Carissa Yip

The four-time US women's chess champion scored a fine win with black over top seed Velimir Ivic. She is now a half point behind the co-leaders, and is set to face one of them in Friday's sixth round: her compatriot Andy Woodward.

In this interview, the witty 22-year-old made Fiona Steil-Antoni laugh, as she noted while referring to a critical moment in the game, "I was nervous, girl! I was hiding it".

At the end of the conversation, we also find out that her father thought himself to play chess when she wanted to learn the game as a kid.

Faustino Oro

Attack like a Super Grandmaster

In this Fritztrainer: “Attack like a Super GM” with Gukesh we touch upon all aspects of his play, with special emphasis on how you can become a better attacking player.

After defeating Eline Roebers in round four, Oro went over his game with Steil-Antoni.

The game itself was a demonstration of cool-headed positional play followed by a precise tactical sequence to punish his opponent's tactical mistake. But perhaps even more remarkable is the maturity shown by the 12-year-old in the post-game interview.

The "Messi of chess" is self-confident yet realistic. And he is shooting for the stars.

Vasyl Ivanchuk

At 56 years of age, Vasyl Ivanchuk continues to show a childlike passion for chess.

Following his tension-packed victory in round three, Ivanchuk confesses, "I'm just very tired, I want to eat, I want to relax". However, he also mentions that he is excited about playing checkers in Holland, his other passion.

The Ukrainian legend also talks about the incident in the round-three game, when he made his 40^th move with just 1 second on the clock. Ivanchuk notes, like the commentators had done in the booth, that Ivic could have tried to win the game by making a random, unexpected move at that point - though such behaviour is not characteristic of strong GMs!

• Find more interviews on the Tata Steel Chess YouTube Channel
• All ChessBase articles on the 2026 Tata Steel Chess tournament

ChessBase '26 - Mega Package

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.