3/4/2026 – David Navara is playing an excellent tournament in his hometown. After round six of the Masters in Prague, he is only half a point behind the leader, Jorden van Foreest, together with Nodirbek Abdusattorov. The direct encounter between Van Foreest and Navara ended in a draw. At the other end of the table, a player stands alone: none other than Gukesh Dommaraju. The world champion, still without a win, has lost his third game of the tournament. Against his compatriot Aravindh Chithambaram, he squandered a good position while in time trouble. Hans Niemann and Vincent Keymer drew the longest game of the day. | Photo: Petr Vrabec / Prague Chess Festival

3/2/2026 – Mikhail Antipov won the Saint Louis Masters ahead of Fabiano Caruana. The Russian-born grandmaster, playing under the US flag, scored an impressive victory over Andy Woodward in the final round. He had gone into the last round level on points with the rating favourite. However, Caruana was only able to add half a point to his tally after drawing with Francesco Sonis, despite having reached a winning position. As a result, Caruana finished half a point short - the same half point he had voluntarily given up by requesting a bye in round five. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

3/1/2026 – With ChessBase´26, you can not only analyse your own games professionally – as we have already shown in the first four parts of the tutorial – you can also comment on them individually. There are several methods for doing this, and they can be linked together. The comments can be entered as text or using the commonly used chess symbols. In this fifth part of our tutorial series, we will show you how easily you can integrate all types of comments into your notation.

2/22/2026 – When you work with a programme on a regular basis, you should make that work as pleasant as possible. ChessBase´26 offers endless possibilities - and that goes for the look too. Make your workspace individual and pleasant. In part 4 of our new series of tutorials we will show you how easy it is to design your individual notation so that analysing with it is a maximum pleasure.

2/15/2026 – We have a new author at ChessBase: Harshit Raja. And the Indian grandmaster is ambitious – he offers a complete 1.d4-repertoire! In addition, new episodes of Ivan Sokolov’s Middlegame Strategy series were released in January, and ChessBase Magazine fans can look forward to CBM Extra #229, packed with a rich "Lucky Bag". | All photos: ChessBase

2/14/2026 – If you've only been using ChessBase for a short time and want to benefit from as many of its unique functions as possible, our series offers you valuable, short and easy-to-digest tips for a successful start with ChessBase´26. In the third part of our new tutorial series, we show you how easily and conveniently you can insert variations from the engine analysis and the references into the notation (see the first two tutorial episodes) with ChessBase´26.

2/8/2026 – ChessBase´26 offers a unique range of professional features. This series gives users of ChessBase tips for the first important steps. In the first part of this series we showed you how to enter and save your own games. In part 2 of our tutorial we will show you how to add new variations to a game in ChessBase´26. These can be your own moves or those of an engine, which you might want to add.

1/31/2026 – Let's go: In part 1 of our new tutorial series, we will show you how to quickly enter and save your own games. Just follow the explanations and screenshots and gradually build up your own database of games.

1/22/2026 – The Floripa Open, part of the Brazil Chess Series, is taking place on 17-25 January as a 10-round Swiss open in Florianópolis. Niclas Huschenbeth recently announced that he would be competing in the popular Brazilian event. After six rounds, he has realised how difficult it is to consistently live up to the role of being among the top seeds. | Photo: Niclas Huschenbeth at the Freestyle Chess Grand Slam | Photo: Lennart Ootes

1/19/2026 – The streamer match between IM Levy Rozman and IM Julien Song in Madrid opened with two draws in the classical games. In rapid and blitz, however, Rozman, known as Gotham Chess, clearly took control: he won two of the four rapid games, drew one and lost one, then scored six wins in the blitz while Song managed only two. Under the tournament’s scoring system, the final score was 14–8. | Photos: David Martinez/Chess.com

1/18/2026 – ChessBase 26 is certainly the highlight among the November releases, but the other databases also offer a wealth of study material. There are many new options to explore, as well as in Harald Schneider-Zinner’s checkmate course, which combines a book with an online course. Finally, there are also new installments of Karsten Müller’s Endgame Academy and Ivan Sokolov’s middlegame strategy series. | All photos: ChessBase

1/9/2026 – The rift between FIDE and Freestyle Chess seemed final – and then, on Wednesday evening, a press release from both surprised the chess world: in February 2026, the first joint World Championship in Freestyle Chess is set to take place in Weissenhaus, Germany. Sagar Shah of ChessBase India conducted an in-depth interview with Jan Henric Büttner of Freestyle Chess to learn more about this remarkable turnaround.

1/8/2026 – More convenience, better clarity, greater performance: ChessBase Mobile now comes with numerous improvements for even more efficient work at the chessboard — whether at home or on the go. And best of all, the app updates itself automatically, without requiring an update from the App Store. Just launch it and benefit immediately.

1/6/2026 – With a one-point margin, third seed Xu Xiangyu of China won the Rilton Cup, which was played in Stockholm over the turn of the year. A total of 19 grandmasters competed for the title at the traditional tournament, but there was no way past Xu. He conceded just two draws: one against top seed Anton Demchenko in round five and another against Mahadevan Siva in the final round. These were also the two players he relegated to second and third place respectively. | Photo: Rilton Cup, Abdel Rahman Sadeh

12/17/2025 – Alexander Donchenko has recently made positive headlines at the World Cup, reaching the quarterfinals. Along the way, the German grandmaster scored a sensational victory against Le Quang Liem before being eliminated by Nodirbek Yakubboev. Donchenko is now competing in Poland at the Wroclaw Open A, where he is the top seed but has already suffered one defeat. | Photo: Donchenko at the World Cup | Photo: Michal Walusza

12/17/2025 – Faustino Oro has reached his goal: with a draw in the final round of the Magistral Szmetan-Giardelli in Buenos Aires, the twelve-year-old Argentine made his second grandmaster norm. He now needs just one more norm to earn the title. Norway’s Aryan Tari won the tournament, but his strong performance was somewhat overshadowed by Oro’s chase for a GM norm. | Photos: FADA

12/16/2025 – High tension in Buenos Aires: with his draw against Julio Granda Zuniga, Faustino Oro stayed in contention both for the tournament victory and for the second grandmaster norm that is so important to him. A lot would have to go his way to win the tournament, but the norm is firmly in his own hands: a draw in the final round would be enough. First place is still shared, yet after Alexei Shirov’s fighting win against the former co-leader Ivan Cheparinov, Shirov and Aryan Tari have the best chances to win the tournament. | Photo: Faustino Oro at the World Cup 2025 | Photo: Michal Walusza

12/13/2025 – ChessBase'26 is certainly the highlight of the new releases in November, but the other databases also offer a wealth of study material. There are many new options to discover, such as the new episodes of Karsten Müller's Endgame Academy and Ivan Sokolov's middlegame strategy series that have helped a lot of players to improve. | All photos: ChessBase