4/13/2017 – When annotating a game, aside from the usual elements such as verbal commentary, or chess notation symbols, but some of the most powerful tools in ChessBase are the colored arrows or squares that can show an idea at a glance. The secret to using them is only found in the Help file though… or in this simple tutorial.

4/6/2017 – One of the nice things about a program such as ChessBase or Fritz is the ability to be able to customize it the way you like. It is no secret you can move the pane (windows) around so the engine window is on top, on the bottom, on the side, but this is not always obvious. In this quick tutorial, you will learn how to move them around and how to save your favorite setup.

3/10/2017 – ChessBase 14 has introduced a brand new way of analyzing chess positions with the help of the latest feature called Assisted Analysis. In this article we will be acquainting you with all the intricacies of Assisted Analysis and also show you how Grzegorz Gajewski's task of finding novelties for Vishy Anand is greatly simplified!

3/6/2017 – Have you played a game of chess that you were always proud of? You wanted to share this game with others, but never really found a way to reach the maximum audience. Well, the developers at ChessBase have come up with a way to upload your best game to the best chess database – the Mega Database 2017 and share it with the world. Here's how you do it:

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.

2/6/2017 – Davide Nastasio wanted to take his game to the next level. He bought ChessBase 14 along with Mega Database 2017 and started experimenting with it. He was amazed at the things he could do with these tools. After working for a few days, he realised that CB 14 and Mega 2017 allowed him to not only study master games, but also analyse them, learn from world class annotators and find out errors in his own game. He now shares his experience with you in this detailed review.

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.

1/12/2017 – In chess publishing, there is nothing quite as ubiquitous as the chess diagram. From the first chess books in the 1500s to the latest articles on the web 500 years later, diagrams are a key element of the tale. It may seem astonishing therefore that even with today’s ease of technology no one has attempted to improve on it, other than the artwork. Until now that is, as ChessBase introduces a set of tools to include dynamic diagrams in your online articles.

12/16/2016 – When a grandmaster analyzing a game, professes a move or type of move as exceptionally challenging for an engine, it is obviously going to be scrutinized left and right. That is precisely what happened in the analysis of Fabiano Caruana’s fantastic queen sacrifice against Hikaru Nakamura in game six of the London Classic. The comments on engines were not entirely wrong, but as we will see, there are notable exceptions! Learn how the entire sacrifice could have been solved in seconds.

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!

12/12/2016 – One of the things that has long been a hardcore difference between the program ChessBase and Fritz has been the automated analysis features. When it came to automated functionality, ChessBase only offered database research and reports, while engine analysis was available manually only. This has slowly changed with Let’s Check, and Deep (position) Analysis, but finally ChessBase 14 introduces complete independent game analysis with Tactical Analysis. Read on to find out 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.

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.

7/6/2016 – Since a few days a new "replayer" is used on the ChessBase websites. Of course, you can replay games with it but you can also add an engine to analyse the game and you can enter and analyse variations. In conjunction with the ChessBase Cloud the replayer also offers possibilities, which are particularly interesting for tournament organisers who want to share the games of their tournament. And that's how it's done...

5/16/2016 – It is no secret that top players are able to access powerful computers to run a chess engine from anywhere in the world using their laptops. The idea might sound complicated, requiring a technician at the very least to set up. Not so. With Fritz software you can easily set this up for yourself in a minute (really) with a minimum of know-how. Here is a video to teach you how.

4/12/2016 – Continuing the series of video tutorials on the various apps in ChessBase Account, here is the second part on MyGames Cloud, an app that has it all: creating private databases online, annotating games in detail, and more. Here you will learn how to manage databases and move games from one to the next in ChessBase 13 or entirely from your browser!

3/29/2016 – One of the most powerful tools in the ChessBase Account feature set is MyGames Cloud, a comprehensive database and game editor. If you are seeking to create and maintain databases directly online, or enter and annotate games from a browser to save in a cloud database, this is where you have it all. In order to get started, and covering the basics, here is a video tutorial.

3/21/2016 – Whether you are watching a live broadcast on multiple boards , or playing a game, the web app for Playchess offers the complete experience. You can play a quick bullet game to scratch that chess itch, watch some top players play, or open up eight boards or more all directly in your browser, even running an engine! Here is a video overview.

3/17/2016 – Of all of new web apps in ChessBase Account, the one that undoubtedly offers the greatest value would be the Videos section. Available only to Premium subscribers, it literally offers hundreds of hours of viewing material with dozens of commercial videos from the ChessBase Shop available for free. To see what goodies there are, watch this video guided tour.

3/16/2016 – In this video tutorial, you will learn about the Tactics solver, designed to allow you to test and work your tactics, and raise your game to a higher standard. It will keep track of your results, give you a rating, and adjust the difficulty to your performance. It has been used extensively by amateurs and top players. Learn all about it in this video presentation.

3/15/2016 – With the arrival of the latest web apps for ChessBase account subscribers, the biggest challenge for users has been in trying to make the most of them. Although written tutorials have been published on all of them, some people just respond better to a visual presentation. As such, a new series of video tutorials on each will be created, starting with a general overview.