10/12/2024 – Sports psychology knows that you play best when you play relaxed, but sports psychology also knows that ease does not come easily when you absolutely want to win. As May Li, the young heroine in Kyla Zhao's entertaining new book "May the Best Player Win" has to learn. "May the Best Player Win" has just been published, but has already received a number of enthusiastic reviews. In a wide-ranging interview with ChessBase, Kyla Zhao talked about her book, her interest in chess, her career, writing books, gender equality in chess and much more.

9/10/2024 – Today, Tuesday 10 September, at 18:00, the 45th Chess Olympiad in Budapest will begin with the Opening Ceremony. To get in the mood for this Olympiad, it might be worth looking back at another Olympiad - the one held in Thessaloniki, Greece, in 1988. The English comedian, writer, actor and chess enthusiast Stephen Fry made a documentary about it - witty, entertaining, full of irony and humour. As Fry said: "An event I wouldn't have missed for the world." | Image: Screenshot from the documentary - Stephen Fry (left), Jonathan Speelman (right)

7/27/2024 – Boris Spassky, world champion from 1969 to 1972, is regarded as a universal player. He played 1.e4 and 1.d4 and was equally at home in dynamic tactical positions as he was in positional-strategic ones. And he was a feared attacking player. It's no wonder that he managed a few nice queen sacrifices in the course of his career. A small selection. | Photo: Boris Spassky at the 1984 Thessaloniki Chess Olympiad / Gerhard Hund

7/3/2024 – With 8 points from 10 games (+6, =4), 16-year-old Chinese player Haowen Xue secured the sole tournament victory at the strong Arona Open in Tenerife, which ended on 30 June. Second place went to 15-year-old Englishman Shreyas Royal, who is hoping to replace David Howell as the youngest English grandmaster of all time, but narrowly missed out on his third GM norm in Tenerife. The winner of the tournament, Haowen Xue, has yet to get a title, but is no unknown. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

6/28/2024 – Faustino Oro was born in Argentina on 14 October 2013 and has a good chance of becoming the youngest International Master in the history of chess. He has already achieved two norms and will easily surpass the 2400 rating mark in the next FIDE world ranking, which will be published on 1 July. The Argentine therefore only needs a third norm to win the title. And that seems to be within his grasp at an IM tournament in Barcelona. | Photo: Infobae

6/5/2024 – Faustino Oro is breaking records left, right and centre. In 2023, the 10-year-old Argentinian, who was born on 14 October 2013, became the youngest player ever to break the 2300 Elo mark at the age of 9. He also achieved his first IM norm earlier than anyone else and now, after another IM norm at the Continental Americas Championship 2024, he has a good chance of becoming the youngest IM of all time. | Photo: Faustino Oro at the Sunway Sitges Tournament 2023 | Photo: David Llada

5/29/2024 – Astrologers may feel vindicated. After all, Dommaraju Gukesh, the winner of the 2024 Candidates Tournament, and Tan Zhongyi, the winner of the 2024 Women's Candidates Tournament, were both born on 29 May, Gukesh in Chennai, India, in 2006 and Tan Zhongyi in Chongqing, China, in 1991. Congratulations! | Photos: David Llada (Gukesh) and Lennart Ootes (Tan Zhongyi)

4/9/2024 – Four rounds have been played in the Candidates Tournament and Ian Nepomniachtchi is in the lead with 3.0 out of 4. But, as we often hear, nothing is decided yet because, after all, 14 rounds are played in Toronto, which is still a long way to go. But the numbers tell a different story: in the six Candidates Tournaments from London 2013 to Madrid 2022, the player leading after four rounds has always won. | Photo: Ian Nepomniachtchi at the Madrid 2022 Candidates Tournament, which he won comfortably. | Photo: Stev Bonhage (FIDE)

3/24/2024 – The most important tournament of the year begins on April 3 in Toronto, Canada: the Candidates Tournament. Eight participants, 14 rounds, the winner plays for the World Championship. Two of the eight participants have already won one or more Candidates Tournaments, four have already played one or more Candidates Tournaments, the youngest candidate is 17, the oldest is 36 years old. But who will win? | Photos: Official website / FIDE

