7/27/2025 – The Mega Database 2025 contains over eleven million games — an impressive archive of chess knowledge. And it keeps growing. Thanks to the weekly Mega Update service, you receive about 5,000 new games each week, directly from tournaments around the world. As with ChessBase 18, keeping the Mega Database up to date requires just a few clicks. In this tutorial episode, we’ll show you how.

7/24/2025 – In his Fritz Trainer, Grandmaster S.P. Sethuraman presents a modern repertoire for the classical Sicilian. Reviewer Lukas Köpl, an experienced tournament player and licensed trainer with over 15 years' experience, introduces the course and shows how ambitious players and Sicilian fans can benefit from Sethuraman's work.

5/12/2025 – Last year FIDE celebrated its 100th anniversary. The book "100 Years of FIDE" is an illustrated history of the World Chess Federation. From it we excerpt passages to retrace the final non-FIDE world championship (Alekhine-Boguljubow) and the Chess Olympiads from 1924 to 1940. This is a great chance to brush up your knowledge of chess history.

4/21/2025 – Baden-Baden has a long chess history, mainly thanks to great classics from the early days of tournament chess: Baden-Baden 1870 and Baden-Baden 1925. Hartmut Metz brings back the super tournament from 1925 on the occasion of the grenke Open. It was the time of the "hypermodernists".

4/7/2025 – World Champion Dommaraju Gukesh (19 years old) and one of the most popular chess moderators, Sagar Shah, will show you how to become a better attacking player. Gukesh presents his own games, from which you will not only learn how to attack, but also how to set up an attack. He explains his games in detail and at the key positions, Sagar Shah asks the right questions from the point of view of an amateur player. This is extremely instructive and very entertaining! World-class chess training that is fun! This week only: instead of €39.90, only €29.90 Get it now!

11/24/2024 – In 16 videos lasting up to twenty minutes each, the famed coach and former world-class player Ivan Sokolov takes the viewer on a journey into the depths of King's Indian middlegame strategies. A review by Stefan Liebig.

8/11/2024 – The Taimanov Sicilian offers Black a flexible and reliable system against 1.e4, allowing for realistic winning chances without unnecessary risks. This comprehensive video course provides a complete repertoire, covering both the main lines and Anti-Sicilian variations, with more than 16 hours of instruction, interactive training, and over 400 model games. Ideal for players looking to solidify their understanding and confidently face any challenge in the Sicilian Defence.

7/31/2024 – The tenth game of the 1921 match saw challenger José Raúl Capablanca gain an advantage with the black pieces, but with limited material on the board, World Champion Lasker had chances of survival. We gave our readers several interesting riddles we want to solve. Here is the definitive solution to the historic game.

5/30/2024 – Building up a suitable opening repertoire is no easy task and can take some time. If you have an experienced trainer to help you with tips and advice, that is extremely helpful and also saves a lot of time. The Dutch grandmaster Sipke Ernst (photo: Frans Peeters) offers this help with his video course "A practical repertoire for the positional player after 1.d4".

1/29/2024 – Wouldn’t it be great to convert all your chess pieces into better pieces on every move? Markus Reinhardt’s Variaschach is actually based on this principle. But, of course, it’s not really that simple. Reinhardt himself presents his variation and plays a blitz game against GM Elisabeth Paehtz.

1/8/2024 – Each year we try to have something unusual for the final article of the year. While the endgame studies this time may not fulfill this criterion, your author wanted to provide some deeper, partially philosophical, thoughts. | Photo: Midjourney

12/6/2023 – Soon after Carl Schlechter's early death the wish arose to organise a memorial tournament in his honour. In 1923 several important chess masters met at the Café Universale and played such a tournament that ended on 4 December with a victory of Savielly Tartakower. Michael Ehn invites you to travel back in time to Vienna in the early 1920s. | Photo: The building with the former Café Universale | Photos: Archive Michael Ehn

11/26/2023 – After eleven exciting rounds, the World Youth Championships — under 14, 16 and 18 — in the open and girls categories concluded in Montesilvano, Italy. A number of honorary guests delivered awards to the newly crowned world champions and the top-finishers. | Photos: Przemek Nikiel

11/22/2023 – Playing against Fritz is enjoyable because the program incorporates hidden errors. There could always be a tactical strike against it. However, Fritz 19 adds a new exciting dimension to your games: The hunt for "achievements". There's a competition for 136 different chess achievements, testing your tactical and strategic versatility. And there are rewards for it too.

