1/12/2024 – Alexandra Kosteniuk, Sara Khadem and Bela Khotenashvili all finished the European Women’s Blitz Championship with 10/13 points. Kosteniuk, who entered the final round with a 1-point advantage and lost to Khadem with white, had the best tiebreak score, and thus grabbed the gold medal. The 11-round rapid championship will take place on Saturday and Sunday. | Photos: European Chses Union

1/12/2024 – This week GM Daniel King, apart from the usual puzzles, presents a rich strategic battle played between Maksim Chigaev and Fabiano Caruana at the recent World Rapid Championship. | Power Play is on air most Fridays. Watch it on-demand with a ChessBase Premium account. All the usual puzzles, games and instruction will be on offer.

1/12/2024 – Between 2004 and 2007, 13th World Chess Champion Garry Kasparov recorded a large 3-volume Najdorf video course. ChessBase is publishing this great classic in a complete edition in the current ChessBase Media format. Learn from this classic of chess!

1/12/2024 – Today, legendary Grandmaster Vlastimil Hort celebrates his 80th birthday. A long stay of several weeks in the hospital when he was five years old and a caring doctor who played correspondence chess and explained the chess rules to him gave way to his great passion. Eduard Frey celebrates the legend’s anniversary!

1/12/2024 – In his new Game of the Week show, Merijn van Delft analyses one of the games played by world champion Ding Liren at a rapid Chinese tournament. Ding returned to an official competition after a long hiatus. | Merijn’s show is available on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here.

1/11/2024 – Timing is a key factor in chess. As noted by the inimitable Bobby Fischer: “Chess is a matter of delicate judgement, knowing when to punch and how to duck”. GM Sundararajan Kidambi explores this all-important theme using games by Levon Aronian, Vishy Anand and Stockfish/Leela! | Photo: Amruta Mokal

1/11/2024 – It's an experiment. We wanted to know how a number of different personalities reacted to some unusual problems we presented in our Christmas Puzzle week. So we gave them two positions and let them wrestle with them online. For starters, we bring you video of a super-talent, Leon Luke Mendonca, and his first-time encounter with anything like this. Did you react in similar fashion to the problems?

1/11/2024 – In the first episode of 2024, Robert found a couple of Underdogs during the Rapid and Blitz World Championship. But having a 1900 rated player win against a Grandmaster with 2600, is truly rare. And when you know that the underdog is only 8-years old, it is even more impressive! The Dutch IM also found an underdog victory game by the Argentinian supertalent Oro Faustino, which is very instructive!

1/11/2024 – Ding Liren played his last classical rated game on May 15, when he beat Bogdan-Daniel Deac with black in the last round of the Superbet Classic in Bucharest. Just two weeks earlier, he had defeated Ian Nepomniachtchi in a thrilling match to become the 17th undisputed world chess champion. Following his long hiatus, the Chinese ace will compete again at the Tata Steel Masters in Wijk aan Zee. A week before the start of the traditional event, he played a rapid tournament in China. | Photo: Amruta Mokal

1/11/2024 – A number of tournaments are traditionally organised at the turn of the year. The Staufer Open in Schwäbisch Gmünd, Germany took place for the 34th time. Well over 500 chess enthusiasts took part in two competitions. Eltaj Safarli was the clear winner in the A Open. Bettina Trabert reports.

1/10/2024 – The thirteenth edition of the London Chess Classic saw 52-year-old Michael Adams becoming the first Englishman to win the now traditional tournament. Shreyas Royal (pictured with his father), at 14, collected his second GM norm, and showed excellent endgame technique when required. GM Karsten Müller selected some of the most instructive endgame positions to share with us, including a couple by the youngster of Indian origin. | Photo: London Chess Classic

1/10/2024 – The ChessBase Christmas Puzzle week has concluded, but one final competition remains! To all amateurs and aspiring composers, now is your chance to gain fame by submitting a composition with chance for prizes too – with ChessBase publications in the brand-new eBook format up for grabs! The deadline for submission is January 21st – this article provides all other details! So good luck and happy composing to all!