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

11/25/2022 – Few tournaments brought as much stake to its host nation as Moscow 1925 did to Russia. The event brought a Russian into world title contention, but, more importantly, it proved vital to Russia’s rise as dominant force in chess. Eugene Manlapao takes a look at the tournament and its history. | Photo: Tournament winner Efim Bogoljubov (left) and Akiba Rubinstein during their game | Photo: Wikipedia

10/20/2022 – You've seen videos using it, and articles displaying it, and here is the tutorial on how to use it in all its glory. The Engine Correlation in Let's Check can be a wonderful tool when used properly and comes with a variety of options in both ChessBase 16 and the Fritz interface. Here is the easy-to-use definitive guide.

10/17/2022 – There are several ways to check a player's performance using an engine. One is to simply ask an engine to analyze every move and highlight every disagreement however small. Another is to use the tool in ChessBase and Fritz known as Let's Check. Here are the results from the recent Sinquefield Cup including a 100% match and the curiously high results by...

8/26/2022 – İş Bankası, one of the biggest commercial companies in Turkey, is celebrating its 98th anniversary on 26th August 2022. It was established by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the founder of the Turkish Republic (now known as Türkiye), on 26th August 1924. The Bank became the sponsor of the Turkish Chess Federation on 24th December 2005.

8/22/2022 – Robocop. This was what GM Yermolinksy dubbed IM Conor Murphy as he followed his superlative result. While the 2022 Olympiad was dominated by the performance of the youthful and brilliant Gukesh, and other stars on the rise, it is also much more than a collection of super grandmasters, so let us sing the praises of the unlikely heroes who rose to the occasion.

8/10/2022 – The 2022 World Computer Chess championship was just held, and was the first edition since 2019 and the outbreak of the pandemic. After over two years, the traditional event took place in Vienna, Austria, and the winners were Ginkgo AKA Fritz using new neural net technology, and a powerful new Komodo (free update today!). Don't miss Komodo's fantastic knight sacrifice (with video!). (photo: Erdo Gunes, operator of Komodo)

7/22/2022 – Years back, when the first iteration of the Fritz Online app came out, it was a barebones deal: Attractive, and good for a game, but not the most compelling option to train against. A bit problematic as this was its purpose, but it has undergone many revisions since, and revisiting it you will be surprised at how interesting and fun it can be.

6/29/2022 – The German Grandmasters Karsten Müller and Luis Engel developed a model that allows to classify players according to their playing style: The 4 Player Types model. According to Müller and Engel there are "Activists", "Pragmatists", "Theorists", and "Reflectors". Each group of players has distinctive strengths and weaknesses and knowing which type of player you are - and the opponents you play against - can be extremely helpful. Tanmay Srinath liked the model.

4/7/2022 – In the last weeks, we added a lot of chess interactivity to the ChessBase news pages. Replaying games is now optimized for mobile devices. There is a pleasing new layout for annotated games. Social sharing has been radically improved. Diagrams have grown a dirty little secret. Live broadcasts with multiple boards can be configured easily.

3/30/2022 – Finding novelties is a fun way for students to learn how to use a database to annotate chess games. Novelties, loosely defined, are new moves but not necessarily good moves. National Master Jeffrey Ashton explains.

2/25/2022 – Did you solve the Sam Loyd problem? The key is the move you would least expect! A week ago we showed you a small collection of delightful problems from the January issue of CHESS Magazine. Today we give you the solutions, annotated by Graham Phythian. You can figure out all the variations with the help of the built-in engines in our replay app.

2/19/2022 – The organizers of the Tata Steel Tournament in Wijk aan Zee are known for inviting promising talents. Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu made his debut in the Masters this year. Thorsten Cmiel analyses Pragg’s games and shares some reflexions about the youngster’s performance. | Photos: Lennart Ootes, Jurriaan Hoefsmit - Tata Steel Chess Tournament 2022

1/29/2022 – Endgame studies sometimes go to extremes, e.g. by demonstrating a win in 584(!) moves in a study, in which King, Rook, two Bishops (standing on the same colour), and pawn fight against King, Queen and Pawn. But are these and similar studies relevant for the theory of the endgame or practical games? It depends. Siegfried Hornecker takes a closer look.

1/3/2022 – We know that our latest version of Fritz has a special mode that allows you to actually win games – which no 3500+ program would ever do. A lot of amateurs are having loads of fun, learning to spot combinations and by brilliancies in the process. We are also experimenting with strong GMs: will they too enjoy using Fritz 18 as a training partner? Here's someone who has tried.

12/26/2021 – In November we launched a new edition of our flagship program, Fritz. Version 18 has a special mode in which Fritz allows its opponent to actually win games, if he is able to find clever moves. Many amateurs and club players have sent in games that they won with brilliant ideas. But how about grandmasters? Fritz determines the playing strength of its opponent, and makes him find more difficult brilliancies. Iniyan Panneerselvam, a young GM, has written a report on his experience with Fritz 18.

12/21/2021 – ChessBase is launching a unique NFT series of the world chess champions, united with their iconic games and moves that have made history in their sublime beauty. Each NFT is authorized by the player himself. A font specially designed for this series allows historical portraits and private photographs to merge with the moves. Behind the notation, the key position of a very famous game appears in 3D ray tracing technology from ChessBase. Alternating with this is an intense portrait of the world champion from his active time. You can read. You can see. You can feel. The moment of genius. And you can now bid for them on Opensea.

12/1/2021 – He is the FIDE World Chess Champion of 2004, and has been the main second of World Champion Viswanathan Anand, during Anand's successful title defences in 2008, 2010 and 2012. He has coached the German national team, became the trainer of World Champion challengers Sergey Karjakin and Fabiano Caruana. Now you can win a private session with Rustam. Just submit a brilliant game you've recently played against the computer.

11/24/2021 – After 30 years, chess programs are now gradually reaching a level at which one can reasonably play against them. With Fritz 18 you have an unprecedented opportunity to train and learn sharp openings, helping you master the tactical motifs that are otherwise invisible in the 'perfect play' of normal computer games. Fritz 18 will even help you set up tactical tricks and sacrifices for you to deliver!