6/4/2019 – Bassem Amin has many firsts to his name. The Egyptian Grandmaster is a five-time African chess champion and the only player from Africa to have ever crossed the 2700 Elo mark. He serves on FIDE's Global Strategy Commission. Besides being a top chess player, he is also a doctor. Amin recently played for the club Clichy Echecs 92 in the French Top 12 championship in Brest in western France. DHANANJAY KHADILKAR caught up with Amin to talk on a range of issues from his performance in the first leg of the Grand Chess Tour to juggling chess career with medical studies.

5/6/2019 – Maxime Vachier-Lagrave would have remained undefeated in the recently concluded Grenke Chess Classic tournament had it not been for the final round loss against Magnus Carlsen. One of the most talked about points of their encounter was the French grandmaster's move 10...b5, a move that left many puzzled. In an exclusive interview with DHANANJAY KHADILKAR for ChessBase, the 28-year-old speaks on a variety of subjects from playing against Carlsen to his hopes of qualifying for next year's Candidates tournament. And, he also explains why he made that particular move.

4/18/2019 – On Thursday at 15:00 UTC (17:00 CEST / 11 AM EDT), join us for a live question and answer session with world number two Fabiano Caruana, who will tackle ChessBase reader questions for about 30 minutes. Post your question in the comments section below and you'll be entered into a contest for a new Opening Encyclopedia autographed by Fabiano!

4/17/2019 – In the beginning of March 2019, FIDE Vice-President GM Nigel Short, came to Atlanta for a brief visit to his daughter. Unfortunately his daughter had a big movie project in Greece, so he found himself stranded in Atlanta! But there was a happy ending: thanks to the Atlanta Chess community, he had a warm welcome in the Peach state. Kudos to the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Atlanta (from now on abbreviated as CCSCATL) it was possible to organize a lecture, and a simul in record time! DAVIDE NASTASIO was there.

4/11/2019 – Once upon a time, in a now nearly forgotten past, when phones were attached to walls, or rested on furniture, and "to dial" meant to carefully rotate a disc, a young man, just 13, entered the world of chess. As always, the chess journey is quite harsh, in fact he lost all the games of his first tournament. But persistence, and his love for the sport, made him go on, 'till a decade later he became a Grandmaster! Here we can read more about the story and chess journey of Greek GM Efstratios Grivas, who recently celebrated his 53rd birthday.

3/21/2019 – Russian GM Nikita Vitiugov recently won the 1st Prague Masters in the Czech capital — one of his best results to date. Afterwards he sat down for a brief interview to recap the success and look ahead to a full 2019 chess calendar that will include the FIDE Grand Prix and presumably the Grand Swiss too. | Photo: Macauley Peterson

3/16/2019 – He became an IM at the age of 19. The next logical step would have been to work towards his GM title. But Armin Juhasz from Hungary had different plans. He decided to devote his time towards becoming a trainer. Working hard on the subject he was able to create a World under-12 champion, a Hungarian champion and much more. What attracted the youngster to the field of training at such a young age? How does he prepare and what according to him are the qualities that a good coach must have? IM SAGAR SHAH decided to find out. | Photo: www.theophoto.hu

1/28/2019 – Sergei Tiviakov, grandmaster, diligent author and busy chess trainer, added new opening DVDs to his ChessBase oeuvre last week. Earlier this year, he ran a training camp in Belarus and described his impressions to the Belarus Chess Federation. We're giving his interview here in translation from Russian. | Photo: André Schulz

1/12/2019 – If Vlastimil Hort did not exist one would have to invent him. He was born in Kladno, Czechoslovakia, on January 12, 1944, and in the 1970s he was one of the world's best players and World Championship candidate. He also enriched chess with his stories full of wit, humour and a deep knowledge about the game he loves. Today, Vlastimil Hort celebrates his 75th birthday. | Drawing: Ottokar Masek

12/26/2018 – About a month ago, Nona Gaprindashvili took clear first at the 65+ Women's World Senior Championship. During her stay in Bled, the European Chess Academy made a lengthy interview with the living legend. Nona talks about personal experiences and gives her opinion on topics ranging from the Carlsen-Caruana match to her love for the Dinamo Tbilisi football club. | Photo: Hans Peters / Anefo

12/24/2018 – On December 24th, 1868 Emanuel Lasker, World Champion from 1894 to 1921, was born. To celebrate this 150-year jubilee the first volume of a monumental trilogy about Lasker recently appeared. In an interview with HARTMUT METZ, Dr Michael Negele, one of the editors and driving forces behind this trilogy, talked about Lasker, the trilogy, and the motivation to carry out such a monumental project. | Pictured: Dr Michael Negele and Dr Richard Forster signing the first volume | Photo: Archive Michael Negele

11/23/2018 – Today is the birthday of ChessBase's endgame expert, Grandmaster Karsten Mueller. Recently he was interviewed by Sagar Shah of ChessBase India, who writes, "the interview is amazing, packed with great stories, analysis and your thoughts on different topics of great importance."

