1/4/2017 – When Bob Jones undertook a trip to buy a collection of chess books he found some treasures, including a letter by the wife of Fred Reinfeld (1910-1964), one of the most prolific writers on chess. Only later did Bob realize that he had purchased the chess library of Bruce Hayden, himself an extraordinary personality in chess: chess correspondent for The Times and a great raconteur of chess tales. Here's a story that looks at one of the most prolific writers on chess.

1/3/2017 – Sergey Tiaviakov and Jinshi Bai both played solid, strong chess at the Chess Festival Groningen and after 9 nine rounds, in which both scored five wins and four draws, they both finished with 7.0/9, sharing first place. The tie-break had to decide. And here the young Chinese won by a very narrow margin.

1/3/2017 – Jovanka Houska is the British Women’s Chess Champion, but there is certainly more to her than meets the eye. She has co-authored a “sexy chess book” called The Mating Game, which is available to buy now! Find out more in this exclusive interview.

1/3/2017 – With about 260 million inhabitants Indonesia is the world's fourth most populous country and it is a land full of natural beauty and diversity. Economically, Indonesia is on the rise and it also has a flourishing chess community. When revisiting Jakarta to play a tournament in the Indonesian capital Alina l'Ami was again struck by the many fascinating facets of Jakarta and Indonesia. Illustrated report...

1/3/2017 – In the first voting about the highlights of 2016 we asked for the player of the year. In the second voting we ask for the "Female Player of the Year 2016". A lot of players stood out through their play and their successes in 2016 but which player left the deepest impression on you? Have a look at our list of candidates and choose your female player of the year 2016!

1/3/2017 – Two problemist friends, John Nunn and Yochanan Afek, have proposed it: introduce a monthly column on our newspage to demonstrate the artistic beauty of chess studies. It is a genre in which authors are able to show beautiful patterns and ideas that never occur in regular tournament chess games, but which are possible in composed positions. We have gladly accepted and present the first installment by German composer Siegfried Hornecker. Enjoy.

1/3/2017 – Every week ChessBase magazine author and renowned endgame expert Karsten Müller presents a remarkable or particularly instructive endgame in his blog. A click on the diagram opens a larger board. Test your endgame skills, improve and have fun!

1/2/2017 – The Fide just published the first rating list of 2017. World Champion Magnus Carlsen starts the year as number one - in classical chess, in rapid and in blitz chess. But in classical chess Fabiano Caruana is only 13 Elo points behind. Hou Yifan continues to dominate the women's ranking list, Wei Yi is best junior, Lei Tingjie the best girl. Lists and statistics...

1/2/2017 – One player who did exceedingly well in 2016 is Wesley So. The 23-year-old won two super tournaments – the Sinquefield Cup and London Chess Classic, he helped the US win team gold in the Chess Olympiad in Baku where So also won gold for the best performance on board three. So also won the Grand Chess Tour ahead of legends such as Viswanathan Anand, Vladimir Kramnik, Veselin Topalov and others. We got in touch with Wesley So to talk about the London Chess Classic and the chess decisions in much greater detail.

1/2/2017 – 2016 is over - time to review the chess highlights of the year. In the first of five votings we ask: which player impressed you most in 2016? A lot of players stood out through their play and their successes in 2016 but which player left the deepest impression on you? Have a look at our list of candidates and choose your player of the year 2016!

1/1/2017 – Fernando Arrabal, born August 11, 1932, in Melilla, Spain, is a writer, director, poet and passionate about chess. He has published more than 100 plays, 14 novels, 800 poetry collections, numerous essays and for over 30 years has written a chess column for the French weekly "L'Express". To greet the new year Arrabal sends ChessBase readers a chess poem, a hymn to chess.

12/31/2016 – After the World Championship match between Sergey Karjakin and Magnus Carlsen Yasser Seirawan proposed a "Radical Solution" to change the format of the World Championship match. It triggered an enormous discussion. Readers sent in hundreds of comments, Emil Sutovsky and Maurice Ashley published different proposals. Now Seirawan sums up his final thoughts on the World Championship format.