ChessBase

• A century on: Rudolf Spielmann's surprise victory at Semmering

  One hundred years ago, a major chess tournament was held at the Semmering mountain pass, a meeting place of Vienna's high society. It was not the top favourite and future world champion Alexander Alekhine who came out on top, but the great tactician Rudolf Spielmann. The players left behind a wealth of games that are now regarded as classics.

• Nakamura v. Liang - Live!

  Hikaru Nakamura is playing a training match against Awonder Liang in Saint Louis as he fine-tunes his form ahead of the Candidates Tournament, which begins in two weeks' time. The three-day encounter, running from 13 to 15 March, combines classical, rapid and blitz games. Liang, ranked 25th in the world, provides strong opposition in a match broadcast live on Nakamura's Kick channel. | Follow the games live starting at 18.00 CET (13.00 ET, 22.30 IST)

• Andrew Martin: The Vienna Game - Dynamic, Flexible and Deeply Underestimated

  IM Andrew Martin makes a compelling case for the Vienna Game as a versatile and dangerous weapon, offering rich attacking chances with far less theory than mainstream alternatives like the Ruy Lopez or Italian. His course covers three distinct approaches - aggressive f2–f4 systems, solid early Bc4 lines, and positional g3 setups - giving you a complete, hard-to-prepare-for repertoire with real practical punch.

• Candidates Tournament 2026: Eight contenders, one dream

  The FIDE Candidates Tournament 2026 is set to begin on 29 March, when eight elite grandmasters will start their fourteen-round quest to earn the right to challenge reigning world champion Gukesh Dommaraju. The lineup combines seasoned contenders such as Fabiano Caruana and Hikaru Nakamura with rising stars including Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu and Javokhir Sindarov. | Image: FIDE

• Review: 60 minutes against the French

  The concept behind Chessbase's "60-minute" courses is simple: a one-hour video course for just under 10 Euros. There are also courses on middle game and endgame topics, but most courses focus on quite "specialised" opening variations. In the second instalment of a short series, Jochen Schwarz presents the most important 60-minute courses for 1.e4 players against the French Defence.

• Naroditsky Memorial Rapid & Blitz set for July, Nakamura heads the field

  The inaugural Naroditsky Memorial Rapid & Blitz will be held in Charlotte, North Carolina, from 3 to 5 July 2026, combining open tournaments with elite showcase events across a three-day festival. Featuring a guaranteed $50,000 prize fund and offering FIDE Circuit and US Chess Grand Prix points, the competition is open to players of all ratings, with participation limited to 300 entrants. Top seed Hikaru Nakamura is set to headline a programme that also includes a Creator Invitational and blitz finals.

• Chess Olympiad: Cloud power for your national squad

  Success in world-class chess is built long before the game begins. With the "Federation Package", developed specifically for national federations, players and coaches gain access to the complete professional ChessBase software, the world's largest chess database, and powerful cloud analysis – at a price that provides up to five times more computing power than individual solutions! A long-term investment that will measurably enhance the performance of the entire team.

• News on the 1896 Schiffers vs Steinitz Match

  Wilhelm Steinitz had lost his World Championship title to Emanuel Lasker in 1894, but he still retained the right to a return match. That rematch was scheduled to take place in Moscow at the end of 1896. Before that, however, Steinitz played a training match against Emanuel Schiffers. Join us on a brief journey back in time to Rostov-on-Don in 1896.

• Endgame Challenge Solutions

  Were you able to solve the challenge positions we gave you last week? Were you able to defeat the diagrams, which defended tenatiously? Today we bring you all solutions, with very instructive video explanations by Jared Modica, a chess content creator from Austin, Texas. He shows us how to solve tatical lines of play, and how to handle pawns in endgames.

• 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.