8/28/2025 – Fiona Steil-Antoni is a well-known and popular figure in the chess world. In an interview with ChessBase, she explains how she moved from being a competitive player to becoming an interviewer, commentator, and host — a transition that happened almost by accident. She talks about her love for events like Tata Steel, her recent involvement with St. Pauli, and the growing range of chess-related projects, from GothamChess and Freestyle Chess to chess boxing. While she admits she currently lacks the motivation to play competitively, she remains passionate about interviewing, hosting, and exploring new formats in chess, emphasizing both the importance of human connection and the representation of women in the game.

8/28/2025 – Wesley So left his best until last at the Sinquefield Cup, turning a quiet start into a tournament victory on the final day in Saint Louis. After outplaying Nodirbek Abdusattorov in round nine, he joined Fabiano Caruana and Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu in a three-way tie for first. A tense blitz playoff followed, where So defeated Pragg and then held Caruana to a draw, enough to secure the title - even if it was not quite enough to reach the Grand Chess Tour Finals. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

8/28/2025 – Round four of the Fujairah Global Chess Championship’s Superstars tournament concluded with nine players sharing the lead on 3 points. Wins by Amin Tabatabaei, Gleb Dudin and Zhu Jiner with the white pieces allowed them to join the players who entered the round as co-leaders. Zhu, the only female participant and lowest seed, defeated Alexander Motylev to continue her rise. Her performance has lifted her to fourth place in the women's live ranking. | Photo: Aditya Sur Roy

8/27/2025 – In his latest Game of the Week show, Merijn van Delft analyses an instructive game from the Sinquefield Cup: Fabiano Caruana's impressive positional victory over Alireza Firouzja. | Merijn's show is available on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here.

8/27/2025 – The Sinquefield Cup, the only event to feature in every Grand Chess Tour since 2015, returns to Saint Louis from 18 to 27 August. As the concluding leg before the revived Finals in São Paulo, it will play a decisive role in determining the four qualifiers, with Maxime Vachier-Lagrave currently leading the standings and strong challengers close behind. | Follow the games live with expert commentary starting at 19.00 CEST (13.00 ET, 22.30 IST)

8/27/2025 – Arpad Emmerich Elo, born 122 years ago, revolutionised competitive chess with his groundbreaking rating system, officially adopted by FIDE in 1970. A physicist and accomplished player, Elo helped bring structure and fairness to measuring performance, with his system later extending beyond chess into other sports. From Fischer topping the first FIDE list in 1971 to Carlsen's record 2882, ratings have shaped the modern game. Today, FIDE continues refining the system to meet new challenges and a growing global player base.

8/25/2025 – In Saint Louis, the sixth round of the Sinquefield Cup produced another full set of draws, though the results concealed the drama on several boards. Maxime Vachier-Lagrave once more failed to convert a winning position, this time against Nodirbek Abdusattorov, while Alireza Firouzja also missed chances to defeat world champion Gukesh Dommaraju, who defended tenaciously. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

8/25/2025 – The Rubinstein Memorial in Polanica-Zdrój, a spa town located in south-western Poland, ended with Nodirbek Yakubboev securing first place after a final-round draw against Igor Kovalenko, who finished with the unusual record of nine draws. Radoslaw Wojtaszek overtook David Navara on the last day to claim second place, while European champion Matthias Bluebaum took third. | Photos: Official website

8/24/2025 – Use ChessBase 18 for training purposes: with smart use of the database functions and the training tool, you can quickly put together excellent training material. There’s no need anymore to pore over books, copy diagrams, or scan pages. In this second part of the tutorial, you’ll learn how easy it is to prepare your material in a didactic way and turn it into exercises. This saves you valuable time that you can use for your own training or for your students.

8/23/2025 – On 8 August, Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu gave a simultaneous exhibition at the IMC office in Mumbai. His mother, Nagalakshmi, was also present. Amruta Mokal seized the moment to speak with her, and what followed was a special interview where Nagalakshmi opened up about the journey of raising India's golden siblings of chess, Praggnanandhaa and Vaishali. She revealed the amount of planning and support that goes into nurturing world-class talents. | Photo: Amruta Mokal

8/23/2025 – Svitlana's newest course is here: Silence the Sicilian – Win with the Alapin Variation (2.c3)! The Canadian WIM offers a first look at what you can expect from her lessons. In addition, she takes us through the famous 1996 clash between Deep Blue and Garry Kasparov, where the computer claimed victory with the very same Alapin Variation.

8/23/2025 – The fifth round of the Sinquefield Cup ended with all five games drawn, though several encounters carried plenty of tension. Fabiano Caruana maintained his lead after a balanced game with Wesley So, reaching the halfway point on 3½ points. Jan-Krzysztof Duda came closest to victory, missing a brilliant tactic that would have likely given him the win against world champion Gukesh Dommaraju. The players now get a rest day before the action continues with round six on Sunday. | Photo: Lennart Ootes