3/7/2024 – The Philidor Defence is celebrated for its historical significance and varied tactical approaches, including the aggressive early f5 push and the more dubious line involving an early d4 pawn exchange and fianchetto. This video course, by GM Christian Bauer, shows the Philidor Defence's main positions and White's significant deviations, highlighting the nuanced manoeuvres in a semi-closed middlegame that challenge White's comfort.

2/28/2024 – The Queen’s Gambit Declined (QGD), is a highly popular opening for players of all levels, from absolute beginners to World Champions. Known for giving a solid position, many play this opening from the Black side, however, things aren’t as simple as they seem to be.

2/17/2024 – One of the most effective ways to improve your chess understanding is to know where your pieces belong and how to adapt when the board situation changes. When there’s no forced tactics, one must formulate a plan for what to do. Instead of looking for a win or advantage, it’s often easier to identify a piece that can improve its position and function. Even improving your worst piece is a simple concept that avoids assessment insecurity.

2/13/2024 – Month by month, we learn how to master, and tame the powerful Dragon, with Dragon expert Chris Ward. But do you know what's really annoying? When nobody wants to accept the Dragon against you! Chris heard all of your cries for help, and made a special episode of the basics, ideas, plans, traps, and more for plenty of Anti-Sicilians, and other openings, which try to dodge our beloved Sicilian Dragon. A "Must Watch" episode for everyone, who experienced something similar. (And we know, you have ...) | Photo: John Upham

2/7/2024 – Calling all ambitious players who are up for improving their calculation skills! In Calculation Training – Sharpen Your Game! a total of 73 examples have been selected, the vast majority containing multiple questions, and more than 160 questions of varying difficulty.

1/17/2024 – As everybody knows by now, d5 is perhaps one of the best continuations for Black in the main variation of the Yugoslav attack. But more and more players accept the variation and try to swap off queens on d4 differently, by playing the knight to a4! Finally, a trendy move for White is now to move the g-pawn forward one square!? How to deal with this as a Dragon lover? Chris Ward knows the answer, and it leads to spectacular, beautiful outcomes, of course. | Photo: John Upham

1/15/2024 – Every chess player likes to attack. Every chess player likes to put pressure on their opponent. But when the tables are turned, and we become the target of an attack, we may feel uncomfortable, anxious, and insecure. Yet, we can save an incredible number of defensive positions if we know the techniques and rules-of-thumb.

1/12/2024 – Between 2004 and 2007, 13th World Chess Champion Garry Kasparov recorded a large 3-volume Najdorf video course. ChessBase is publishing this great classic in a complete edition in the current ChessBase Media format. Learn from this classic of chess!

12/23/2023 – We’ve all experienced the evils of time trouble in our chess life. Time is ticking, panic is rising, and we make moves that we wouldn’t consider if we had more time on our clock. From winning to losing – all our effort is wasted because we couldn’t manage our time more efficiently. What is worse – we keep repeating this mistake over and over again.

12/22/2023 – In this video course, GM Surya Ganguly joins IM Sagar Shah and drawing from his colossal experience, shares some uncommon endgame wisdom. The material mostly features positions with rook against rook and a pawn, and starts by covering the fundamentals: Lucena, Philidor, and Vancura. But it quickly enters non-trivial territory, likely to challenge even masters: the slippery theoretical nuances of dealing with doubled pawns and pawns on the f- and h-files.

12/4/2023 – In today's episode, the Sicilian Dragon advances to a nail-biting endgame! But not without diving deeper into some other variations, options, plans and ideas. For example, a setup with two rooks, and two bishops, vs. queen, rook and bishop!| Photo: John Upham

11/13/2023 – Ivan Sokolov's long awaited "Understanding Middlegame Strategies" continues! The dutch Grandmaster and star coach released three new volumes on the French Winawer, Catalan Structures, and the French Tarrasch Variation.

11/10/2023 – In chess, there are many key elements: opening theory; endgame theory; middlegame strategy; and calculation of variations, based on tactics. In every area there are the most efficient and logical ways to perform chosen manoeuvres or improvements of the positions. Generally, we call these “technique”.

