3/26/2026 – At the Prague International Chess Festival 2026, the popular Hand & Brain format followed right after the main event, bringing together Grandmasters, Challengers, Futures players, celebrities, and sponsors in mixed teams for four entertaining rounds. Among the standout games was the pairing of Divya Deshmukh & Christina Jordan against Bao Anh Angelina Nguyen Doan & Benjamin Gledura. The game seemed firmly in White’s hands before the momentum shifted dramatically, turning into a commanding position for Black. In a remarkable finish, Gledura discovered a brilliant tactical idea that everyone else at the table missed—including his own partner.
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The new version 18 offers completely new possibilities for chess training and analysis: playing style analysis, search for strategic themes, access to 6 billion Lichess games, player preparation by matching Lichess games, download Chess.com games with built-in API, built-in cloud engine and much more.
The Indian chess grandmaster Vidit Gujrathi with an ELO of over 2700 (June 2023) is one of the best 20 players in the world. For the first time, the sympathetic top player presents himself in a video course. Let a world-class player show you tactical moti
Whether you‘re a beginner looking for a clear roadmap or an advanced player ready to refine your strategic edge, this comprehensive course will transform the way you think about chess.
€49.90
Hand & Brain at the Prague International Chess Festival
In almost every chess game there comes a moment when you just can't go on without tactics. So it is vital to train tactics properly - and Master Class Tactics offers you the perfect tool for this!
In almost every chess game there comes a moment when you just can’t go on without tactics. You must strike to not giving away the advantage you have worked for the whole game.
In almost every chess game there comes a moment when you just can’t go on without tactics. You must strike to not giving away the advantage you have worked for the whole game. In almost every chess game there comes a moment when you just can’t go on without tactics. You must strike, because nothing is more annoying than missing a winning combination in the decisive situation, and thus giving away the advantage you have worked for the whole game. So it is vital to train tactics properly - and Master Class Tactics offers you the perfect tool for this! On this Fritztrainer, IM Oliver Reeh has compiled his favourites from the CBM column “Tune your Tactics” issues 219 to 227.
Free sample video: Introduction
Free sample video: Do you know the Archangelsk? / Sukovic - Kazakousky
What the heck is Hand & Brain?
Hand & Brain is a chess variant played in teams of two, where one player, the “Brain,” decides which type of piece should be moved, while the other player, the “Hand,” chooses the exact move on the board.
For example, if the Brain says “Knight,” the Hand can move either knight to any legal square. This creates a unique mix of strategy and unpredictability because even strong ideas can be executed in unexpected ways.
As a result, games often become chaotic and full of surprising twists, which is precisely why dramatic turnarounds happen so often in this format.
Arne KaehlerArne Kaehler, a creative mind who is passionate about board games in general, was born in Hamburg and learned to play chess at a young age. By teaching chess to youth teams and creating chess-related videos on YouTube, Arne was able to expand this passion and has even created an online course for anyone who wants to learn how to play chess. Arne writes for the English and German news sites, but focuses mainly on content for the ChessBase media channels.
3/20/2026 – After the Prague International Chess Festival, the top players didn't want to stop playing, so they set up three boards for 6-player bughouse. World Champion Gukesh, Keymer, Maghsoodloo, and Ganguly were joined by rising "futures" stars Clio Alessi and Lilian Schirmbeck to create absolute chaos. Keymer was basically overpowered the entire game, while Ganguly held on with everything he had. The highlight? A ridiculous loophole battery where they sacrificed 10 knights and bishops in a row. Finally, no engines, no prep. Just pure fun between some of the best chess players in the world.
1/22/2026 – Round five of the Tata Steel Chess Tournament saw four decisive games in the Masters, with Nodirbek Abdusattorov, Hans Niemann and Javokhir Sindarov emerging as co-leaders on 3½/5. Sindarov joined the lead after inflicting a first loss on Turkish prodigy Yagiz Kaan Erdogmus. In the Challengers, Andy Woodward and Faustino Oro both grabbed wins to catch Aydin Suleymanli at the top. | Photo: Nils Rohde
London System PowerBase 2026 is a database and contains in all 11 285 games from Mega 2026 and the Correspondence Database 2026, of which 282 are annotated.
The London System Powerbook 2026 is based on more than 410 000 games or game fragments from different opening moves and ECO codes; what they all have in common is that White plays d4 and Bf4 but does not play c4.
In this course, Grandmaster Elisabeth Pähtz presents the London System, a structured and ambitious approach based on the immediate Bf4, leading to rich and dynamic positions.
Opening videos: Open Spanish (Sipke Ernst) and Classical Sicilian (Nico Zwirs). Endgame Special by Igor Stohl: ‘Short or long side’ – where should the defending king be placed in rook endgames? ‘Lucky bag’ with 35 master analyses.
YOUR EASY ACCESS TO OPENING THEORY: Whether you want to build up a reliable and powerful opening repertoire or find new opening ideas for your existing repertoire, the Opening Encyclopaedia covers the entire opening theory on one product.
The Queen’s Gambit Declined Exchange Variation with 5.Bf4 has a great balance between positional play and sharp pawn pushes; and will be a surprise for your opponents while being easy to learn for you, as the key patterns are familiar.
€9.90
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