8/2025 – You may have seen it before. In this very famous position, composed almost exactly a century ago, it is White to play and draw. Which do you think is the stupidest move White could make. Right, that is the solution – it is the only move that saves the game. Problem expert Werner Keym illustrates this in a book which he has made available, as an eBook, to everyone, free of charge. Here are some excerpts to give you a taste. You can play them out on the diagrams we provide.