4/26/2024 – BBC Factual announced a new competition format, “Chess Masters”, for BBC Two and iPlayer. Across eight episodes, passionate and highly skilled players from all backgrounds will battle it out across a series of rapid chess games before one will be crowned the title of Chess Master. The announcement comes a bit over 40 years after BBC2 aired “The Master Game”, a popular show that ran for seven series, from 1976 to 1983.
1/4/2024 – FIDE has launched a new top tournament for young chess players, the "World Cup for Youngsters". 48 children each in the U8, U10 and U12 age groups will play a preliminary round and then in a knockout system. The tournament takes place in June/July in Batumi, Georgia. | Photo: Uwe Brodrecht (FIDE)
4/1/2022 – Two years ago, to the day, we reported that Garry Kasparov had launched a project called "Corochess", introducing a new chess table that would enforce full social distancing during the pandemic. Now a Russian leader has taken it a step further. His table is designed to ensure that he cannot be physically attacked during a game. Take a look at what his future mastches will look like.
5/6/2021 – Ian Nepomniachtchi won the Candidates Tournament 2020/2021, and in November he will play against Magnus Carlsen for the world title. In an extensive interview with Eteri Kublashvili after the Candidates, Nepomniachtchi talked about his preparations for the second part of the Candidates and revealed why he once was so frustrated during his preparations that he threw his "iPhone into the wall". He also talked about his key to success, Magnus Carlsen - "a very nice dude" - and why "there is never enough time to prepare". | Photo: Lennart Ootes
1/1/2021 – When Damion Coppedge was in prison for manslaughter, he played chess, wrote poetry, and practiced Buddhism. From prison, he sent $25 to Ugandan chess player Phiona Mutesi, which enabled her coach to open Mutesi’s first bank account. Free since 2019, Coppedge creates videos about chess, the game that he loves.
4/1/2020 – The April Fool prank has become progressively more difficult over the years. Of course it is easy to fool people with some unverifiable made up report ("Chess banned in North Korea"), but it misses an essential ingredient: the joke should be funny. And if you construct a genuinely funny story, our friends at Google usually make it possible to detect as a hoax within minutes. So we are, once again, restricting ourselves to past pranks – and to some humour to help strengthen our immune systems.
11/6/2019 – Are strong chess players generally better at logical thinking than people who rarely play the game? Can super-talented youngsters, of GM strength, solve logical puzzles better than amateurs or non-chess kids of the same age? Or are both equally good, or are the chess kids perhaps worse? ChessBase chief editor emeritus Frederic Friedel is conducting an experiment to find out. Today he tells us how his experiments so far have been conducted. Perhaps you can join in and supply your own results. Or at least have fun with his problems!
7/18/2019 – Playing online is both fun and helps you to improve. ChessBase offers a number of possibilities to do so, including in your web browser. Here's a short and easy introduction to the various ways and possibilities to play online chess with ChessBase for free.
3/8/2019 – Courtesy our friends at New in Chess: GM MATTHEW SADLER gives his assessment of ChessBase's tenth volume in the Master Class series on the sixth World Champion Mikhail Botvinnik. Sadler annotates Botvinnik's win in an English Opening over Bent Larsen and concludes this Master Class makes for "a very interesting and entertaining DVD!"
1/15/2019 – Courtesy our friends At New in Chess: GM MATTHEW SADLER on books looks at two of Simon Williams' recent video series. Plus, what would AlphaZero think about the World Championship match that was held at a stone’s throw from DeepMind’s headquarters in London? Sadler and NATASHA REGAN, authors of Game Changer: AlphaZero’s Groundbreaking Chess Strategies and the Promise of AI, provide a glimpse.
11/21/2018 – Two years ago, in New York, Magnus Carlsen defended his title by winning the rapid tiebreaker. Traditionalists will shudder at the thought of blitz games deciding the world championship match in London. GM MAXIM DLUGY looks at the players’ chances if that scenario becomes reality and has suggestions for how Fabiano Caruana, despite a whopping rating gap of 172(!) points, might beat the odds.
8/6/2018 – No matter whether you have a PC, a Mac, a tablet, iPad, smartphone or iPhone — the Tactics App of the ChessBase Account runs on all devices because it runs in your browser and is easy to use. Challenge yourself! How far can you advance in the rankings? Show how good you are — without time pressure. Or get the adrenaline flowing and try a tactic duel against another player!
