4/5/2021 – Jesús Medina Molina’s initiative to promote the placement of public chess tables in open spaces has expanded in the Netherlands. Tables in The Hague, Dordrecht and Groningen were recently inaugurated. Medina invites more countries to follow this initiative, which intends to make chess more accessible, especially for kids.

2/26/2021 – On Thursday, February 25, 2021, the Armenian Grandmaster Levon Aronian, currently number five in the world, informed the Armenian Chess Federation about his decision to move to St. Louis and to play for the US. With Fabiano Caruana, Wesley So, Levon Aronian, Leinier Dominguez and Hikaru Nakamura, the USA has now five players among the top 20. A press release by the St. Louis Chess Club has details. | Photo: Grand Chess Tour, Lennart Ootes

2/1/2021 – There was no lack of excitement on the last day of action at this year’s Tata Steel Masters tournament. Jorden van Foreest defeated Nils Grandelius from the white side of a Najdorf to catch up with Anish Giri, who drew David Anton with the black pieces — these results meant an all-Dutch playoff would decide the winner. Two draws in the blitz tiebreakers were followed by an Armageddon decider, in which Giri got a major advantage but ended up losing in a wild time scramble. | Photo: Jurriaan Hoefsmit – Tata Steel Chess Tournament 2021

1/28/2021 – Anish Giri scored a win from what seemed to be a drawn position over Radoslaw Wojtaszek to grab the sole lead in round 10 of the Tata Steel chess tournament. Three players are chasing the Dutchman a half point behind — Andrey Esipenko joined previous co-leaders Fabiano Caruana and Alireza Firouzja in shared second place thanks to his victory over David Anton. | Photo: Jurriaan Hoefsmit – Tata Steel Chess Tournament 2021

11/29/2020 – Grandmaster Ian Nepomniachtchi is Russia’s number one player and the fourth highest-rated player in the world. National Master Mike Walder prepares a recipe inspired by an Instagram post and annotates Giri-Nepomniachtchi from the 2020 Candidates, a tournament where Nepomniachtchi is currently one of the co-leaders. WIM Alexey Root tells why Ian Nepomniachtchi is a Grandmaster Chef honoree, using four-letter words as headers. | Photo: Alina l’Ami

10/23/2020 – In the online era, we play matches in such a short period of time, compared to what we would have played when over-the-board events were possible. And while it is true that blitz games are usually not worth analyzing, we often encounter positions which definitely warrant some deep analysis as well. Here's a very instructive endgame that is comprehensively analysed by a dedicated chess trainer. Take a look at the diagram: can you see the key first move?

10/18/2020 – This issue offers coverage of three major events, Chessable Masters, Legends of Chess and Biel Chess Festival. 733 games, 11 opening surveys, demo lectures and exercises for training. It also includes games annotated by Boris Gelfand, Rustam Kasimdzhanov and Peter Heine Nielsen, just to mention a few. Our columnist Nagesh Havanur takes a look. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

10/1/2020 – The 2700chess.com webpage has been keeping track of top players’ ratings on a daily basis for quite a while now. Besides presenting the highest rated players in classical, rapid and blitz, both in the open and the women’s categories, they have included a list of the highest live ratings ever achieved. Let us recap the top ten of this list, and look at the games which gave each of the players their highest-ever live rating.

6/1/2020 – The Maharashtra Chess Association is organizing the LetsUp Blitz Grand Prix 2020, which starts on June 3rd, 2020. Every Wednesday from June 3rd to July 1st five Blitz Grand Prix Open events will take place on Playchess. Participants are fully ID-ed, which reduces cheating attempts to a minimum. The tournament is open to anyone across the world – a lot of very strong players have already registered. You can too. Or you can watch some ChessBase India YouTube videos – like 100 million viewers before you!

4/28/2020 – Being the second of Anish Giri, Grandmaster Erwin l'Ami was kind enough to talk about the Candidates Tournament 2020 and how they experienced the whole situation from beginning to end in Yekaterinburg. In spite of wearing a mask in the air plane, to visiting the doctor twice a day, l'Ami and Giri were focusing on the tournament - they did not give in to the fear about the pandemic. | Photos: Alina l'Ami

4/16/2020 – With no over-the-board action, online playing has gained strength among chess fans. Moreover, the world champion himself has decided to make the most out of a dire situation by organizing an unprecedented elite tournament to be played over the internet. Eight of the strongest players in the world will fight for a $70,000 first prize. The tournament will run from April 18th to May 3rd.

4/9/2020 – Fans, professionals and anybody who follows the world of professional chess agree on the fact that Magnus Carlsen is on a class of his own. Besides reigning as World Champion in all three formats (classical, rapid and blitz), the Norwegian has managed not to lose a single classical game in over twenty months. Let us recap Carlsen's astounding — and ongoing — streak! | Photo: Amruta Mokal

3/27/2020 – The new issue of "New in Chess" is out and offers a wide and entertaining mix of reports, reviews, training and chess trivia but focuses on Fabiano Caruana's success at the Tata Steel Tournament in Wijk aan Zee 2020 in which Caruana scored seven wins, equalling the record scores of Carlsen and Kasparov. In an extensive interview with Dirk Jan ten Geuzendam Caruana shares thoughts about his play in Wijk, about the Candidates and about other topics. | Photo: Alina l'Ami

