Stefan Liebig, born in 1974, is a journalist and co-owner of a marketing agency. He now lives in Barterode near Göttingen. At the age of five, strange pieces on his neighbour’s shelf aroused his curiosity. Since then, the game of chess has cast a spell over him. Flying high in the NRW youth league with his home club SV Bad Laasphe and several appearances in the second division team of Tempo Göttingen were highlights for the former youth South Westphalia champion.
3/29/2026 – Tactical analysis is not just exciting, but it is very practical. With ChessBase´26, it is easy to use its findings. In this episode, learn how you can use this ChessBase function to complement your analysis and make it more effective.
3/25/2026 – Oliver Kurmann wants to become a grandmaster – at the age of 41! In an interview with the Swiss Chess Federation, the international master from Switzerland, who competed for Bayern Munich in the Bundesliga last weekend, talks about his career, training and ambitions - with ChessBase playing a key role. | Pictured: Oliver Kurmann drew his game last weekend in the Chess Bundesliga for Bayern Munich - he faced Georg Meier of SC Viernheim | Photo: Angelika Valkova
3/22/2026 – The Sicilian has long been one of the most popular openings. It therefore makes perfect sense for White to consider 1.c4. ChessBase author Nico Zwirs takes a look at similar, but reversed structures. His 60 Minutes course is aptly titled “Reversed Sicilian Power.” And since the Sicilian cannot be played without tactics, this new February release also fits the theme perfectly: Oliver Reeh’s new Master Class tactics volume offers exercises for players of all levels, regardless of their opening repertoire. | All photos: ChessBase
3/21/2026 – ChessBase´26 offers many possibilities for organising databases so that they contain all the important information, while remaining clear and user-friendly. In this episode, learn how to use ChessBase features to improve your game.
3/19/2026 – A world star up close: Ukrainian legendary grandmaster Vasyl Ivanchuk created an extraordinary chess celebration in Salzgitter-Bad. In a simultaneous exhibition at the Salzgitter-Bad grammar school, he faced 31 opponents at once - pupils, teachers and club players. The former world number two scored wins on all 31 boards. | Photos: Carolin Köpp
3/18/2026 – The international chess festival in the Slovenian resort town of Bled, staged for nearly a century, has concluded. Lithuania's Zanas Nainys (pictured, right) emerged as the clear winner of the event, which catered especially for ambitious titled players, amateurs and rising juniors. A powerful finish saw him overtake Leon Mazi - who had defeated him in round four - to claim first place. | Photos: Bled Chess Festival
3/15/2026 – Do you know the feeling? Over time, more and more databases accumulate in ChessBase: How do you keep track of them all? It's best to get organised right from the start – but how? In this tutorial, we'll show you how to organise and systematically save your own material so that you can always find everything quickly. It's not that complicated and it's actually fun!
3/12/2026 – For almost a century, the Slovenian spa town of Bled has held a special place in international chess history. With the chess festival currently running until the weekend, this traditional venue continues the legacy of great tournaments – combining its historical prestige with an event for ambitious title holders, amateurs and young players. | Photos: Chess Festival Bled / Luka Rifelj
3/8/2026 – Analyses with ChessBase´26 are flexible: insights gained can be added to or changed at any time. This often leads to a re-evaluation of variations. In this tutorial episode, we will therefore explain how you can upgrade variations and insert or change evaluations. We will show how practical this is with the quick access bars next to and below the notation.
3/6/2026 – Drama at the Prague Masters. Many had already resigned themselves to two draws and an unchanged situation at the top of the table. But then Jorden van Foreest lost the long-balanced game against Aravindh Chithambaram, surrendering his lead in the standings to Nodirbek Abdusattorov. The Uzbek GM was able to capitalise on a blunder by the previously in-form David Navara to secure the win. The duel between world champion Gukesh Dommaraju and Vincent Keymer ended in a draw after a long battle, as did the game between Nodirbek Yakubboev and Parham Maghsoodloo. Hans Niemann managed to score his first victory in his game against David Anton. The final round begins four hours earlier than usual, at 11 a.m. | Photo: Nils Rohde / ChessBase
3/4/2026 – David Navara is playing an excellent tournament in his hometown. After round six of the Masters in Prague, he is only half a point behind the leader, Jorden van Foreest, together with Nodirbek Abdusattorov. The direct encounter between Van Foreest and Navara ended in a draw. At the other end of the table, a player stands alone: none other than Gukesh Dommaraju. The world champion, still without a win, has lost his third game of the tournament. Against his compatriot Aravindh Chithambaram, he squandered a good position while in time trouble. Hans Niemann and Vincent Keymer drew the longest game of the day. | Photo: Petr Vrabec / Prague Chess Festival
3/2/2026 – Mikhail Antipov won the Saint Louis Masters ahead of Fabiano Caruana. The Russian-born grandmaster, playing under the US flag, scored an impressive victory over Andy Woodward in the final round. He had gone into the last round level on points with the rating favourite. However, Caruana was only able to add half a point to his tally after drawing with Francesco Sonis, despite having reached a winning position. As a result, Caruana finished half a point short - the same half point he had voluntarily given up by requesting a bye in round five. | Photo: Lennart Ootes
3/1/2026 – With ChessBase´26, you can not only analyse your own games professionally – as we have already shown in the first four parts of the tutorial – you can also comment on them individually. There are several methods for doing this, and they can be linked together. The comments can be entered as text or using the commonly used chess symbols. In this fifth part of our tutorial series, we will show you how easily you can integrate all types of comments into your notation.
