12/21/2021 – Playing styles in chess are an important and thus often discussed topic. GM Dr. Karsten Müller and GM Luis Engel take up a model by GM Lars Bo Hansen based on 4 player types - namely ‘activists’, ‘pragmatics’, ‘theoreticians’ and so-called ‘reflectors’. Their respective strengths and weaknesses are explained with the help of many examples, enabling the reader to try and assign himself or herself to one or the other player type.

12/7/2021 – Not quite a London System and not quite a Veresov. The unusually named ‘Barry Attack‘ lies somewhere between the two. Yet another challenging queen pawn system that Black has to prepare for.

12/3/2021 – Game number 6 of the World Championship in Dubai, left Carlsen with two rooks against Nepomniachtchi's Queen. Such material imbalances occur frequently. But do you know how much better two rooks are against a queen? What about a rook against two minor pieces in the middle game? Or even three minor pieces vs. a queen? The Canadian WIM shows us plenty of examples by master players like Fischer, Kasparov, Polgar, Capablanca, Alekhine, and more, on what to look out for in her first Fritztrainer.

12/2/2021 – You are looking for an active answer to 1.d4? Then the Grünfeld Indian is an excellent choice! Not by chance this opening is one of the main weapons of some top grandmasters: with active play and emphasis on tactics, Black counters White’s strong centre, immediately facing him with concrete problems.

9/13/2021 – Do I have to defend against my opponent’s threat, or can I simply ignore it and look for my own chances? A typical question which has often been asked during practical play. This two volume series on Calculation in Attack & Defence is the ideal guide to develop a good sense for attacking play, while keeping an eye on your opponent’s defensive resources and possible counterplay against your own king. At the same time you’ll be challenged to defend against your opponent’s threats and, given the chance, turn the tables by launching a devastating counter-attack yourself.

9/2/2021 – The Scandinavian is one of the most direct approaches against 1.e4. Right from the first move Black is attacking White’s centre. A lot of players, especially club players, don’t like to face this line because of this aggressive character. Most of them flee into offbeat lines which are not very critical. The ones who dare to go for the mainlines need to remember a lot of lines. This makes the Scandinavian a perfect choice for your repertoire. In the Fianchetto Scandinavian, Dutch IM Nico Zwirs will share his experience with the love of his youth.

7/6/2021 – The English is becoming increasingly popular as White players avoid the heavy theory of 1.e4 or 1.d4 and hope to achieve a small advantage in a safe position. A lot of club players tend to focus on openings against 1.e4 and 1.d4 but neglect to study a response to the English. 1...e5 is a theoretically sound response with good chances of equality or better in all variations, and in this video series, Grandmaster Nicholas Pert provides a complete Black repertoire based on this move.

6/21/2021 – Hundreds of different Fritztrainers have been teaching us chess on ChessBase for more than a decade. Maybe you sometimes wonder what else the authors of these Fritztrainers do? "Meet the Fritztrainer" takes a look behind the scenes, telling us more about the private life of your favourite chess trainer. Grandmaster Jan Werle recently made the Fritztrainer: "The Saemisch Variation against the King's Indian and Benoni". In our interview, he tells us why his signature glasses are missing, and what his puppy "Molly" has to do with this, and that he also created something else than Fritztrainers, and books, during the last year. | Photos: Jan Werle

6/1/2021 – Chess education is based on examples of great players of the past. Most of the typical methods of attack, analogous plans and correct ways of conducting different endgames happened for the first time in their games. On the basis of these games, numerous books have been written about endgame subjects and endgame technique. Even concerning openings, the great Alexander Alekhine said that theory is simply the practice of the masters!

5/21/2021 – Practice what you preach: in a theme blitz tournament on playchess.com the well-known and popular ChessBase authors Rustam Kasimdzhanov, Mihail Marin, Robert Ris and Merijn van Delft showed why they like and what they know about the openings they present in their courses. If you missed the live transmission of the entertaining event on twitch.tv, here's a summary with highlights from the games.

5/17/2021 – The Fritztrainer thematic tournament starts today at 19:00 CEST (13:00 ET, 17:00 UTC) and will be hosted live on Twitch.tv by Daniel King and Arne Kaehler. The discount day, which starts Monday, 17 May, 18:00 CEST (12:00 ET, 16:00 UTC) offers a great opportunity to support your favourite Fritztrainer. But first and foremost, this tournament should be fun and it should offer us fine games with interesting openings to watch. We are looking forward to seeing the players in action: Rustam Kasimdzhanov, Mihail Marin, Merijn van Delft and Robert Ris.

5/14/2021 – On 17 May, 19:00 CEST (13:00 ET, 17:00 UTC) our Fritztrainers will compete against each other in a theme tournament with randomly picked Fritztrainer openings. Daniel King and Arne Kaehler will accompany them LIVE on Twitch.tv through the evening. Will the two Dutch IMs be able to hold their own against the Grandmasters from Uzbekistan and Romania? Which of the chosen Fritztrainer openings will perform best? Six different openings will be played, from the Benoni to the Traxler Counterattack.