3/9/2024 – Jaroslav Svoboda, the owner of Czech Inn Hotels and operator of the Hotel Don Giovanni, the venue of the Prague Chess Festival, is a passionate chess fan. In a short interview he reveals that he learnt to play chess rather late in life, talks about his friendship to Vlastimil Hort and explains why Bobby Fischer is not an ideal role model. | Photo: The Hotel Don Giovanni

3/7/2024 – Greek grandmaster Stamatis Kourkoulos-Arditis is on the verge of victory at the Karel Janecek Open, which is being held as part of the Prague Chess Festival. With one round to go, he has 7.5 out of 8, and is one point ahead of six players with 6.5 out of 8. In round 8, Kourkoulos-Arditis scored an important win with Black in a theoretically interesting and tactically rich game. | Photo: Johannes Fischer

3/4/2024 – The Karel Janecek Open, which takes place as part of the Prague Chess Festival, features a number of grandmasters, but after five of nine rounds an IM is in the lead with 5 out of 5: Xiang Zeyu from China. Eight players follow half a point behind with 4.5 out of 5 each. Four of these eight players are Grandmasters, four are International Masters. | Foto: Petr Vrabec

3/1/2024 – The Masters and Challengers are the focus of the Prague Chess Festival, but the Open also has a strong line-up and an attractive field. GM Eltaj Safarli from Azerbaijan (Elo 2614) tops the seeding list, followed by Indian GM S.P. Sethuraman in second place, 11 Elo points behind. A total of 263 players are competing in Prague, including well-known streamers Andrea and Alexandra Botez and Dina Belenkaya, who are broadcasting their games live with commentary. | Photo: Petr Vrabec

1/30/2024 – Boris Spassky, world champion from 1969 to 1972, celebrates his 87th birthday on 30 January. Spassky is regarded as a universal player and played numerous fantastic attacking games during his career. One of his favourite openings with White was the King's Gambit, which he used to beat players such as David Bronstein, Bobby Fischer, Yasser Seirawan and Anatoly Karpov. | Photo: Boris Spassky, Chess Olympiad Saloniki 1984 | Photo: Gerhard Hund

1/15/2024 – On 15 January 1930 one of the strongest chess tournaments of the time began in the Italian resort of San Remo. 16 players took part, including the reigning world champion Alexander Alekhine and chess legends such as Aron Nimzowitsch, Akiba Rubinstein and Efim Bogoljubow. Alekhine won comfortably with 14 points from 15 games, achieving one of the greatest successes of his career. His third wife, Nadasha Vasilyev, probably played a major role in this and other Alekhine successes. | Photo: Alekhine and Nadascha in San Remo 1930 | Photo: https://audiovis.nac.gov.pl/

1/7/2024 – During his long career Viktor Kortschnoi (23 March 1931 - 6 June 2016) won against Botvinnik, Smyslov, Tal, Petrosian, Spassky, Fischer, Karpov, Kasparov and Carlsen. He never became World Champion himself, but you might think that "he could beat anyone". But this is just a cliché. For although Kortschnoi played a total of 17 games with classical time control against Anand and Kramnik in the course of his life, he never scored a full point against either of them. | Photo: Kortschnoi at the 1960 Leipzig Chess Olympiad | Photo: Tournament book

12/25/2023 – "The Queens Gambit" has been one of the most successful series in recent years, and now chess has also made it onto the bestseller book lists. Thanks to author Ali Hazelwood and her book "Check & Mate", a modern romantic fairytale set in the world of chess.

12/20/2023 – The name "Hastings" has a very special ring to it in the chess world. In 1895 one of the most important tournaments in chess history took place in the seaside resort on the south-east coast of England, and chess tournaments are still regularly held there today - no tournament in chess history has a longer tradition. The Berlin FM Jürgen Brustkern is a great expert on Hastings and has written a book on the history of this tradition together with Norbert Wallet. In an interview with ChessBase he reveals what fascinates him so much about Hastings.