5/8/2025 – In the latest episode of the Power Play Show, GM Daniel King looks at some of the highlights from the Women's World Championship match between defending champion Ju Wenjun and her challenger Tan Zhongyi. After a shaky start, Ju Wenjun defended her title with a clear 6.5-2.5 victory. | Watch Power Play on-demand with a ChessBase Premium account. All the usual puzzles, games and instruction will be on offer.

5/8/2025 – Vaishali Rameshbabu and Tan Zhongyi emerged as the only players with perfect scores after two rounds of the final leg of the Women's Grand Prix in Grosslobming, Austria. Vaishali defeated Lela Javakhishvili in a well-executed Reverse Grünfeld, while Tan capitalised on Olga Badelka's missteps to secure her second win. Anna Muzychuk claimed a key victory over Zhu Jiner, moving to third place. | Photo: Przemysław Nikiel

5/7/2025 – MegaBase 2025 is Chess History in action. Regularly updated every month, the Main Database currently offers 11 million games, many of them annotated. Here our columnist offers a review with focus on chess in the 21st Century.

5/7/2025 – The Online Marketing Rockstars Festival is Europe's largest digital trade fair. On Tuesday, streamers Levy Rozman (Gotham Chess), Daniel Rensch and Anna Cramling were guests at a panel discussion. Between football and Formula One, they presented the digital world of chess on the big stage – and did so very well! | Photos: André Schulz

5/7/2025 – The European edition of the political news magazine Politico published an article on its website about Russia's influence on the World Chess Federation (FIDE) and how Russia is exploiting chess and the World Chess Federation for its own political ends. | Graphics: POLITICO

5/7/2025 – The opening round of the final leg of the 2024/2025 FIDE Women's Grand Prix in Grosslobming, Austria, saw three decisive games. Olga Badelka (pictured) secured a surprise win against Alexandra Kosteniuk, Vaishali Rameshbabu capitalised on Nurgyul Salimova's time pressure, and Tan Zhongyi emerged victorious after a five-and-a-half-hour struggle against Zhu Jiner. | Photo: Przemysław Nikiel

5/4/2025 – Have you admired how beautifully the authors colour fields and insert arrows in the ChessBase videos? Would you like to be able to do the same? In this tutorial series, we show you how you can improve your own analyses in ChessBase 18 with clear graphical elements.

5/4/2025 – The Baku Open, the first event in the newly established Chess Tour Azerbaijan, is underway at the Baku Crystal Hall (pictured) and has completed six of its nine scheduled rounds. Serbian grandmaster Aleksandar Indjic leads the field with 5 points, followed closely by Georgian GM Baadur Jobava and Turkish GM Vahap Sanal. The tournament features a strong mix of local and international players and forms part of a broader initiative to promote chess through events held in Azerbaijan's major cities and tourist destinations. | Photo: Florian Licht

5/3/2025 – Christopher Yoo, aged 18, obtained outright victory at the 2025 Sardinia World Chess Festival with a final score of 7½ out of 9. He remained unbeaten, finishing ahead of Ukrainian GM Ihor Samunenkov and Italian GM Lorenzo Lodici, who shared second place on 7 points. Yoo's recent career has drawn attention for an incident at the 2024 US Championship, where he was suspended for a year by the US Chess Federation following misconduct. | Photo: Niklesh Jain / ChessBase India

5/3/2025 – On 4 October 2025, Arlington, Texas will host "Checkmate: USA vs. India", a major international chess event at Esports Stadium Arlington. Featuring top stars such as Hikaru Nakamura, Gukesh Dommaraju, Fabiano Caruana and Arjun Erigaisi, the match blends elite competition with high-end production and entertainment. With youth and women's matchups, and a face-off between top chess streamers, the event aims to present chess in a bold new format to a global audience. Tickets are now on sale. | Photo: FIDE / Lennart Ootes

5/3/2025 – In the diagram position the young White player found the best solution to meet Black's threat 23...Rg4. What would you do?

5/2/2025 – The Classical Sicilian is one of the most flexible and dynamic variations of the Sicilian Defence. The Indian Grandmaster SP Sethuraman provides a comprehensive guide to mastering this opening in his new video course. In a series of detailed videos, Sethuraman introduces chess players to the intricacies of this combative opening. The course is aimed at ambitious chess players who want to play combative games with Black. It offers a common thread for an exciting opening for players from club level (1400) to title holders.