One game had a decisive result in round seven of the Masters at the Prague Chess Festival, as Vincent Keymer defeated David Anton to return to a fifty-percent score. Sole leader Jorden van Foreest held a tense draw against Nodirbek Abdusattorov, while Aravindh Chithambaram missed a winning chance against Nodirbek Yakubboev. The remaining encounters were hard-fought draws. | Photo: Petr Vrabec / Prague Chess Festival

Three decisive games marked round seven of the Challengers at the Prague International Chess Festival. Leader Vaclav Finek held a long endgame against top seed Benjamin Gledura and retains a full-point lead with two rounds remaining. Meanwhile, Daniil Yuffa and Jachym Nemec (pictured) moved into joint second place after winning their games, while Surya Shekhar Ganguly scored his first victory of the event. | Photo: Petr Vrabec / Prague Chess Festival

The American Cup, one of the United States' premier chess tournaments, returns to Saint Louis. Now in its fifth year, the event runs on March 3-12 at the Saint Louis Chess Club, featuring sixteen of America's top chess talents. With $400,000 in prize money up for grabs, the competitors will prove their mettle under mounting pressure in the double-elimination knockout format. | Follow the games live with expert commentary starting at 19.00 CET (14.00 ET, 23.30 IST) | Pictured: Tatev Abrahamyan | Photo: Lennart Ootes

Together with Keti Tsataslashvili, Alojzije Jankovic works as a commentator at the Prague Chess Festival – a role that suits him well. The Croatian grandmaster (peak Elo 2593) had his own chess show on Croatian television for many years and runs a YouTube channel. He was editor-in-chief of the magazine ‘Sahovski Glasnik’, has written chess books, studied economics and is vice-president of the European Chess Union. In an interview with ChessBase, he talks about his passion for chess, his career, his favourite player, chess in film, and explains how systematic thinking can help you play better and be more successful […]

During the rest day of the Prague International Chess Festival, organisers held a special programme devoted to supporting women's chess and highlighting the Futures tournament for young female players. Swedish legend Pia Cramling gave a lecture and a simultaneous exhibition, while Czech actress Aňa Geislerová attended the event and received an introduction to the game from Indian star Divya Deshmukh. | Photo: Petr Vrabec / Prague Chess Festival

Wilhelm Steinitz had lost his World Championship title to Emanuel Lasker in 1894, but he still retained the right to a return match. That rematch was scheduled to take place in Moscow at the end of 1896. Before that, however, Steinitz played a training match against Emanuel Schiffers. Join us on a brief journey back in time to Rostov-on-Don in 1896.

Were you able to solve the challenge positions we gave you last week? Were you able to defeat the diagrams, which defended tenatiously? Today we bring you all solutions, with very instructive video explanations by Jared Modica, a chess content creator from Austin, Texas. He shows us how to solve tatical lines of play, and how to handle pawns in endgames.

Who is your favourite chess player – of all time, from the history of chess? Whose games do you enjoy the most? Is it one of the greats from the 19th century, the world champion legends of the twentieth? Or is it a player who is still active? Tell us your choices – and we will compare them with what a chess AI chooses, after evaluating millions of games.

"Many players use ChessBase, it is the most popular chess software by far, writes GM Iniyan Pa. "Yet, not many people are fully aware of all of its features, and fail to utilise most of them. In this guide I have tried to show the features that I think are vital and important so that the user may gain the most out of the ChessBase. I hope it helps them in their development." We are deeply indebted to Iniyan for his remarkable five-part training review.

The chess world has undergone a significant transformation in recent years. From a game on the fringes of public interest, it has become part of the media mainstream. This year will see several major events and developments that promise to have a profound impact on the future of chess. Milan Dinić, editor of The British Chess Magazine, has described the main driving factors and what we can expect in 2026.

What is the secret of becoming really good at chess? How can you best improve your understanding, your results and your rating? Well, use the cutting edge study and training software. But also spend some time discovering all the advantages it offers! GM Iniyan Pa has uncovered all the secrets of ChessBase´26, and presents his findings in his training/review reports.

The 88th edition of the Tata Steel Chess Tournament is taking place from 17 January to 1 February and once again features the traditional structure of parallel Masters and Challengers tournaments, each consisting of 14 players competing in a single round-robin. Nodirbek Abdusattorov enters the final round as the sole leader in the Masters, while Andy Woodward and Aydin Suleymanli are tied for first place in the Challengers. | Follow the games live with expert commentary starting at 12.00 CET (6.00 ET, 16.30 IST)