9/25/2025 – Chess players have an advantage when it comes to learning a language. If they start with the help of a chess magazine, they already have a rough idea of what it is about. Roger Lorenz learnt Italian in this way while on holiday - with the help of the magazine "Torre e Cavallo". Now he can (almost) fluently understand Italian game commentaries and invites others to join in.

8/25/2025 – This week, from 25 to 31 August, there is another special offer in our Summer Special: ChessBase 18 and the Opening Encyclopedia 2025 for only 249.90€ – instead of 299.90€! Be well prepared for every tournament and the new season!

8/3/2025 – ChessBase 18 offers a wide range of technical features and training tools. To get the most out of them, it helps to know where to look. In this tutorial, we show you how just a few clicks can enhance your ChessBase experience. Explore the "View" menu across different sections of the program to design your own personalized ChessBase environment. Take a look and try it out — because in the end, it’s all a matter of personal preference...

7/26/2025 – The Opening Encyclopedia offers a wide range of exciting repertoire suggestions. But how can you tell if a recommendation truly suits your playing style? The best way is to try it out in a practical match against Fritz 20. With the "Play Against Database Book" feature, you can load opening articles, game collections, or analyses directly from the encyclopedia as an opening book and immediately play against Fritz. This lets you test new lines under realistic conditions. Best of all: This week (until July 27, 2025), you can get the Fritz 20 and Opening Encyclopedia bundle at a special Summer Special price.

7/25/2025 – The opening is tricky. If you don't know what you are doing, you can quickly find yourself on the losing side, but if you know what you are doing, you can also quickly gain an advantage. ChessBase offers help! The Opening Encyclopaedia offers a complete overview of all openings, and with Fritz 20 you can try out and practise all of them. This week (21–27 July), the strong duo is available as a Summer Special at a special price!

4/20/2025 – Renowned US chess trainer and International Master John Watson had a close look at the recently released ChessBase 18 for a review in Chess Life. He concluded: "Casual online players will understandably not feel the need for such a powerful tool, but anyone serious about significantly improving their chess will almost certainly benefit from this program". The review first appeared in Chess Life 4/2025. Reprinted with kind permission.

4/20/2025 – ChessBase 18 also impresses with its clarity: Analysing with multiple menu windows without losing the overview is no problem. Are you familiar with the six standard layouts or do you prefer your own? Explore the options and try them all out. You will be amazed at how you can use this ChessBase feature to visually organise your analysis in a meaningful and effective way.

4/18/2025 – There was a lot of news at ChessBase in March: whether it was a mobile app, video course, ChessBase Magazine Extra, or databases – there was sure to be something to suit every chess taste. Take a look at last month's products:

4/3/2025 – The ChessBase Opening Encyclopedia 2025 has recently been released with many new features and improvements. In an interview ChessBase editor and lecturer Thomas Stark explains how this comprehensive and versatile product is created, what it can do and how to get the most out of it.

3/19/2025 – Prepare for your next tournament with the new Opening Encyclopaedia 2025! Whether you want to build up a reliable and powerful opening repertoire or find new opening ideas for your existing repertoire, the Opening Encyclopaedia covers the entire opening theory in one product and is the ideal start for your opening training. Many new articles enrich the current theory with new or revisited ideas. The Encyclopaedia can help you learn openings quickly and give you a head start on your next opponent. Each article contains explanations and annotated games illustrating typical plans to deepen your understanding.

3/2/2025 – When you work with a programme on a regular basis, you should make that work as pleasant as possible. ChessBase 18 offers endless possibilities - and that goes for the look too. Make your workspace individual and pleasant. In part 4 of our new series of tutorials we will show you how easy it is to design your individual notation so that analysing with it is a maximum pleasure.

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.

8/30/2024 – A very special offer awaits you in this week's summer special - two products that are indispensable for serious chess players are on special offer and available as a bundle: ChessBase 17 and the Opening Encyclopaedia 2024. Take the chance and get both for the summer special price of only €249.90 (instead of €299.90)!

7/26/2024 – Two program packages that are designed to make you stronger, to seriously improve your results in games and tournaments. Fritz 19 lets you practice practise and analyse, the Opening Encyclopedia tells you exactly what you should play in order to succeed. You can simply load variations into Fritz 19 and try playing them against the program – at your level of play. The perfect practical opening training! Instead of €239.80 for both programs, this week you can get the package for just €179.90.

5/31/2024 – Do you know the typical mistakes made by club players when choosing their opening? They follow fashionable variations; they stick to one opening because it's the only one they've learnt at some point; or they play secondary variations out of fear of their opponent's supposed knowledge. Things do not have to be this way. Play what suits you. Let yourself be inspired! The series of opening tutorials in the new, web-based ChessBase books format offers you a highly competent and innovative guide to opening theory. This is an updated new edition in the new web-based ChessBase-books format!

3/29/2024 – If you want to make progress in chess, sooner or later you will have to deal with your opening repertoire. It is better to approach this complex subject systematically than to get lost in a mass of videos, books and clever tips. To help with this, the Opening Encyclopaedia 2024 informs about the latest opening developments and provides basic knowledge.

3/26/2024 – Want to build up a reliable and powerful opening repertoire? The Opening Encyclopaedia is the ideal tool to get things started! Offering a collection of new and updated opening articles, annotated games and videos, the Encyclopaedia will help you to build your repertoire based on personal preferences and strategic goals. Find here three ways in which you can make the most of this irreplaceable product.

3/24/2024 – We have all been there: after a win in an open tournament, it is time to face a stronger opponent, and we struggle to figure out how to play the opening. Our recently launched Opening Encyclopaedia can be of great help in these situations. GM Dorian Rogozenco, a well-known and experienced chess trainer, demonstrates how to employ this excellent tool to prepare an effective strategy — and face the game confidently!

3/20/2024 – Be well-prepared with the new Opening Encyclopaedia 2024! Whether you want to build up a reliable and powerful opening repertoire or find new opening ideas for your existing repertoire, the Opening Encyclopaedia covers the entire opening theory and is the ideal start for your opening training. Many new articles enrich the current theory with new or revisited ideas. The Encyclopaedia can help you learn openings quickly and give you a head start on your next opponent. Each article contains explanations and annotated games illustrating typical plans to deepen your understanding.

3/16/2024 – No tournament player can do without the ChessBase Mega Database. But what do you need to know when setting it up on your PC? ChessBase expert Thomas Stark and Arne Kaehler show you everything you need to know about the new Mega Database 2024: Finding the best games, annotated games, and ChessBase magazine articles.

3/10/2024 – The ChessBase opening tutorials are a compact, quick introduction to opening theory. They will soon be available in full in the new ChessBase book format. Volume one on the open games (1.e4 e5) has already been published. In an interview with Stefan Liebig, chess trainer and grandmaster Dorian Rogozenco explains the concept: "Memorising variations is a thing of the past". | Photos: German Chess Federation

1/19/2024 – No tournament player can do without the ChessBase Mega Database. But what do you need to know when setting it up on your PC? ChessBase expert Thomas Stark and Arne Kaehler show you everything you need to know about the new Mega Database 2024: Download, installation and, above all, the weekly game update, in which 5,000 new games are imported every week.

9/6/2023 – There has been an official announcement from the UK Government of a package of measures that will support the England teams, our best juniors, new tournaments and our deaf and blind players. This is the culmination of a 25-year quest and a 12-month-long campaign. Initiator Malcolm Pein tells us how it all came about and what it means for the future of British chess.

8/28/2023 – New £1 million package will support children attending schools in disadvantaged areas across England to learn and play chess, improve visibility and availability of the game and fund elite playing.