8/19/2025 – Karsten Müller and Arne Kähler use Fritz 20 to compare game analysis with the 4 Player Types standard model. Using a game by Elisabeth Pähtz against the ‘Bull,’ they explain the strategic mistakes of an Active player and how other player types (Reflectors, Theorists, Pragmatists) would have avoided them. In conclusion, they emphasize that Fritz 20 with its player type model offers a valuable training opportunity to specifically prepare for opponents with a certain style – even for Freestyle Chess events.

8/11/2025 – Sharpen your chess skills and put them to the test with Fritz 20 plus Fritz Powerbook! This ultimate duo gives you powerful training and deep opening knowledge for your next game. Get the Summer Special between August 11–17 and get it for a special price!

8/9/2025 – Two three-part courses that will take your game to the next level! In his three-part Fritztrainer series on the Najdorf, Luis Engel presents a powerful repertoire against 1.e4. In "Mastering Chess Strategy", Robert Ris starts with the fundamentals before diving into the finer points of strategic play. Take advantage of our Summer Special this week (August 4–10) and get these courses at a special discounted price.

8/4/2025 – Since 1986, we've been building chess software that inspires millions of players worldwide. Now, we're looking for someone with both technical and chess intuition. Not just to join the team, but to help lead it into the future.

8/3/2025 – Frederic Friedel reveals what the Egyptian pyramids, an internship with Otto Borik and a frog game on the home computer have to do with his career in Germany's leading chess magazine SCHACH-MAGAZIN 64, where he was interviewed by Stefan Liebig. The four-page article is reproduced here in English with the kind permission of Schuenemann-Verlag. | Photos: Archiv Frederic Friedel

7/27/2025 – The Mega Database 2025 contains over eleven million games — an impressive archive of chess knowledge. And it keeps growing. Thanks to the weekly Mega Update service, you receive about 5,000 new games each week, directly from tournaments around the world. As with ChessBase 18, keeping the Mega Database up to date requires just a few clicks. In this tutorial episode, we’ll show you how.

7/26/2025 – The Opening Encyclopedia offers a wide range of exciting repertoire suggestions. But how can you tell if a recommendation truly suits your playing style? The best way is to try it out in a practical match against Fritz 20. With the "Play Against Database Book" feature, you can load opening articles, game collections, or analyses directly from the encyclopedia as an opening book and immediately play against Fritz. This lets you test new lines under realistic conditions. Best of all: This week (until July 27, 2025), you can get the Fritz 20 and Opening Encyclopedia bundle at a special Summer Special price.

7/25/2025 – The opening is tricky. If you don't know what you are doing, you can quickly find yourself on the losing side, but if you know what you are doing, you can also quickly gain an advantage. ChessBase offers help! The Opening Encyclopaedia offers a complete overview of all openings, and with Fritz 20 you can try out and practise all of them. This week (21–27 July), the strong duo is available as a Summer Special at a special price!

7/12/2025 – After 34 years of continuous development, ChessBase has released Fritz 20, marking the twentieth iteration of one of the most influential chess programs in history. This latest version represents a significant evolution in chess software, combining cutting-edge artificial intelligence with innovative human-like playing concepts that promise to transform how players train and improve their game. | Text and Photos: Paul Harwood (betterchess.net)

7/7/2025 – Robert Ris faces off against the legendary Mikhail Tal in Fritz 20's grandmaster-level mode. With playful banter and strategic reflections, he navigates a tense middlegame filled with attacking chances, tactical bluffs and surprising defences. Despite some miscalculations and a critical blunder that nearly costs him the game, Robert defends resiliently, showcasing both fighting spirit and self-deprecating humour. Finally, after a flurry of complications and a tense queen endgame, the game concludes in a threefold repetition - a well-earned draw against one of history's most fearsome attackers.

7/4/2025 – This week only, get your hands on the ultimate chess bundle! ChessBase 18 and Fritz 20, normally priced at €269.90, are available for just €209.90 in our exclusive Summer Special. Whether you're a beginner or a seasoned pro, this powerful combination will elevate your game with advanced tools like playing style analysis, opponent simulations, and world-class training features. Don't miss out on this limited-time offer – shop now and take your chess skills to the next level!

6/26/2025 – In this entertaining and instructive video, WIM Svitlana Demchenko faced the "Bobby Fischer" engine from Fritz 20 in a dynamic training match. She played the Scotch Gambit and managed to gain a clear advantage through sharp tactical play, sacrificing material for initiative and space. Despite a midgame slip that dropped her evaluation and confidence, she regrouped and navigated a complex endgame with precision, ultimately securing the win. The game showcased both instructive mistakes and brilliant ideas, making it a realistic and valuable learning experience rather than a flawless engine battle.

