4/1/2024 – FIDE published an updated world ranking list on 1 April. The climber of the month is undoubtedly Nodirbek Abdusattorov, who won the Masters at the Chess Festival in Prague and is now fourth in the world rankings after having gained 15 rating points. Also, joining the top ten is Arjun Erigaisi in ninth place, who earned 8 rating points in March, in Shenzhen and in the Bundesliga.

3/9/2024 – Bu Xiangzhi, Yu Yangyi and Arjun Erigaisi finished the fifth edition of the Shenzhen Masters tied for first place with 4½/7 points each. The first tiebreak criterion was the number of points collected in their direct encounters, and it was Bu who had the best score, as he had defeated Arjun in the second round. Thus, Bu got the first prize, Yu finished second and Arjun finished third. | Photos: Liang Ziming / Chinese Chess Federation

3/2/2024 – Two games ended decisively in round 3 of the strong Shenzhen Masters. Yu Yangyi became the sole leader by beating Vladislav Artemiev with the white pieces. Arjun Erigaisi (pictured), meanwhile, bounced back from his loss against Bu Xiangzhi with a fine victory over Anish Giri. | Photo: Liang Ziming

3/1/2024 – Yesterday's winners, Anish Giri and Arjun Erigaisi, were defeated in the second round by Daniil Dubov (photo) and Bu Xianghzi respectively. Yu Yangyi - against Xu Xiangyu - and Vladislav Artiemiev - against Ma Qun - also won. | Photo: Shahid Ahmed

3/1/2024 – With the top players mainly playing online and freestyle, there has been little change at the top of the rankings. Magnus Carlsen, the current World Champion in Rapid and Blitz, is still the world number one, as he has been since July 2011. Fabiano Caruana follows in second place and is the only other player besides Carlsen with a rating of 2800+.

2/29/2024 – A top grandmaster tournament, the 5th Shenzhen Chess Masters, began today in Longgang, a district of the Chinese metropolis with a population of 17 million. Eight players are taking part, including five players with an Elo rating of over 2700. Anish Giri and Erigaisi started with victories.| Photos: Shenzhen News Network

2/1/2024 – It is 1 February and FIDE has published their new World Ranking List. There have been some changes in the rankings, mainly due to the results of the tournaments in Wijk aan Zee, but Carlsen, Caruana and Nakamura continue to lead the world rankings despite not having played a FIDE rated game in January. Ju Wenjun has moved back into second place behind Hou Yifan in the women's rankings.

2/1/2024 – The first event of the Champions Chess Tour kicked off on Wednesday. A 9-round Swiss open featuring over 200 players saw Peruvian GM Jose Martinez claiming first place on tiebreaks after scoring as many points as Spanish GM David Anton. Remarkably, Martinez, an online-chess specialist, outscored the likes of Hikaru Nakamura and Alireza Firouzja on his 25th birthday.

1/29/2024 – It was a thrilling event from start to finish. The final round of the Tata Steel Masters saw four co-leaders grabbing wins to set up a four-way blitz playoff. Wei Yi, Gukesh D., Anish Giri and Nodirbek Abdusattorov played the knockout tiebreaker, which saw 24-year-old Wei claiming overall victory after showcasing his well-known tactical sharpness in the deciding stage. Meanwhile, Leon Luke Mendonca took clear first place in the Challengers after beating Divya Deshmukh with the white pieces. | Photo: Tata Steel Chess Tournament / Lennart Ootes

1/12/2024 – In his new Game of the Week show, Merijn van Delft analyses one of the games played by world champion Ding Liren at a rapid Chinese tournament. Ding returned to an official competition after a long hiatus. | Merijn’s show is available on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here.

1/11/2024 – Ding Liren played his last classical rated game on May 15, when he beat Bogdan-Daniel Deac with black in the last round of the Superbet Classic in Bucharest. Just two weeks earlier, he had defeated Ian Nepomniachtchi in a thrilling match to become the 17th undisputed world chess champion. Following his long hiatus, the Chinese ace will compete again at the Tata Steel Masters in Wijk aan Zee. A week before the start of the traditional event, he played a rapid tournament in China. | Photo: Amruta Mokal

1/1/2024 – On 1st January FIDE published its new ranking list. Firouzja, who tried hard in the last days of December to gain a few more rating points, has achieved his goal: he has overtaken Wesley So and qualified for the Candidates by rating. Magnus Carlsen is still the clear number one, ahead of Fabiano Caruana and Hikaru Nakamura in second and third, while Vincent Keymer and Praggnanandhaa are the world's best juniors. Hou Yifan continues to top the women's list and Bibisara Assaubayeva is the world's best female junior.