4/15/2021 – The Open Spanish is considered to be one of the soundest systems in modern opening theory. It remains a popular choice among superstars such as Mamedyarov, Caruana, So and Giri and was used in World Championship matches by Kortschnoi and Anand. This is the first Fritztrainer by Grandmaster Sipke Ernst from the Netherlands.

4/1/2021 – As José Raúl Capablanca famously said: ”You may learn much more from a game you lose than from a game you win. You will have to lose hundreds of games before becoming a good player.” The Bongcloud attack might be the perfect opening for you to become a better player! While the main idea is to “shock” your opponent, the move 2.Ke2 signals your intention to plunge one of the most vulnerable pieces right onto the middle of the action. The king bravely states: ”Here I am folks! Try to get a piece of me.” The Bongcloud is a deadly weapon, and once you manage to pull it off, your opponents will be smoked.

3/6/2021 – The story goes that a low-rated player once bravely asked Viktor Korchnoi his advice about what opening to play against a stronger opponent. “Play Grünfeld” was the grumpy reply. “Play Grünfeld against everything apart from 1 e4.” Andrew Martin has no way of verifying this story, but it certainly inspired him to think about whether this was possible, and the end result is this new ChessBase course. One of our most famous and beloved Fritztrainers finally strikes back, and presents great ideas to go for the Grünfeld.

2/2/2021 – The Caro-Kann is one of the most solid and respected responses against 1.e4. Since it is so solid, the Caro-Kann is an absolute brainteaser for most 1.e4 players. If you like sharp and attacking lines against this solid opening, but the 3.Nc3 and 3.e5 lines are too theoretical and too explored for you, then the Panov is definitely the solution!

1/13/2021 – The Sicilian is the most popular opening against 1.e4 because it is theoretically sound but offers Black double-edged play at the same time. Whilst you must know how to handle the main line (2. Nf3 and 3.d4), sidelines are also very important. In this video series, Nicholas Pert gives a strong and practical Black repertoire against these sidelines such as the Bb5 Sicilian, the Grand Prix Attack, the Alapin and many more, from his years of experience playing the Sicilian.

1/7/2021 – Hundreds of different Fritztrainers have been teaching us chess on ChessBase for more than a decade. Maybe you sometimes wonder what else the authors of these Fritztrainers do? "Meet the Fritztrainer" takes a look behind the scenes, telling us more about the private life of your favourite chess trainer. We already had the pleasure to talk to GM Chris Ward, and in this second episode we turn our attention to IM Merijn van Delft. The Dutch IM talks a bit about his weekly show "Game of the week", his first Fritztrainer and what "chess" means to him. | Photos: Merijn van Delft

12/27/2020 – For 24 days, you could guess who our distorted and blurred Fritztrainers were. We received over 6000 emails in total! That's great! Thank you very much. From all the entries, we randomly selected three winners for each day. Furthermore, we raffled off T-shirts and masks with a ChessBase motif, as well as a few DVDs with signatures of grandmasters. Those who guessed all 24 days correctly, also entered into our super raffle. Maybe you are one of them? After all, there were 90 prizes to be won.

12/24/2020 – This year we are launching our "Christmas Fritztrainer Calendar". For the next 24 days, you can open one of our Fritztrainer doors daily, and guess: Which Fritztrainer is this? If you send us the correct answer by email, you are participating in a raffle to win plenty of prizes, including our big Christmas surprise packages!

12/23/2020 – This year we are launching our "Christmas Fritztrainer Calendar". For the next 24 days, you can open one of our Fritztrainer doors daily, and guess: Which Fritztrainer is this? If you send us the correct answer by email, you are participating in a raffle to win plenty of prizes, including our big Christmas surprise packages!

12/22/2020 – This year we are launching our "Christmas Fritztrainer Calendar". For the next 24 days, you can open one of our Fritztrainer doors daily, and guess: Which Fritztrainer is this? If you send us the correct answer by email, you are participating in a raffle to win plenty of prizes, including our big Christmas surprise packages!

12/21/2020 – This year we are launching our "Christmas Fritztrainer Calendar". For the next 24 days, you can open one of our Fritztrainer doors daily, and guess: Which Fritztrainer is this? If you send us the correct answer by email, you are participating in a raffle to win plenty of prizes, including our big Christmas surprise packages!

12/20/2020 – This year we are launching our "Christmas Fritztrainer Calendar". For the next 24 days, you can open one of our Fritztrainer doors daily, and guess: Which Fritztrainer is this? If you send us the correct answer by email, you are participating in a raffle to win plenty of prizes, including our big Christmas surprise packages!