6/11/2026 – Vaishali Rameshbabu remains on the fast track: after gaining the right to challenge Ju Wenjun in a match for the World Championship title, the young Indian grandmaster won the rapid chess event of the WR Women's Chess Tour in Tokyo. The blitz tournament was won by the experienced Kateryna Lagno. Both earned 15 points towards the tour standings. | Photo: Lennart Ootes
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.!
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. FRITZ is more than just a chess engine – it’s a training revolution! 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.
In this course, you will learn the foundations and key ideas of the Vienna Game and discover a variety of systems that make you extremely difficult to prepare for.
€39.90
According to organiser Wadim Rosenstein, the WR Women's Chess Tour is modelled on the WTA tennis circuit. This global knockout series brings together the world's best female chess players at major venues on four continents. In Tokyo, the games took place at the Tokyo Toranomon Edition Hotel. A livestream kept chess fans around the world informed via WR Chess's English-language YouTube channel and, at the same time, via the Japanese Chess Federation’s Japanese-language YouTube channel.
Vaishali Rameshbabu and Kateryna Lagno win Asian leg
Vaishali Rameshbabu is in excellent form: after winning the Candidates Tournament in Cyprus in April and qualifying for the World Championship match against Ju Wenjun, Praggnanandhaa's sister played her first tournament in Tokyo. It was the opening event of the WR Women's Chess Tour, a global knockout series with five stops on four continents in 2026 and a total prize fund of 200,000 US dollars. Vaishali showed her consistency and won the rapid tournament. In the blitz tournament, Kateryna Lagno (FIDE) prevailed.
In this course, we will learn how to identify passively placed pieces in any given situation and how to improve their health by bringing them into active squares.
With these tournament victories, Vaishali and Lagno secured their tickets to the Grand Final in Stuttgart.
Vaishali in Tokyo | Photo: Lennart Ootes
Rapid (15+10)
The event was played as an eight-player knockout tournament. Vaishali defeated IM Irene Sukandar of Indonesia in the first round, i.e. the quarterfinal, GM Alexandra Kosteniuk of Switzerland in the semifinal, and finally Kazakhstan's IM Alua Nurman in the final. Vaishali won every round by a score of 1½–½. The losing semifinalists, Alexandra Kosteniuk and Kateryna Lagno, shared third place.
Games
Blitz (3+2)
In the blitz, however, Vaishali's run ended in the semifinal. She lost 0–3 to eventual winner Kateryna Lagno. Lagno had also beaten Japan's Azumi Sakai 3–0 in round one. The final was then a dramatic affair: in the long-running duel between Lagno and Kosteniuk, the match went into overtime, and Lagno won the Armageddon game.
Besides in-depth theory and exciting tactical exercises in the Scotch Game, this video course also includes a bonus section on the Scotch Gambit (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Bc4), a lively variation often leading to very dynamic positions.
Kateryna Lagno is congratulated by her oppoent | Photo: Lennart Ootes
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. FRITZ is more than just a chess engine – it’s a training revolution! 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.
Stefan LiebigStefan Liebig, born in 1974, is a journalist and co-owner of a marketing agency. He now lives in Barterode near Göttingen. At the age of five, strange pieces on his neighbour’s shelf aroused his curiosity. Since then, the game of chess has cast a spell over him. Flying high in the NRW youth league with his home club SV Bad Laasphe and several appearances in the second division team of Tempo Göttingen were highlights for the former youth South Westphalia champion.
4/21/2026 – In the world of Indian chess, few stories are as cinematic as the rise of Vaishali Rameshbabu. While the world watches her exploits, the man who has spent a decade moulding her talent, GM R.B. Ramesh, provides an intimate look at the sacrifice, ethics and the psychological sides of India's newest Women's World Championship challenger. Read the article to know more about not just the professional but also the personal side of this amazing champion. | Photo: ChessBase India
4/16/2026 – Vaishali Rameshbabu won the Women's Candidates Tournament by defeating Kateryna Lagno in the final round, finishing clear first on 8½/14 and earning the right to challenge Ju Wenjun in the match for the world title. In this interview, Vaishali looks back on the months of preparation that followed her Grand Swiss victory, discusses the support of her family and team, and explains how she coped with the pressure of a tense and closely contested tournament. | Photo: ChessBase / Nils Rohde
The Elephant Gambit (1.e4.e5 2.Nf3 d5!?) has never really been given the attention it deserves. It is a very useful surprise weapon. Let us list the advantages of playing this particular opening: 1) Shock value 2) It is very aggressive. Black can take over the initiative early. 3) Many tricky lines 4) Unorthodox. Black is basically taking the game to the opponent as early as move two. Not many openings do that! It's a perfect opening for young players and club players to adopt. Let Andrew Martin select a repertoire for you on this 60 mins, which, if used with discretion, will rack up the points. I am sure that you will enjoy this unusual tour of the Elephant Gambit.
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.
“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.
For the Slav and Semi-Slav Powerbook 2026 the ratings average was set again at 2400. 2.24 million games from the engine room of playchess.com met this threshold, to which were added over 130 000 games played by humans.
€9.90
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