5/12/2025 – For the "Special" of ChessBase Magazine #225, we invited our authors to comment on miniatures that evoke special memories. The result is a colorful mix of their own successes/failures, underdog victories, Olympia highlights, candidate classics, and modern high-flyers. A total of 27 blockbusters from the period from 1962 (Fischer!) to 2023 have been collected – the very best chess entertainment is guaranteed! You can check out the first seven miniatures from the collection this week in the free CBM readng sample. We hope you enjoy!

4/23/2025 – Anthony Miles was one of the best players in the world in the 1980s. He died in 2001 at the age of just 46 from a heart attack caused by diabetes. Today he would have celebrated his 70th birthday. | Photo: British Chess News

4/11/2025 – GM Jonathan Levitt explains why and how he has suddenly taken up writing lyrics for songs, including one on Bobby Fischer and one on Boris Spassky. Have a look, listen and enjoy!

1/28/2025 – Dr Thorsten Heedt took chess lessons from Robert Hübner (1948–2025) for a long time and got to know the German Grandmaster very well. They became good friends and Heedt even asked Hübner to be best man at Heedt's wedding. After Hübner's death on 5 January 2025, Heedt shares some personal memories...

1/17/2025 – In their review of current events in the chess world, Arne Kähler and Johannes Fischer remember Robert Hübner, talk about Elisabeth Pähtz's 40th birthday and the Bundesliga weekend when Magnus Carlsen gave his debut for St. Pauli. And they wonder who might win the tournament in Wijk that starts on Saturday.

1/14/2025 – In his new Fast & Furious episode, Robert Ris remembers German Grandmaster Robert Hübner, who died on 5 January 2025, by looking at one of Hübner's contributions to chess theory: the Hübner Variation in the Nimzo-Indian, a line that helped Bobby Fischer to win his World Championship match against Boris Spassky in 1972. | Fast & Furious is available on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here.

12/19/2024 – The World Championship match between Ding Liren and Gukesh in Singapore ended with a blunder: In a drawn position, Ding wanted to simplify and allowed his opponent to liquidate into a winning pawn ending - making Gukesh the youngest World Champion ever. In the latest episode of "Two Knights Talk", Arne Kähler and Johannes Fischer use Ding's mistake as a starting point to talk about incredible blunders, errors and inexplicable oversights in the history of the World Chess Championship.

12/12/2024 – In a historic conclusion to the World Chess Championship in Singapore, 18-year-old Gukesh Dommaraju defeated reigning champion Ding Liren in the final game, becoming the youngest undisputed world chess champion in history. With this monumental victory, the title returns to India for the first time since Viswanathan Anand lost it in 2013. Gukesh's triumph, sealed after Ding blundered in a technical endgame, cements his place among chess legends. The victory also highlights India's rise as a global chess powerhouse. | Photo: FIDE / Eng Chin An

10/30/2024 – In 1968 the Greek Chess Federation, which had organised multiple Olympiads and Zonal tournaments, invited the 25-year-old American grandmaster to play a clock simultaneous exhibition match against five strong Greek players. The historical games played in Athens have been recorded and carefully annotated by Greek grandmaster and trainer Efstratios Grivas.

10/5/2024 – The World Chess Hall of Fame (WCHOF) announced the 2024 U.S. and World Chess Halls of Fame inductees. One candidate, Charles Henry Stanley, will be inducted to the U.S. Chess Hall of Fame on October 10, while ten candidates will be inducted to the World Chess Hall of Fame on October 20: Nana Alexandria, Chen Zhu, Robert Hübner, Vladimir Kramnik, Irina Levitina, Elena Donaldson-Akhmilovskaya, Efim Geller, Fridrik Olafsson, Oscar Panno and Lev Polugaevsky.

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!

8/30/2024 – Biel 2024 Chess Festival: The winner of the Masters, Le Quang Liem, comments on one of his games. In addition, Jonas Bjerre, Alexander Donchenko, Abhimanyu Mishra and Ihor Samunenkov contribute analyses from Biel - "Special" on Ju Wenjun: CBM authors show their favourite games of the world champion, an exclusive collection of 24 annotated games awaits you! - "If one piece is bad, the entire position is bad": Jan Markos develops a winning strategy for your games in his "Practical tips"! -Bomb in the Panov Attack: Robert Ris analyses the promising piece sacrifice 8.Qb3 Bxf3 9.gxf3 e6 10.Qxb7 Nxd4 11.Bb5+ Nxb5 12.Qc6+ Ke7 13.Qc5+!? and much more!

