3/7/2018 – New: Start a private tournament in your browser! Chess clubs, schools, companies, or any other collection of players, can also offer chess online — on their own chess server — for free! It is simple and does not does require much of any technical skill. In fact, all it takes are a few mouse clicks. It's a powerful and completely free self-service tournament system in your web browser! Here's how to get started in a few easy steps! | Photo: Hamburger Schachclub

2/7/2018 – Ever wonder how you save your Playchess games? The answer to this question might come as a surprise: you do not need to save them! Why? Because the games are saved automatically. Here's a quick explanation how this works and where you can see the games you have saved.

1/18/2018 – Tryfon Gavriel — a.k.a. Kingscrusher — continues his weekly banter blitz series playing on blitz.chessbase.com. He provides live commentary of his own games while playing against ChessBase Account members in his live stream on YouTube, Wednesdays at 20:00 CET (2 pm EST). Would you like to have your own banter blitz games featured on ChessBase, and earn free ChessBase software? Get in touch via our Feedback page!

1/11/2018 – Tryfon Gavriel — a.k.a. Kingscrusher — will start a weekly banter series on blitz.chessbase.com. He will commentate while playing against ChessBase Account members in his live stream on YouTube, Wednesdays at 20:00 CET (2 pm EST). "I will try and give you greater enthusiasm for the game and in particular the dynamic aggressive aspects of playing chess", writes Kingscrusher. "If you want to be a dynamic aggressive player, I may be able to encourage you..."

11/30/2017 – Whether a pro or an amateur, after a blitz game online, we want to know where we went wrong. Was our attack right? Was the opponent’s? Did we miss a simple shot or defense? Sure we can stop and turn on an engine to analyze it, but that still takes time. Not anymore thanks to the new automatic analysis in Fritz 16. Read on to find out more!

11/23/2017 – Readers may have noticed a recent, and significant, change in Playchess, notably the playing room: the new ratings. It is designed to get you a quick game with no delay against a random opponent with a similar rating. These "pools" include ratings calculated on games played at the same time control, as compared to the previous system which lumped multiple game times together as "blitz" up to 5 minutes with 4 seconds of increment. We now have 1-minute bullet, and 3-minute and 5-minute blitz, with no added time. The ratings for previous modes, and individual challenges, are now called "Classic" but continue to be maintained independently. Read on for a more detailed explanation.

10/13/2017 – An introductory tutorial to using ChessBase 14, from our resident expert. Learn installation and activation, navigating the program, working with databases, entering games, training, the cool "assisted analysis" feature, how to use Fritz as a sparring partner effectively, advanced search functions, creating a custom repertoire against your next opponent, and using databases in the cloud! You'll want to bookmark this for future reference for sure!

8/7/2017 – With the latest update of playchess.com we reintroduced a powerful training tool: playing training games from a given position in the opening, in the middlegame or in the ending. Playing out certain positions can really improve your chess. Here is how to do it.

7/20/2017 – Some of you may not have noticed: in our live broadcast of international tournaments, when computer analysis is added to the games, there are "precision" statistics given at the end of the notes. They give the percentage of relevant (non-forced) moves that are identical with the ones a top chess engine would play. In top events we find correlations between 15% and 97%. You can compare the level of precision of different players, and also look for suspicious values. Here's how, and why you should care.

5/9/2017 – Recently, a grandmaster was explaining that one of the biggest problems when travelling was that analyzing on his laptop would eat up his battery in an hour or two at most. When asked why he didn’t just connect to his desktop, he said he was not a ‘computer whiz’ like some. Do you sympathize with him? If so, learn how incredibly easy it is to set this up with Fritz or ChessBase so you can access your personal desktop anytime, anywhere.

4/20/2017 – Grenke Chess Classic, Reykjavik Open, Karpov Poikovsky, Chinese League. You can start watching the games with a single click, here in your browser. And if you have been using our Live Broadcast service you will have noticed that it is being constantly upgraded. We have engine analysis and advanced cloud functions, and now also chat in the browser, where your attention is drawn to interesting things that are happening in the games. You can jump to games in other tournament when people point to them – and that with single click in the chat.

4/10/2017 – At the age of just twelve years and eight months, exactly the same as Magnus Carlsen, Nihal Sarin became a full IM, one of the three youngest in the world. This remarkable young chess talent from the southern Indian state of Kerala last week visited us in Hamburg, deeply impressing all and sundry in the ChessBase office. The idea was for him to get instructions in the optimum use of our software, and a little bit of GM training on the side. The only question was who learned what from whom?

