4/23/2026 – The Chess.com Open Playoffs, running from 23 to 26 April, offer a direct route to the Esports World Cup, with up to three qualification places at stake. A 16-player field featuring Magnus Carlsen, Javokhir Sindarov and other leading grandmasters contest a double-elimination playoff bracket in a rapid format (10+0) with Armageddon tiebreaks deciding drawn matches. | Follow the games live starting at 17.15 CEST (11.15 ET, 20.45 IST)
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 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.
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.
€49.90
Day 1
The Chess.com Open Playoffs are staged from 23 to 26 April as an online event that offers a direct qualification route to the Esports World Cup. Up to three players secure places at the EWC by finishing in the top three, with no additional spots awarded if already qualified players occupy those positions. The remaining places for the Esports World Cup are determined via the Champions Chess Tour leaderboard.
A group of 16 players, featuring leading grandmasters such as Magnus Carlsen, Javokhir Sindarov, Vincent Keymer, Nodirbek Abdusattorov and Arjun Erigaisi, are participating.
The event is structured as a double-elimination knockout bracket. Matches follow a rapid time control of 10 minutes without increment.
In the Winners Bracket, matches consist of four games.
In the Losers Bracket, matches consist of two games.
If scores are level, the match is decided by a bidding Armageddon game with a base time of 10 minutes, in which the winner of the bid takes the black pieces and draw odds.
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. YOUR EASY ACCESS TO OPENING THEORY
Be well prepared with the new Opening Encyclopaedia 2026! 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 and is the ideal start for your opening training. Many new articles enrich the current theory with new or revisited ideas. The Encyclopaedia can help you learn openings quickly and give you a head start on your next opponent. Each article contains explanations and annotated games illustrating typical plans to deepen your understanding.
4/22/2026 – Fabiano Caruana reflects on his showing at the Candidates Tournament while explaining why he believes Javokhir Sindarov produced one of the strongest performances in the event's history. Caruana discusses Sindarov's opening preparation, his own missed chances, Hikaru Nakamura's costly opening preparation mistake and the likely balance of the forthcoming world title match against Gukesh Dommaraju. | Photo: ChessBase / Nils Rohde
4/21/2026 – The Latin expression memento mori, meaning "remember [that you have] to die", has long been associated with humility and reflection on the brevity of life. Chess offers a fitting metaphor for this idea: every game begins with possibilities, unfolds through choices and conflict, and ends inevitably. The clock, the sacrifices and the final checkmate all reflect the limits of time, control and ambition, turning the chessboard into a symbolic lesson on mortality and purpose. | Picture: "Allegory of Vanity" by Spanish Baroque-era painter <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antonio_de_Pereda">Antonio de Pereda y Salgado</a>
You will learn how Black's dynamic piece activity and structural counterplay more than compensate for White's extra tempo in the colour-reversed setups.
In this course, you’ll learn how to take the initiative against the London and prevent White from comfortably playing their usual system by playing 1.d4 Nf6 2.Bf4 Nh5.
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.
€169.90
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