12/11/2025 – Chess weeks in Argentina: The national championships recently came to an end with one successful and one failed record – Diego Flores triumphed for the eighth time as Argentine champion, while Faustino Oro, who wants to become the youngest GM of all time and has till March to reach that goal, missed the GM norm. Just a few days later, both play in a tournament in Buenos Aires. At the Magistral Szmetan-Giardelli, they face other Argentine talents and greats such as Alexei Shirov, Ivan Cheparinov, Julio Granda Zuniga and top seed Aryan Tari. | Photos: FADA, Mar Melero

12/11/2025 – Today marks the end of the 2025 Freestyle Grand Slam Tour. Magnus Carlsen and Levon Aronian will battle it out in the final for the tournament victory, while Vincent Keymer and Javokhir Sindarov will play for third place. Arjun Erigaisi will face Fabiano Caruana in the match for fifth place, while Hans Niemann and Parham Maghsoodloo will play for seventh place. Follow the games live with commentary. | The matches start at 12.00 CET (6.00 ET, 16.30 IST)

12/11/2025 – Day three of the Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Finals in South Africa clarified the lineup for Thursday's concluding matches. Magnus Carlsen and Levon Aronian advanced to the championship decider after winning their respective semifinals, while Javokhir Sindarov and Vincent Keymer will contest third place. In the lower bracket, Fabiano Caruana and Arjun Erigaisi secured victories to reach the fifth-place match, leaving Hans Niemann and Parham Maghsoodloo to compete for seventh. | Photo: Freestyle Chess / Lennart Ootes

12/10/2025 – Dorian Rogozenco demonstrates how ChessBase 26’s Monte-Carlo analysis can rapidly generate thousands of short engine games to obtain a statistically reliable evaluation of an opening line. In the example, it becomes clear that a previously promising surprise weapon for Black performs objectively much worse, providing a second, more realistic perspective to decide whether the line is practically worth playing.

12/10/2025 – For a long time, Praggnanandhaa led the 2025 FIDE Circuit rankings, but in theory, other players could still have overtaken him to qualify for the 2026 Candidates Tournament. However, his strong performance in the London Chess Classic Open, where he tied for first place with 7 out of 9, secured his victory in the FIDE Circuit and his place in the Candidates Tournament. | Photo: Yury Krylov / London Chess Classic

12/10/2025 – The second day of the Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Finals in South Africa marked the start of the knockout phase, with four quarterfinal matches played under a 30+15 time control. Two encounters were settled in the first pair of games, while the other two required blitz tiebreaks. Magnus Carlsen, Javokhir Sindarov, Vincent Keymer and Levon Aronian advanced to the semifinals, while the defeated players moved to the lower bracket to compete for fifth to eighth place. | Photo: Freestyle Chess / Lennart Ootes

12/9/2025 – Diego Flores claimed his eighth national title at the 2025 Argentine Championship, matching Miguel Najdorf's long-standing record in the event's centenary edition. The 12-player round-robin, held at Buenos Aires City Hall, saw Flores finish unbeaten with 8½/11, securing victory after a final-round draw against Federico Pérez Ponsa. Strong performances by Diego Valerga, Leonardo Tristán and 12-year-old IM Faustino Oro added further significance to this historic edition. | Photo: Argentine Chess Federation (FADA)

12/9/2025 – The King’s Indian Defence has been one of the most dynamic and popular responses to 1.d4 for decades. Legends such as Garry Kasparov, Bobby Fischer, and Hikaru Nakamura have employed it at the highest level – and it continues to fascinate today, as it offers Black not only solidity but also rich attacking and counterattacking opportunities. Its special advantage: the King’s Indian is a universal system, equally effective against 1.d4, 1.c4, and 1.Nf3. Grandmaster Felix Blohberger, multiple Austrian Champion and experienced second, presents a complete two-part repertoire for Black. His approach: practical, clear, and flexible – instead of endless theory, you’ll get straightforward concepts and strategies that are easy to learn and apply.

12/9/2025 – This week an Indian top Grandmaster 2662-rated lost a game in only 16 moves! In this week's episode we will see what went wrong in a sharp line of the Queen's Indian Defence with 5.Qc2, which includes an early pawn sacrifice. | Fast & Furious is available on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here.

12/9/2025 – Out of the clear blue sky: Mating attacks do happen in endgames: Black to move and win.

12/9/2025 – Now that we have examined all the individual trees in this game between Viktor Kortschnoj and Anatoly Karpov from 1978, what is our view of the forest? Move after move, Kortschnoj made optimal choices, never lessening the tension. Most decisive endings are won after a gross blunder, but it took 46 years to find where Black finally stumbled. As GM Alex Fishbein noted, Kortschnoj "made many nonstandard decisions, made no mistakes and played brilliantly – one of the best endings ever played."

12/8/2025 – The opening stage of the Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Finals in South Africa consisted of a single round-robin tournament with a 10+5 time control. Although no players were eliminated, the results were of clear importance: they decide the quarterfinal pairings. Javokhir Sindarov, fresh from his victory at the FIDE World Cup, was the top scorer, as he obtained 5½/7 points, with wins over Magnus Carlsen, Parham Maghsoodloo, Fabiano Caruana and Hans Niemann. The Uzbek star achieved this feat on his 20th birthday. | Photo: Freestyle Chess / Lennart Ootes