11/7/2018 – Norwegian Twitter translation trafficker Tarjei Svensen strikes again sampling another Carlsen interview, this time with VG. The tabloid newspaper spoke with the World Champ (in his native language) as he wrapped up preparations for the upcoming match with Fabiano Caruana. | Photos: Alina l'Ami Players.Chessbase.com

10/25/2018 – Weekends are quite busy for chess players, with tournaments of all kinds being organized. DAVIDE NASTASIO was lucky to witness the Georgia State Women's Championship held at the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Atlanta, and interview the winner, Alisa Scherbakova, who shares her insights along with games from the tournament. | Photo: Davide Nastasio

9/22/2018 – Today is the birthday of Swiss Grandmaster Yannick Pelletier, who was born in Biel in 1976. During the Biel Chess Festival, where he served as the Tournament Director for the GM tournament, he was interviewed by Macauley Peterson and we bring you the full audio as well as transcribed highlights. Pelletier explains how he got into professional chess and the evolution of his career which will soon include magazine publishing. | Photo: Biel Chess Festival

9/7/2018 – As we are privileged with so many interesting visitors and authors coming to the ChessBase office in Hamburg and frequenting our studio, we often try to grab them for a few quick questions to see how they are and what's new. This time it was GM Nicholas Pert who visited us in Hamburg in order to prepare a new Fritztrainer. Here's a short impromptu interview, and Nick was also a guest on Karsten Mueller's Endgame Magic show. | Photos: Nadja Wittmann

9/7/2018 – (Continued from Part 2) Wrapping up our tour of the extensive and high-quality Sinquefield Cup coverage on the Saint Louis Chess Club YouTube Channel, we've pulled out a number of the interviews and bonus material you may have missed. Have a look and keep it in mind for future reference. There are game annotations from GM Daniel Fernandez too!

9/5/2018 – (Continued from Part 1) One of the chief draws of any Grand Chess Tour event is the extensive and high-quality coverage on the Saint Louis Chess Club YouTube Channel. We've pulled out a number of the interviews and bonus material you may have missed from the Sinquefield Cup. So, break out the popcorn and kick back!

8/30/2018 – One of the chief draws of any Grand Chess Tour event is the extensive and high-quality coverage on the Saint Louis Chess Club YouTube Channel. The Sinquefield Cup was no exception. Here we've pulled out a number of the interviews and bonus material you may have missed over the past 10 days. Break out the popcorn and kick back!

8/6/2018 – Thanks to the new chess club in Atlanta there are always lot of tournaments and activities in the city and on July 28th and 29th there was a five-round Open tournament won by U.S. National Master Shanmukha Meruga. DAVIDE NASTASIO took the opportunity to arrange an interview and annotate the winner's games for this tournament, providing a snapshot of the USA Open tournament circuit.

7/27/2018 – Arkady Dvorkovich has been on tour for his electoral campaign and made stops at the Biel International Chess Festival and, a day after, at the Sparkassen Chess-Meeting in Dortmund (where he made the ceremonial first move for the game Kovalev-Kramnik). Macauley Peterson and Georgios Souleidis interviewed him on topics ranging from his plans for FIDE if elected, his connection to the Russian government, Agon, and political campaign wrangling. | Photo: Georgios Souleidis

7/18/2018 – Today is the 40th anniversary of the start of the 1978 World Championship match between Anatoly Karpov and Viktor Korchnoi in Baguio, the Philippines. To mark the occasion we bring you an epic interview from DAVID LLADA, who spoke to the 12th World Champion following his 184th tournament win in Plato d'Aro, outside of Barcelona, Spain. | Photo: David Llada

7/16/2018 – An interview with a living legend! IM SAGAR SHAH spoke with GM Eugenio Torre who reminisces about the years of his prime, talks about his struggles and reasons his failures. He also talks about the advents of Vishy Anand and Wesley So, his love for Chess960 and suggests an interesting scoring system to reduce the rampant draws in top level chess. | Photo: David Llada

7/6/2018 – R Praggnanandhaa recently qualified for the Grandmaster title at the Gredine Open in Italy. Besides scoring his final grandmaster norm with a round to spare, the little champ also finished joint first in the tournament alongside GM Ivan Saric. But this success came after a dismal finish at the Schaakweek Apeldoorn where he had finished at the bottom of the leaderboard. In this interview, he tells how he remains confident despite setbacks, his meeting with Vishy Anand and his preference for sambhar and rice over pizza. | Pictured: Praggnanandhaa received a grand welcome on his return to India | Photo: Arun Sekhar