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Chess News
  • The Reykjavík Open is taking place from 25 to 31 March at the Harpa Concert Hall and Conference Centre, once again bringing together a large international field for its traditional nine-round Swiss competition. Led by top seed Amin Tabatabaei and featuring a mix of experienced contenders - such as Vasyl Ivanchuk - and young stars, the event continues a tradition that dates back to Mikhail Tal's victory in the inaugural 1964 edition. | Follow the action live starting at 16.00 CET (11.00 ET, 20.30 IST) | Photo: Skáksamband Íslands
  • Haik Martirosyan won the 19th Agzamov Memorial in Tashkent on tiebreak after finishing level on 7½/9 with 16-year-old Artem Uskov. The two co-leaders drew their direct encounter in round seven, before Martirosyan moved ahead with a win in round eight. Uskov's final-round victory over Abhimanyu Puranik allowed him to catch the Armenian GM, but not to overtake him on tiebreak. A group of six players finished half a point behind in a closely contested event. | Photo: FIDE / Anastasiia Korolkova
  • A life between political pressure, sporting rivalry and unshakeable ambition: Viktor Korchnoi is one of the most fascinating figures in chess history. On 23 March, the chess legend would have turned 95. ChessBase is taking this as an opportunity to provide you with a feature package on the influential figure in the history of chess. | Pictured: Petra and Viktor Korchnoi enjoying a meal aboard the Hamburg Alster steamer at the ChessBase Christmas celebration. | Photos: ChessBase
  • Praful Zaveri is the founder of Indian Chess School, where he has trained more than 5000 students. In 2023 he began writing a book, Shat Shat Vande Chess, on the cultural, historical, and philosophical journey of chess, on the 15,000‑year “odyssey” of the game. Now he has decided to make it into a film. Here is the first trailer – and Praful's thoughts on the enterprise.
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • "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 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.