7/30/2024 – It's fascinating to see how Slovakian coach Jan Markos explains the strengths and weaknesses of kings at the end of his video course series, and the fascinating examples he has found to illustrate them. | Picture: Image by Tung Thanh from Pixabay

7/9/2024 – One thing was certain: when Boris Spassky sat down at the chessboard, something extraordinary happened. The 17th edition of the ChessBase Master Class series presents a detailed portrait of the tenth World Champion. The interactive features of the e-book offer the opportunity to actively relive important phases of his unique career ...

6/28/2024 – Knights are the pieces with the most complicated moves. Beginners know this, but professionals are also often painfully reminded of this when they overlook forks. Jan Markos goes in search of the secret life of the knights...

6/10/2024 – Bishops often wonder where they should be going. This is a difficult question that Jan Markos answers in his new course 'The Career Paths of Bishops'. Using carefully selected examples, he provides an instructive insight into the world of the specialists on the diagonals.

5/1/2024 – To play openings like a grandmaster - that's probably what most ambitious amateurs want. The first and not so easy step is to choose openings for your own repertoire. Would you like to do this with a world-class grandmaster? Of course you would! In the new two-part video course "A Supergrandmaster's Guide to Openings with Anish Giri", Anish Giri introduces (almost) all openings in an instructive way, categorises their relevance and tells fascinating stories from the world of elite chess.

11/14/2023 – Fritz 19 comes with six sparring partners, each representing a completely different type of player. There is the aggressive attacker (Bull), the swindler (Fox) or the endgame crack (Turtle) and a few more. And those who train well will be rewarded. Stefen Liebig took a look at the brand new Fritz.

1/24/2022 – Can players be classified into certain types? On their new ChessBase course Karsten Müller and Luis Engel follow a model of Danish Grandmaster Lars Bo Hansen and distinguish between four types of players and illustrate their different playing styles with typical games. This model helps to understand your own strengths and weaknesses and the strengths and weaknesses of your opponents better. Christian Höthe took a look at the course.

1/11/2022 – Sometimes bad performance at a tournament can spur you into action. It can make you have a close look at the holes and weaknesses in your play. This is exactly what happened with our reviewer Aanjaneya Phatak. 20-year-old Aanjaneya, who works on chess without a coach, decided to go to the MP Masters Chess 2021. He lost 47 Elo point making his rating fall from 2212 to 2165. But from that experience he realized that he needed to add new openings to his arsenal. That's how he got his hands on Markus Ragger's latest Fritztrainer for ChessBase on the Grunfeld Defence. In this article Aanjaneya narrates his experience of working with Austria's first ever 2700+ GM.

11/26/2021 – Every month a few ChessBase DVDs get released. Which one to get and which one to pass? Which one should be prioritized? Well, that you have to figure out on your own or with the help of your trainers or sparring partners. Once you have figured out the area you need to improve on or become stronger, it becomes that much easier to select a DVD and start working on it. Aanjaneya Phatak, shares his own personal experience as he reviews the latest DVD by Robert Ris, titled Calculation Training in Attack & Defence. Check out the review and see if it helps you to decide buying this DVD.

5/27/2020 – What to play with White? 1.e4, 1.d4, 1.Nf3 or another move? The English Grandmaster Nick Pert, former U18 World Champion, renowned author and trainer, recommends 1.d4 and on his DVD "Attacking Repertoire with 1.d4!" he explains why this is a good choice. Davide Nastasio took a look at the first volume of Pert's recommended repertoire.

5/2/2020 – The Benoni Defence is a very double-edged weapon, well suited to play for a win but also dangerous. On his recently released DVD Rustam Kasimdzhanov, one of the world's most renowned opening experts, claims that "The Benoni is back in business". Roven Vogel took a close look at Kasimdzhanov's DVD to check this claim.

4/29/2020 – Most games are decided by tactics. And you can learn to master tactics. On her new DVD the Canadian WGM Qiyu Zhou offers a systematic tactics course for beginners and shows how you can practice tactics and how you can sharpen your tactical skills.