2/22/2020 – After an exciting final round in which two key encounters finished decisively, five players ended up tied in first place on 5 out of 9. Vidit and Alireza Firouzja had the best tiebreak scores and decided the championship in a blitz playoff. 16-year-old Firouzja won both quick-play encounters to take the title. Jorden van Foreest got clear first place in the Challengers and qualified to next year's main event. | Photo: Vladimir Jagr

2/1/2020 – Fabiano Caruana did phenomenally at the Tata Steel Chess Tournament in Wijk aan Zee and was able to reduce his Elo distance to World Champion Magnus Carlsen from 50 to 20 points — Carlsen now stands at 2862 and Caruana at 2842. Ju Wenjun remained Women's World Champion, and world number two. Firouzja won the Juniors battle in the Tata Steel Masters, and Zhansaya Abdumalik maintains a healthy lead in among the top girls. | Pictured: Caruana watches the game Firouzja vs Dubov | Photo: Alina l'Ami

1/27/2020 – A new trainer for the new year. FC Barcelona, one of the strongest football squads in the world, recently appointed Enrique Setién as their new head coach. Known as 'Quique', Setién has a tough task ahead, as he is expected to succeed at the Spanish "La Liga", the "Copa del Rey" and the Champions League. But why are we talking about this? Has ChessBase turned into a football site? No. Besides being a highly successful coach, Setién is a huge chess fan and, in fact, quite a strong player. JESÚS BOYERO interviewed the Cantabrian back in 2016, focusing on his relation with the royal game. | Photos: Jesús Boyero / El Desmarque

1/27/2020 – Fabiano Caruana continued his astounding run at the second half of the Tata Steel Masters by grabbing the only win of the final round to end the event — a remarkable first out of 14 with a 10/13 score. Magnus Carlsen ended up in sole second place two points behind the American, while Wesley So, who drew the world champion in round thirteen, finished third. In the meantime, David Anton qualified to next year's Masters event by grabbing clear first in the Challengers. Expert analysis by GMs SAM SHANKLAND and DANNY KING. | Photo: Alina l'Ami

1/19/2020 – 16-year-old Alireza Firouzja continues to stun as he defeated Jeffery Xiong to take the sole lead of the Tata Steel Masters in Wijk aan Zee. Fabiano Caruana and Jorden van Foreest also grabbed full points and are now sharing second place with Wesley So on 4½ out of 7. In the Challengers, only Nihal Sarin got a win in round seven, which means Pavel Eljanov is still first on 5 points. Do not miss the thorough analyses sent by GM DANIEL FERNANDEZ and the round-up video by IM LAWRENCE TRENT. | Photo: Alina l'Ami

1/18/2020 – Magnus Carlsen and Fabiano Caruana signed a draw on a day that saw Anish Giri and Daniil Dubov getting wins at the Tata Steel Masters in Wijk aan Zee. Thus, Wesley So and Alireza Firouzja are still co-leaders on 'plus two' — Fabiano Caruana, Daniil Dubov and Jorden van Foreest are a half point back. In the Challengers, Pavel Eljanov took advantage of a blunder by Max Wardermam to take the sole lead. Expert analysis by GM TIGER HILLARP-PERSSON and IM LAWRENCE TRENT. | Photo: Alina l'Ami

1/15/2020 – Wesley So defeated Alireza Firouzja to leapfrog him in the standings table of the Tata Steel Masters and become the new sole leader before the first rest day of the event. Five players are a half point back, including Vladislav Artemiev, who took down Vladislav Kovalev on Tuesday. In the meantime, Magnus Carlsen salvaged a draw from an inferior position again to set a new record of undefeated classical games. Surya Ganguly is now the sole leader in the Challengers. Expert analysis by GMs STEPHEN GORDON and DANIEL KING. | Photo: Alina l'Ami

12/11/2019 – Viswanathan Anand, who turns 50 years old today, is a legend who has played many masterpieces throughout his illustrious career spanning decades. At the end of Tata Steel Chess India 2019, IM SAGAR SHAH caught up with the chess virtuoso to discuss nine of his career-best games. In this interview Anand talks about old times, untold behind-the-scenes stories of the pre-computer chess era and much more. Chess fans are in for a nostalgic treat!

12/11/2019 – December 11th, 2019, is the 50th birthday of Viswanathan Anand, the subject of ChessBase's most recent Masterclass Vol.12. TANMAY SRINATH critically examines ChessBase's latest offering in this series, a foray into the mind of a chess genius who has influenced the game in countless ways. | Pictured: Anand and his wife Aruna in Kolkata. | Photo: Lennart Ootes / Grand Chess Tour

12/6/2019 – Welcome to the new Mega Database 2020! Learn from annotated games, enjoy top tournaments or have a look at the opening repertoire of the world’s best! The Mega Database 2020 contains more than 8 million games and with a current ChessBase program and our update service you can regularly update the database with new games – around 5,000 every week! Here’s a short tutorial how to update the database and download new games.

12/2/2019 – The Tata Steel Chess India 2019 was held from November 22nd to the 26th, 2019 in Kolkata, India. It was truly a trailblazing event being the strongest tournament ever to be organized on not just Indian but Asian soil. IM SAGAR SHAH reflects on the ten things that according to him made the Tata Steel Chess India special. A photo / video retrospective.