2/28/2012 – Last year we introduced a new series on playchess.com: “Ask the experts”, a show which gives the audience an opportunity to direct questions to chess experts in the ChessBase studio. This year’s first episode will go on air Tuesday, 28th February, and two of our programmers are ready to answer your questions: Matthias Wüllenweber and Mathias Feist.
new: Fritz 20
Your personal chess trainer. Your toughest opponent. Your strongest ally. FRITZ 20 is more than just a chess engine – it is a training revolution for ambitious players and professionals. Whether you are taking your first steps into the world of serious chess training, or already playing at tournament level, FRITZ 20 will help you train more efficiently, intelligently and individually than ever before.
YOUR PERSONAL CHESS COACH - Whether you’re taking your first steps into the world of club chess, or already playing at a tournament level: with FRITZ, you can train more efficiently, intelligently and with a more personalised approach than ever before. FRITZ is more than just a chess engine – it’s a training revolution! Whether you’re taking your first steps into the world of club chess, or already playing at a tournament level: with FRITZ, you can train more efficiently, intelligently and with a more personalised approach than ever before.
Biel Chess Festival 2025 with analyses by Aravindh, Navara, Wojtaszek et al. Opening videos by Blohberger, Engel and Sokolov. Training columns ‘The fortress’, ‘Opening traps , ‘Fundamental Endgame Knowledge’ and much more
€21.90
Mathias Wüllenweber founded ChessBase back in 1986. His ideas about restructuring chess knowledge with the help of computers and chess databases were groundbreaking. He was the first to develop a digital database with thousands of chess games, nowadays a standard tool for every chess player, at that time a formidable weapon. Many more ideas followed: ChessBase, a chess database program, the chess engine Fritz, playchess.com, the biggest chess server in the world, and last but not least, Ludwig, a program which composes, writes and arranges music for you.
Matthias Wüllenweber and Garry Kasparov back in the mid-1980s discussing the technical progress of the newly published ChessBase program
Mathias Feist is also a programmer and one of the brains behind the Fritz engine. Today, improving the engine is more and more difficult, but Mathias is keen on doing just that. He also plays a crucial role in the development of all Chessbase interfaces and thus is the man to ask when it comes to explaining certain software features.
World Champion Vladimir Kramnik facing Matthias Feist and Fritz in 2002
As the title indicates, the show is all about asking questions. Tomorrow, Tuesday, February 28th, Matthias Wüllenweber and Mathias Feist will be ready to them on playchess.com. Be ready to ask them whatever you always wanted to know about ChessBase programs and computers. The show starts at 17:00h Central European time or 16:00h British time, 20:00h Moscow, 9:30 p.m. New Delhi, 24:00h Beijing, 03:00 a.m. Melbourne, 05:00 a.m. Auckland, 08:00 a.m. San Francisco, 11 a.m. New York. You can check the corresponding time at your location here.
To whet your appetite, here are some examples of previous episodes of "Ask the experts":
YOUR PERSONAL CHESS COACH - Whether you’re taking your first steps into the world of club chess, or already playing at a tournament level: with FRITZ, you can train more efficiently, intelligently and with a more personalised approach than ever before.
This compact course is designed specifically for practical play. Instead of overwhelming you with endless theory, it focuses on the critical lines, typical plans, and recurring tactical ideas.
Slav and Semi-Slav Powerbase 2026 is a database and contains a total of 11 766 games from Mega 2026 or the Correspondence Database 2026, of which 1136 are annotated.
For the Slav and Semi-Slav Powerbook 2026 the ratings average was set again at 2400. 2.24 million games from the engine room of playchess.com met this threshold, to which were added over 130 000 games played by humans.
In this volume, we dive into core aspects of chess technique. Smyslov taught the principle of tactical hierarchy, “checks, double attacks, and unprotected pieces”, and Mikhalchishin demonstrates how this method of calculation is vital.
Videos: Nico Zwirs examines two Petroffs from the 2026 Candidates. Robert Ris has a tip against the Caro-Kann Advance Variation with 3…c5. Fiona Sieber reveals a surprise weapon against the Najdorf. ‘Lucky Bag’ with 40 analyses by Ganguly, L'Ami et al.
YOUR PERSONAL CHESS COACH - Whether you’re taking your first steps into the world of club chess, or already playing at a tournament level: with FRITZ, you can train more efficiently, intelligently and with a more personalised approach than ever before.
€49.90
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