9/21/2016 – When the playchess.com server went online 15 years ago it changed the way chess was played, trained, and enjoyed. In part two of his memories of 15 years of playchess.com, ChessBase editor André Schulz reflects about the advantages, the pleasure and the fun online chess offers, and shares memories of the many prominent players who visited the ChessBase studio in Hamburg or at international tournaments.
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.!
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15 years of playchess.com
15 years ago the playchess.com server went online and gave new impulses to chess. For example, people all over the world could play against people all over the world - 24/7 if they were thus inclined.
The server also offered (and offers) the chance to play against the very top even though they might be far away. When the box champions Vladimir and Vitali Klitschko, both big fans of chess, visited the ChessBase office in Hamburg they played an online game against another Vladimir - Vladimir Kramnik who was just testing the skills of the Fritz program in a widely publicised match.
Vitali und Wladimir Klitschko
However, you could also play online against each other when sitting in the same room.
Distance no object: former Women's World Champion Alexandra Kosteniuk
and ChessBase editor André Schulz are engrossed in an online battle of chess.
Somehow, Kosteniuk appears to be more confident.
The playchess.com server also changed the way chess is trained. Now a trainer can simply open a board on the server, invite his students and seconds later they can chat and analyse online while talking via skype. A lot of trainers think that the playchess.com server is the best place for effective training if you are not able to meet face-to-face. Which opens up new possibilities for players and talents who live in remote places with hardly any chess infrastructure - they only need an internet connection to improve their chess.
Let's not forget chess entertainment. Soon after playchess.com went online chess fans could follow the games of top tournaments live. Now, you cannot only follow the games from top tournaments but also games from a wide range of tournaments that are played all over the world.
Finally, playchess.com offered chess on TV. In 2003 the "TV ChessBase" program aired for the first time and since then has provided instruction and entertainment to hundreds of thousands of chessplayers, usually on Friday, 5 pm, German time, usually in German and usually from the ChessBase studio in Hamburg. However, sometimes "TV ChessBase" screened directly from big international tournaments such as the Olympiads and invited well-known chess personalities and top players to share their joy of chess.
Sometimes the guests revealed surprising insights into their passions. Nigel Short, for instance, entertained viewers and staff with a virtuoso solo performance on guitar - though, admittedly, some staff members ran for cover during his rehearsal.
Nigel Short as a guest of TV ChessBase, with André Schulz and Oliver Reeh
Highlights from 10 years of TV ChessBase
A lot of young chess fans...
... liked TV ChessBase so much that they were happy to return for another visit...
Magnus Carlsen in Turin (2006, with Yasser Seirawan, above)
and in Dresden (2008, with Frederic Friedel)
But Magnus Carlsen was not the only prominent guest at ChessBase TV:
Valdimir Kramnik (with Pascal Simon and Daniel King)
Levon Aronian (with André Schulz and Oliver Reeh)
Wesley So (with Daniel King)
Of course, the platform TV ChessBase offered, was also used for politics. At the Chess Olympiad in Tromsö 2014, the two candidates for the post of FIDE-president, explained their views to TV ChessBase and its viewers.
Daniel King with Kirsan Ilyumzhinov...
... and Daniel King with Garry Kasparov
Playchess.com offers a lot. Join the fun, get a Premium Account!
In this video course experts examine the games of Bent Larsen. Let them show you which openings Larsen chose, where his strength in middlegames were, how he outplayed his opponents in the endgame & you’ll get a glimpse of his tactical abilities!
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.
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.
€59.90
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