7/26/2018 – Summer time is holiday time. But not all chess players use their holidays to play in a summer open. If you pursue other interests but still want to keep in shape you might want to turn to the playchess.com WebApp. It offers a good way to play on your iPhone, smartphone, tablet or IPad, etc.
7/4/2018 – In the latest magazine issue #4 from New In Chess, you can find an in-depth story on the U.S. Championship by GM Alejandro Ramirez: "The tallest king In St. Louis". Sam Shankland's win kicked off a remarkable streak — in a matter of two months, he jumped from 2671 to 2727. He gained 59 Elo points in a span of just 60 days and raced to the rank of world number 27, jumping from being a strong grandmaster to a super elite player. NIC shares this excerpt from their feature story. Photo: Lennart Ootes
4/12/2018 – The popular S.O.S. column from New In Chess Magazine, recently featured an almost comical second move for black against the English early fianchetto: 2...h5. NIC columnist Jeroen Bosch notes, ‘A move like 2...h5 gives rise to a lot of early creativity, of course.’ See what he means in this entertaining article from the leading global English chess magazine.
9/20/2016 – Today the ChessBase playchess.com server celebrates its 15th birthday. On 20th September 2001 the server went public and only minutes later the first chess fans wanted to play. Today, thousands of chess fans from all over the world play and train on the server, watch the many audio- and video-files, and follow top tournaments live. ChessBase and playchess made online chess incredibly comfortable! To celebrate, ChessBase has presents for its readers, customers and friends.
3/20/2016 – Levon Aronian drew Anish Giri, while Veselin Topalov got into a bit of trouble against Vishy Anand but managed to draw. Fabiano Caruana beat his compatriot Hikaru Nakamura when both players launched attacks against the enemy kings. The game between the two Russians, Peter Svidler and Sergey Karjakin, was the most interesting of the day. We have pictorial and video impressions in our round eight report.
2/26/2016 – An induction ceremony in April will recognize five exceptional players for a places in history as members of the World and U.S. Chess Halls of Fame. FIDE has selected David Bronstein, Sonja GrafStevenson and Howard Staunton. The trustees of the U.S. Chess Trust selected grandmasters Maurice Ashley and Gata Kamsky to join the other 55 players currently in the U.S. Hall of Fame. Press release.
12/15/2015 – Technology now enables us to keep an entire chess library on a portable electronic device and to play over the moves on screen while reading your favourite book. Grandmaster John Nunn, author and Director at the prominent publishers Gambit, talks about the growing range of books his company is converting to app format, to run on iPads, Android tablets and smartphones. You can try it out for free.
11/19/2015 – Last week, ChessBase announced a new suite of tools for Premium and Starter subscribers. Previously, these subscribers already enjoyed Playchess perks such as rated play, live grandmaster commentary, and more. Now they can also benefit from these new tools. Among the most exciting are the video/audio courses that can even be streamed on your smartphone!
10/11/2015 – In 1997 Garry Kasparov went head-to-head with the computer Deep Blue –
and lost. That led to a flurry of discussion surrounding computer intelligence
– and the possibility of human intervention at key moments in the
match. Director Jonah Bleicher's new film, The King's Pawn, explores
these theories. In honor of National Chess Day (USA), the film is now
premiering online for free.
5/21/2015 – On May 16, 2015 nearly 2,700 students graduated at the Saint Louis University in Missouri, USA. The speaker at this Spring Commencement ceremony was the thirteenth World Chess Champion Garry Kasparov, who also received an honorary doctor of laws degree from the University. It is well worth the 17 minutes it takes to watch this well-crafted and inspiring speech.
4/1/2015 – Everyone is doing it: after the iPhone and Android we are now confronted with Google Glass, Apple Watch, the Pebble. Computers are getting smaller and can be built to accompany you wherever you go. Now Google X, the semi-secret facility run by the search giant, is working on a dental computer. Why do we tell you this? Because Google Tooth comes bundled with a chess app.
3/30/2015 – The string of activities in Hawaii left the players with almost no time to do anything. Once the GM Challenge kicked off, it was clear that Waikiki Beach would have to wait until the tournament ended. Sam Shankland went into day two with a one point lead, but he was unable to keep it until the end, and someone took his place! We also bring you reports of the International Open and blitz.
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