The 2025 European Team Chess Championship concluded in Batumi with Ukraine and Poland emerging as the continental champions in the open and women's sections respectively. Both teams entered the final round in control of their own destinies and confirmed their titles with victories on the last day of play. The tournament featured 40 teams in the open section and 36 in the women's. | Photos: European Chess Union

The 2025 US Chess Championships are taking place on 12-24 October at the Saint Louis Chess Club. Each tournament is a 12-player single round-robin with a classical time control. Fabiano Caruana, Wesley So and Hans Niemann are the highest-rated players in the open, while Carissa Yip, Alice Lee and Tatev Abrahamyan head the women's field. | Follow the action live starting at 19.00 CEST (13.00 ET, 22.30 IST)

ChessBase co-founder Matthias Wüllenweber talks in an interview about 40 years of ChessBase, 35 years of Fritz and much more. The interview was first published in the October issue of Schach-Magazin 64 and appears here with the kind permission of Otto Borik, editor-in-chief of the chess magazine. | Photos: ChessBase / Nils Rohde / Archive Otto Borik

The ninth and final round of the European Team Championships will determine the medal winners. In the Open Ukraine and Azerbaijan fight for victory, in the Women's Tournament Poland is in the lead, but Ukraine and Germany can still hope to win. | Watch the games live with video commentary. Start: Around 10:00 CEST.

The 2025 US Chess Championships began in Saint Louis with an eventful first day that saw Fabiano Caruana and Levon Aronian take the early lead in the open section, while Irina Krush, Atousa Pourkashiyan and Anna Sargsyan prevailed in the women's event. The opening round was notable both for the quality of play and for the unusual sight of an arbiter holding an umbrella during one of the games. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

At the US National Championship, which began on Sunday, arbiter Chris Bird helped to create an image that will likely find its way into the collection of the most curious chess photos. He stood next to the table of Wesley So and Hans Niemann — with an umbrella. No, it wasn't raining inside.

Pierre de Fermat (1601–1665) was a French mathematician who made pioneering contributions to analytic geometry, calculus, optics, and probability. He is best known for Fermat's Last Theorem, which famously remained unproven for over three centuries. Then, thirty years ago (in 1995), the mathematician Andrew Wiles published the comprehensive proof. In his book "Chess Stories" mathematician Prof Christian Hesse, told us how he applied Fermat's final conjecture to chess.

Already in the second round of the famous Hastings tournament of 1895, two of the favourites faced each other in a tough and complex battle. After just thirteen moves, the game had reached a semi-endgame with two rooks and two minor pieces each. Lasker held the pair of bishops, but it was Chigorin with the pair of knights who emerged victorious in the end. The game made history, and its course has been interpreted very differently over time. We invite our readers to join us in the search for new insights.

In this episode of Svitlana's Smart Moves, Svitlana Demchenko and Arne analyze a classic 1991 game between Garry Kasparov and Viswanathan Anand, inspired by their current exhibition match. They explore the tactical richness of the Sicilian Taimanov, focusing on key moments like Kasparov's brilliant knight sacrifice on b5 and his creative attacking manoeuvres leading to a decisive win. The discussion highlights Kasparov’s precision, Anand’s resilience, and the timeless instructive value of their games for learning dynamic chess play.

The Saint Louis Chess Club will soon host the 2025 US Chess Championship and the 2025 US Women's Championship, running from 12 to 24 October in its newly expanded venue. With a prize fund exceeding $400,000, the 12-player fields feature America's elite, including Fabiano Caruana, Wesley So, Carissa Yip, Alice Lee and Irina Krush. Alongside the competitions, Hall of Fame inductions and cultural events promise a historic month for American chess in Saint Louis.

The Ragozin Defence is one of those opening systems that are very popular in modern tournament chess. It combines solid classical elements with dynamic ideas. For those looking for active and dynamic play against 1.d4 without taking any significant risks, Grandmaster Surya Ganguly has created a high-class Fritz trainer in "Reinventing the Ragozin". The course impresses not only with its modern repertoire against the Queen's Gambit Declined in impressive depth, but also with valuable insights into the modern opening preparation of current top players. Lukas Köpl has taken a close look at Ganguly's Fritz trainer.

Two former world champions, Viswanathan Anand and Garry Kasparov, face each other in "Clutch Chess: The Legends", a 12-game chess960 exhibition match held from 8 to 10 October at the newly expanded Saint Louis Chess Club. The event features rapid and blitz games with increasing point values and prize stakes each day. | Follow the action live starting at 19.00 CEST (13.00 ET, 10.30 IST)