12/2/2025 – Curious outcome: Although Alexey Sarana lost to both the runner-up and the third-placed player, he still secured victory at the KazChess Masters in Almaty by a full point. In a very strong field, the reigning World Rapid Champion Volodar Murzin entered the final two rounds as the favourite: after seven of nine rounds he was leading the standings with 5 points and a half-point advantage. But he lost the direct encounter with Sarana in round 8. Murzin also failed to win his last game, allowing Sarana to pull away. | Photo: Alexey Sarana at the Tata Steel Tournament 2025 | Photo: Lennart Ootes

12/2/2025 – Ed Schröder is a pioneer in chess programming. In the 1990s his program Rebel won a number of World Championships in computer chess, and always had a special place in the community, due to its playing style. In 2003 he retired from competitive computer chess, only releasing freeware versions of Rebel. Now Ed has come out of retirement and is undertaking some interesting new projects – like extracting the most interesting games from historical databases. And he is sharing them with us.

12/2/2025 – The World Cup in Goa has come to an end, and the surprising winner is 19-year old Javokhir Sindarov from Uzbekistan. In the final he beat Wei Yi in a very tense playoff. In our Game of the Week video we will focus on the fight for the third ticket to the Candidates between Esipenko and Yakubboev. The latter had played a very impressive World Cup so far, but after something went wrong in the opening in the first game, the tension quickly increased and Esipenko showed his class. | Merijn's show is available on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here.

12/2/2025 – Black knight magic: Far advanced passed pawns often allow surprising tactics: Black to move and draw.

12/2/2025 – Round six of the London Chess Classic saw Nodirbek Abdusattorov extend his lead with a fifth consecutive win, capitalising on a mistake by Sam Shankland in a dynamic Scotch Opening. Alireza Firouzja drew against Abhimanyu Mishra after early tactical complications gave way to a simplified position, while Pavel Eljanov won against Gawain Maroroa Jones. With three rounds remaining, Abdusattorov holds a 1½-point advantage over Firouzja, sitting in sole second place. | Photo: Official website

12/1/2025 – FIDE has just published its new World Ranking List. Vincent Keymer, Germany’s top player, has established himself in fourth place on the Elo list and firmly among the world’s elite. Magnus Carlsen, the world’s highest-rated player, also gained Elo. The best women come from China, and the best juniors from India.

12/1/2025 – Former, legendary World Chess Champion Garry Kasparov has been speaking vociferously about the situation in Ukraine and Russia at International Security Forums. He held a powerful speech on the Security Conference in Canada, and has spoken with extraordinary clarity about Russia, Ukraine, NATO, and responsibility of democracies in the world in a series of subsequent interviews. They are well worth watching.

12/1/2025 – Karsten shows endgames from Goa. The following is nice win for White. How to start?| You can watch the Endgame Magic Show on-demand with a ChessBase Premium account.

12/1/2025 – The first half of the London Chess Classic was dominated by Nodirbek Abdusattorov (photo). In round 5 he defeated Nikolas Theodorou with White, reaching 4.5/5 at the halfway mark and pulling a full point ahead of Alireza Firouzja. Firouzja drew with Black against Gawain Maroroa Jones and now stands on 3.5/5. Abhimanyu Mishra and Luke McShane also drew, as did Pavel Eljanov and Michael Adams. The second win of the round went to Nikita Vitiugov, who won a theoretically interesting game against Sam Shankland.| Photo: Tennis legend Andy Murray (center) makes the ceremonial first move | Photo: Tournament page

12/1/2025 – The European Rapid and Blitz Championships in Pristina, the capital of Kosovo, brought together more than 350 players from 38 federations. Lithuanian GM Paulius Pultinevicius won the rapid title with a 10/11 score after a final-round victory over Vasyl Ivanchuk (who lost on time in an endgame with an extra pawn), while Jorden van Foreest secured the blitz crown by finishing on 11/13. | Photo: European Chess Union

11/30/2025 – At the next Candidates Tournament, in spring 2026 in Cyprus, eight players will compete to determine the challenger to world champion Gukesh Dommaraju. Five of the players are in the current world top ten, while three are far from it. Several top players who one might have expected to see in the Candidates failed to qualify by any route. Has FIDE put forth a fair World Championship format? | Photo: Larneg (Pixabay)

11/30/2025 – Round four of the London Chess Classic saw Nodirbek Abdusattorov keep his sole lead with a third straight win, this time over Michael Adams in their first classical encounter ever. Alireza Firouzja also scored, outplaying Pavel Eljanov in a lengthy rook endgame, while Luke McShane defeated Gawain Maroroa Jones after a promising position for Black collapsed around move twenty. The remaining games were drawn, leaving Abdusattorov ahead on 3½ points. | Photo: Official website