Arne Kaehler

4/14/2026 – The ChessBase crew travels to Cyprus to cover the Candidates Tournament, bringing you daily impressions from one of the biggest events in chess. What is the atmosphere like around the world's best players? How is the venue, and where do the stars spend their time? What happens behind the scenes in the media centre and beyond? And what is Cyprus like as a host for such a prestigious event? From travel moments and unexpected encounters to exclusive insights into the tournament environment, we take you along for the journey—day by day. Experience the Candidates from the inside.

4/16/2026 – Vaishali Rameshbabu won the Women's Candidates Tournament by defeating Kateryna Lagno in the final round, finishing clear first on 8½/14 and earning the right to challenge Ju Wenjun in the match for the world title. In this interview, Vaishali looks back on the months of preparation that followed her Grand Swiss victory, discusses the support of her family and team, and explains how she coped with the pressure of a tense and closely contested tournament. | Photo: ChessBase / Nils Rohde

5/6/2026 – Since Leon Mendonca and Aram Hakobyan were both visiting the ChessBase office, we handed them a beta version to puzzle fight each other. The app launched this weekend, it's free, and you can try Puzzle Fight yourself. Fair warning: it's hard to stop, as the video proves.

5/6/2026 – Discover the secrets of the Hippopotamus Defense with Andrew Martin, a unique and flexible opening that thrives on patience, timing, and psychological pressure. This course shows why many aggressive players fail against the Hippo, often attacking too early and falling into devastating counterplay. Learn how to stay calm, choose the right moment to strike, and turn this seemingly passive setup into a powerful weapon against your opponents.

5/9/2026 – In this episode of Monthly Dragon, Chris Ward presents three entertaining and highly tactical Dragon games, focusing on key themes such as the thematic d5-break, the power of the Dragon bishop and active king play in the endgame. Particularly impressive are the games featuring Havard Haug, Emre Can and Hikaru Nakamura, where Black repeatedly seizes the initiative through tactical motifs, loose pieces, and aggressive rook and queen activity. The main lesson throughout the episode is that in the Dragon, dynamic play, piece activity, and tactical awareness are often far more important than perfect pawn structure. | Photo: John Upham

5/10/2026 – Today we have a special guest on Svitlana's Smart Moves: Leon Mendonca. Since we all got to know each other well during the Biel Chess Festival 2024, we decided it was finally time to record a show together. In this episode, Svitlana Demchenko introduces the tricky Cowboy Attack in the Sicilian, and surprisingly, Leon turns out to be a genuine fan of the opening as well, making this an opening variation that is definitely worth a closer look.

5/18/2026 – Aram Hakobyan speaks about his journey from a passionate chess obsessed child in Armenia to becoming a world under 12 champion, studying at Webster University in the United States, and eventually returning home to continue pursuing professional chess. He reflects on the importance of passion over pressure, explains how mentors like Levon Aronian shaped his mindset, and shares honest thoughts about sponsorship struggles, modern chess preparation, and why enjoying the process matters more than chasing rating goals. Aram also discusses his upcoming ChessBase training course on the Ruy Lopez Opening from Black's perspective, while offering practical advice on studying openings, experimenting with different training methods, and developing genuine curiosity for chess.

Chris Ward and Arne Kaehler dive deep into dangerous attacking ideas against the Sicilian Dragon, especially early h4 and g4 pawn storms in the Yugoslav Attack, showing several brutal games where Black gets crushed if unprepared. The episode also highlights rising young Dragon specialist Havard Haug again, whose energetic blitz wins demonstrate that the Dragon is becoming fashionable once more among a new generation of players.

5/30/2026 – In this episode of The Underdog, Robert presents a game from the 25th European Women's Chess Championship 2026 in Batumi, Georgia. As he has done in several previous episodes, the featured game is not from the opening round but from round four. The talented Armenian player Polina Kobak faced IM Stavroula Tsolakidou of Greece, one of the tournament favourites, and met the King's Indian Defence with impressive play. Interestingly, both players had opportunities to force a draw, but neither was willing to settle for half a point.

6/1/2026 – Grandmaster Amin Bassem takes on the Swindler on GM level and quickly guides the game into a strategically rich King's Indian structure. Throughout the game, Amin demonstrates deep positional understanding, carefully evaluating dynamic imbalances and resisting tempting material gains when they would strengthen Fritz's active pieces. After a tense middlegame battle full of subtle decisions, both sides agree to a draw, and the post game analysis reveals just how finely balanced the struggle had been.