12/8/2017 – At 15 he was Oxford University's youngest undergraduate since Cardinal Wolsey in 1520; and at 23 he did his doctorate in algebraic topology — and achieved his final grandmaster norm. He went on to become one of the top ten players in the world, and a world champion chess problem solver. Today John Nunn, at 62, is slowly gliding into retirement (from his chess publishing business), but that does not mean sitting idly around. He is addicted to rational thinking, puzzles, mathematics and beautiful vacations. Frederic Friedel joined him on one.

11/14/2017 – Photos and video from Magnus Carlsen's two days in Hamburg last week. At the ChessBase office he gave a short interview, greeted the ChessBase team and received the first copy (made by hand) of Fritz 16 (on sale starting on November 14th!). On Thursday Magnus participated in a conference on the theme "digital health" organised by Die Zeit (we have the full interview) and in the evening he played a clock simultaneous exhibition at the Atlantic Kempinski hotel. Carlsen prevailed in all the games, but the 13 players gave him a decent challenge. The group itself was interesting, including German football star Marco Bode, a Norwegian politician, three very young but talented players, several self-proclaimed "addicts" of "Play Magnus" app, and an young Austrian woman who played her first serious game against the World Champion. | Photos: Nadja Wittmann

11/12/2017 – When is chess the most enjoyable? When you win! But computers have become far too strong and won't allow their human owners that satisfaction. Until now. The latest iteration of our flagship program has advanced handicap features that make it behave like an average human player. At the same time it is a full-blooded trainer that will teach you how to think – in grandmasterly style. Fritz 16 also comes with other very useful functions, like voice recognition, spell checking, and much more. It also has a completely overhauled navigation. Take a look.

4/27/2017 – In chess, braving the gap often leads to disaster after a few moves. We should be able to avoid things going so far. The ChessBase Opening Encyclopaedia offers you an effective remedy against all sorts of semi-digested knowledge and a means of building up a comprehensive and powerful repertoire. The Opening Encyclopedia 2017 has 5.9 million games, of which more than 85,000 are annotated. There are 6,250 opening surveys by the finest opening specialists, and 1004 specialised theory databases. Don't miss it.

4/13/2017 – When annotating a game, aside from the usual elements such as verbal commentary, or chess notation symbols, but some of the most powerful tools in ChessBase are the colored arrows or squares that can show an idea at a glance. The secret to using them is only found in the Help file though… or in this simple tutorial.

4/6/2017 – One of the nice things about a program such as ChessBase or Fritz is the ability to be able to customize it the way you like. It is no secret you can move the pane (windows) around so the engine window is on top, on the bottom, on the side, but this is not always obvious. In this quick tutorial, you will learn how to move them around and how to save your favorite setup.

1/29/2017 – B. Adhiban has shown absolutely no respect for the current status of opening theory at the Tata Steel Masters 2017. The viability of this approach is seen by his +1 score after twelve rounds against the world's best. In order to give a tribute to this wonderful performance by the Indian grandmaster, ChessBase India will organize an online Chess960 blitz event that will take place at 6 p.m. IST on 29th of January. Some exciting prizes to be won from the comfort of your home!

12/12/2016 – One of the things that has long been a hardcore difference between the program ChessBase and Fritz has been the automated analysis features. When it came to automated functionality, ChessBase only offered database research and reports, while engine analysis was available manually only. This has slowly changed with Let’s Check, and Deep (position) Analysis, but finally ChessBase 14 introduces complete independent game analysis with Tactical Analysis. Read on to find out more.

11/16/2016 – It's yet another big step forward in chess study: our latest database program, already the standard for world class players and rank amateurs alike, has received a substantial upgrade. Here for your information are the main features that will change the way you look at chess. For instance "Assisted Analysis" which gives you tactical hints while you are entering moves during analysis. You will not want to miss these new functions.

8/31/2016 – Chessbase annonce ses premiers articles en Français. Vous pourrez nous suivre sur Facebook, Twitter et YouTube. Vous y trouverez des informations sur le monde échiquéen Francophone avec des traductions des informations et articles les plus importantes du site Anglais. Dans l’avenir, nous lancerons aussi des Fritztrainer, ou CDs d’entraînement, en Français.

