Chess News

1. Legends & Prodigies: David Antón scores twice to take sole lead
   After six draws the previous day, the players at the Legends & Prodigies tournament in Madrid seemed ready for a fight: rounds four and five produced just one draw in six games. Faustino Oro beat Ivan Sokolov before drawing with Jose Eduardo Martinez Alcantara, while David Antón scored two wins, defeating Diego Flores and Sokolov. The experienced Spaniard now leads the young Argentine by half a point. | Photo: David Antón winning the 2025 Spanish Championship | Photo: Spanish Chess Federation
2. Review: Opening Encyclopedia 2026
   The ChessBase Opening Encyclopedia 2026 is one of the company’s flagship products alongside the Mega Database and the ChessBase database program - currently ChessBase'26. For years, these programs have formed part of the essential toolkit for everyday chess work. From the very beginning, the Opening Encyclopedia has played a key role by providing a fast and efficient overview of the entire spectrum of chess openings. Lukas Köpl took a closer look at the latest edition of the Opening Encyclopedia and summed up his impressions.
3. ChessBase Summer-Special! – Part 10
   Dear chess friends! This week's Summer Special offers you a real powerhouse: Fritz 21 and the Openingbook 2026 are available this week (until September 13, 2026) for €189.90 – save around €50!
4. Global Chess League, Day 5 - Live!
   Four teams are tied on nine match points going into day five of the Global Chess League. The action starts at 12:00 CEST with the CheQ Mumba Masters facing Magnus Carlsen’s Alpine APL Pipers. Ganges play Triveni at 13:30, PBG face Mumba at 15:00, and Triveni take on FYERS at 16:30. Top-board highlights include MVL v Carlsen, Nepomniachtchi v Firouzja and, later in the day, Sindarov v Firouzja. | Follow the action live with commentary, starting at 12.00 CEST (6.00 ET, 15.30 IST)
5. Oro and Antón Guijarro share the lead in Madrid
   There were no winners on the second day of the Legends & Prodigies tournament in Madrid. All six games from rounds two and three ended in draws, including the third-round encounter between Faustino Oro and David Antón Guijarro, the two players who had won their opening games. | Photo: Faustino Oro at the 2026 Wijk aan Zee tournament | Photo: Nils Rohde
6. Andrew Martin - The Evans Gambit is still dangerous
   Andrew Martin presents the Evans Gambit as a dangerous and highly practical weapon for club players, especially those rated below 1800. Using a historic game by William Davies Evans, he shows how White gives up a pawn for rapid development, central control and direct attacking chances against the black king. Martin also explains why the opening remains relevant today despite modern engine analysis, with even top players such as Magnus Carlsen facing it in recent practice. The course is designed not only to teach a playable repertoire, but also to sharpen tactical vision and help players enjoy dynamic attacking chess.
7. Mind vs Machine
   1997: Kasparov vs Deep Blue. We all know the story. But here is a new version told by three-time National Book Award finalist Steve Sheinkin, using first-hand accounts from grandmaster Maurice Ashley, with riveting illustrations by Eisner winner Thien Pham. The narrative, in comic book form, captures the excitement and suspense of a classic sports showdown and explores thought-provoking themes about where humanity stands at the rise of AI.
8. Global Chess League: Carlsen’s Pipers Take the Lead
   The Alpine APL Pipers, with Magnus Carlsen on the icon board, took sole lead in the standings on day three of the Global Chess League in Bengaluru. In their first match of the day, Carlsen beat Viswanathan Anand on time (pictured), but the Pipers nevertheless lost to the PBG Alaskan Knights. Carlsen's team then bounced back with a 15-3 victory over the previously leading FYERS American Gambits. After four of ten matches, the Pipers lead the table with nine match points, followed by four teams on six. | Photos: Global Chess League
9. Philidor at 300: Chess Master, Musician and Pioneer
   François-André Danican, better known as Philidor, was born 300 years ago today. A celebrated musician and the greatest chess player of his age, he made his living from chess in Paris and London, performed blindfold exhibitions in Berlin and, at the invitation of Frederick II, visited Sanssouci Palace. A look back at the remarkable life of one of the first great names in chess history. | Picture: François-André Philidor (1726–1795) by Augustin de Saint-Aubin and Charles-Nicolas Cochin
10. Global Chess League: Pipers, Gambits and Grandmasters tied for first place
    The Alpine APL Pipers remain unbeaten after day two of the Tech Mahindra Global Chess League in Bengaluru, while the FYERS American Gambits suffered their first defeat. The Ganges Grandmasters, PBG Alaskan Knights and CheQ Mumba Masters also picked up match wins, as the standings tightened after eight encounters. The Triveni Continental Kings, meanwhile, remain without a match point after suffering a third consecutive loss. | Photo: Global Chess League
11. Former Super GMs taken down - The Underdog
    In this episode of Underdog, Robert Ris presents two entertaining blitz upsets from a strong event in Sofia. First, Jolanta Zawadzka punishes former 2700 player Ivan Cheparinov with a sharp kingside attack in a Sicilian, finishing the game in just 20 moves. The second example features José García Molina against Sanan Sjugirov, where White sacrifices material for a dangerous initiative and builds a powerful attack against the black king. Both games show how quickly even very strong grandmasters can come under pressure in blitz when tactical threats and initiative take over.