11/8/2023 – Chris Ward couldn't resist showing us a wonderful game of Arjun Erigaisi, defeating Ian Nepomniachtchi with the Dragon. Apparently, Erigaisi is watching the Monthly Dragon, since he used the advice by Chris, of last month's episode! But the Indian GM used a quite interesting path to keep the game going, which is normally used by club players.| Photo: John Upham

11/6/2023 – „Easy to learn and easy to play.“ These are the twin pillars on which the Modern Scandinavian has been built and which club players have trusted and profited from over the past few decades. Which line should Black adopt after 1 e4 d5 2 exd5 Qxd5 3 Nc3? Here we focus on the sharp 3...Qd6 as opposed to 3...Qa5 or 3... Qd8. All the main responses aside from 3 Nc3 are shown in exemplary games and the result is an insightful overview for club players which will stand the test of time and not require too much burning of the midnight oil.

10/16/2023 – The Caro-Kann Defence is very popular and as a 1.e4 player you definitely need a strong weapon against this solid and yet dangerous opening. Apart from todays hackneyed main lines (1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 and 3.e5), there are some other very interesting choices for White that each have their specific advantages and disadvantages.

9/27/2023 – The Dragon Master is back with a new episode! We already reviewed the possibility of trapping the white queen in an earlier show. In today's video, Chris points out how important this resource is to gain a strong advantage over White.| Photo: John Upham

9/21/2023 – The French Defence is very popular and is considered a solid opening for Black. How do you manage to gain an advantage with White against it? What are typical plans and how do you remember which idea to use and when? What should you know about the complex positions? German WGM Jana Schneider answers these questions on this video course. An expert practitioner of the Advance Variation with both colours, she shows typical plans and ideas to turn the space advantage in the centre into a victory.

9/20/2023 – IM Andrew Martin recently produced his upcoming Fritztrainer on the Black Knight Tango opening at the ChessBase Headquarters in Hamburg. We seized the opportunity to chat with him and delve into his extensive chess journey. Born and raised in London, Andrew turned to chess as a solace during a challenging childhood. This passion shaped his entire life around the captivating game. He's done it all: from authoring multiple books, collaborating closely with ChessBase, competing in tournaments, mentoring students, to even setting a simultaneous play world record against 321 opponents. The conversation with Andrew is profoundly insightful, offering listeners a wealth of knowledge.

8/30/2023 – In the last episode, Chris introduced the Hungarian Dragon. This time, the British GM will continue with some deviations of the popular variation. Beware, the following game is intense! It is definitely worth it to check out the full analysis. | Photo: John Upham

8/14/2023 – One opening variation in the Sicilian Dragon is getting more and more popular. The Hungarian Dragon! A somewhat "safer" Dragon than usual, with a twisty idea to push h5 forward very soon, and avoid all of White's pawn rushes better. Dragon tamer Chris Ward shows us a game, probably inspired by Richard Rapport, where our Dragon bishop causes some havoc on h3, instead of g2!| Photo: John Upham

7/27/2023 – Explore the mysteries of the powerful Janowski Variation of the Queen’s Gambit Declined with this brand-new video course! Immerse yourself in this fascinating chess opening and learn how to exploit it to destabilise your opponents. To approach the Janowski Variation, which arises after the moves 1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 (or 3.Nc3) a6, it is essential to understand the stakes of the position rather than accumulate a large amount of theory.

7/14/2023 – Usually regarded as a separate phase of the game, the endgame bears a tight connection with the middlegame (and in some extreme cases, with the opening). The process of simplifying to an endgame implies a series of subtleties and principles, highlighted on this video course. Ignoring them, could result into losing the middlegame advantage or getting the worst of it. How, when and which piece to exchange are the main questions requiring an accurate answer.

7/8/2023 – Magnus Carlsen likes to play with, and against the Dragon. Chris Ward found two recent games of the Norwegian GM, and shows us which variation the former World Champion chose to defeat the Sicilian, and how to counter the variation better. Furthermore, we dive into the win of Magnus, and what mistakes his strong opponent made. Remember, all the variations are available on Ward's Fritztrainers! | Photo: John Upham