3/22/2024 – Romanian grandmaster Bogdan-Daniel Deac won the Reykjavik Open after scoring 7½/9 points, leaving seven players tied for second place a half point back. According to tiebreak criteria, Sebastian Maze from France and Paulius Pultinevicius from Lithuania grabbed second and third place, respectively. Deac entered the event as the rating favourite, and obtained clear first place after scoring back-to-back wins in the final two rounds. | Photo: Hallfríður Sigurðardóttir

2/17/2024 – Magnus Carlsen defeated Fabiano Caruana with the white pieces to claim overall victory at the first edition of the Freestyle G.O.A.T. Chess Challenge. The Norwegian took home the US$ 60,000 first prize for his efforts. Levon Aronian grabbed third place after beating Nodirbek Abdusattorov, while Alireza Firouzja secured an invitation to the next edition of the event by beating Gukesh D in the fight for fifth place. | Photo: Nils Rohde / ChessBase

2/8/2024 – Chess960 or Freestyle chess will soon be the centre of attention. The 1st German Chess960 Championship will take place in Berlin, Germany, on 9 February and in the German spa Weissenhaus at the Baltic see the world's best chess players will compete in the Freestyle Chess G.O.A.T. Challenge. But who invented this form of chess? Chess historian Hans D. Post has been searching the archives. | Picture: Philip Julius van Zuylen van Nijevelt, who probably was the first to come up with the idea of Chess960 or Freestyle chess.

12/28/2023 – Kasparov Chess Foundation Academy is proud to announce stellar events in January 2024, that promise to elevate your chess game to unprecedented heights. Brace yourselves for insightful and strategic wisdom from two of the world's top chess players: Grandmaster Ramesh RB and Grandmaster Alexander Motylev.

8/23/2023 – In mid-August, the Women's Chess Commission hosted its inaugural Online Blitz Tournament on the ChessBase Playchess platform. Under the leadership of Chairperson Regina Pokorna, the event was organized to further spotlight women's chess. Eleven female competitors took part in this intimate online blitz event, where they had the chance to challenge the formidable IM Stavroula Tsolakidou. The top Greek female player clinched the title with a flawless score of 10/10!

8/20/2023 – The FIDE World Cup is coming to an end. One of the most exciting events in the chess calendar, it features an open section and a women’s section, with spots in the Candidates up for grabs in both events. The ever-curious GM Karsten Müller compiled the most interesting positions from the tournaments. Find here five instructive endgames from the women’s category! | Pictured: Divya Deshmukh | Photo: Anna Shtourman

7/14/2023 – The 56th Biel Chess Festival, one of the most traditional and beautiful chess tournaments, begins next Saturday, 15 July 2023. In his review, Eduard Frey presents ten surprising and interesting facts about the history of the tournament. | Photo courtesy of the organiser: Playing Hall, Congress Centre Biel

7/7/2023 – The finish of the 6th game of the World Championship match between Ding Liren and Ian Nepomniachtchi was impressive. In a tense and complicated position, Ding surprisingly advanced his d-pawn, and this small pawn advance was crucial to a spectacular mate that could have occurred in the game. The audience was impressed, the study composers were inspired. In his last "Study of the Month" column Siegfried Hornecker had a look at "Ding's Theme" in studies, in his current column he returns to this theme with further insights. | Photo: Ding Liren | Photo: Amruta Mokal

3/11/2023 – With close to 250 games being played daily, the European Championship is one of the strongest opens in the chess calendar. Moreover, the players are fighting for an entrance to the World Championship cycle via the World Cup, which makes for very competitive struggles. Karsten Müller is keeping an eye on the games, and has sent us many notable endgames with instructive analyses. Replay here his seven of his finds! | Pictured: Sabino Brunello | Photo: European Chess Union

3/8/2023 – With close to 250 games being played daily, the European Championship is one of the strongest opens in the chess calendar. Moreover, the players are fighting for an entrance to the World Championship cycle via the World Cup, which makes for very competitive struggles. Karsten Müller is keeping an eye on the games, and has sent us many notable endgames with instructive analyses. Replay here his first seven finds! | Pictured: Marius Gramb | Photo: European Chess Union

