ChessBase

• Grand Chess Tour Finals - Live!

  The 2026 Grand Chess Tour reaches its concluding event this weekend, with the four highest-ranked full-tour players competing in the GCT Finals at the Saint Louis Chess Club. Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu, Wesley So, Fabiano Caruana and Vincent Keymer take part in the knockout tournament, with runs from 22 to 27 August. | Follow the games live with expert commentary starting at 19.00 CEST (13.00 ET, 22.30 IST) | Photo: Lennart Ootes

• ChessBase Summer Special! – Part 8

  Dear chess friends! This week's Summer Special offers you a real powerhouse: The Fritz 21 and the Fritz Powerbook 2026 are available this week (until August 30, 2026) for €99.90 – save around €60!!

• GCT Finals: Pragg and Caruana to fight for the title

  Fabiano Caruana and Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu booked their places in the deciding match of the Grand Chess Tour Finals after prevailing in Monday's rapid and blitz section of the semifinals in Saint Louis. Praggnanandhaa clinched his match against Vincent Keymer with four games to spare, while Caruana completed an 18-12 win over Wesley So. The finalists will start from scratch on Tuesday, as Keymer and So contest the third-place match. | Photo: Lennart Ootes / Grand Chess Tour

• Upcoming tournaments and events

  Looking for an interesting over-the-board chess tournament to play, attend, or simply watch? There are plenty being staged all over the world, and we bring you an overviews of the most interesting of them – focused mainly on the period after the Chess Olympiad, with events from early October through the beginning of November. We do this in cooperation with MyChess.events, a global platform that helps players discover upcoming events, check dates, venues, formats, prize funds and registration details.

• Austrian Championship: Horvath defends title, Badelka victorious in women's category

  GM Dominik Horvath successfully defended his title at the 2026 Austrian National Championship. With 6½ points, he edged out IM Laurenz Borrmann on tiebreaks, who also scored 6½ points and achieved a grandmaster norm. In the Oberbank Challenger Open, young German IM Ruben Gideon Köllner triumphed with 7½ points. Olga Badelka was the top performer in the Open and thus claimed the women's national title. | Pictured (from left): Laurenz Borrmann, Dominik Horvath and Valentin Baidetskyi | Photo: Peter Kranzl

• GCT Finals: Keymer loses from winning position

  Drama in the second game of the semifinals at the Grand Chess Tour Finals: Vincent Keymer had black against Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu, and after a relatively quiet opening the position became increasingly complicated as both players ran short of time. Keymer reached a winning position, but in an almost hopeless situation Praggnanandhaa managed to capture the German star's rook with a king move and went on to secure the point. There was plenty of tension in the other semifinal as well. Wesley So found himself under severe pressure after a novelty by Fabiano Caruana, but Caruana allowed his opponent to escape with a draw. | Photo: Lennart Ootes / Grand Chess Tour

• Quo vadis, Fischer Random Chess? (1)

  As you have noticed, this form of chess is becoming increasingly popular. Everyone seems to like it, sponsors are lining up to stage high-prize tournaments, even World Championships. In this series we look back at the origin of Fischer-Random, Chess960 or Freestyle, as it is now called, and discuss the reasons for its popularity. In the end we will propose some modifications to the rules and how the game should be played. Stay tuned.

• Sinquefield Cup Tiebreaks - Live!

  The Sinquefield Cup is taking place on 10-20 August at the Saint Louis Chess Club. It is a 10-player single round-robin with a classical time control. Besides battling for a share of the $475,000 prize fund, players battle to get one of the four spots in the upcoming Grand Chess Tour Finals. Follow the games live starting at 19.00 CEST (13.00 ET, 22.30 IST) | Photo: Lennart Ootes

• Andrew Martin: Evans & Friends Vol.1 & 2

  IM Andrew Martin presents a complete White repertoire after 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3, with the Evans Gambit as its aggressive centerpiece for tactically minded players up to around 1800 Elo. Volume 1 covers the key lines, attacking ideas and traps of the Evans Gambit, while Volume 2 provides practical answers to the Petroff, Philidor, Two Knights Defense, Hungarian Defense and several sharp gambits and traps. The aim is a ready to play repertoire that seizes the initiative early, sharpens tactical vision and puts Black under pressure from the very first moves.

• Remembering Oleg Skvortsov

  A few weeks ago this great chess organiser and sponsor passed away at the age of 57. For many years he invited us to his "Zurich Chess Challenge", which saw some of the world's top players competing. During that time we had interesting, personal interaction with him. For us news of his passing came out of the blue, and it left us deeply saddened.