12/4/2024 – Grandmaster Jon Speelman delves into the ongoing World Chess Championship match in Singapore, offering insightful analysis and drawing fascinating parallels to historic encounters like Botvinnik v. Petrosian in 1963. With Gukesh and Ding trading psychological blows as much as tactical ones, Speelman highlights critical moments that reveal each player's mindset and strategy under immense pressure. From Gukesh's bold refusal of a threefold repetition to Ding's cautious attempts to regain control, Speelman's commentary illuminates the evolving dynamics of a closely contested match. | Photo: FIDE / Eng Chin An

12/3/2024 – The book was originally published in German, has now been published in English by ChessBase India. The luxury hard cover version, printed in full colour, is available for less than $12, and the eBook version for just $9.50 – with all proceeds going to the HelpChess Foundation. Advanced copies of the book were given to former World Champions and other notable personalities in Singapore.

11/28/2024 – Finally, in this three-part series, we come to the first full Babson task endgame study, composed by Gady Costeff. Many thought it was not possible to fulfil this extremely difficult task. Harold van der Heijden describes the full story. But one problem remains: the position is not legal. Costeff had already constructed it in 2011 and tried in vain to find a legal version. So this is still an open problem. Maybe you can give it a try?

11/28/2024 – The International Chess Federation and Google are calling on developers worldwide to reimagine chess-playing AI with efficiency at its core. As part of Google’s sponsorship of the FIDE World Chess Championship 2024, this competition challenges participants to create smart, resource-light chess engines that perform impressively without relying on powerful computers or extensive data. Hosted on Kaggle, with a $50,000 prize fund, the initiative draws inspiration from Claude Shannon's vision of AI as a problem-solving tool.

11/24/2024 – Just in time for the great event, a new chess puzzle game, inspired by the incredibly popular 'Wordle', is being released. It was developed by a young lad from Singapore, a problem expert, together with a member of the ChessBase family. Today we will show you how it works, on Monday, November 25, you will get a daily puzzle to solve.

11/22/2024 – There are tactical motifs which are continuously repeated and can be learned exactly like we learn opening theory. I feel that the correct approach is to collect thematic, nearly identical positions which are involved on similar patterns which you should look for. In this survey I will present an often met tactical motif I call the "Shirov Killer." It was wonderfully demonstrated by legendary GM Alexei Shirov in an Internet blitz game.

11/13/2024 – Chess was invented in India, and brought to Europe in the 9th Century by the Arabs – who also introduced the first “mansuba” – middle or endgame puzzles with well-defined tasks, with stories and legends surrounding them. Today we give you three of the oldest mansuba to solve – in your head or against our live chess diagrams.

11/7/2024 – In part two of his review of the ChessBase Opening Encyclopaedia 2024, Nagesh Havanur explores the nuanced world of Semi-Open games, focusing on the Sicilian Defence and French Defence. From the explosive Najdorf Sicilian, favoured by Fischer and Kasparov, to the sharp Sicilian Dragon, each line offers distinct challenges and strategies. As our author transitions to Closed Games in his next instalment, he offers much practical advice for the aspiring tournament player.

11/6/2024 – Recently, the famous Babson task (Black promotes to one of the four possible pieces and White must promote to the same piece in all four cases to win) has been conquered by in an endgame study. Many thought it to be impossible to realize this extremely difficult task. In this second part of the three part series Harold van der Heijden describes how study composers progressed towards solving the problem.

11/5/2024 – FIDE, together with the World Solving Championships for Youth and Cadets, hosted a series of free online lessons to get participants ready for the inaugural FIDE World Solving Championships. They were run by Anirudh Daga and WFCC President Marjan Kovačević. Today we bring you the solutions to the two-movers we gave you to solve last week. Were you able to solve them?

11/2/2024 – ChessBase India's week-long, free-for-all Big Diwali Chess Camp concluded on a high note. On October 26, the penultimate day, an intense chess-solving contest took centre stage. The challenge was to solve six complex chess compositions in just two hours. Carefully curated by Satanick Mukhuty, the Chess Composition Editor of ChessBase India, the tasks included four problems and two studies designed to push the participants' strategic and tactical prowess to the limit. Ultimately, among the 35 contestants, the 22-year-old Pushkar Dere secured a decisive victory with a remarkable score of 29/30. Satanick shares his insights into the contest and walks you through the solutions to all six challenging puzzles! | Photo: Aditya Sur Roy

10/30/2024 – At the Chess9LX event in Saint Louis, Fabiano Caruana holds a narrow lead after an unbeaten run through six rounds, including a critical win over Wesley So. Hot on his heels is Hikaru Nakamura, who impressed on Tuesday with two victories and a draw against Garry Kasparov, who missed a chance to secure a win but nonetheless sits in a solid third place. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

10/25/2024 – Pawn underpromotions do not happen often in practical games, but they have been an important topic in study composition more than a hundred years. Recently, the famous Babson task (Black promotes to one of the four possible pieces and White must promote to the same piece in all four cases to win) has been conquered by Gady Costeff in an endgame study. Many thought it to be impossible to realize this extremely difficult task. In this first part of the three part series Harold van der Heijden describes the beginning of the story with the first underpromotions including the famous Allumwandlung.

