ChessBase

• ChessBase Master Class: Understanding Wilhelm Steinitz

  Wilhelm Steinitz, the first World Champion was far ahead of his time. A new ChessBase Master Class explores Wilhelm Steinitz as a theoretician, practitioner, and driving force of ideas – and shows why his concepts continue to resonate today. Harry Schaack, Editor-in-Chief of the German chess magazine "Karl", has taken a close look at the course and explains in the current issue why Steinitz still provokes, inspires, and surprises.

• Global Chess League Finals - Live!

  The Tech Mahindra Global Chess League returns for its third season from 14 to 23 December, continuing its franchise-based format that combines elite male and female players. Featuring a team structure, the league again brings together established stars and juniors, with the title to be decided through a double round-robin stage followed by a two-match final. | Follow the action live starting at 11.00 CET (5.00 ET, 15.30 IST)

• New: ChessBase Magazine #229

  FIDE World Cup 2025: Analyses by Adams, Bluebaum, Donchenko, Grandelius, Shankland, Wei Yi, Wojtaszek and many more – Marshal Attack: just develop: Robert Ris praises the modern 11…Bb7!? – “Giri’s Gems”: The world-class player looks back at eight games from top tournaments of 2025 – “Hello e-file!”: Oliver Reeh poses numerous training questions on 33 games and presents four interactive videos in his tactics column – Topalov-Anand 2005: Dorian Rogozenco looks back at a theoretically important, highly tactical Queen's Indian with the spectacular 14.Nxf7!! – a “Modern Classic” and much more!

• GCL: SG Pipers to face Continental Kings in league's final

  The round-robin phase of the Global Chess League concluded with the finalists confirmed after a closely contested final day. Triveni Continental Kings finished well clear at the top, while Alpine SG Pipers claimed the second finals place on tiebreaks despite losing their last match. Narrow margins elsewhere shaped the final standings, with the Ganges Grandmasters and the PBG Alaskan Knights now set to contest the match for third place. | Pictured: Gukesh Dommaraju (Alaskan Knights) facing Fabiano Caruana (SG Pipers). | Photo: Official website

• Top ten women players fighting for the crown in Doha

  As the World Rapid and Blitz Championships approach, Doha will host the leading figures of women's chess alongside the wider elite. From established world champions to Grand Prix winners and fast-time-control specialists, the women's field reflects both depth and continuity at the top of the game. This article outlines the key contenders arriving in Qatar, tracing recent results, rivalries and form, and setting the context for how women's chess has developed ahead of one of the season's flagship events. | All photos: FIDE

• London Chess Classic - Live!

  The XTX Markets London Chess Classic is a 10-player all-play-all tournament taking place from 26 November to 5 December at the Emirates Stadium, home to Arsenal Football Club. Four English players and six international representatives make up the lineup, which includes top seeds Alireza Firouzja and Nodirbek Abdusattorov. | Follow the games live with expert commentary starting at 17.00 CET (11.00 ET, 21.30 IST)

• Attacking and sacrifice games

  Ed Schröder, pioneer of chess engine programming, has in his retirement turned his attention to a new and very exciting project: to extract games from a database collection that are especially aggressive – that are short and have daring sacrifices and king attacks. He shows us the kinds of result you can get. Best of all: you can download the utility and use it on your databases.

• Rebel and playing style in chess

  Ed Schröder is a pioneer in chess programming. In the 1990s his program Rebel won a number of World Championships in computer chess, and always had a special place in the community, due to its playing style. In 2003 he retired from competitive computer chess, only releasing freeware versions of Rebel. Now Ed has come out of retirement and is undertaking some interesting new projects – like extracting the most interesting games from historical databases. And he is sharing them with us.

• Riddle: Korchnoi-Karpov 1978

  As chess players occasionally do, Alex Fishbein, the U.S. grandmaster, was recently looking at a classic game from the past: Viktor Kortschnoj's victory over Anatoly Karpov in the 21st game of their 1978 match. Something was wrong. Charles Sullivan had done some intense research on this volatile encounter and asks for your assessment on the results he presents.

• FIDE World Cup, Finals - Live!

  Today marks the final day of the World Cup in Goa, which began on October 31. But the key question of who will play in the Candidates Tournament in March and April 2026 has already been settled: Wei Yi, Javokhir Sindarov and Andrey Esipenko are in. Now it’s “only” a matter of deciding who wins the tournament. That will be determined today in the tiebreak between Wei Yi and Sindarov. The winner takes home the title and 120,000 USD, the runner-up receives 85,000 USD. | Follow the action live with expert commentary starting at 10.30 CET (5.30 ET, 15.00 IST)