12/15/2024 – Herman Grooten is an International Master, a renowned trainer and the author of several highly acclaimed books on chess training and strategy. In the 208th episode of his ChessBase show "Understanding before Moving" Herman takes a look at the career of Gukesh D. | Photo: Pascal Simon

12/14/2024 – On Monday the 2024 Nobel Prizes were awarded in a Stockholm, Sweden. The prize for chemistry went to three scientists, one of whom has an illustrious background in chess. Demis Hassabis was a chess prodigy with a 2300 rating at the age of 13. He founded DeepMind, a subsidiary of Google, and went on to develop the groundbreaking artificial intelligence program AlphaZero. Frederic Friedel has known Demis since he was 17. | Photo European Biotechology/Nanaka Adachi

12/14/2024 – The new ChessBase Training Course ‘Modern Classics’ by GM Dorian Rogozenco presents 33 important games from modern chess history (1935-1999) and offers an excellent basis for deepening your own understanding of chess through detailed explanations, background information and interactive tools. He continues the tradition of his predecessor course and makes important parts of chess culture accessible to players of all levels.

12/14/2024 – In the diagram position Black played 26...d4! and after 27.Rc1 he found a remarkable way to save his skin. The art of drawing - half a point, all the fun!

12/13/2024 – Completely new possibilities for strategy training: ChessBase 18 searches games for you according to 30 (!) different strategic themes! In the new search mask you can select strategic themes from 3 categories. In the category ‘Structure’ you will find topics such as ‘Space advantage’ or ‘Majority on the queenside’. The ‘Pieces’ section deals with the value of individual pieces, i.e. ‘opposite coloured bishops’ or ‘strong rooks’. And under ‘Plans’ you can search for ‘Attack weakness’, ‘Successful defence’ or ‘King's attack’. ChessBase 18 then provides a list of games sorted according to the importance of the strategic theme and when you click on it, ChessBase 18 jumps to the relevant part of the game! Chief developer Matthias Wüllenweber shows in the video how quick and easy it is!

12/13/2024 – The young Russian grandmaster Andrey Esipenko (photo) won the highly competitive Qatar Masters with 7½ points after 9 rounds of play. Second and third place were shared by Arjun Erigaisi and Nodirbek Abdusattorov, each with 7 points. Arjun missed the opportunity to overtake Fabiano Caruana in the FIDE Circuit. Whoever has the most FIDE Circuit points at the end of the year will qualify for the 2026 Candidates Tournament. | Photo: Anna Shtourman / Qatar Masters

12/13/2024 – The Kasparov Chess Foundation Academy has announced the start of its second season, featuring an enhanced format with more instructional hours and additional lessons from top players and trainers, including special sessions from the Legendary World Champion, Garry Kasparov himself. The KCF announcement contains twelve instructive endgames for you to study.

12/13/2024 – The mainline in the Yugoslav attack, is constantly played on a higher level. But what happens, if instead of moving the queen to d2, it goes to e2? Chris Ward says, shows us how to play against this attempt, and gain a good advantage for Black. Furthermore, the English GM has a recent, super entertaining game for us, where two chess legends battle it out - dragon style! | Photo: John Upham

12/13/2024 – It's all over. After a tense battle that swayed from side to side, the final games were decisive. They were exciting – but also very instructive. Who better to explain them than world-class trainer GM Efstratios Grivas. He provides us with deep analysis from which there is a lot to learn. For amateurs and strong players alike. | Photo Eng Chin An

12/12/2024 – In a historic conclusion to the World Chess Championship in Singapore, 18-year-old Gukesh Dommaraju defeated reigning champion Ding Liren in the final game, becoming the youngest undisputed world chess champion in history. With this monumental victory, the title returns to India for the first time since Viswanathan Anand lost it in 2013. Gukesh's triumph, sealed after Ding blundered in a technical endgame, cements his place among chess legends. The victory also highlights India's rise as a global chess powerhouse. | Photo: FIDE / Eng Chin An

12/12/2024 – On 3rd December the Qatar Masters 2024 started, a very strong 9 round Swiss. Over 40 grandmasters are taking part, top seeded is Indian grandmaster Arjun Erigaisi. Nodirbek Abdusattorov is second seeded, Parham Maghsoodloo third. Apart from prizes and prestige, Erigaisi and Abdusattorov will also be fighting for FIDE Circuit points - the winner of the 2024 FIDE Circuit will qualify for the 2026 Candidates. Follow the last round live with commentary.

12/12/2024 – In his new Game of the Week show, Merijn van Delft looks at what many experts consider to be the best game of the World Championship match between Ding Liren and Gukesh D at Singapore 2024. They also consider it to be one of Ding's best games in years - his win in game 12 of the match that levelled the score and was a positional and strategic masterclass. | Merijn's show is available on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here.