7/7/2026 – Indian Grandmaster Leon Luke Mendonca has never been shy about letting people into his world. Long a familiar face at the ChessBase studio, the 20-year-old from Goa has spent recent years building a genuine chess résumé, headlined by his surprise victory in the 2024 Tata Steel Challengers. Now the man who became India's 67th grandmaster back in January 2021 is channelling that same openness into his own YouTube channel, where he shares tournament battles, game analysis and glimpses of life on the professional circuit. His tagline says it all — "Just here to play chess and have fun".
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.!
In this powerful new course, endgame expert Karsten Müller teams up with rising star Leon Mendonca to deliver what truly matters: 10 essential rules that every player must know. Endgames decide more games than any opening preparation ever will and yet they are often the least understood phase of chess. In this powerful new course, endgame expert Karsten Müller teams up with rising star Leon Mendonca to deliver what truly matters: 10 essential rules that every player must know.
Free Video sample: Introduction
Free Video sample: Activate the king
From the 2026 Candidates Tournament, featuring a video review by Dorian Rogozenco, to Jan Werle’s opening video on the French Tarrasch Defence, and Oliver Reeh’s tactical column ‘Top Grandmasters at Work’. Analyses by Giri, So, Wei Yi and many others.
€21.90
Leon Mendonca on YouTube
Once upon a time ...
Leon's story has been closely intertwined with Sagar Shah and ChessBase India from the very beginning. Sagar has followed him since the earliest days of ChessBase India, back when Leon was a small, energetic kid, and he was candid in those years about sensing that the youngster was almost too gentle, lacking the killer competitive instinct that top-level chess demands.
One of Leon's first interviews with ChessBase India, titled - He is cute, he is 12, he is 2200+ and he is improving at great speed
Watching that same boy grow into a grandmaster who wins tournaments outright has made Leon something of a recurring ChessBase India success story, and it was Sagar who sat down with him for the in-depth interview after his breakthrough Tata Steel Challengers victory in Wijk aan Zee. Leon has essentially grown up inside the extended ChessBase family on both continents.
This video course features the ins-and-outs of the possible setups Black can choose. You’ll learn the key concepts and strategies needed to add this fantastic opening to your repertoire. An easy-to-learn and yet venomous weapon.
A frequent visitor to Hamburg and Budapest
That same thread runs to Hamburg through ChessBase co-founder Frederic Friedel, who spotted the Goan talent just as early and played quiet matchmaker at some pivotal moments. It was Friedel who arranged the Kramnik training camps where a young, still-untitled Leon was personally picked out by the former World Champion, and it was Friedel who connected him with Judit Polgár when the teenager was stranded in Budapest during the pandemic.
Meeting Judit Polgar? Piece of cake!
Friedel has since counted Leon among the younger Indian generation he treats as near-family, alongside Gukesh and Tania Sachdev, describing him as a remarkably versatile young man, and openly hoping he cracks the world's top ten.
That closeness turned into a steady stream of ChessBase visits. Leon has stayed in the ChessBase flat while recording FritzTrainers, played a casual blitz game against Ding Liren in the office, and, during his spell with Schachbundesliga side HSK Hamburg, dropped by the studio often.
In this video course we’ll have a look at the Queen’s Indian after 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 b6. We’ll explore the ins and outs of the possible White setups against this rock-solid opening.
Loads of content work
It was there that Arne Kaehler put him through plenty of video formats, like:
Now Leon has started creating content on his own, and the years in front of ChessBase's cameras clearly rubbed off. He's taken the same easygoing spirit that made him such a natural guest and turned the lens on himself, sharing his own tournaments, preparation and the games he finds worth talking about.
The grandmaster who once let us document a day in his life is now doing the documenting himself, which is exactly what makes the channel worth a follow.
In this 60-Minutes, I present games which I have found instructive, while giving you insights and guidelines on how to counter your attacking opponent! The attack is one of the most important and fascinating concepts in chess. There have been many books, video courses and articles that have dealt with this aspect, but not a lot has been written about how to deal with it yourself. In this 60-Minutes, I present games which I have found instructive, while giving you insights and guidelines on how to counter your attacking opponent!
His latest ChessBase Training Course just came out very recently:
In this powerful new course, endgame expert Karsten Müller teams up with rising star Leon Mendonca to deliver what truly matters: 10 essential rules that every player must know. Endgames decide more games than any opening preparation ever will and yet they are often the least understood phase of chess. In this powerful new course, endgame expert Karsten Müller teams up with rising star Leon Mendonca to deliver what truly matters: 10 essential rules that every player must know.
Free Video sample: Introduction
Free Video sample: Activate the king
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.
7/7/2026 – Black's knight's knightmare: The duel bishop against knight can be deep. As defender the knight often wants to construct a fortress: Black to move and draw.
7/6/2026 – Dear chess friends, from July 6–12 , you can get the entire Master Class Series for just €224.90 in our ChessBase Summer Special. Don't miss this opportunity to own all 20 volumes at an exceptional price. Already own part of the series? No problem! Missing one or more volumes? During this week only, you can also purchase individual Master Class titles with discounts of up to 33%.
On this 60 mins video we are going to concentrate on a simple, very solid idea in the main line Scandinavian, which even Magnus Carlsen has used to win games. Black focusses on making his life easy in the opening and forces White to work very hard to get advantage – but it is doubtful if White can get an advantage. Club players are always on the lookout for effective, time-saving solutions and here we have just that. Accompany FIDE Senior Trainer and IM Andrew Martin on this 60 mins video. You can learn a new opening system in 60 mins and start to play it with confidence on the very same day!
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.
The Hyper-Accelerated Dragon is fast, from the very first moves, your bishop heads to g7, seizes the long diagonal, and turns into the most feared piece on the board.
It rewards players who love initiative and clear attacking plans.
The Hyper-Accelerated Dragon is fast, from the very first moves, your bishop heads to g7, seizes the long diagonal, and turns into the most feared piece on the board.
It rewards players who love initiative and clear attacking plans.
The Hyper-Accelerated dragon is fast, from the very first moves, your bishop heads to g7, seizes the long diagonal, and turns into the most feared piece on the board.
It rewards players who love initiative and clear attacking plans.
“Mate is great!” – Tactical training with Oliver Reeh, “The 8th rank” – Andy Woodward analyses his game against Magnus Carlsen from TePe Sigeman 2026, “A modern Nimzo-Indian” – Andrei Volokitin introduces readers to "his" system and much more!
Chess is a concrete game. There is no way around training your calculation skills. Improve your visualization, pattern recognition and learn calculation techniques such as reciprocal thinking with this course.
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.
€9.90
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Meeting Judit Polgar? Piece of cake!
