5/24/2026 – There is a famous photograph of Mikhail Tal hunched over the board during a tournament game, eyes burning into the pieces. Somewhere behind that stare, an entire mating attack is unfolding. Every chess generation, from Morphy to Magnus, has been defined by one skill: extraordinary calculation. The pieces move on the board - but the game is won and lost in what you can visualize. Let us show you how Fritz 21 trains the one skill every great chess player has lived or died by.

5/29/2025 – Twenty versions of a software program in 34 years! In times of an AI explosion things have become more exciting than ever. Fritz 20 stresses the “human” playing concept, talks to you, adjusts itself to your playing level. You can select opponents like Morphy, Lasker, Capablanca, Tal, Fischer, Karpov... Or set it to play exactly like your opponent in a running event! – Pssst, on Tuesday you can get Fritz 20 for a special price, on Discount Day!

12/1/2024 – A remote engine does not run on your computer but in a data center. Here you’ll learn why the new remote engine is a smart addition to our proven cloud engines. How to run a remote engine without spending ducats? Why did our Helsinki machines give us quite a scare before the autumn discount day? And how did Fritz wreck a server rack?

11/29/2024 – Every complex piece of software has hidden gems that aren't immediately obvious. For example, the reference search in ChessBase 18 has a new superpower that’s easy to overlook. Do you know the best way to prepare your teammates for a match? What is the crucial innovation that Rasmus Svane brought to the program? And why does Malcolm Pein never walk alone?

11/22/2024 – ChessBase 18 now provides insights into players that go beyond mere opening statistics. Evaluating players is a somewhat delicate matter, and mistakes could be embarrassing. However, the Style Report hits the mark surprisingly well. For historical stars whose styles are well-known, all the classic clichés are spot-on. Most importantly, you can learn something about your next opponent—or about the most important player of all: yourself.

12/8/2023 – In painting, each style has distinctly recognizable characteristics in form, color, light, and technique. The subjects of paintings are a reflection of their respective times. The series Chess Art on cards.chessbase.com, depicts all chess pieces in 14 different paintic styles. Take a look at the pictures, and become an art connoisseur in no time.

11/25/2023 – At first glance, Fritz 19 is all about fun, with its quirky opponents and trophies. But there's also highly useful new functionality for serious opening training. Now, any database, opening article, or your own opening analysis can be loaded directly as an opening book to play against.

11/24/2023 – Players who earn trophies in Fritz 19 are rewarded with digital collectible cards. These cards cover a variety of chess themes: World Champions, famous players, major tournaments, training materials, chess stamps, chess art, and rating lists. A series on famous chess books is currently in development. What's exciting is that cards can be traded on a market or offered in exchange for ducats.

11/22/2023 – Playing against Fritz is enjoyable because the program incorporates hidden errors. There could always be a tactical strike against it. However, Fritz 19 adds a new exciting dimension to your games: The hunt for "achievements". There's a competition for 136 different chess achievements, testing your tactical and strategic versatility. And there are rewards for it too.

4/21/2022 – It was a nobrainer decision for the young guy who started writing ChessBase 37 years ago: Hit arrow-right to execute a move. The number of people replaying games in some kind of chess software can be assumed to be in the millions. So the number of cursor-right chess keystrokes in nearly 40 years is probably a couple of hundred billions (US). Maybe even a trillion (10^12). Not clear whether this is a life time software achievement to be proud of. But its time to grant the poor arrow keys a bit of rest with some cool new replaying functionality.

4/7/2022 – In the last weeks, we added a lot of chess interactivity to the ChessBase news pages. Replaying games is now optimized for mobile devices. There is a pleasing new layout for annotated games. Social sharing has been radically improved. Diagrams have grown a dirty little secret. Live broadcasts with multiple boards can be configured easily.

1/13/2022 – The auction of the World Champion NFTs, in which ChessBase acted as a kind of digital art gallery, has been completed. The 14 works raised 7.2 Ether, which is currently around €21,000. Thank you and congratulations to all successful bidders! The creative process behind the development of the NFTs was inspiring, the technical background fascinating, the discussion with critical readers refreshing. Now the series has been released into the world, and it will be exciting to see what happens with it in the years to come. Finally, the raffle of the Viktor Korchnoi NFT, which was not included in the auction, has found a winner.

1/10/2022 – On Tuesday, January 11, 2022, the first auction of the Chess World Champion NFTs (Wilhelm Steinitz) will end at 12:00 CET. The other auctions will follow roughly every hour. So let's summarize what makes this series unique. In one sentence: It will remain the first of its kind for all times! Also: What is the deeper meaning of NFTs? And a short but hefty guide to the technical side of the auction.

12/27/2021 – In the history of the Chess World Championships Viktor Korchnoi is an extremely successful player, even if he was ultimately denied the title. If you count the 1974 Candidates Final for challenging Fischer, he played three 'World Championship matches'. The era of Korchnoi's participations in the WCh cycle stretches from the Curacao Candidates Tournament in 1962 to the 1991 quarterfinal match against Timman, which he played at the age of 60. The dramatic fight against Anatoly Karpov in Baguio City in 1978 stands out in particular: hypnosis, cheating accusations with blueberry yoghurt, X-ray examinations on chairs, mirror glasses worn at the board, Korchnoi's comeback to 5-5 after trailing 4-1 are a few of the external circumstances involved!

12/12/2021 – Today the first authorized NFT series of world chess champions has been minted! World chess champions, NFT and blockchain? What is that supposed to mean? You may have heard that NFTs can establish ownership of digital art: In March 2021, an NFT by digital artist Beeple fetched the auction value of $69 million at Christie's. However the NFTs of the world chess champions are not about crazy auctions, but about honoring outstanding chess achievement. In a series that currently consists of 14 entries, the classic world champions are now immortalized with selected games. The unique thing about this series is that many players participate through their authorization. This makes it the first of its kind in history.

12/11/2021 – ChessBase has minted a series of NFTs on world chess champions. The success of NFTs is closely linked to the current rise of cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum. Here, we take a look at this fast-growing world of virtual assets. At their current stage, cryptocurrencies are still viewed with a great deal of controversy. For many, they are breakthrough technology, growth market and a sharp sword to protect civil rights. Others see them as a speculative bubble that diminishes the capability for monetary policy of central banks because they can no longer be controlled by central authorities.

11/24/2021 – After 30 years, chess programs are now gradually reaching a level at which one can reasonably play against them. With Fritz 18 you have an unprecedented opportunity to train and learn sharp openings, helping you master the tactical motifs that are otherwise invisible in the 'perfect play' of normal computer games. Fritz 18 will even help you set up tactical tricks and sacrifices for you to deliver!

11/27/2019 – Fritz 17 is your personal opening trainer and it offers a lot of new, exciting and innovative functions! "My Moves" makes it easy to create an opening repertoire and helps to learn and memorize opening variations in a playful way! In two video tutorials ChessBase founder and developer Matthias Wüllenweber shows how!