The Queens' Online Chess Festival returns in March 2026 for its sixth edition, offering a free, month-long celebration of women's chess around International Women’s Day. Organised by the FIDE Commission for Women's Chess, the event features a global Women's Open with continental qualifiers and a...
The semifinals of the Speed Chess Championship in London took place on Saturday at 180 Studios. It began with Magnus Carlsen facing Denis Lazavik, and was followed by the match between Hikaru Nakamura and Alireza Firouzja. Carlsen defeated Lazavik 17–9. The encounter between Firouzja and Nakamura...
ChessBase´26 offers a unique range of professional features. This series gives users of ChessBase tips for the first important steps. In the first part of this series we showed you how to enter and save your own games. In part 2 of our tutorial we will show you how to add new variations to a game...
This article talks about how a frightening diagnosis unfolds into an unexpected but tender journey. Ariana Hinckley-Boltax is diagnosed with cancer and undergoes surgeries and chemotherapy. During such an uncertain period, chess became an escape and a comfort zone for her. Her dream of attending...
The final weekend of the Speed Chess Championship moves from the online arena to a live stage in London, where the semifinals and title match are being played in front of spectators. The event combines rapid, blitz and bullet segments. | Follow the games live with expert commentary. On Saturday,...
In this episode, Svitlana takes on one of the most aggressive setups against the Modern Defence: the Austrian Attack. She explains the key ideas behind White’s early central pawn storm, typical attacking plans, and what you should be aiming for before the tactics even begin. A practical,...
A regular fixture in the German "Schachkalender", edited by Wolf Böese and Stefan Löffler, is the biographical puzzle. Yesterday we asked which player would have celebrated a milestone birthday today. Here's the solution…
Just two years after its launch, the New Zagreb Classic has become one of Europe's largest open tournaments, attracting more than 500 players from dozens of federations. Conceived by local organisers to give young talents broader competitive opportunities, the event combines a compact weekend...
On Sunday you have the opportunity to see a legendary chess mind: Alexander Beliavsky, a four-time USSR Champion, three-time Olympiad Champion, who has defeated no fewer than nine World Champions. In a live training session at the Kasparov Chess Foundation Academy "Big Al", as he is known for his...
The President of the Georgian Chess Federation and FIDE official Akaki Iashvili visited the ChessBase office in Hamburg to familiarise himself with the company’s training and educational programs. He was particularly impressed by the children’s chess learning program Fritz & Chesster. ChessBase...
Take as look at this position. Is there any way you can stop the two black pawns that are ready to promote? And actually win this game? There are three challenging positions to solve on our live diagrams. And in a few days we will provide full explanations and strategies – in video clips. It is a...
A regular fixture in the German "Schachkalender", edited by Wolf Böese and Stefan Löffler, is the biographical puzzle. The task is to identify a player who is celebrating a milestone birthday this year.
Baadur Jobava and Nino Batsiashvili claimed their fifth national titles at the 2026 Georgian Chess Championships, held in Tbilisi from late January to early February. Jobava led the open tournament from the early rounds and finished unbeaten, while Batsiashvili dominated the women's event with a...
Paula Wolf-Kalmar only came to chess at the age of 30, but then went on to compete in three Women’s World Championships. However, she died young from diabetes. Much about the biography of the Austrian chess pioneer remains unclear. With his detective-like flair, Alan McGowan has brought order to...
The final weekend of the Speed Chess Championship moves from the online arena to a live stage in London, where the semifinals and title match will be played in front of spectators. After earlier knockout rounds held online, four players remain: Magnus Carlsen, Denis Lazavik, Hikaru Nakamura and...
"Many players use ChessBase, it is the most popular chess software by far, writes GM Iniyan Pa. "Yet, not many people are fully aware of all of its features, and fail to utilise most of them. In this guide I have tried to show the features that I think are vital and important so that the user may...
The chess world has undergone a significant transformation in recent years. From a game on the fringes of public interest, it has become part of the media mainstream. This year will see several major events and developments that promise to have a profound impact on the future of chess. Milan...
The Löwenthal Variation of the Sicilian Defence is often treated with caution in theoretical discussions. Yet detailed investigation by Nico Zwirs suggests the line holds more practical value than its reputation implies. By combining enterprising attacking setups with more measured, positionally...
FIDE traces the history of the Candidates Tournament, the event that determines who earns the right to challenge for the world chess title. Established in 1950 to replace earlier informal arrangements, the Candidates has evolved through different formats and eras, reflecting changes in the...
Keep Friday free! You all remember "The Queen's Gambit," the Netflix series telling the story of the (fictional) chess prodigy Beth Harmon. It quickly became the platform’s most-watched miniseries. Now Netflix is doing it again, but this time it's about the (real-life) strongest female chess...
The 2026 Israel Open Chess Championship, held in Acre from 19 to 27 January, brought together 103 players from across the country for a nine-round Swiss tournament. Nineteen-year-old GM Yahli Sokolovsky (pictured, right) emerged as the clear winner with 7½/9 and a 2694 performance rating,...
In this analytical column, GM Jon Speelman explores how winning lines can hide behind unexpected variations, even when a position appears manageable. Drawing on a missed opportunity from his own 4NCL game and a sharp encounter from Wijk aan Zee between Matthias Bluebaum and prodigy Yagiz Kaan...
MegaBase 2026 is Chess History in action. Regularly updated every month, the Main Database currently offers 11.8 million games, many of them annotated. Here our columnist offers a review with focus on chess in the 21st Century.
The results of this year’s Tata Steel tournament could not yet be taken into account in the FIDE rating list of 1 February. There was, however, some movement in the women’s world ranking. With her results in the Chinese League, Hou Yifan has fallen below 2600 for the first time since 2013, but...
The Muscat Nights International Chess Championship brought together a strong international field in Oman's capital for nine rounds of classical play alongside a mid-event blitz tournament. In Open A, a six-way tie for first place left the title to be decided on tiebreaks, with Leon Luke Mendonca...