8/27/2022 – On 30 June 1908, just after 7 AM (all dates correspond to our Gregorian calendar), an explosion occurred in the harsh forests in Siberia near the Tunguska river. The explosion happened over an area that is nearly unpopulated, so apart from an estimated 80 million trees (and, we suppose, the wildlife in that area of 2150 km²) only three humans died in the event that would likely have been a major catastrophe if it had happened over a densely populated area.| Photos: Pixabay

7/29/2022 – The much-anticipated Olympiad finally kicked off in Chennai. Lopsided matches were once again the rule in the first round of the massive event. Nonetheless, a couple of strong grandmasters escaped with draws from losing positions, as their opponents were happy to split the points when given the chance. Indian fans could not have asked for a better start, as all six Indian teams scored 4-0 victories on opening day! | Photo: Stev Bonhage

4/8/2022 – The Kvika Reykjavík Open kicked off on Tuesday, with one round played on opening day and a double round on Wednesday. Hans Niemann (United States) and Lukasz Jarmula (Poland) are the only players to have won all three of their games. No fewer than 31 players stand a half point back, including a number of Indian rising stars. | Pictured: Top seed Pouya Idani (Iran) | Photo: Thorsteinn Magnusson

12/28/2021 – For 24 days, you mastered fierce end-game puzzles. We received over 6800 emails this year! This topped last year's calendar, bravo! From all entries we randomly selected three winners for each day, who can look forward to ChessBase Shop vouchers or two Fritztrainer DVDs signed by Karsten Müller. Those who guessed all 24 doors correctly, entered into our super raffle for one of three grand prizes.

12/25/2021 – We are sorry, but our calendar doesn't have 25 doors, but one solution still has to be shown. Thank you! We were able to beat last year's result, thanks to your record participation. All winners will be announced on 27.12.

12/24/2021 – That's almost it! It's the last day of the calendar, and we want to say a huge thank you for the thousands of entries! Yesterday we had to send the king to c2 because of the virtual opposition. Finally, there is a really nice endgame treat to solve.

12/23/2021 – The youngest GM ever, played the move Nf3+. Although the game was played this year, it is already a classic. On the penultimate day, there is a fast-paced task in which a white king has to find the right square. Can you help?

12/22/2021 – Arne Kaehler had just learned this study in "Ellis Schatztruhe - Episode 9", but embarrassingly forgot it again for a short time. But the vast majority knew, of course, that only Kg7 leads to success. Today, the task is not to find the probably "best" move, but the move that was played in this particular game with Black.

12/21/2021 – Yesterday's Reti study could be solved with Rd2, or even Rd3. Of course, almost everyone knew that. And today there is another study that even more should know how to solve. Please confirm you know it! And this short study, in this short video, is on the shortest day of the year.

12/20/2021 – Only four more days and our beautiful endgame magic calendar is over. Could you find the move for the "King of the Umbrellas" yesterday? It was Ke6! Today we have an absolute classic in door 20. But who actually made this study?

12/19/2021 – In door number 18, "Zugzwang is the sharpest endgame weapon" with Ka2!!! In today's door we take a closer look at a game by Jan Timman and find out: "Not all rook ending games end in a draw" if the right move is found.

12/18/2021 – Sometimes there are endgame puzzles that end quite surprisingly. The move Kd4, was the interesting idea yesterday to secure the draw. But we couldn't upset the majority of all the participants. You know your endgames too well. But maybe with door 18? Once again, a very witty move that has to be found.

12/17/2021 – In yesterday's door it was a matter of finding Anand's move. g5+! Queen and knight do the rest, as they are stronger here than queen and bishop. Today, the king has four moves to choose from. A tricky puzzle, and a clever idea.

12/16/2021 – So many people knew very well that yesterday the Centurini draw position was on the board, and it could only be achieved with the cunning move B. Kf4. Bravo! On Day 16 Anand and Radjabov duel, but what move did the Indian grandmaster make in this game, and what is the "queen and knight attacking duo" called against "queen and bishop"?