9/19/2019 – In 1970 Bobby Fischer played his last Olympiad — in Siegen, Germany. After the Olympiad he gave two simuls in Germany, one in Solingen, one in Münster. Now the score sheets of the games, unknown pictures of Fischer and newspaper articles about the simul in Münster were rediscoved. A remarkable find! | Photos: Norbert Rauch

9/12/2019 – Bobby Fischer is a legend, so much so that even people who knew him sometimes find it difficult to distinguish between fact and fiction when they hear stories about Fischer. Vlastimil Hort knew Fischer and played against him. Recently, Hort rediscovered a letter Fischer had sent him and this letter evoked memories of the controversial chess genius. | Photos: Wolfgang Betzen (Schachclub Wangen)

7/23/2019 – Today, in the times of data gathering, data security and strict privacy rules, it is hard to imagine but in the 1960s chess yearbooks could and did publish the addresses of famous chess players. Which now allows you to virtually visit the houses in which Fischer, Fine, Denker and other chess players had lived in New York in 1966. | Photo: World Chess Hall of Fame, St. Louis

7/8/2019 – This is one of the most elegant chess problems we have ever seen. It was composed by the master, Pal Benko when he was just fifteen. Five pieces, four on their original squares, and the task is to force mate in three moves. That is quite difficult: Bobby Fischer failed to find the solution in half an hour. Can you do better – and can you find a correction for the minor dual that was found in the problem? You can win a nice prize if you do.

4/12/2019 – From 1928, the Argentine city of Mar del Plata has hosted a large number of remarkable chess events. The 50th edition of the "Abierto de Mar del Plata" will take place on April 13th-20th, with about two-hundred players participating. SERGIO NEGRI takes us through some of the biggest chess milestones that transpired in the tourist destination, which even gave name to a variation of the King's Indian Defence. | Photo: Leandro Kibisz (CC BY-SA) via Wikimedia Commons

3/22/2019 – Would you dare to play 30.Rxf7 in the diagram position? The 11th world champion did, a good omen — but can you walk the talk following Black's reply 30...Rc1+ then?

2/27/2019 – In the 1930s and 1940s Arnold Denker (February 20, 1914 – January 2, 2005) was one of the strongest players in the US and in 1944 and 1946 he became US Champion. After the end of his chess career Denker became a successful businessman, chess promoter and chess official. He is also the co-author of "The Bobby Fischer I knew", a wonderful and charming collection of chess memories. On February 20, 2019 Denker would have celebrated his 105th birtday.

2/27/2019 – Which are the commonest words in the English language, which are the most common girls' and boys' names? Today it is possible to calculate these things fairly easily, but it becomes really useful if you are able to present the results in a comprehensible way. Like with dynamic graphs and bubbling. This was done very nicely for historical chess strength in 2016 by Abacaba, a site that makes videos about data and math. Now a YouTube channel called TheRanker has published a 10-minute video visualisation tracking official FIDE ratings from 2000 to the present. It is informative, interesting and even relaxing to watch.

1/16/2019 – What if Bobby Fischer had played Anatoly Karpov in 1975? It's a persistent question and thought experiment that fascinates our readers, but also contributor STEPHAN OLIVER PLATZ, who shares a computer simulated 1975 World Chess Championship match, to add his own fuel to the fires of speculation.

1/5/2019 – Sixty years ago, on January 4th 1959, 15-year-old Bobby Fischer won his second US Championship with a draw against Robert Byrne. A year before, Fischer had won his first US championship at the age of 14. In defending the title, the eventual world champion showed excellent opening knowledge and endgame skills, but above all, fighting spirit. | Photo: Bobby Fischer in Portoroz 1958, tournament book

12/17/2018 – Robert Byrne was born on April 20th, 1928. Although he only became a chess professional after the age of 40, Byrne was one of the best players in the United States in the 1950s to 1970s. He died in 2013 at the age of 84 years. (Photo: Robert Byrne, 1969 against Boris Ivkov, source: Dutch National Archives)

11/8/2018 – In a day or two, Fabiano Caruana will challenge Magnus Carlsen. Will there be the new World Chess Champion by the end of the month? Commentator STEPHAN OLIVER PLATZ examines some history of the sixth World Champion, chess legend Mikhail Botvinnik, including select games against Capablanca, Alekhine, Reshevsky and Portisch. | Photo: J.D. Noske, Nationaal Archief, von li: Max Euwe, Vasily Smyslov, Paul Keres, Mikhail Botvinnik and Samuel Reshevsky.

