6/12/2025 – The FIDE World Rapid and Blitz Team Championships in London bring together the world's best players, ambitious young talent, officials and chess enthusiasts. MGD1, a team consisting mainly of Indian players, were the only team to win all four matches on the first day of the Team Rapid World Championship. It was a day full of action and interesting games, with a number of upsets and surprises. | Photos: Rafal Oleksiewicz/FIDE

6/12/2025 – In our previous article on historical chess statistics we showed you the number of rated players there were in 1993, their ages, ratings, and where they came from. Today we compare them with the current FIDE statistics, showing how things have developed in the three decades that have passed. Our report also contains a little puzzle for you to mull over – why does the chess superpower China have so few rated players?

6/11/2025 – On the Thursday before the Whitsun weekend, Bremen's market square was once again transformed into a large open-air chess tournament hall. 1,300 schoolchildren competed to show what they had learned as part of the Bremen school chess project "Schach macht schlau!" (Chess makes smart). At the end of the day, the cup winners were drawn from the winning team. This time, the trophy featuring the Bremen Town Musicians went to Burgdamm School with classes 1c and 2c. | Photos: Nils Rhode

6/11/2025 – The Cairns Cup in Saint Louis, one of the strongest women’s tournaments of the year, began with a promising start: all five games in the first round ended decisively. There were also a few minor surprises. Alice Lee (pictured), the youngest participant at just 15 years old and number 10 seed, scored a convincing victory against Nino Batsiashvili. Meanwhile, top seed and 2024 Cairns Cup winner Tan Zhongyi suffered a setback, losing with the white pieces to Alina Kashlinskaya after landing in a difficult position as early as move 21. | Photo: Tournament page

6/11/2025 – Among ChessBase products the Big DataBase stands in its own right. Unlike the MegaBase it has no annotations. This paves the way for independent study and preparation, and helps the player to hone skills on his own. The present edition offers 11 million games from 1475 to November 2024. In this vast collection there are games from world championships, famous tournaments, past and present, not to mention little-known events that deserve greater recognition. There are magnificent battles, brilliancies and unknown gems all waiting to be discovered. Our columnist here introduces a few rare gems.

6/10/2025 – The ChessBase Premium Account is a powerful all-in-one chess improvement tool that provides extensive online resources, training, playing opportunities, and cloud services to help players of all levels enhance their game effectively. And the service runs on anything: Windows, Macs, notebooks, tablets, your mobile phone. Watch this video by Sagar Shah explaining the services you get and how to best use it. And best of all: it will only cost you €4.99 per month!

6/7/2025 – Anna Muzychuk secured outright victory in the second edition of the Norway Chess Women tournament in Stavanger, finishing with 16½ points after ten rounds of play. The Ukrainian grandmaster entered the final day as the sole leader and confirmed her win by drawing both games against Vaishali Rameshbabu. Lei Tingjie and Humpy Koneru completed the podium, while Muzychuk ended as the only undefeated player in classical chess across both tournament sections. | Photo: Michal Walusza

6/6/2025 – In this episode of Svitlana's Smart Moves, WGM Svitlana Demchenko dives into some of the most exciting tactical moments from Norway Chess 2025. She challenges viewers to sharpen their calculation skills by solving real-game puzzles featuring top grandmasters. Get ready to put your tactics to the test!

6/6/2025 – The 13th edition of the Norway Chess super-tournament is taking place from 26 May to 6 June in Stavanger. An open event and a women's event are being played concurrently with an identical number of players, the same format and an equivalent prize fund. Both world champions — Ju Wenjun and Gukesh Dommaraju — are participating, besides world number one Magnus Carlsen. | Follow the games live starting at 17.00 CEST (11.00 ET, 20.30 IST)

6/6/2025 – From 10 to 16 June, London will host the FIDE World Rapid and Blitz Team Championships, now in its third edition. With 55 teams, top grandmasters, and an expanded format including a new Blitz tournament, it promises to be one of the largest chess events ever held in the city. Notably, many teams feature rising stars, including 9-year-old Sarbartho Mani and 10-year-old Roman Shogdzhiev, reflecting a generational shift in competitive chess.

6/6/2025 – In the latest episode of his Game of the Week show, Merijn van Delft presents the encounter between Hikaru Nakamura and World Champion Gukesh from the Norway Chess Tournament. Nakamura achieved a convincing victory through strong play. | Merijn's show is available on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here.

6/6/2025 – All three classical games ended decisively in round nine of the Norway Chess Women tournament, leading to a major shift at the top of the standings. Anna Muzychuk defeated defending champion Ju Wenjun to overtake Humpy Koneru, who lost to Lei Tingjie after misplaying a winning position. Sara Khadem also prevailed in her game against Vaishali Rameshbabu. With one round to go, Muzychuk holds a two-point lead going into her final game with the white pieces. | Photo: Michal Walusza