6/5/2026 – This week there is a truly remarkable new concept in the Sicilian already on move 3! After the moves 1.e4 c5 2.Nc3 d6 the bizarre looking move 3.f3!? was played by Nihal Sarin in his game against Alexander Donchenko at the Stepan Avagyan Memorial in Armenia. Admittedly, the move isn't entirely new as it has been played by a few top GMs (including Carlsen and Nihal himself!) in some online and shorter time control games. Despite its weird appearance, this little pawn move still has some points which will be discussed in detail. Eventually the game turned into some Dragon type of position, in which Black was objectively speaking doing fine, but the German GM lost track in the middlegame and White got the chance to seize the initiative and launch a massive attack against the black king. An inspirational new approach in the heavily analyzed world of the Sicilians!

6/5/2026 – Norway Chess is arguably the strangest tournament in many years. Last week we discussed that Magnus Carlsen had already lost two games, but after eight rounds, he in fact already lost four games. This really seems to be caused by the fact that they play without increment before move 40 and with only 10 instead of 30 seconds increment after move 40. Our Game of the Week between Praggnanandhaa and Gukesh was highly spectacular and entertaining. Merijn's show is available on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here.

6/5/2026 – The 14th edition of the Norway Chess super-tournament is taking place from 25 May to 5 June at Deichman Bjorvika in Oslo. An open event and a women's event are being played concurrently with an identical number of players, the same format and an equivalent prize fund. Wesley So, Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu and Alireza Firouzja enter the final round with chances to take the title. Key pairings: Firouzja v. So and Pragg v. Keymer. | Follow the games live starting at 17.00 CEST (11.00 ET, 20.30 IST) | Photo: Norway Chess / Michal Walusza

6/5/2026 – The 25th edition of the European Women's Chess Championship is taking place from 25 May to 5 June in the Georgian city of Batumi. The tournament is played over 11 rounds using the Swiss system. More than 150 players from 32 European federations have registered to participate. Ten players have an Elo rating above 2400. | Follow the games live starting at 11.00 CEST (5.00 ET, 14.30 IST) | Pictured: Adhara Rodríguez | Photo: European Chess Union

6/5/2026 – Bibisara Assaubayeva secured the Norway Chess Women title with a round to spare after drawing her classical game against defending champion Anna Muzychuk. The Kazakh grandmaster, unbeaten on a plus-three classical score, has gained 15.2 rating points in Oslo and climbed to fifth place in the women's live rankings. Zhu Jiner climbed to second place after beating Divya Deshmukh with black in the day's only decisive classical game. | Photo: Norway Chess / Michal Walusza

6/5/2026 – In the diagram position, Black is exerting enormous pressure on the kingside. But White wins - can you see what Siegbert Tarrasch saw?