11/5/2018 – Featuring archive photos of Fischer and his co-competitors never before published online, GM ALOJZIJE JANKOVIC takes you through the highlights and the history and previews the 2018 edition. In April 1965, the first Tournament of Peace took place in Zagreb, organised by the representatives of the city together with leading local players. It was a very strong field of 20 players, including reigning World Champion at that time, Tigran Petrosian, competing in a round-robin tournament. Bobby Fischer played in the second tournament of 1970, but after the fourth edition in 1985, the tournament went dark...until now. | Pictured: Bobby Fischer looks towards Teodor Boch (a sponsor) in Zagreb, 1970 | Photo: Erwin Sindik / Croatian Chess Federation

11/3/2018 – In the USA, chess fans are eagerly awaiting the World Championship match to see how Caruana fares as the first American to challenge the undisputed World Champion since 1972. But what about that other eagerly awaited contest that never was: Fischer-Karpov, 1975. It was a match that the whole chess world would have loved to see. Who can say what beautiful ideas the players would have shown us in their games? And who would have won? With statistical modelling, we can at least talk about the likely outcome of the match. Dr. MATTHEW WILSON, economics professor at Truman State University, takes a crack at it. | Artwork: Unknown (via Quora)

10/29/2018 – Chess is a beautiful game, but sometimes the beauty is not so obvious to an untrained eye. When an experienced grandmaster like SUNDARARJAN KIDAMBI carefully studies a game between two world-class players, you know that you are in for a treat. Kidambi doesn't do a superficial job. He puts himself into the shoes of Wesley So and tries to understand the logic behind his every move. When studied carefully, this can seriously help you improve your chess understanding as well as appreciate the art of the game.

8/23/2018 – For more than three decades Wolfgang Uhlmann was East Germany's number one player and in the 60s and 70s he was one of the world's best players. Uhlmann is particularly famous for his handling of the French Defense. After 1.e4 he invariably played 1...e6, no matter how well-prepared the opponent might be. Of course, he contributed a lot of ideas to the French. Conrad Schormann takes a look at one particularly useful and important defensive concept Uhlmann introduced into practice. | Photo: Eteri Kublashvili

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

6/22/2018 – If Garry Kasparov and Vladimir Kramnik could learn from the great Patriarch of chess Mikhail Botvinnik, we are sure you can also learn a great deal from this great master. Hence, ChessBase has launched its tenth DVD in the Master Class series in which capable tutors like GMsYannick Pelletier, Mihail Marin, Karsten Mueller and IM Oliver Reeh dissect the play of the fifth World Champion. In this article IM SAGAR SHAH explains how studying the classics helped him to become a stronger chess player. He shows you one of his favourite games of Botvinnik and how he applied what he learnt in his own game at the under-19 nationals back in 2007!

4/8/2018 – 75 years ago, March 9, 1943, Robert James Fischer was born in Chicago. He was genius and madman. In 1972 he became World Champion after winning a dramatic match against Boris Spassky in Reykjavik, and he is still considered as one of the greatest players of all time. Vlastimil Hort knew the 11th World Champion personally and shares memories of "Bobby". If you haven't already, read Part 1 and Part 2...

3/26/2018 – Looking back on the beauty and grandeur of Iceland's flagship event, the Reykjavik Open, with photos from International Master Alina l'Ami, annotated game highlights, and comments from the eventual winner Baskaran Adhiban.

3/18/2018 – Our fascination with Bobby Fischer never ends. When ChessBase mentioned an unknown game that came to haunt him for decades, one of our readers was quick to identify the encounter and send us on a memorable journey into the past. In the first part of the article our columnist recreated the drama surrounding that game, and here he unravels the mystery with inputs from GM Michael Bezold and Leonard Barden. | Photo of Pyotr Romanovsky: chesspro.ru

3/14/2018 – 75 years ago last Friday, on March 9, 1943, Robert James Fischer was born. His chess was clear, logical and powerful, but his behaviour off the board was erratic and irrational and later in his life he was mentally ill. A lot has been written about Fischer but he still remains a mystery. Vlastimil Hort knew the American chess genius personally and shares memories of Bobby.

3/13/2018 – Candidates tournaments have always been special tournaments. After all, the winner of the candidates becomes the challenger the reigning world champion and, possibly, new world champion. The candidates tournament 1959 was won by a brilliant Tal, the candidates tournament in Curacao 1962 caused a scandal. | Photo: Mihail Tal

3/9/2018 – Robert James Fischer was born on March 9, 1943. He died January 17th, 2008, and today he would have celebrated his 75th birthday. He was madman and genius, full of contradictions, and though much has been written about his life and games he still remains a mystery. Vlastimil Hort knew Fischer personally and shares memories of "Bobby". | Photo: Marshall Chess Club collection