11/7/2023 – With a last-round-win Czech Grandmaster Jiri Stocek won the 26. Open International Bavarian Championships ahead of GM Maxime Lagarde from France. Both players finished with 7.5/9, but Stocek had the better tiebreak. German International Master Roven Vogel won bronze and made his third and final GM-norm. | Photos: Sandra Schmidt

8/3/2023 – Gukesh is one of the most promising youngsters in the world of chess. He is no longer just a talent, but has confidently marched to the very top of the chess world, where he is currently ranked no. 11, with an Elo of 2751. In March 2023, Gukesh visited the ChessBase India studio in Mumbai and together with IM Sagar Shah they recorded a video course on how to attack like a super GM. The video course was well received – here are some reviews, from a strong IM to an unrated player.

7/14/2023 – The 2023 World Chess Software Championship was just held in Valencia, Spain, and impressively Fritz defended its title by winning it a second year straight. This event saw a very high number of draws, which might lead you to think it was a dull affair, but as you will see in one of them, it was a guns ablazing fight in OK Corral with two rook sacrifices spaced four moves apart no less!

5/8/2023 – Dommaraju Gukesh is currently world no.19 with an Elo of 2730 (April 2023). But the most amazing thing is that he is just 16 years old! How did the youngster manage to achieve so much at such a tender age? While Gukesh is a universal player, there are three qualities of his play that stand out - Attack, Calculation, and Imagination.

3/28/2023 – Castling in endgame studies is a rich and entertaining topic - be it real castling, the threat of castling, or even just retroanalysis that proves that castling is impossible. Last year we began a new series in which we chronologically explore the most interesting endgame studies with castling ideas. We aim at a mix between informative and interesting endgame studies again this month, a mostly light-hearted article without too much text. | Photo: Pixabay

3/21/2023 – In Eugene Manlapao's previous articles, he has featured the leading players of 19th century British chess. Among them were Amos Burn, Isidor Gunsberg, and the London residents Johannes Zukertort of Poland and Wilhelm Steinitz of Austria. Another one of their great contemporaries was Joseph Henry Blackburne, Britain's strongest player for nearly three decades. "The Black Death" was always a dangerous rival to his British and foreign peers in local and international tournaments, as well as one-on-one matches. | Picture: Wikipedia

1/18/2023 – Can a massive volume of lengthy chess interviews, some dating back to over two decades, attract chess enthusiasts today. Can they be of interest to a heavily satiated chess audience? You bet they can. Frederic Friedel started reading the 476-page book – and was immediately hooked. He describes the reason for his fascination and tells us what is unique about this work.

1/4/2023 – The 3rd World Chess Championship between Wilhelm Steinitz and Isidor Gunsberg that ran from December 9, 1890 to January 22, 1891 was a closely fought match. At the end of 19 games, Steinitz emerged victorious, 6-4, to retain his title. Gunsberg's good result in this match was no coincidence. Gunsberg was one of the strongest players of his time though today he is almost forgotten. Eugene Manlapao takes a look at the life and career of this relatively unknown World Championship challenger. | Photo source: Wikipedia

12/11/2022 – If you don't have Chessbase 17, and failed to take advantage of the Discount Day sale, wishing you had, then this is the post to read. In a last offer before Christmas, you can take advantage of the Christmas Sale to gift yourself something special. You know you deserve it!

12/9/2022 – Amos Burn was one of the world’s leading players in the late 19th century. Competing mainly as an amateur in his long career, he was a highly successful player, theoretician, and journalist. Eugene Manlapao takes a look at the life, the career, and the games of this great English player. | Photo Source: www.liverpoolmuseum.org