2/22/2026 – When you work with a programme on a regular basis, you should make that work as pleasant as possible. ChessBase´26 offers endless possibilities - and that goes for the look too. Make your workspace individual and pleasant. In part 4 of our new series of tutorials we will show you how easy it is to design your individual notation so that analysing with it is a maximum pleasure.
2/15/2026 – We have a new author at ChessBase: Harshit Raja. And the Indian grandmaster is ambitious – he offers a complete 1.d4-repertoire! In addition, new episodes of Ivan Sokolov’s Middlegame Strategy series were released in January, and ChessBase Magazine fans can look forward to CBM Extra #229, packed with a rich "Lucky Bag". | All photos: ChessBase
2/14/2026 – If you've only been using ChessBase for a short time and want to benefit from as many of its unique functions as possible, our series offers you valuable, short and easy-to-digest tips for a successful start with ChessBase´26. In the third part of our new tutorial series, we show you how easily and conveniently you can insert variations from the engine analysis and the references into the notation (see the first two tutorial episodes) with ChessBase´26.
2/8/2026 – ChessBase´26 offers a unique range of professional features. This series gives users of ChessBase tips for the first important steps. In the first part of this series we showed you how to enter and save your own games. In part 2 of our tutorial we will show you how to add new variations to a game in ChessBase´26. These can be your own moves or those of an engine, which you might want to add.
1/31/2026 – Let's go: In part 1 of our new tutorial series, we will show you how to quickly enter and save your own games. Just follow the explanations and screenshots and gradually build up your own database of games.
In this course, Grandmaster Elisabeth Pähtz presents the London System, a structured and ambitious approach based on the immediate Bf4, leading to rich and dynamic positions.
Opening videos: Open Spanish (Sipke Ernst) and Classical Sicilian (Nico Zwirs). Endgame Special by Igor Stohl: ‘Short or long side’ – where should the defending king be placed in rook endgames? ‘Lucky bag’ with 35 master analyses.
YOUR EASY ACCESS TO OPENING THEORY: Whether you want to build up a reliable and powerful opening repertoire or find new opening ideas for your existing repertoire, the Opening Encyclopaedia covers the entire opening theory on one product.
The Queen’s Gambit Declined Exchange Variation with 5.Bf4 has a great balance between positional play and sharp pawn pushes; and will be a surprise for your opponents while being easy to learn for you, as the key patterns are familiar.
After 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Qxd4 Nc6 5.Bb5 Bd7 6.Qd3, White sidesteps mainline theory and steers the game into less explored, strategically rich positions.
In this course, Grandmaster Elisabeth Pähtz presents the London System, a structured and ambitious approach based on the immediate Bf4, leading to rich and dynamic positions.
Opening videos: Open Spanish (Sipke Ernst) and Classical Sicilian (Nico Zwirs). Endgame Special by Igor Stohl: ‘Short or long side’ – where should the defending king be placed in rook endgames? ‘Lucky bag’ with 35 master analyses.
YOUR EASY ACCESS TO OPENING THEORY: Whether you want to build up a reliable and powerful opening repertoire or find new opening ideas for your existing repertoire, the Opening Encyclopaedia covers the entire opening theory on one product.
The Queen’s Gambit Declined Exchange Variation with 5.Bf4 has a great balance between positional play and sharp pawn pushes; and will be a surprise for your opponents while being easy to learn for you, as the key patterns are familiar.
After 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Qxd4 Nc6 5.Bb5 Bd7 6.Qd3, White sidesteps mainline theory and steers the game into less explored, strategically rich positions.
€9.90
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