My ChessBase 18 Desktop! - Laura Unuk

by ChessBase
12/15/2025 – We take a unique behind-the-scenes look at how top chess masters organize their digital workspace. Grandmasters and trainers reveal their personal ChessBase 26 setups — from meticulously clean desktops to chaotic databases full of ideas. They show us their board designs, current projects, and discuss their favourite or most-used ChessBase functions, offering fascinating insights into how great minds prepare, study, and work with chess every day.
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. 

My ChessBase 26 Desktop! - Chess Masters invite us in

Laura Unuk

Laura Unuk explains that she chose the bright ChessBase 26 theme and playful icons simply because they felt intuitive and comfortable, especially during tournament preparation, and she plans to keep this setup for a long time.

Her desktop is intentionally messy, reflecting a busy tournament life, with old preparation folders and games kept for motivation rather than strict organization, including examples from past coaching sessions.

Functionally, she relies heavily on the reference database for modern opening preparation, prefers filtering recent games, and still combines Mega Database with manually downloaded updates in an old-school but practical workflow.

EXPAND YOUR CHESS HORIZONS
Data, plans, practice – the new Opening Report In ChessBase there are always attempts to show the typical plans of an opening variation. In the age of engines, chess is much more concrete than previously thought. But amateurs in particular love openings with clear plans, see the London System. In ChessBase ’26, three functions deal with the display of plans. The new opening report examines which piece moves or pawn advances are significant for each important variation. In the reference search you can now see on the board where the pieces usually go. If you start the new Monte Carlo analysis, the board also shows the most common figure paths.

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See also

Dorian Rogozenco: How a Grandmaster Uses the New ChessBase 26 Monte-Carlo Analysis

12/10/2025 – Dorian Rogozenco demonstrates how ChessBase 26’s Monte-Carlo analysis can rapidly generate thousands of short engine games to obtain a statistically reliable evaluation of an opening line. In the example, it becomes clear that a previously promising surprise weapon for Black performs objectively much worse, providing a second, more realistic perspective to decide whether the line is practically worth playing.
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See also

Dorian Rogozenco: How a GM uses the new ChessBase 26 opening report

12/8/2025 – Grandmaster Dorian Rogozenco highlights how ChessBase 26’s Opening Report quickly reveals statistical trends and practical insights for specific opening lines, demonstrating it with a rare surprise weapon for Black in the French Advance, with the moves f6 and also f5, and showing that Black’s results, especially at lower levels, look promising enough to merit investigation. He emphasizes that the tool not only shows performance data and history, but also warns which sidelines you must know, making it a powerful way to get a fast, informed first impression before more in-depth analysis.
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 6

Video

60m The Two Knights

This entry into the 60 minutes series concentrates on the Modern variation of the Italian game where White opens the centre early : 1 e4 e5 2 Nf3 Nc6 3 Bc4 Nf6 4 d4 exd4 5 e5!. This line can be reached by various move orders, most frequently from the Scotch 3 d4 exd4 4 Bc4. It's a sharp variation and Grandmasters such as Evgeny Sveshnikov have used it frequently,with very good results. It's a perfect line for club players to adopt which is relatively easy to learn and which contains many traps. All the main responses are covered here, including 5...d5, 5...Ng4 and 5...Ne4 and the conclusion is that is is difficult for Black to equalize in a straightforward way. Problems are being posed, which over the board might prove tough to solve.