12/30/2023 – Magnus Carlsen grabbed his 17th World Championship title — the 7th in blitz — by scoring 16/21 points at the World Blitz event in Samarkand. After losing his first game of the day, against Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Carlsen grabbed six wins in a row to retake the sole lead. Two draws in the final rounds allowed him to outscore Daniil Dubov by a half point. In the women’s championship, Valentina Gunina got outright victory thanks to a final-round win over Anna Muzychuk. Alexandra Kosteniuk came close to catching the eventual champion, but fell just short and took the silver medal. | Photo: FIDE / Anastasia Korolkova

12/30/2023 – There was no shortage of controversy on day 1 of the World Blitz Championships in Samarkand. A dispute regarding an alleged clock malfunction delayed the start of round 7 by close to an hour, while a 13-move draw — featuring only knight moves — between Daniil Dubov and Ian Nepomniachtchi resulted in both players losing a half point as their encounter, according to the Chief Arbiter, would “bring the game of chess into disrepute”. Meanwhile, Valentina Gunina got a 1½-point lead in the women’s tournament after finishing day 1 with an astonishing 8½/9 score. | Photo: chess.com / Maria Emelianova

12/28/2023 – Yet another stunning performance, yet another title! Magnus Carlsen scored 10/13 points throughout three days of play to grab his fifth World Rapid Championship title in Samarkand. The Norwegian obtained two wins in a row at the start of day 3 and managed to win the tournament outright with draws in the final two rounds. In the women’s tournament, Anastasia Bodnaruk beat Humpy Koneru in a blitz playoff to claim the title. | Photo: FIDE / Lennart Ootes

12/28/2023 – Magnus Carlsen, Vladimir Fedoseev and Yu Yangyi are sharing the lead in the open section of the World Rapid Championship after nine rounds. Carlsen and Fedoseev could have gone into the third and final day of action a half point ahead of Yu had them converted superior endgame positions in round 9. In the women’s tournament, Anastasia Bodnaruk climbed to sole first place after scoring 3½/4 points on Wednesday. | Photo: FIDE / Lennart Ootes

12/26/2023 – Five players ended day 1 of the World Rapid Championship sharing first place with 4½/5 points. Magnus Carlsen, who assessed his play on the first day as “so-so”, heads the leading pack, which also includes Yu Yangyi, Vidit Gujrathi, Arjun Erigaisi and Ivan Cheparinov. In the women’s section, Zhu Jiner and Nurgyul Salimova are sharing first place with perfect 4/4 scores. | Photo: FIDE / Lennart Ootes

12/21/2023 – The chess year 2023 will end with a particularly exciting event: the World Rapid and Blitz Championships, which will take place from 26 to 30 December in Samarkand, Uzbekistan. Almost the entire world elite will be competing, with Magnus Carlsen the favourite in both tournaments. | Photos: Lennart Ootes, Maria Emelianova/Chess.com

12/12/2023 – Passed pawns can be powerful. The diagram shows a position from a game Alexander Grischuk played against Yu Yangyi at the Tech Mahindra Global Chess League event. It is White to move, and do you see how Grischuk can use his powerful pawns?

12/9/2023 – On Wednesday, the Alef Super Stars 2023, a 4-player multi-format tournament featuring grandmasters Yu Yangyi, Sanan Sjugirov, Nihal Sarin and Saleh Salem, came to an end. Yu finished first in the overall standings. Nihal, who was the top scorer in the blitz portion, grabbed second place. | Photos: Sharjah Chess Club and Aditya Sur Roy

12/4/2023 – For its December list FIDE has not yet rated the tournaments in St. Louis and Zagreb, so Alireza Firouzja's rating loss is still quite moderate. The 30 Elo-points Hans Niemann gained in the Tournament of Peace in Zagreb do not appear in the list either. But Carlsen remains the clear number one.

11/30/2023 – A 4-player multi-format tournament is taking place from November 27 to December 6 in Sharjah, United Arab Emirates. Yu Yangyi, Sanan Sjugirov, Nihal Sarin and Saleh Salem first face each other in double round-robin tournaments in classical and rapid chess, and then in a triple round-robin blitz event. After three rounds of classical games, Yu leads the standings with 15/18 points (in classical, a win grants 6 points). | Photo: Aditya Sur Roy

11/2/2023 – A win over Javokhir Sindarov with black allowed Vidit Gujrathi to emerge as sole leader in the open section of the FIDE Grand Swiss. The Indian grandmaster is the only player in the open to have scored five wins, as he began the event with a loss against Erwin l’Ami. Eleven players stand a half point back, including top seeds Fabiano Caruana and Hikaru Nakamura. Meanwhile, in the women’s tournament, Vaishali Rameshbabu and Antoaneta Stefanova collected full points to join Anna Muzychuk in the lead. | Photo: Anna Shtourman

11/1/2023 – Magnus Carlsen is still the clear world number one, but his lead over the other world class players has shrunk somewhat, although it's still impressive. World number two Fabiano Caruana is the only player in the top 12 to have gained Elo in the last month, and with a good result in the Grand Swiss Tournament on the Isle of Man he could break the 2800 barrier again. Here's the FIDE Ranking as of 1 November 2023.