7/15/2023 – While engines on powerful hardware are ever closer to chess perfection, draws tend to happen more and more. However, even perfection does not need to be dull, and at the 2023 World Computer Chess Championship, a spectacular game took place between Fritz running on 192 cores (!) and Stoofvlees using massive GPUs. See the video on this tactical slugfest!

7/14/2023 – The 2023 World Chess Software Championship was just held in Valencia, Spain, and impressively Fritz defended its title by winning it a second year straight. This event saw a very high number of draws, which might lead you to think it was a dull affair, but as you will see in one of them, it was a guns ablazing fight in OK Corral with two rook sacrifices spaced four moves apart no less!

10/20/2022 – You've seen videos using it, and articles displaying it, and here is the tutorial on how to use it in all its glory. The Engine Correlation in Let's Check can be a wonderful tool when used properly and comes with a variety of options in both ChessBase 16 and the Fritz interface. Here is the easy-to-use definitive guide.

10/17/2022 – There are several ways to check a player's performance using an engine. One is to simply ask an engine to analyze every move and highlight every disagreement however small. Another is to use the tool in ChessBase and Fritz known as Let's Check. Here are the results from the recent Sinquefield Cup including a 100% match and the curiously high results by...

8/10/2022 – The 2022 World Computer Chess championship was just held, and was the first edition since 2019 and the outbreak of the pandemic. After over two years, the traditional event took place in Vienna, Austria, and the winners were Ginkgo AKA Fritz using new neural net technology, and a powerful new Komodo (free update today!). Don't miss Komodo's fantastic knight sacrifice (with video!). (photo: Erdo Gunes, operator of Komodo)

7/22/2022 – Years back, when the first iteration of the Fritz Online app came out, it was a barebones deal: Attractive, and good for a game, but not the most compelling option to train against. A bit problematic as this was its purpose, but it has undergone many revisions since, and revisiting it you will be surprised at how interesting and fun it can be.

11/24/2021 – After 30 years, chess programs are now gradually reaching a level at which one can reasonably play against them. With Fritz 18 you have an unprecedented opportunity to train and learn sharp openings, helping you master the tactical motifs that are otherwise invisible in the 'perfect play' of normal computer games. Fritz 18 will even help you set up tactical tricks and sacrifices for you to deliver!

10/26/2021 – While entering moves, writing comments, and evaluating positions are the most fundamental aspects of chess annotation, there is little doubt that illustrating the board with well-placed arrows, and timely highlighted squares can tell you in a glance you can see what is going on without a single variation or comment. Be sure to have these tools in your tool kit.

10/7/2021 – Solving tactical puzzles can be fun, but what if you could automatically create your own, even from your own games? Nothing could be easier thanks to the analysis tools in both the Fritz interface or ChessBase. In fact, it can be a fun way to review your online games and be tested on the moves where you or your opponent missed a shot. Read on to learn how!

9/27/2020 – After diving into a philosophical puzzle, we are back on track with our logic riddles for chess players. In our ninth part of the series, we have two chess engines competing against each other. Funnily enough, they seem to be exactly equally strong, and the championship cannot find a decisive winner until someone is able to find a solution to this problem.

5/26/2020 – The logic riddles series has a new companion with the philosophical section. The riddles are all solvable but also debatable and paradox. One solution is not necessarily the only one and various ways to solve a puzzle can be found. The first riddle in this new series concentrates on a solution, which might be clear for some people, but wouldn't make any sense for others. Give it a try, think about the options to solve the riddle and you are more than welcome to post your solution in the comment section.

2/5/2019 – The recent World Championship in London was closely followed by Europe's largest (and most influential) news portal. Der Spiegel had live coverage and game commentary. They also posted a three-part series on the history of chess programming, authored by Frederic Friedel, emeritus editor of this news page. In the early 1980s Frederic was instrumental to bringing computer chess to the attention of the German public, and in 1987 he co-founded ChessBase. Here is part one of his series.

11/27/2017 – We recently published an article on the ultimate PC for chess, designed for the pro on the road, or the enthusiast seeking the best, setting a budget ceiling of $2000-$2500. The question many asked was what about those who cannot spend so much? The size of the budget isn’t everything, and here is a full PC with eight cores of chess processing power for just $500!

11/23/2017 – Over the years the "Thoresen Chess Engines Competition" (TCEC) has become the unofficial Computer World Championship and the very best programs start in this tournament. After two qualifiers, season 10 now finishes with the superfinal in which Komodo faces Houdini. They play 100 games against each other, and the games are shared live on PlayChess. As a bonus, we bring you a brief modern history of computer chess. @StockfishLegalNotice

11/12/2017 – When is chess the most enjoyable? When you win! But computers have become far too strong and won't allow their human owners that satisfaction. Until now. The latest iteration of our flagship program has advanced handicap features that make it behave like an average human player. At the same time it is a full-blooded trainer that will teach you how to think – in grandmasterly style. Fritz 16 also comes with other very useful functions, like voice recognition, spell checking, and much more. It also has a completely overhauled navigation. Take a look.

11/7/2017 – The name says it all: Powerbook. This DVD contains over 21 million opening positions, the current opening knowledge. For study and training — your own opening repertoire gains a power boost.

10/13/2017 – An introductory tutorial to using ChessBase 14, from our resident expert. Learn installation and activation, navigating the program, working with databases, entering games, training, the cool "assisted analysis" feature, how to use Fritz as a sparring partner effectively, advanced search functions, creating a custom repertoire against your next opponent, and using databases in the cloud! You'll want to bookmark this for future reference for sure!

11/25/2015 – As you may have noticed – if you pay attention to the info screen that appears the first time you come to our news page – the latest 64 bit multiprocessor version of our flagship program is now available. Not only is it stronger than any Fritz we have previously released, it also has some amazing new training features. And it gives you access to the great new ChessBase Account World.

9/6/2015 – Whether you are using Fritz or ChessBase on a small laptop, or a large desktop screen, some parts such as the notation or computer analysis can have even healthy eyes squinting a bit to read the information. Also, perhaps you'd like a larger board to play through the moves. In the following guide, you will learn how to configure it for the most pleasant experience possible.

6/30/2015 – Among the various new free Web apps created by ChessBase, the Tactics Training is probably the one that promises the most immediate benefit for your play, whether you’re a master or an amateur. Since it first came out, it has undergone several refinements, making it a must for any student of the game working seriously, or just for fun, automatically calibrating the difficulty.

4/30/2015 – Over the last couple of years, ChessBase has been releasing a series of apps that run exclusively in the browser, and thus on any operating system, whether it be Windows, MacOS, or Linux. These powerful tools have a few things in common, notably they are all free, and they all have addresses that end in chessbase.com. Here is a detailed overview.

11/13/2014 – In this second part of the tutorial exploring the automated options to analyze your games, you will see how to get quick and efficient analysis of your online games in just seconds, or full analysis with opening references, and human-like verbal commentary. You will also find tips for preferred settings to get you started in this step-by-step guide with a new video tutorial.

11/12/2014 – One of the chief attractions of the Fritz interface is the many options to automatically analyze your games and help you reach your potential. We often shy away from this, since if the world's elite can blunder, imagine the less privileged players. However, they can do more than show us our mistakes if you look at it from the right perspective. Learn how in this new video tutorial.

6/7/2014 – In this final part on how to use Fritz to analyze your games or those of others, we will look at the new Let's Check function, and notably how to enlist others to analyze the game in depth for you in less time than you could achieve, as well as the batch analysis functions that enable you to analyze several games at once and even entire databases if you choose. Easy mastery of Fritz.