ChessBase

• Hans Niemann becomes Diving Chess Champion in Cape Town

  Next Monday, the final of the Freestyle Grand Slam 2025 will begin in Grootenbosch (South Africa). To mark the opening, a diving chess competition was organised in Cape Town, which was won by Hans Niemann. Some participants of the Freestyle Chess Grand Slam showed off their skills in a simultaneous match against local chess enthusiasts. | Photo: Stev Bonhage / Freestyle Chess

• 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)

• Abdusattorov wins London Chess Classic with one round to spare

  Nodirbek Abdusattorov secured the London Chess Classic title with a round to spare after drawing his eighth-round game against Alireza Firouzja. Entering the day with a two-point lead built on six consecutive wins, the Uzbek grandmaster navigated a sharp position more accurately before choosing to force a perpetual check, confirming overall victory. It was the only draw of the round, with all other games ending decisively. | Photo: nodirbekchess.com

• President Cup: All five games end decisively in first round

  The fourth President Cup opened in Tashkent with a round marked by five decisive results, all in favour of the white pieces. With Uzbekistan's top grandmasters absent, the spotlight fell on emerging local talents and a strong group of international participants. The first day saw a couple of upsets, steady wins by some of the top seeds and a competitive start to the 10-player single round-robin. | Pictured: Shant Sargsyan from Armenia | Photo: Uzbek Chess Federation

• In Stockholm: First-ever Pia Cramling Cup and two seminars for women announced

  FIDE’s Commission for Women's Chess has announced the inaugural Pia Cramling Cup, a new rapid tournament for girls and women to be held during the Rilton Cup in Stockholm on 2 January 2026. Created in collaboration with Pia Cramling and the Stockholm Chess Federation, the event celebrates the former world number one's legacy while supporting emerging talent. Alongside the tournament, DGT and FIDE will offer technical training seminars aimed at expanding opportunities for women in chess.

• Pragg, Ivic and Ghasi share first place at London Chess Classic FIDE Open

  The main attraction of the XTX Markets London Chess Classic is the elite tournament, but the FIDE Open was also very strong, featuring numerous titled players. After nine rounds, three players finished on 7 points and shared first place: GM Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu of India (pictured), GM Velimir Ilic of Serbia and GM Ameet K. Ghasi of England. As there were no tiebreaks in the event, the three also shared the prize money for the top three places. | Photo: Yury Krylov / London Chess Classic

• 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)