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.

10/17/2025 – Take a look at this position. In order to have any winning chances, White must clearly move his rook. There are nine squares it can safely occupy, but only one retains the win. Can you find it? Today we have four problems that will challenge your endgame skills. Try to solve them by moving pieces on our interactive diagrams. The video solutions will be provided in a week.

10/13/2025 – Pierre de Fermat (1601–1665) was a French mathematician who made pioneering contributions to analytic geometry, calculus, optics, and probability. He is best known for Fermat's Last Theorem, which famously remained unproven for over three centuries. Then, thirty years ago (in 1995), the mathematician Andrew Wiles published the comprehensive proof. In his book "Chess Stories" mathematician Prof Christian Hesse, told us how he applied Fermat's final conjecture to chess.

10/6/2025 – The rule limits the rating gap used when evaluating game results. From October 1st FIDE dropped the 400 point rule for players rated above 2650. This makes it harder for top players to gain points by playing against much weaker opponents (called "farming"), and easier to lose points when not beating them. Leading chess statistician and FIDe consultant Jeff Sonas tells us why, and what the rule change implies.

9/30/2025 – In the boxing ring, he learned what it means to pick yourself up again and again and draw new strength from setbacks. On 7 October, former world boxing champion Wladimir Klitschko will tell us about his life, the current situation in Ukraine and resilience in times of crisis. Vladimir is an old friend who visited ChessBase a number of times, together with his brother Vitaly. We look forward to seeing him again.

9/23/2025 – The legendary world champion and political activist has issued a warning regarding the current media crackdown in the US, comparing it to the early days of Putin's rule in Russia. Kasparov appeared for an interview with CNN's Anderson Cooper, and on MSNBC with Jen Psaki. You can read his article and watch the videos of his eloquent admonitions here.

9/15/2025 – Seventy years ago, on September 8, 1955, a column appeared in the Manchester Guardian, about a Russian teenager, Boris Spassky. It was written by a budding young chess master from Croydon. Leonard Barden went on to become one of Britain's strongest chess players – and a columnist who has set a Guinness World Record. | Photo John Saunders

9/5/2025 – On Tuesday 22-year-old Ukrainian GM Kirill Shevchenko was stripped of his title and banned from competitive chess for three years. He was caught cheating during the Spanish Team Championship last year – and admitted to his wrongdoing. The case renewed our interest in the subject, and we take a look back at the evolution of cheating in chess – and the very tricky way it can be exercised.

8/25/2025 – Emil Joseph Diemer was a notable German chess player and author, best remembered for his fervent advocacy of the Blackmar-Diemer Gambit: 1.d4 d5 2.e4 dxe4 3.Nc3. Today the gambit is not common in elite play, but is well worth trying in inconsequential games. Today's article tells about the turmoils in the life of the initiator of the gambit.

8/6/2025 – It was the ever observant Leonard Barden who pointed it out to me: for the first time since FIDE began publishing its rating lists, 1971, there are no Russians in the top ten. The Guardian's weekly chess columnist turns 96 this month, and still keeps providing us with interesting reports.

7/23/2025 – Over the past 20 years Larry List has curated exhibitions, and written primarily about the interrelationships between chess and visual art. To coincide with a Man Ray exhibition of photos at the Metropolitan Museum of Art this September, Hirmer Verlag of Munich is publishing his new book On Man Ray, the closest artist friend of the famous 20th century artist Marcel Duchamp. It is lavishly illustrated with color photos, with a solid and attractive layout. | Man Ray self-portrait 1926 Centre Pompidou

7/21/2025 – Last week Problem expert Werner Keym gave us some remarkable chess problems to solve. They were from his latest eBook, Problem Chess Art, which is available to everyone, free of charge. Here today are the solutions of the problems he selected for us. Were you able to solve them?

7/9/2025 – "Chess problems demand from the composer the same virtues that characterize all worthwhile art: originality, invention, conciseness, harmony, complexity and splendid insincerity," wrote Vladimir Nabokov. Problem expert Werner Keym illustrates this in a new book which he makes available, as an eBook, to everyone, free of charge. Here are some excerpts to give you a taste.