7/20/2024 – Let us take a little journey through time. It was 1989 when the supermarket chain 'SPAR' organised a magnificent chess tournament in the Sartory halls in Cologne. Robert Hübner, Boris Spassky, Mikhail Tal, Viktor Korchnoi and the Polgar sisters were invited as the big stars. Television was still in its infancy, but it was already broadcasting moving images. | Photo: Sartory-Säle (via satory.de)

6/28/2024 – 2024 Candidates Tournament: analyses by Giri, Gukesh, Firouzja, Praggnanandhaa and Vidit, plus video: Dorian Rogozenco shows the decisive moments of the tournament - "Special" on Gukesh: CBM authors show their favourite games of the youngest ever World Champion challenger, an exclusive collection of 24 annotated games - New trend from Toronto: Rustam Kasimdzhanov shows Caruana's 3...Nf6 in the Rossolimo Variation (video) - "The King is the goal!": Oliver Reeh presents 34 games with training exercises and four interactive videos - Semi-Slav Bluebaum Variation: Yago Santiago highlights the merits of 1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.Nc3 c6 5.Qc2!? - In the end it's the technique that counts: knight and pawn against pawn(s) in "Fundamental Endgame Knowledge" Part 10 and much more.

5/5/2024 – Herman Grooten is an International Master, a renowned trainer and the author of several highly acclaimed books on chess training and strategy. In the 176th episode of his ChessBase show "Understanding before moving" Herman continues his series "Chess history in a nutshell" and continues to take a look at the career and games of Bobby Fischer, World Champion from 1972 to 1975. | Photo: Pascal Simon

5/4/2024 – On May 5th, the subscribers of Kasparov Chess Foundation Academy will gather for an exclusive interview with Veselin Topalov. He was born in 1975, etched his name into the annals of chess history with his remarkable achievements from 2005 to 2014. Renowned for his dynamic style of play, Topalov emerged as one of the most formidable players on the world stage. Listen to his interview this Sunday.

4/28/2024 – Herman Grooten is an International Master, a renowned trainer and the author of several highly acclaimed books on chess training and strategy. In the 175th episode of his ChessBase show "Understanding before moving" Herman continues his series "Chess history in a nutshell" and takes a look at the career and games of Bobby Fischer, World Champion from 1972 to 1975. | Photo: Pascal Simon

4/21/2024 – Gukesh D, at 17, is a win away from becoming the next World Chess Championship challenger. The Indian prodigy beat Alireza Firouzja on Saturday to go into the final round of the Candidates Tournament as the sole leader. Three experienced contenders, who are also the top seeds in Toronto, stand a half point behind: Ian Nepomniachtchi, Hikaru Nakamura and Fabiano Caruana. Caruana joined the chasing pack by beating Praggnanandhaa R with the black pieces. | Photo: FIDE / Michal Walusza

4/16/2024 – Herman Grooten is an International Master, a renowned trainer and the author of several highly acclaimed books on chess training and strategy. In the 173rd episode of his ChessBase show "Understanding before moving" Herman continues his series "Chess history in a nutshell" and continues to take a look at the chess legacy of Boris Spassky, World Champion from 1969 to 1972. | Photo: Pascal Simon

3/25/2024 – We owe the vast majority of chess knowledge available to us today to the masters of the past, no matter whether it's about opening theory, strategic concepts or techniques in the endgame. Former German national coach Dorian Rogozenco honours the achievements by these masters in his "Modern Classics" series in ChessBase Magazine. In each issue he familiarises you with a selected brilliancy. This week we offer you Nezhmetdinov-Chernikov (1962) from the current CBM #218 as a free sample - you can even watch and enjoy the video analysis on your smartphone in ChessBase book format. Have fun!

3/9/2024 – It is certainly one of the most famous games in chess history: the 13-year-old future FIDE World Champion Bobby Fischer played a spectacular combination against IM Donald Byrne, one that has been shown and analysed by generations of chess players and writers. Today on what would have been Bobby's 81 birthday, GM Efstratios Grivas gives us a comprehensive summary of all available analysis, including those of Garry Kasparov and GM Karsten Mueller of ChessBase. Many other sources were taken into account to make sure that no blind spots are remaining!

2/2/2024 – The history of the Candidates Tournaments and Candidates Matches dates back to 1950. In its anniversary year, FIDE is looking forward to the Candidates Tournaments in Toronto in April 2024 and provides an overview of the history of these competitions. | Photos: Via FIDE

1/30/2024 – Boris Spassky, world champion from 1969 to 1972, celebrates his 87th birthday on 30 January. Spassky is regarded as a universal player and played numerous fantastic attacking games during his career. One of his favourite openings with White was the King's Gambit, which he used to beat players such as David Bronstein, Bobby Fischer, Yasser Seirawan and Anatoly Karpov. | Photo: Boris Spassky, Chess Olympiad Saloniki 1984 | Photo: Gerhard Hund

12/24/2023 – From a very young age, Rita Atkins has been active in the chess community, achieving notable success in various chess tournaments, reaching the title of Women's International Master (WIM) and winning the Hungarian Women's Chess Championship in 1992. She has also been involved in teaching chess and mathematics to school children and youth. In a lengthy interview with Uvencio Blanco, she remarked: "Give it another hundred years, and there will be just as many good female players as male ones".