ChessBase

• Freestyle Chess World Championship - Live!

  The FIDE Freestyle Chess World Championship is taking place on 13-15 February at the Weissenhaus resort. Eight players, including Magnus Carlsen and Fabiano Caruana, have qualified through the 2025 Grand Slam Tour and online competition. In Saturday's semifinals, Carlsen faces Nodirbek Abdusattorov, while Caruana faces Vincent Keymer. | Follow the games live with expert commentary starting at 15.00 CET (9.00 ET, 19.30 IST)

• ChessBase´26 – Tips for beginners, part 3: Insert variations from references and engines

  If you've only been using ChessBase for a short time and want to benefit from as many of its unique functions as possible, our series offers you valuable, short and easy-to-digest tips for a successful start with ChessBase´26. In the third part of our new tutorial series, we show you how easily and conveniently you can insert variations from the engine analysis and the references into the notation (see the first two tutorial episodes) with ChessBase´26.

• Weissenhaus: Carlsen v. Abdusattorov, Caruana v. Keymer in semis

  The rapid round-robin on the opening day of the FIDE Freestyle Chess World Championship determined the four semifinalists for the 2026 title. Magnus Carlsen finished first on 4½/7, followed by Vincent Keymer, Fabiano Caruana and Nodirbek Abdusattorov on 4 points. Qualification was only settled in the final round, setting up Saturday's knockout matches: Carlsen chose to play Abdusattorov, which meant Caruana and Keymer will face off in the other semi. | Photo: Freestyle Chess / Lennart Ootes

• Svitlana's Smart Moves - Move first, think later

  In this episode of Svitlana’s Smart Moves, Svitlana introduces the concept “move first, think later,” encouraging players to start with concrete candidate moves based on intuition and pattern recognition, and only afterward justify them with general principles. Through several tactical examples, she shows how strong moves arise naturally from experience rather than abstract reasoning about positional features. The key takeaway is that in practical play, it’s often more effective to trust your instincts, calculate actively, and refine your logic afterward, rather than getting stuck searching for rules before finding a move.

• Most attractive chess players

  Who is your favourite chess player – of all time, from the history of chess? Whose games do you enjoy the most? Is it one of the greats from the 19th century, the world champion legends of the twentieth? Or is it a player who is still active? Tell us your choices – and we will compare them with what a chess AI chooses, after evaluating millions of games.

• ChessBase´26: A Players Guide (5)

  "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 gain the most out of the ChessBase. I hope it helps them in their development." We are deeply indebted to Iniyan for his remarkable five-part training review.

• The Chess World in 2026

  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 Dinić, editor of The British Chess Magazine, has described the main driving factors and what we can expect in 2026.

• ChessBase´26: A Players Guide (4)

  What is the secret of becoming really good at chess? How can you best improve your understanding, your results and your rating? Well, use the cutting edge study and training software. But also spend some time discovering all the advantages it offers! GM Iniyan Pa has uncovered all the secrets of ChessBase´26, and presents his findings in his training/review reports.

• Tata Steel Chess - Live!

  The 88th edition of the Tata Steel Chess Tournament is taking place from 17 January to 1 February and once again features the traditional structure of parallel Masters and Challengers tournaments, each consisting of 14 players competing in a single round-robin. Nodirbek Abdusattorov enters the final round as the sole leader in the Masters, while Andy Woodward and Aydin Suleymanli are tied for first place in the Challengers. | Follow the games live with expert commentary starting at 12.00 CET (6.00 ET, 16.30 IST)

• Review: A powerful 1.e4 repertoire

  Young FIDE Master Bahne Fuhrmann of the Hamburger SK has taken a close look at Harshit Raja’s new video course. In his review, he examines the Indian grandmaster’s 1.e4 course and explains why viewers who study the course can confidently open with 1.e4.