7/4/2025 – The 38th edition of the Leon Masters will be held from 4 to 6 July at the City of Leon Auditorium, following its traditional four-player knockout format with rapid time controls. As one of Spain's most prestigious chess events, it continues to attract top international talent. This year's lineup features former World Champion Vishy Anand, Vietnam's Le Quang Liem, local grandmaster Jaime Santos and the young Argentine prodigy Faustino Oro.
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.!
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.
This video course provides a comprehensive and practical White repertoire in the Ruy Lopez! Through instructive model games and in-depth theoretical explanations, you will learn how to confidently handle both main lines and sidelines.
€49.90
One of Spain's most established chess events
From 4 to 6 July, the city of León will once again host the Torneo Magistral de Ajedrez Ciudad de León, one of Spain's most established chess competitions. The 2025 edition will follow the traditional format: a four-player knockout event held over three days at the City of Leon Auditorium. Each match comprises four rapid games played with a time control of 20 minutes plus a 10-second increment per move. In case of a tie, players continue with 5+3 blitz games until a winner emerges.
The semi-finals will take place on 4 and 5 July, with the final scheduled for 6 July. All matches begin at 16:30 local time. Grandmaster Jaime Santos, representing the host city, aims to repeat his 2023 success but acknowledged the difficulty of the challenge, given the strength of the invited players: Vishy Anand, Faustino Oro and Le Quang Liem.
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.
Following a drawing of lots, the participants were thus paired up for the semifinals:
Friday semifinal: Vishy Anand v. Faustino Oro
Saturday semifinal: Le Quang Liem v. Jaime Santos
Alongside the main event, the tournament programme includes the 10th Open Magistral and the 5th Blitz Tournament, both featuring international participation. A series of educational and cultural activities will also take place, reinforcing the tournament's broader mission of promoting chess across the community. According to León's mayor, José Antonio Diez, the event highlights the city's commitment to chess through local sports schools and its role in shaping values among young players.
The action starts daily from Friday to Sunday at 16.30 CEST.
The players
Vishy Anand returns to León as the most decorated player in the tournament's history. Born in Chennai, India, Anand has claimed the World Championship title five times and is currently ranked 13th in the world. Known for the speed of his play, Anand won his first world title in Tehran in 2000 and added further titles in 2007, 2008, 2010 and 2012. He has faced and defeated many of the greatest players of his era, including Vladimir Kramnik, Veselin Topalov and Boris Gelfand. A disciplined and multilingual competitor, he remains one of the most respected figures in global chess.
In 2024, Anand secured his tenth victory at the Leon Masters, defeating Jaime Santos in the final and further cementing his dominance at this event. Revered not only for his accomplishments but also for his consistency and sportsmanship, Anand's participation brings both prestige and experience to the 2025 edition.
Top trainers strongly recommend regular study of well-explained classical games to improve your understanding of chess in the long term. 33 modern classics are explained in details on this video course.
Faustino Oro, representing Argentina, will make history in León as the youngest participant ever to compete in the main event. Born in Buenos Aires in 2013 and now residing in Badalona, Spain, the 11-year-old became the youngest International Master in chess history last year (a record that has now been broken).
Having taken up the game during the Covid-19 pandemic, Oro's rise has been rapid and widely noted in the international chess community. He has led the world rankings in all age categories from under-8 to under-12 and achieved his final IM norm in June 2024.
Le Quang Liem, currently ranked 22nd in the world, will make his debut appearance at the Leon Masters in 2025. The Vietnamese grandmaster earned his GM title in 2006 and has built a strong international career, including becoming World Blitz Champion in 2013 and Asian Champion in 2019. A former under-14 World Champion, Le has consistently represented Vietnam at Chess Olympiads, delivering standout performances such as his 8/10 score on board one in 2012.
Now based in the United States, Le serves as the head coach of the Webster University chess team in Saint Louis. In 2024, he added another highlight to his career by defeating reigning World Champion Ding Liren on top board during a team event. Known for his disciplined approach and deep preparation, Le will be looking to make a strong impression in his first appearance in León.
Master your middlegame with the complete strategy series – now available as a bundle at a reduced price. Take your chance to save and improve! Master your middlegame with the complete strategy series – now available as a bundle at a reduced price. Take your chance to save and improve!
Jaime Santos will represent the host city once again, aiming to improve on his runner-up finish in 2024. The 29-year-old Spanish grandmaster is currently ranked fifth nationally and has featured in the final of the Leon Masters in each of the last two editions. He claimed the title in 2023 after defeating Boris Gelfand, becoming the first local player to do so. That same year, he also won the European Rapid Championship.
Santos' steady rise has included notable results against top opposition. In 2022, he reached the final after tying with Spain's top-rated player Francisco Vallejo. He also reached the final of the online 2020 edition and has been a co-champion of Spain. Santos will hope to use his experience and home support to compete for a second Leon Masters title.
Carlos Alberto ColodroCarlos Colodro is a Hispanic Philologist from Bolivia. He works as a freelance translator and writer since 2012. A lot of his work is done in chess-related texts, as the game is one of his biggest interests, along with literature and music.
7/3/2025 – The winner of the last three editions of the Masters tournament in the Biel Chess Festival, Le Quang Liem (photo), withdrew from the event for personal reasons. He will be replaced by Vladimir Fedoseev. Another tournament has been presented at the Chess Festival, a blitz event for players aged 20 years old or younger - with a new format.
6/29/2025 – In his new Fast & Furious show, Robert Ris takes a look at a candidate for the "Game of the Year" 2025: Richard Rapport's creative attacking win against Praggnanandhaa at the UzChess Cup in Tashkent. | Fast & Furious is available on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can <a href="https://account.chessbase.com/en/create-account" target="_blank">register a Premium account here</a>.
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.
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.
In this dynamic and practical video course, IM Andrew Martin arms you with powerful antidotes to White’s most annoying sidelines.
€34.90
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.
