9/14/2026 – Welcome to The Initiative – a show dedicated to the relentless battle for momentum in chess! In every game, players fight to seize control, dictate the pace and keep their opponent on the back foot. But what does it really mean to have the initiative? How do the world's best players maintain pressure and transform small advantages into crushing attacks?

9/14/2026 – For centuries, Samarkand stood at the crossroads of civilisations. Merchants, scholars and travellers crossed the ancient Silk Road, carrying ideas and cultures from one part of the world to another. Now, another kind of journey will bring the world to the legendary city: 400 chess teams from across the globe will gather for the 46th FIDE Chess Olympiad.

9/14/2026 – The Ganges Grandmasters have won the fourth season of the Tech Mahindra Global Chess League. In the final in Bengaluru, Ian Nepomniachtchi's team defeated defending champions Alpine APL Pipers 4-2. After the first match ended 3-3, the Grandmasters won the second, with Nepomniachtchi scoring a spectacular victory over Magnus Carlsen and Stavroula Tsolakidou beating Humpy Koneru to seal the title. Viswanathan Anand and his PBG Alaskan Knights had already been eliminated before the final day. | Photos and videos: ChessBase India

9/14/2026 – In his column ‘The Fortress’ in ChessBase Magazine, Dorian Rogozenco follows a clear approach: at the start of his video introduction, he presents the position on the board – ‘This is today’s fortress’. He then explains how the fortress works – why the pieces belong on precisely these squares and how, as the defender, you must respond to your opponent’s attempts to attack. And you’ll learn what to look out for in order to build the fortress from a practical endgame. In most cases, these are just a few simple principles that are easy to remember. To round things off, there’s a practical test: demonstrate your skills in five interactive training exercises! The level of difficulty increases from task to task, but thanks to the tools provided by Dorian Rogozenco, you’ll be able to master them all. Give it a go right now – in this week’s new CBM sample!

9/14/2026 – Karsten shows two exampels of this main guideline for the endgame rook and knight against rook and knight. | You can watch the Endgame Magic Show on-demand with a ChessBase Premium account.

9/14/2026 – Very often our Game of the Week is a pretty model game, sometimes it is just a very adventurous game like Fier's samba game last week. Today we have a game from yet another category: Mukhiddin Madaminov was well on his way to create a beautiful masterpiece, but Aydin Suleymanli turned out to be a tough defender and the difficulty of the position completely got out of control. We will examine how sacrificing a rook and two pieces was actually fully correct and how White could have crowned his attack. Merijn's show is available on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here.

9/14/2026 – David Anton (pictured) won the second edition of the Legends & Prodigies tournament in Madrid unbeaten, finishing 1½ points clear of the field. Five wins and five draws gave him a world-class performance rating of 2756. Defending champion Faustino Oro faded somewhat in the second half of the tournament and had to settle for third place behind Jose Martinez Alcantara. | Photos: ECU (title photo), ChessBase India / Amruta Mokal

9/13/2026 – It is the biggest contract in FIDE's history with a private entity: Salesforce is becoming the title sponsor and technological partner of the International Chess Federation. The partnership brings the Agentforce 360 portfolio, including Slack, to the world’s largest chess events and forums, powering real-time player rankings and AI-driven fan experiences for over 800 million global fans. Press release.

9/13/2026 – Garry Kasparov and Veselin Topalov will face each other in “Clutch Chess: The Legends” in Saint Louis from 11 to 13 September. The two former members of the chess elite will play a twelve-game Chess960 match, with wins becoming more valuable on each successive day. The encounter follows Kasparov’s victory over Viswanathan Anand last year and renews a rivalry that was already revived in Saint Louis in 2018 with a Chess960 match. | Photos: St. Louis Chess Club, Austin Fuller | Live with commentary from 18:40 CEST / 17:40 BST / 12:40 ET / 22:10 IST.

9/13/2026 – There are countless ways to be creative. Chess and mathematics are just two examples. In both fields, one can be creative without needing words to describe the results of that creativity to others. In this article, the first of a three-part series by Prof. Christian Hesse and GM Dr Helmut Pfleger, we are particularly interested in mathematical proofs and chess problems that require no words for their formulation, presentation or solution. See for yourself.

9/13/2026 – August brings a range of new chess training products covering different areas of the game. The main topics include active opening repertoires, calculation and strategic decision-making. There are also two new courses on positional play, as well as updated databases on the Petroff Defence. The courses by Bahne Fuhrmann, Andrew Martin and Kostya Kavutskiy combine theoretical explanations with annotated games and practical exercises. With material aimed at different playing strengths, the new releases offer both concrete repertoire advice and more in-depth training. | All photos: ChessBase

9/13/2026 – Today at 12:00 p.m., the 9th and final day of the Global Chess League begins with the matches for third place between the CheQ Mumba Masters (Vachier-Lagrave, Mamedyarov, Dronavalli) and the FYERS American Gambits (Sindarov, Nihal Sarin, Assaubayeva). The final will follow at 3:00 p.m. between the Ganges Grandmasters Squad (featuring Nepomniachtchi, Aronian, and Shuvalova) and the Alpine APL Pipers (featuring Carlsen, Giri, and Deshmukh, among others). The finals consists of two matches, followed by two blitz matches if necessary, and then another Armageddon match. Live with commentary starting at 12:00 noon (6.00 AM ET, 15.30 IST) | Picture: Global Chess League