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

2/24/2018 – Tables are the heart of tournament reports. Who won, who lost, who is currently first, who finished finally first, who played how against whom? But the new ChessBase tables offer much more than pairings and results. They also offer photos of and information about players, Elo-charts, games to replay, and more.

1/27/2018 – When using ChessBase 14, most players tend to focus on its most obvious functions, such as searching for a player, or just analyzing with an engine. However there are numerous powerful functions that can be great learning tools to accelerate your progress. One such tool is the Similar Structure function, and in this tutorial we will learn how to use it and some methods to work with it.

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..."

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!

9/26/2017 – You may have noticed some changes on the News page recently. Today we unveiled an updated design for individual posts, which we hope you'll regard as an improvement. Last week was the soft-launch of a new Quiz feature you can find in the right sidebar available for ChessBase Account holders. Did you know who finished in fourth place at the 2007 Wijk aan Zee tournament? Try it out!

9/12/2017 – The Tactics app in the ChessBase Account suite is a wonderful tool that allows one to work on tactics and calculation skill while having it adapt the difficulty to the player. The snag is when you are sure you have the solution, but are told it is wrong. In this tutorial, you will learn how to have the engine analyse your wrong moves, to learn why they failed.

6/12/2017 – While many know and enjoy the videos made by GM Daniel King to comment on games from a wide variety of sources, including as is the case here: Norway Chess. While readers can certainly watch his videos in his YouTube channel, we present you the videos here as they appear in the video library in ChessBase Account, where you can find literally hundreds of videos to watch, including many that are normally for sale, that can be viewed at no extra cost to Premium subscribers.

5/29/2017 – The latest and greatest chess engine is here, Komodo 11, helping chess players analyze and understand games and positions with ever greater skill and knowledge. That said, while there is no question the engine is an essential part of the equation, when you buy Komodo 11 at Chessbase, you get a series of other benefits such as a 6-month Premium subscription to ChessBase Account. Learn what’s new in Komodo 11 and why you should not delay in adding it to your stable.

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.

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.

1/30/2017 – The ChessBase Account is a useful tool for every chess player, whether solving tactics, analysing games, preparing against the next opponent or playing chess online. To show you everything we will be live on air with a Q&A on Youtube tomorrow, January 31. Join us at 4.30 CET to ask Matthias Wüllenweber, the developer of the web apps and creator of the ChessBase program, any questions you might have and let us show you how to get the most out of ChessBase Account.

12/23/2016 – Concluding the suggested 2016 Christmas Buyer’s Guide, here are fine selections of great games collections by top players with names such as Anand and Kramnik, as well as Master Classes on world champions that now extend to Karpov and Kasparov, two names who dominated chess for 40 years, and of course the flagship programs that have helped make ChessBase what it is, as well as new ones that open a world of possibilities.

12/20/2016 – While openings are unquestionably important, even a winning advantage can be squandered if the middlegame and endgame skills are lacking. There is no lack of top-notch courses to help you, ranging from beginner tactics to advanced strategic motifs, not to mention numerous exemplary works on the endgame. In this Buyer’s Guide you will find all you need on learning to play chess, mastering the middlegame, and converting the endgame.

12/19/2016 – With Christmas just around the corner, you might be tempted to give someone a cool ChessBase DVD from the extensive catalogue, but with hundreds of items, and new ones coming out all the time, it can be daunting to know which item has their name written on it. With this in mind, we have put together a few Buyer’s Guides to help you choose. In this Buyer's Guide you will find suggestions for all styles and strengths on Openings, whether it be a full repertoire or openings taught by World Champions.

12/14/2016 – There is little question the most impressive feature of Mega 2017 is the staggering number of commented games: around 70 thousand. One obvious question is “how good are they?” While some contain light notes, you will also find thousands of games commented in great depth by legendary players through time. Don’t take our word for it. See for yourself a small sample of early games by great masters of the past with in-depth annotations by Botvinnik, Tarrasch, Fine, and more!

12/9/2016 – When looking at the flagship database by ChessBase, Mega 2017, it would be understandable to conclude that its asking price was buying you the 6.8 million games it comes with, not to mention the over 70 thousand commented games, but that is only part of what you get. When you purchase Mega 2017, you also get a professional 12-month service that will keep your database completely up-to-date. Here is a tutorial on how to activate and use it.

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.

9/1/2016 – As the apps in ChessBase Account expand in functionality so does the ecosystem and their synergy with each other. The much modernized replayer that was recently introduced with powerful new features such as running an engine, maximizing the board and testing variations, now brings a new option: a one-button click to open the position in Fritz Online where you can play against it and practice your skills. Here is an introduction to this new function.

8/13/2016 – Among the most recent updates to the ChessBase Account apps is Fritz Online. In its first incarnation, a placeholder, it was a barebones board with playing functions. Now it has the look and options of the other advanced apps, but it also brings a powerful new tool called ‘Assisted Calculation’ that is designed to help you develop your visualization and calculation skills. Learn about this great tool and how it can raise your game in this step-by-step-guide.