6/23/2025 – It might well be the world’s biggest scholastic chess tournament: the “Rechtes gegen Linkes Alsterufer” match, played every year in Hamburg. Schools from the right bank of the Alster – the river that runs through the city – compete in teams of eight against schools from the left bank. The event began in 1958, with the left bank winning 65–33 and taking a 1–0 lead. Today, the left bank leads with 40–22 in team points and 31,277.5 to 30,512.5 in board points. Over the years, a total of 123,738 students have taken part in the event. The most recent match took place on June 18, outdoors in the center of Hamburg. The left bank won 966.5 to 769.5. | Photos: Nils Rhode

6/21/2025 – In this exciting video, Germany’s strongest female chess player, Elisabeth Pähtz, takes on the Aggressive Bull from Fritz 20 – a virtual opponent known for its uncompromising attacking style. Can a grandmaster title stand up to the raw calculating power and fiery play of this digital challenger? A duel on equal footing awaits you – full of tactics, tension, and surprising twists!

6/14/2025 – ChessBase has, of course, released many new video courses and other products this spring. A special mention should go to the new Fritz! Fritz 20 now lets you play against a whole series of animated former world champions. Browse the monthly overview to find your favourites, whether it's Fritz 20, ChessBase Magazine 225 Extra, or our new Spanish and Ragozin guides. Take a look at all last month's products!

6/4/2025 – The conversation with Matthias Wüllenweber about Fritz 20 highlights the numerous innovations in the new version: A key focus is on the new opponent characters, including legends like Fischer, Lasker, Capablanca, and Karpov. Another highlight is the AI-powered voice commentary, featuring over 170 chess-related themes that provide both entertainment and educational value—available in multiple languages if desired. In addition, the opening repertoires of real chess legends like Fischer have been integrated, and the new "Bullet Training" mode offers practical time-management training against realistically acting opponents. The newly improved engine is also a major upgrade and presents an independent analysis alternative to Stockfish.

5/29/2025 – Twenty versions of a software program in 34 years! In times of an AI explosion things have become more exciting than ever. Fritz 20 stresses the “human” playing concept, talks to you, adjusts itself to your playing level. You can select opponents like Morphy, Lasker, Capablanca, Tal, Fischer, Karpov... Or set it to play exactly like your opponent in a running event! – Pssst, on Tuesday you can get Fritz 20 for a special price, on Discount Day!

5/20/2025 – During the Grenke Chess Open in Karlsruhe, nearly 3,000 players gathered to compete in either classical chess or the freestyle variant. It was an ideal opportunity to find out how accurately the participants could assess their own chess expertise. Arne Kaehler interviewed more than 50 players listed in the MegaDatabase, asking them to rate themselves in opening theory, playing style (aggressive or positional), and how often they reach endgames in their careers.

5/12/2025 – Last year FIDE celebrated its 100th anniversary. The book "100 Years of FIDE" is an illustrated history of the World Chess Federation. From it we excerpt passages to retrace the final non-FIDE world championship (Alekhine-Boguljubow) and the Chess Olympiads from 1924 to 1940. This is a great chance to brush up your knowledge of chess history.

4/21/2025 – Baden-Baden has a long chess history, mainly thanks to great classics from the early days of tournament chess: Baden-Baden 1870 and Baden-Baden 1925. Hartmut Metz brings back the super tournament from 1925 on the occasion of the grenke Open. It was the time of the "hypermodernists".

11/24/2024 – In 16 videos lasting up to twenty minutes each, the famed coach and former world-class player Ivan Sokolov takes the viewer on a journey into the depths of King's Indian middlegame strategies. A review by Stefan Liebig.

10/10/2024 – Of course, ChessBase and its customers are always affected by technological change. After floppy discs and CDs, DVDs are now disappearing from the range. We discuss this with ChessBase CEO Rainer Woisin.

10/1/2024 – Pascal Lautenschläger is the man behind the Fritztrainer courses. As head of video production, he recently produced his 500th Fritztrainer title. He was also recently honoured for his 20th anniversary with ChessBase. At the Chess Olympiad in Budapest Amruta Mokal used the opportunity to interview Pascal and to ask him about his work with some of the greatest players of all time.

8/11/2024 – The Taimanov Sicilian offers Black a flexible and reliable system against 1.e4, allowing for realistic winning chances without unnecessary risks. This comprehensive video course provides a complete repertoire, covering both the main lines and Anti-Sicilian variations, with more than 16 hours of instruction, interactive training, and over 400 model games. Ideal for players looking to solidify their understanding and confidently face any challenge in the Sicilian Defence.