London Chess Classic - Live!

11/30/2025 – 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)
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Is the format used in the World Championship cycle fair?

11/30/2025 – At the next Candidates Tournament, in spring 2026 in Cyprus, eight players will compete to determine the challenger to world champion Gukesh Dommaraju. Five of the players are in the current world top ten, while three are far from it. Several top players who one might have expected to see in the Candidates failed to qualify by any route. Has FIDE put forth a fair World Championship format? | Photo: Larneg (Pixabay)
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London Chess Classic: Abdusattorov leads, Firouzja trails a half point behind

11/30/2025 – Round four of the London Chess Classic saw Nodirbek Abdusattorov keep his sole lead with a third straight win, this time over Michael Adams in their first classical encounter ever. Alireza Firouzja also scored, outplaying Pavel Eljanov in a lengthy rook endgame, while Luke McShane defeated Gawain Maroroa Jones after a promising position for Black collapsed around move twenty. The remaining games were drawn, leaving Abdusattorov ahead on 3½ points. | Photo: Official website
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European Blitz Championships 2025 - Live!

11/30/2025 – The European Blitz and Rapid Chess Championships are being held in Pristina, Kosovo, from 28 to 30 November. The Rapid Championship concluded on Friday and Saturday; the Blitz Championship follows on Sunday, with thirteen rounds of blitz chess (3+2) on the schedule. Vasyl Ivanchuk, Baadur Jobava, Jorden Van Foreest, Rasmus Svane and Christian Bauer are among the many top European players in the field. Follow the action live with commentary from 10:30 local time.
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Robert Ris' Fast and Furious: English-Catalan-Opening

11/29/2025 – In his new Fast & Furious show, Robert Ris looks into the FIDE World Cup which has seen a lot of interesting games, featuring spectacular openings as the KO-format forces players to take a lot of risks.| Fast & Furious is available on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here.

Capablanca, the timeless maestro: Dialogues and reflections that never took place

11/29/2025 – An imaginary interview with José Raúl Capablanca offers a reflective journey through the Cuban world champion's life, ideas and legacy. Presented in Capablanca's own voice, the conversation explores his childhood, style, intellectual interests and views on intuition, simplicity and the nature of chess. The piece revisits the milestones that shaped him and highlights his enduring influence on the game's philosophy. | Images (AI): Uvencio Blanco
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How Martinez took down Abdusattorov - The Underdog

11/29/2025 – Robert Ris showcases José Eduardo Martínez Alcántara’s stunning World Cup win with Black against Super GM Nodirbek Abdusattorov, starting from a sharp opposite-castling Philidor-type position in which White unleashes a powerful kingside attack, including an exchange sacrifice on d5 and the pawn storm with h5–h6, while Black searches for counterplay on the queenside. Ris explains how key defensive resources completely turn the tables, leading to a direct attack on the white king.
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KazChess Masters: Murzin leads – two top clashes in Round 8

11/28/2025 – The KazChess Masters in Almaty is coming to a close. In a strong field, reigning rapid chess world champion Volodar Murzin has the best prospects of winning the tournament: after 7 of 9 rounds, he leads with 5 points. But he faces a difficult remaining schedule. Today, he has Black against a direct rival. | Photo: Murzin at his World Championship triumph in 2024 (Michal Walusza)
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The path to checkmate II

11/28/2025 – I can already guess what you are considering for White in the diagram position. It works - and knowing that, you might actually try to calculate everything to the end again. No pain, no gain!

London Chess Classic: Abdusattorov, Firouzja and Theodorou score

11/28/2025 – Three decisive games in round two of the London Chess Classic saw Alireza Firouzja, Nodirbek Abdusattorov and Nikolas Theodorou move into the shared lead. Abdusattorov's extensive preparation, Firouzja's tactical win over Luke McShane and Theodorou's controlled performance against defending champion Gawain Maroroa Jones offered contrasting paths to victory at Arsenal Football Club's stadium. | Photo: XTX Markets
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Svitlana's Smart Moves - Immortal game with 1.b4

11/27/2025 – Today, Svitlana teaches us about the Immortal Game by Carl Schlechter. If a game is called an "immortal game", you can expect some sensational tactics. Another thing what makes this game exceptional is the opening choice of 1.b4. According to the new ChessBase opening report, the Sokolsky Opening, also known as the Orangutan and the Polish Opening, is getting less, and less fashionable in the last years. But 1.b4 had its peak from 2009 to 2011!
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The Thinking Game - How DeepMind Transformed Artificial Intelligence

11/27/2025 – DeepMind Technologies has revolutionized AI research and, in its still relatively short history, produced many valuable results and breakthroughs. With its Go and chess programs AlphaGo and AlphaZero, DeepMind caused quite a stir in the gaming world, but of course the aim is about far more than winning games. A compelling film on this was shown at the Tribeca Festival and is now available on YouTube.
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New: CBM Extra #228

11/27/2025 – Opening videos by Ernst Sipke (Ulvestad Variation) and Adrian Mikhalchishin (‘Miniatures’ Part II – Sicilian Najdorf and Spanish). ‘Special’: Jan Werle shows highlights from the FIDE Grand Swiss 2025 in the video (including games by Anish Giri, Vincent Keymer and Matthias Bluebaum). ‘Lucky bag’ with 40 analyses by Ganguly, Illingworth, Theodorou and many more. Update service with over 40,000 new games. CBM Extra #228 can also be used as a ChessBase Book in a web browser on an iPad, tablet or Mac, etc.!

London Chess Classic: Theoretical debates

11/27/2025 – From 26 November to 7 December, the XTX Markets London Chess Classic showcase the game with a packed programme of tournaments and side events. The centrepiece of the festival is the Elite Tournament, featuring ten top players. The opening round produced five draws and no decisive games, but offered several interesting theoretical contests. | Photo: Elo favourite Alireza Firouzja | Photo: Lennart Ootes, Archive
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Riddle: Korchnoi-Karpov 1978

11/27/2025 – 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.

Javokhir Sindarov wins FIDE World Cup

11/26/2025 – Javokhir Sindarov capped a remarkable campaign in Goa by winning the 2025 FIDE World Cup, defeating Wei Yi in a tense rapid-play tiebreak. After both classical games ended drawn, the 19-year-old Uzbek grandmaster kept his composure in a dramatic set of rapid encounters, capitalising on late chances as his opponent faltered in time pressure. Sindarov secured the title, the $120,000 first prize and a major milestone in his fast-rising career. | Photos: Michal Walusza
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Jerusalem Masters without Gelfand: Dispute with the Israel Chess Federation

11/26/2025 – A major rapid chess festival will be held in Jerusalem starting on 26 November. A two-day open tournament with over 400 participants will be followed by a top tournament with a first-class line-up. Unfortunately, Boris Gelfand will be missing, as he was last year. The best Israeli player and the association's leadership have been in a long-running dispute, which has now become public. | Photo: ChessBase India
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FIDE World Cup, Finals - Live!

11/26/2025 – 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)
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World Cup: Esipenko wins again, gets last Candidates spot

11/26/2025 – A decisive result in the match for third place marked Tuesday's action at the FIDE World Cup in Goa, as Andrey Esipenko secured qualification for the 2026 Candidates Tournament. The Russian grandmaster completed a 2–0 victory over Nodirbek Yakubboev with another confident performance in the rematch, while the second classical game of the final between Wei Yi and Javokhir Sindarov ended in a short draw, sending their title contest to rapid tiebreaks. | Photo: Michal Walusza
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