4/25/2026 – Zachary’s journey is a remarkable rise from a small content creator to the face behind the YouTube channel thechessnerd, now with over 227,000 subscribers, and a presenter for FIDE, hosting press conferences at the 2026 Candidates Tournament. He began in 2019 at just 18 years old, uploading chess videos, and saw explosive growth during the pandemic as his content reached a global audience. Alongside this, his playing strength climbed from 1680 Elo in 2016 to over 2100 within a decade. So how did he make the leap from creator to official FIDE presenter, and how did his chess level improve? In this interview with Arne Kaehler, he shares the full story.
new: Fritz 20
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.
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.
In this video course, Grandmaster Ivan Sokolov explores the fascinating world of Dutch and Grünfelkd structures with colours reversed.
€39.90
Zachary Saine
From YouTuber to FIDE presenter
Zachary Saine’s journey has taken a remarkable turn since 2024, as the growing YouTuber has stepped into the spotlight at the Candidates Tournament 2026 as a FIDE press officer and presenter. The opportunity came through a mix of preparation and timing: after impressing at a FIDE conference in Washington, where he moderated a demanding panel on chess and social media, he was brought in to handle press conferences and even appear on the main broadcast.
Behind the scenes, Saine approaches his role with the mindset of a serious competitor. Hours of preparation, deep opening research, and close observation of elite games allow him not only to ask insightful questions, but also to absorb the thinking patterns of the world’s best players.
While he admits that this exposure doesn’t immediately translate into concrete calculation strength, the experience has clearly enriched his understanding of high-level chess—particularly the extreme depth of modern opening theory.
Despite his growing media presence, Saine remains focused on his own chess ambitions. Competing regularly in tournaments, he sees the Candidates experience as both a career milestone and a unique training ground. His interactions with top players, offer valuable lessons that go far beyond standard study methods.
When it comes to preparation tools, Saine keeps things simple: for him, the ChessBase Mega Database is the key asset. He relies on it to track fresh theory, study recent games, and prepare against opponents, highlighting especially the “player preparation” feature as an essential and evergreen tool.
In his words, the database itself remains “supremely good,” forming the backbone of his chess improvement.
The premiere chess database with over 11.7 million games The ChessBase Mega Database 2026 is the premiere chess database with over 11.7 million games from 1475 to 2025 in high quality.
4/17/2026 – The closing ceremony of the 2026 Candidates in Cyprus brought together players, organisers and guests after more than two weeks of intense competition. Held at the St. George's Hotel & Resort, the evening combined music, dance and prize presentations, culminating in honours for Vaishali Rameshbabu and Javokhir Sindarov as the winners of the women's and open events, respectively. | Photo: ChessBase / Nils Rohde
4/15/2026 – Head-to-head records between the participants of the Candidates Tournaments provide useful context for each pairing. Drawing on data compiled via Mega Database 2026, the key statistics from past encounters highlight imbalances and trends. While such figures are not decisive, they offer an additional perspective on how rivalries have developed before a tournament that will determine the next challenger for the world title.
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.
Opening videos: Open Spanish (Sipke Ernst) and Classical Sicilian (Nico Zwirs). Endgame Special by Igor Stohl: ‘Short or long side’ – where should the defending king be placed in rook endgames? ‘Lucky bag’ with 35 master analyses.
YOUR EASY ACCESS TO OPENING THEORY: Whether you want to build up a reliable and powerful opening repertoire or find new opening ideas for your existing repertoire, the Opening Encyclopaedia covers the entire opening theory on one product.
€169.90
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