5/24/2016 – The number of DVDs and products in the ChessBase Shop literally number the hundreds. What is best, or more specifically what is best for you? It depends on what you are looking for in chess, your level of play, your ambitions to get better. In case you are a mite overwhelmed by the vast range of products, here is a list, based on hands-on experience, of personal recommendations.

5/23/2016 – Ever wondered what it was like to come and visit the ChessBase headquarters in Hamburg, Germany? Accompanying her husband, GM Erwin L'Ami, who came to record another excellent DVD (stay tuned for its release!), chess writer, traveler, and photographer extraordinaire Alina L'Ami shares her look at the vibrant city and office where ChessBase and Fritz were born in this photographic tour.

1/4/2016 – With the arrival of Fritz 15, and the new engine, a large number of questions have arisen regarding its strength, its origin, and its future. One of the very strongest grandmasters in activity expressed his concern quite simply, “The rumours say that it's some kind of old Rybka”. Here are the answers as well as an introduction to the Fritz 15 engine.

12/11/2015 – "You can buy the fanciest GUI," writes John Hartmann, "and you can collect all of the strongest engines around, but if you’re working with poor quality data, your research will suffer for it." He takes a look at the chess databases that are available for ambitious players and takes a special look at the Big and Mega Databases from ChessBase, each currently with 6.46 million games.

11/3/2015 – The latest Mega Database 2016 has arrived and builds on a tradition that is now measured in decades. Yes, it is millions of games, it is tens of thousands of commented games and photos that span a player's career (and you can send yours!), but it is also the ultimate tool to prepare against a player, study endgames or openings and is a library of chess books all-in one!

10/30/2015 – Sharing or sending a game with ChessBase is one of those things that is easy when you know how, but can leave you in doubt when you don't. Anyone will quickly see there are plenty of options, but which is the easiest and best? There is no one best choice, so here is a quick guide for three easy methods, with the last being the quickest and easiest of all.

9/6/2015 – Whether you are using Fritz or ChessBase on a small laptop, or a large desktop screen, some parts such as the notation or computer analysis can have even healthy eyes squinting a bit to read the information. Also, perhaps you'd like a larger board to play through the moves. In the following guide, you will learn how to configure it for the most pleasant experience possible.

7/27/2015 – The Czech Open is part of the International Chess and Games Festival. Almost 300 players start in the A-Open, top seed is Viktor Laznicka, the number two in the Czech Republic. He won the first three rounds and leads with nine other players with 3.0/3. Martin Fischer represents ChessBase in Pardubice and offers advice how to get the best out of your programs.

6/30/2015 – Among the various new free Web apps created by ChessBase, the Tactics Training is probably the one that promises the most immediate benefit for your play, whether you’re a master or an amateur. Since it first came out, it has undergone several refinements, making it a must for any student of the game working seriously, or just for fun, automatically calibrating the difficulty.

6/26/2015 – While travelling from Prague to Hamburg, GM Wesley So took the opportunity to visit the ChessBase headquarters in Hamburg. There he met the ChessBase family, was able to see the offices and studio, and enjoyed some one-on-one instruction with resident experts to finetune his understanding of the indispensable program. He also popped in the studio and kibitzed on the Norway games.

4/30/2015 – Over the last couple of years, ChessBase has been releasing a series of apps that run exclusively in the browser, and thus on any operating system, whether it be Windows, MacOS, or Linux. These powerful tools have a few things in common, notably they are all free, and they all have addresses that end in chessbase.com. Here is a detailed overview.

4/13/2015 – Recently, Danny Gormally wrote an entertaining article ‘The Komodo files’ where the Grandmaster describes his experience of working with a chess engine. While it is certainly the Summa Cum Laude of chess engines, the weekend chess warriors may balk at carrying a laptop. In this article you will see how you can easily fulfill your needs with Deep Fritz on a smartphone.

3/9/2015 – Remember the endgame we showed you last Friday – rook and two pawns vs rook? And how to find a lot of practice examples with a single mouse click, in our new ChessBase 13 program? We gave you six practical positions to solve over the weekend. Well, here are the solutions. Study them any you will really have mastered an important endgame that often occurs in over-the-board play.

3/7/2015 – Well, you can follow the wonderful didactic explanations of John Nunn, but chances are in a year you will have forgotten the exact strategy. Unless you practise it in a number of practical examples. But where to get these? ChessBase 13 provides a great way to extract similar positions. Find out about this valuable training tool and learn an important endgame in the process.