12. England and Slovenia win European Senior Team Championships
    England and Slovenia claimed the titles at the European Senior Team Championships in Crete. England finished unbeaten to win the 50+ section with 17/18 match points, one ahead of Italy. In the 65+ competition, Slovenia and England both scored 16/18, with the Slovenian team taking gold on tiebreaks after having defeated their English rivals in their direct encounter. | Photo: Zetta Grapsa / European Chess Union
13. ChessBase´26 – Tips for Beginners, part 30: Use "Folders"
    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 what you can view and work with there.
14. Global Chess League: American Gambits win both their matches on opening day
    The fourth season of the Tech Mahindra Global Chess League got under way on Saturday, with the FYERS American Gambits making the strongest start. They won both of their opening-day matches, including a victory over the Triveni Continental Kings, who lost twice. The Ganges Grandmasters and Alpine APL Pipers also began with wins as the six-team double round-robin stage commenced at the Lalit Ashok hotel in Bengaluru. | Pictured: Javokhir Sindarov (American Gambits) defeated Viswanathan Anand (Alaskan Knights) | Photo: Amruta Mokal
15. Pouya Idani switches federations from Iran to France
    Iranian grandmaster Pouya Idani has switched federations and will now represent France. The 30-year-old, who has lived in Brest since 2023 and has long been active in French club chess, enters the country's top group of players with a rating above 2600. Idani, a former World Under-18 champion and Iranian Olympiad representative, will nevertheless have to wait before becoming eligible for the French national team. | Photo: Amruta Mokal
16. Fridrik Olafsson Memorial
    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 Ólafsson Memorial Tournament opens – honouring Iceland’s first grandmaster.
17. Hassabis on chess and AI
    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 interest to the readers of our news page.
18. Quo vadis, Fischer Random Chess? (1)
    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 the game should be played. Stay tuned.
19. Sinquefield Cup Tiebreaks - Live!
    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
20. Andrew Martin: Evans & Friends Vol.1 & 2
    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. The aim is a ready to play repertoire that seizes the initiative early, sharpens tactical vision and puts Black under pressure from the very first moves.
21. Remembering Oleg Skvortsov
    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.
22. Help us build the next ChessBase
    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 will send you a thank-you voucher gift.
23. Shifts and mirrors in a chess problem
    A year ago problem composer Werner Keym issued a challenge: compose a study in which White is winning – but one that can be shifted and mirrored vertically and horizontally, with all vertically shifted and mirrored positions drawing, and all horizontally shifted and mirrored positions losing. Here is the elegant solution, which reminds us of the famous Babson task.
24. How much faster are computers today?
    In the early 1980s, as a fledgling TV journalist, I did a report on the fastest computer in the world. The Cray-1 cost eight million dollars and could do 130 million floating point operations per second. That was enough to calculate the weather, but also to win two consecutive world computer chess championships. How much faster are today's supercomputers? Take a guess – you are definitely not going to get it right.
25. Biel Festival - Live!
    The Biel International Chess Festival is taking place on 11-24 July. Following the Chess960 tournament on Saturday and the rapid chess stage on Sunday, the players in the Masters and Generations Challenge Triathlon face off in the final stage of the classical section on 21-23 July. | Follow the games live starting at 14.00 CEST (8.00 ET, 17.30 IST) | Photo: Biel Chess Festival