The US Championships are taking place on 9-21 October at the Saint Louis Chess Club. Each tournament is a 12-player single round-robin with a classical time control. Fabiano Caruana, Wesley So and Levon Aronian are the highest-rated players in the open, while Carissa Yip, Alice Lee and Irina Krush head the women's field. | Follow the action live starting at 19.00 CEST (13.00 ET, 22.30 IST) | Pictu

Fourteen-year-old Christian Gloeckler secured his second grandmaster norm at the International Autumn Tournament in Fagernes, Norway. Although the German youngster lost his final two games, this did not affect the norm he had already secured. Rinat Jumabayev, Tiger Hillarp Persson and G. B. Harshavardhan (pictured, left) shared first place with 7½/10 points each. | Photo: Anniken Vestby

Wesley So and Awonder Liang drew their direct encounter in round three of the US Championship, remaining tied for first place on 2½/3. Andy Woodward and Sam Shankland (pictured) scored victories, with Woodward joining Fabiano Caruana half a point behind the leaders. In the women's tournament, Alice Lee defeated Nazi Paikidze to join Thalia Cervantes and Megan Paragua in first place. Defending cham

Defending champions SC Viernheim and perennial favourites OSG Baden-Baden are the only teams to have won all three matches in the opening weekend of the 2026/27 Chess Bundesliga. Viernheim lead on board points, while Bayern Munich sit third with 5/6 match points. The first three rounds saw encouraging results for promoted sides Bad Mergentheim and Remagen Sinzig, while Bayern Munich's Matic Lavren

Among all the Chess Olympiads held throughout history, the 1936 tournament in Munich occupies a special place. FIDE did not officially recognise the event as a Chess Olympiad. Nevertheless, the competition between national teams met all the requirements. Like in 2026, the German team also won the bronze medal on this occasion. | Photos: Ferenc Chalupetzky / Tournament Book

Wesley So and Awonder Liang remain the only players with perfect scores in the open section of the US Championship after two rounds. Fabiano Caruana stands alone in third place, half a point behind. In the women's tournament, the two lowest-rated participants, Thalia Cervantes and 13-year-old Megan Paragua, share the lead on 2/2. Paragua defeated defending champion Carissa Yip, who blundered in an

Chess sells itself as a contest of calculation, where chance has been removed. Yet some elite players keep lucky pens, repeat outfits and meals, or give a cat a place in their pre-game routine. The interesting question is not whether a lucky charm can change a position on the board; it is why people reach for one when the result matters and control feels limited. | Pictured: Alexander Alekhine and

Besides the spectacular Chess Olympiad, Uzbekistan and the city of Samarkand had much more to offer, including friendly people and 2,500 years of culture. Axel Eger attended the Olympiad and took the opportunity to explore the country and get to know its people. Here is his travel report. | Photos: Axel Eger

In recent years, Robert Ris has made a name for himself as a creator of opening courses. He also hosts a regular ChessBase show on opening trends, in which he examines the latest developments. Lukas Köpl has taken a closer look at Ris's opening courses and offers an assessment.

Fabiano Caruana has won the US Championship five times, including four consecutive titles from 2022 to 2025. His first victory came on his debut in 2016, shortly after returning to the US federation. At the 2026 edition in Saint Louis, Caruana can equal Samuel Reshevsky’s record of five consecutive titles and, with a sixth overall win, draw level with Walter Browne on the all-time list. | Photo: L

It’s once again time to think about aesthetics in ChessBase´26 training: Have you ever noticed the “Style” option? If not, in this episode we’ll explain briefly and concisely how you can better adapt your screen display to your own taste.

"Yesterday, in one of the most horrifying terrorist atrocities in history, the World Trade Center in New York was destroyed..." Those were the words with which we launched our brand new database-driven news page, on September 12, 2001. It was the very first report we filed. It had a special meaning for the world – but also for chess. Exactly six years earlier the World Chess Championship had been

ChessBase´26 is amazingly versatile and often surprisingly user-friendly — as the first 29 parts of this tutorial series have already shown! One particularly important feature in this context is the “Folders” window, which lets you quickly locate anything you want to use within your storage directories. In this episode, we’ll show you how to activate the window (in case it’s been disabled) and wha

Chess players, mark your calendars. The Icelandic Chess Federation, Goðinn Chess Club, and Reykjavík Chess Club are joining forces to present "Town and Country" – two spectacular tournaments that together offer 15 rounds of high-level chess in just 11 days, set against two of Iceland’s most contrasting backdrops. It all begins on Thursday, 19 November at 19:00. On Tuesday, 24 November, the Friðrik

In a 15-minute video, Demis Hassabis, one of the central scientists working on artificial intelligence, tells us why he worries about AI going rogue. Hassabis, head of Google AI research, is a very strong chess player who created Alpha zero, the first neural network program on which all modern chess engines are based. It is his vivid description of how AI handled chess that will be of particular i

As you have noticed, this form of chess is becoming increasingly popular. Everyone seems to like it, sponsors are lining up to stage high-prize tournaments, even World Championships. In this series we look back at the origin of Fischer-Random, Chess960 or Freestyle, as it is now called, and discuss the reasons for its popularity. In the end we will propose some modifications to the rules and how t

The Sinquefield Cup is taking place on 10-20 August at the Saint Louis Chess Club. It is a 10-player single round-robin with a classical time control. Besides battling for a share of the $475,000 prize fund, players battle to get one of the four spots in the upcoming Grand Chess Tour Finals. Follow the games live starting at 19.00 CEST (13.00 ET, 22.30 IST) | Photo: Lennart Ootes

IM Andrew Martin presents a complete White repertoire after 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3, with the Evans Gambit as its aggressive centerpiece for tactically minded players up to around 1800 Elo. Volume 1 covers the key lines, attacking ideas and traps of the Evans Gambit, while Volume 2 provides practical answers to the Petroff, Philidor, Two Knights Defense, Hungarian Defense and several sharp gambits and traps

A few weeks ago this great chess organiser and sponsor passed away at the age of 57. For many years he invited us to his "Zurich Chess Challenge", which saw some of the world's top players competing. During that time we had interesting, personal interaction with him. For us news of his passing came out of the blue, and it left us deeply saddened.

We're planning the next chapters of ChessBase and we want input from the people who actually use it, before we decide what to build first. Help us by taking part in a survey that asks how you work day to day: your setup and hardware, how you use engines and databases, and which parts of the interface help or get in your way. Filling out the survey takes around three minutes. If you fill it out we