4/8/2023 – The what? "Flag"? What is that and how does it work? We recorded a confrontation between an absolute super-talent (17 years old and number 18 in world rankings) and a mechanical chess clock of yesteryear. Many of our readers will be well acquainted with the Garde, or other similar clocks, but many will be just as clueless as Dommaraju Gukesh.
Winning starts with what you know
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.
Winning starts with what you know 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.
World Chess Championship 2024 - all games with analyses by Giri, Shankland, So and others. Kasimdzhanov, King and Ris show new opening ideas in the video. 10 repertoire articles from the English Opening to the King's Indian and much more.
€21.90
Recently we had the 17-year-old D Gukesh in our office. This super-talent has risen to number 18 in the world – with every intention of reaching the top ten in his teens.
This DVD allows you to learn from the example of one of the best players in the history of chess and from the explanations of the authors how to successfully organise your games strategically, and how to keep your opponent permanently under pressure.
In the ChessBase office in Hamburg the founder and CEO of ChessBase India was present, and during a lull in the recordings challenged Gukesh to a blitz game. You can watch all the action in this video:
It was a rough and exciting game, which Sagar, a very strong IM, managed to win – on time! See, it was the first time in his life that Gukesh had used a mechanical Garde clock.
This is the famous analogue chess clock that many of us grew up with. It was used in professional tournaments and world championships before the introduction of digital timers. You saw it in countless championships and it is still available, e.g. at Amazon Germany, for around $90. ChessBase is the proud owner of a couple of these clocks. For our younger readers, here are instructions on how to use the Garde and similar chess clocks. Spoiler: they have no batteries and have to be wound up!
Problem is many of the young talents who visit our office have never seen a mechanical chess clock, and don't know how it is used. The what? "Flag?" What does that mean, how does it work? You can see Gukesh learning about this in the above video.
Smyslov cultivated a clear positional style and even in sharp tactical positions often relied more on his intuition than on concrete calculation of variations. Let our authors introduce you into the world of Vasily Smyslov.
How things have changed: today everyone is using LED digital clocks, which are available in all sizes and shapes. Analogue mechanical clocks, we are sad to inform you, are a thing of the past. Still you should keep your Garde or whatever clock, so that you can explain chess history to young upstarts.
Frederic FriedelEditor-in-Chief emeritus of the ChessBase News page. Studied Philosophy and Linguistics at the University of Hamburg and Oxford, graduating with a thesis on speech act theory and moral language. He started a university career but switched to science journalism, producing documentaries for German TV. In 1986 he co-founded ChessBase.
Throughout the video course, Sasikran shows various examples from his career to explain sacrifices for initiative, an attack, a better pawn structure and much more.
In this insightful video course, Grandmaster David Navara shares practical advice on when to calculate deeply in a position — and just as importantly, when not to.
The Trompowsky is especially suited for faster time controls as you don‘t have to memorise endless lines of theory, and you push your opponent out of their comfort zone after your second move.
Trompowsky Powerbook 2025 is based on 53,000 computer games from the engine room of playchess.com as well as 49,000 games from Mega and correspondence chess.
Trompowsky Powerbase 2025 is a database and contains a total of 8727 games from Mega 2025 and the Correspondence Database 2024, of which 316 are annotated.
2025 European Championship with a German double victory and analyses by Bluebaum, Svane, Rodshtein, Yuffa, Navara and many more. Opening videos by Engel, King and Marin. Training sections “The Fortress”, “The Trap” and “Fundamental Endgame Knowledge" etc.
Powerbook based on more than 618 000 games in which White already sidesteps the main variations of the Sicilian on move 2.
€9.90
We use cookies and comparable technologies to provide certain functions, to improve the user experience and to offer interest-oriented content. Depending on their intended use, analysis cookies and marketing cookies may be used in addition to technically required cookies. Here you can make detailed settings or revoke your consent (if necessary partially) with effect for the future. Further information can be found in our data protection declaration.
Pop-up for detailed settings
We use cookies and comparable technologies to provide certain functions, to improve the user experience and to offer interest-oriented content. Depending on their intended use, cookies may be used in addition to technically required cookies, analysis cookies and marketing cookies. You can decide which cookies to use by selecting the appropriate options below. Please note that your selection may affect the functionality of the service. Further information can be found in our privacy policy.
Technically required cookies
Technically required cookies: so that you can navigate and use the basic functions and store preferences.
Analysis Cookies
To help us determine how visitors interact with our website to improve the user experience.
Marketing-Cookies
To help us offer and evaluate relevant content and interesting and appropriate advertisement.