10/24/2024 – The inaugural FIDE World Solving Championships for Youth and Cadets are happening next month in Brazil and Italy, and FIDE, along with the WFCC, hosted a series of free online lessons to get participants ready. Alongside WFCC President Marjan Kovačević, these global webinars offered strategies, tips, and plenty of practice to help young solvers level up their game! Would you like to test your chess-solving skills against some of the best young minds in the world? Let's see how you fare with some of the problems.

10/17/2024 – We told you about the six-part dramatic re-enactment of the epic 1997 match between Garry Kasparov and the super-computer Deep Blue. The movie, due for broadcast today, and can also be viewed in full on the ARTE web site or on Youtube. As someone who experienced practically every minute of the drama in real life, back in 1985-86, I could track all the discrepancies. But on the whole the movie was well told and enjoyable.

10/17/2024 – Arjun Erigaisi and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave secured their places in the final of the WR Chess Masters Cup after winning their semifinal matches on Wednesday. Arjun defeated fellow Indian Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu, while MVL triumphed over Alireza Firouzja in an Armageddon tiebreaker. The final, set to take place on Thursday, will feature two games played at 11.00 and 18.00 CEST. | Photo: ChessBase India / Abhyudaya Ram

10/12/2024 – The opening rounds of the 2024 US Chess Championship and US Women’s Chess Championship kicked off at the World Chess Hall of Fame in Saint Louis. In the open, all six games ended in draws, with Hans Niemann coming closest to a win against reigning champion Fabiano Caruana. Meanwhile, the women's event saw three decisive games, with defending champion Carissa Yip, Bulrukhbegim Tokhirjonova (pictured), and 15-year-old Rose Atwell securing victories. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

10/12/2024 – In 1875 Walter Grimshaw, a composer of chess problems who was not far off master strength as a player, played at least one casual game against Steinitz at Simpson’s Divan, and supposedly won in 17 moves. But was this “summary demolishment” actually played? Steinitz called the game, which was published in the International Chess Magazine, "a deliberately bogus manufactured forgery." You can read about Grimshaw and this controversial encounter courtesy of Neil Hickman in CHESS Magazine, October 2024.

10/9/2024 – DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis and John Jumper, a DeepMind researcher who led the company's efforts to build AI models that could predict protein structures, shared the Nobel Prize for Chemistry, along with David Baker from the University of Washington. Through his AI company, he had already spearheaded breakthroughs in Go and chess with AlphaGo and AlphaZero, and he has now won the Nobel Prize thanks to AlphaFold2. (photos: DeepMind)

10/8/2024 – Every chess piece has a favourite region of the board. Knights like to be in the centre, kings rely on the safety of the corners. However, no piece loves a specific diagonal, file or rank as much as rooks do. Rooks love the 7th rank. On this rank, they feel like a kid in a candy shop. There are so many pawns to consume! Also, sometimes the opponent’s pieces are vulnerable as well. But why is the seventh rank so attractive for rooks? Jan Markos has some answers and examples! | Diagram: Final position of the game Vidit Gujrathi vs Wei Yi, Global Chess League 2024

10/1/2024 – In this video lesson, you will learn how to take game annotations and translate them into any language of your choice. Have German annotations you want in English? No problem! English annotations you want in Portuguese or French? Consider it done!

9/23/2024 – If you don't know your opening variations inside out, you can be shipwrecked right from the start. If you don't know how to build a fortress, you will end up resigning some of your games without needing to. In the last issue of ChessBase Magazine, Dorian Rogozenco started his series “The fortress”, which will gradually develop into a systematic collection of classical fortresses. In the new issue CBM #221, he presents two related motifs from the endgame bishop+pawn vs. pawn. The former coach of the German national team starts by explaining the motifs in the video. This is followed by no less than five interactive videos in which you can playfully put your building skills to the test. Take a look at the CBM reading sample of the week!

9/12/2024 – FIDE and the Singapore Chess Federation have announced that search giant Google is the Title Sponsor of the FIDE World Chess Championship in Singapore, which takes place at Resorts World Sentosa in November. This is the first time the World Championship has been sponsored by a global technology leader. Congratulations to FIDE for arranging this groundbreaking sponsorship.

9/8/2024 – The Women's Chess Olympiad will set a participation record this year with 184 teams registered. Teams like Liechtenstein, Guernsey and Grenada will make their debut. According to the average rating of their rosters, the top teams are India (2467), Georgia (2462), Poland (2422), China (2416), and Ukraine (2400).