3/20/2017 – By now you will already be aware of the Web-based replayer to follow live events with moves, times, and even on-the-fly comments. Not to mention an engine to use and the freedom to annotate. Still, once the event is over it disappears from the list forever, right? Wrong! Introducing the Live Game Archive where you can find months of recent events, with thousands of commented games, all for free!

3/18/2017 – As you probably know we installed some very interesting new functionality on our news page. On the right you see a list of "Live Tournaments" – events that are currently or were recently broadcast on Playchess. A single click takes you to a luxury broadcast page where you can follow the most important games, or replay all of them from the event, analysing them with engine assistance. But best of all: you can load deep realtime analysis and find out instantly what happened. All without leaving the news page!

3/3/2017 – We have some very interesting new functionality on our news page. On the right you see a list of "Live Tournaments" – these are events that are currently or were recently broadcast on Playchess. A single click takes you to a luxury broadcast page where you can follow the most important games, or replay all of them from the event, analysing them with engine assistance. But best of all: you can load deep realtime analysis and find out instantly what happened. All on different devices, without ever leaving the news page!

2/13/2017 – You may have noticed recently the posts on the Live events featuring a brand new live replayer, replacing the previous one that showed a number of very small boards. The new replayer is not only easier to navigate, but includes great tools such as an engine you can run, and the ability to move the pieces on the board and analyze. Learn how you can also embed it free in your own pages.

2/10/2017 – FIDE has partnered with ChessBase to provide FIDE training courses via Playchess. Anyone who wishes to acquire a FIDE Trainer title, can now register for this series of lectures and participate online without geographical restrictions. All participants will not only be eligible for one of four FIDE Trainer titles, but will also receive a full copy of ChessBase 14 upon registration. Please note that the course is limited to 30 participants, and will run from March 3 - 5. Don't miss this opportunity!

1/18/2017 – During our coverage of the Tata Steel tournament, we have once again enlisted the help of GM Daniel King, who has been producing round-by-round videos in which he recaps the action of the day in the Masters, as well as a close look at one of the games of the round, such as the ultra exciting So-Rapport game of round three. However, he has also been hosting a lengthy daily show on Playchess where all the games get scrutinized. Check out these great videos.

1/14/2017 – As you know the Tata Steel Chess Tournament 2017, with Carlsen, Aronian, So, Karjakin, Giri, etc., is starting this weekend. So you will spend the next two weeks logging into Playchess and following the activites of these top players. Or you will watch some or the other high-class events that are taking place. This you will do using a Playchess Client or a ChessBase Account broadcast. Now there is a different and even mor convenient way. Take a look.

10/17/2016 – Last week we did an interesting Q&A with Women's World Champion Hou Yifan, who was in Hamburg visiting the ChessBase HQ. It was an interactive session where visitors could ask questions in Playchess and on ChessBase’s Official Facebook and Twitter handles! The session lasted just over an hour, and Yifan came across as an intelligent and eminently likeable chess star. For those who missed it live we have a full YouTube video and excerpts from the Q&A.

9/24/2016 – Online playing has been one of the true wonders for chess. The possibility to play a game against someone at any time of the day, anywhere in the world, is a joy and addictive. As of this writing, no fewer than 666 million games have been played on Playchess, from the most casual unrated game to grudge matches between top GMs. Learn about the many options you have to play games, including filters, the fancy 3D boards, and participating in the tournaments organized around the clock.

9/23/2016 – Playchess is an incredibly rich online server, with tons of options for playing, watching, or simply hanging out. You can also enjoy live lectures, simuls, have private lessons, watch live commentary (and ask questions), watch live and past video shows, and even test yourself with the tactics trainer. You can even set up a private chess club page with special events inside! If you are new to Playchess, or a bit unclear on it, check out this first tutorial.

9/21/2016 – When the playchess.com server went online 15 years ago it changed the way chess was played, trained, and enjoyed. In part two of his memories of 15 years of playchess.com, ChessBase editor André Schulz reflects about the advantages, the pleasure and the fun online chess offers, and shares memories of the many prominent players who visited the ChessBase studio in Hamburg or at international tournaments.

9/20/2016 – Today the ChessBase playchess.com server celebrates its 15th birthday. On 20th September 2001 the server went public and only minutes later the first chess fans wanted to play. Today, thousands of chess fans from all over the world play and train on the server, watch the many audio- and video-files, and follow top tournaments live. ChessBase and playchess made online chess incredibly comfortable! To celebrate, ChessBase has presents for its readers, customers and friends.