11/11/2025 – This interview with Matthias Wüllenweber, Head of Development at ChessBase, was recorded last week, just before the official release of ChessBase 26. In it, he presents the major innovations of the new version, including the redesigned Opening Report, the Fashion Index, and the powerful Monte Carlo Analysis. If you missed it then, now’s the perfect time to discover how ChessBase 26 has evolved into a smarter, more intuitive tool for your chess training.
new: ChessBase Magazine 225
Chess Festival Prague 2025 with analyses by Aravindh, Giri, Gurel, Navara and others. ‘Special’: 27 highly entertaining miniatures. Opening videos by Werle, King and Ris. 10 opening articles with new repertoire ideas and much more. ChessBase Magazine offers first-class training material for club players and professionals! World-class players analyse their brilliant games and explain the ideas behind the moves. Opening specialists present the latest trends in opening theory and exciting ideas for your repertoire. Master trainers in tactics, strategy and endgames show you the tricks and techniques you need to be a successful tournament player! Available as a direct download (incl. booklet as pdf file) or booklet with download key by post. Included in delivery: ChessBase Magazine #225 as “ChessBase Book” for iPad, tablet, Mac etc.!
EXPAND YOUR CHESS HORIZONS Data, plans, practice – the new Opening Report In ChessBase there are always attempts to show the typical plans of an opening variation. In the age of engines, chess is much more concrete than previously thought. But amateurs in particular love openings with clear plans, see the London System. In ChessBase ’26, three functions deal with the display of plans. The new opening report examines which piece moves or pawn advances are significant for each important variation. In the reference search you can now see on the board where the pieces usually go. If you start the new Monte Carlo analysis, the board also shows the most common figure paths.
Learn from legends! Get the full Master Class series on the World Champions at a discounted bundle price – only for a limited time.
€399.90
ChessBase 26
Matthias Wuellenweber reveals features
At the core of ChessBase 26 lies the completely reimagined Opening Report. A tool that turns your repertoire work into a guided journey through ideas. It now highlights the most instructive games, extracts typical plans and manoeuvres, and identifies recurring tactical motifs directly from millions of games in the Mega Database. This allows you to understand openings rather than memorize them, training your intuition with real examples from top-level play.
One of the most exciting insights from this new system is that openings can’t be judged universally.
What fails at grandmaster level can still score brilliantly for club players!
ChessBase 26 lets you explore these rating-specific truths, giving practical players the confidence to rediscover classic or unconventional systems such as the Stonewall, the Scandinavian, or even old gambits that have proven success in their own rating range.
The Fashion Index adds another fascinating layer, showing which openings are currently trending, how long they stay popular, and why certain lines fade away. It even identifies the pioneers who first played and developed them - whether it’s the Evans gambit or Botvinnik’s system in the Slav - offering a historical storytelling element that connects modern play with chess tradition.
Equally innovative is the new Monte Carlo Analysis, a feature that brings a fresh scientific dimension to chess evaluation. By running thousands of ultra-fast games in parallel on all CPU cores, ChessBase 26 reveals winning probabilities, draw ratios, and typical piece manoeuvres, offering a much richer picture of a position than a single 0.00 engine score ever could.
Behind all these innovations stands Matthias Wüllenweber’s long-standing vision: to combine powerful technology with real chess understanding. ChessBase 26 makes full use of today’s multicore processors, ensuring even complex analyses and data searches run faster than ever.
Whether you are a grandmaster refining your repertoire, a club player discovering new attacking ideas, or a coach building lessons for your students, ChessBase 26 offers a vibrant, modern, and intelligent way to study chess - one that reflects Wuellenweber’s philosophy:
Preparation should not just be about numbers, but about learning to think like a chess player.
EXPAND YOUR CHESS HORIZONS Data, plans, practice – the new Opening Report In ChessBase there are always attempts to show the typical plans of an opening variation. In the age of engines, chess is much more concrete than previously thought. But amateurs in particular love openings with clear plans, see the London System. In ChessBase ’26, three functions deal with the display of plans. The new opening report examines which piece moves or pawn advances are significant for each important variation. In the reference search you can now see on the board where the pieces usually go. If you start the new Monte Carlo analysis, the board also shows the most common figure paths.
11/4/2025 – After a long break from competitive play, GM Jon Speelman returned to the board with three intense games in quick succession - each offering instructive lessons and a few painful oversights. In his latest column, he revisits the most critical moments from these battles, including a London League clash against Jonathan Parker and two 4NCL encounters, inviting readers to test their tactical vision and find the winning ideas that eluded him over the board. | Photo: John Saunders / 4NCL (2014)
11/2/2025 – It's now official: Vincent Keymer has jumped from ninth place last month to fourth place in the new FIDE world rankings. With his successes in the European Team Championship and the European Club Cup, the German star has improved his rating by another 18 points. Magnus Carlsen continue to be the highest-rated player in the world, while Hou Yifan still leads the women's rankings.
For a long time the Scotch opening was considered harmless and rarely played. This changed in 1990 when Garry Kasparov successfully employed the Scotch opening in his World Championship match against Anatoly Karpov. But that was 25 years ago. Now, there is no need to panic if you want to play 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 and need a line against the Scotch. On this 60 Minutes renowned and successful coach Adrian Mikhalchishin gives simple practical tips how to neutralize and counter the Scotch.
FIDE World Cup 2025 with analyses by Adams, Bluebaum, Donchenko, Shankland, Wei Yi and many more. Opening videos by Blohberger, King and Marin. 11 exciting opening articles with new repertoire ideas and much more.
GM Blohberger presents a complete two-part repertoire for Black: practical, clear, and flexible – instead of endless theory, you’ll get straightforward concepts and strategies that are easy to learn and apply.
GM Blohberger presents a complete two-part repertoire for Black: practical, clear, and flexible – instead of endless theory, you’ll get straightforward concepts and strategies that are easy to learn and apply.
GM Blohberger presents a complete two-part repertoire for Black: practical, clear, and flexible – instead of endless theory, you’ll get straightforward concepts and strategies that are easy to learn and apply.
Opening videos: Sipke Ernst brings the Ulvestad Variation up to date + Part II of ‘Mikhalchishin's Miniatures’. Special: Jan Werle shows highlights from the FIDE Grand Swiss 2025 in the video. ‘Lucky bag’ with 40 analyses by Ganguly, Illingworth et al.
In this video course, Grandmaster Ivan Sokolov explores the fascinating world of King’s Indian and Pirc structures with colours reversed, often arising from the French or Sicilian.
€39.90
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