4/20/2019 – After starting off with two straight wins at the GRENKE Chess Open, Iranian prodigy Alireza Firouzja decided to forfeit his third round game as his opponent was an Israeli national: FM Or Bronstein (pictured). The laws of Iran forbid Iranian players from playing against Israelis. Had Firouzja played, he would have risked facing sanctions back in his home country. But forfeiting a game also cost him dearly — as ADITYA PAI reports from Karlsruhe — Firoujza seemed to have lost his composure in the next round as he simply left his rook en prise against 1945-rated Antonia Ziegenfuss (pictured). Surely one of the biggest upsets we'll see this year!

4/20/2019 – The Grenke Open began Thursday with over 900 participants in the A-Open. Today, some of the world's best players take centre stage at the Grenke Chess Classic. Round 1 features #1 Magnus Carlsen against #10 Vincent Keymer who's rated 336 points below the World Champion. Live games and commentary (from 13:00 UTC / 15:00 CEST / 9:00 AM EDT) with GM Peter Leko and GM Jan Gustafsson

4/20/2019 – Hot on the heels of the European Senior Championship in Rhodes, the World Senior Team Championship for players aged over 50 and 65 is underway. ALEX YERMOLINSKY reports on the progress of the top-seeded USA team. | Pictured: Captain Alexander Shabalov and Yermolinsky decided to take a few days to be chess tourists in advance of the competition

4/20/2019 – Live games and commentary by GM Ioannis Papaioannou & IM Can Arduman from the European Women's Championship in Antalya. Play begins at 12 Noon UTC (14:00 CEST / 8 AM EDT) from April 11th to 22nd with a rest day on April 17th (and the last round four hours earlier). In all 130 players are on the starting list but only the top 14 finishers will qualify for the World Cup. The top seeds are Aleksandra Goryachkina (Russia, 2534) and Nana Dzagnidze (Georgia, 2513). Official site: eiwcc2019.tsf.org.tr

4/20/2019 – Two straight wins with Black allowed Ukrainian IM Inna Gaponenko to catch up with Alina Kashlinskaya in the lead of the European Women's Championship. Five players are half a point behind, including former women's world champion Anna Ushenina. The co-leaders are paired against each other in Saturday's ninth round. The long event is set to finish on Monday and it is still too early to make any sort of confident prediction. | Photo: eiwcc2019.tsf.org.tr

4/20/2019 – On the FIDE Federations list The Bahamas are on place number 162 and the ten strongest players in the country do have an average rating of 1734. But the island has a striving, charming and strong chess community as diplomat and chess fan TED CROSS found out. | Pictured: The Old Fort Bay Club on the Bahamas | Photo: Old Fort Bay Club

4/19/2019 – Ding Liren, Anish Giri and Yu Yangyi are back in Shenzhen, as the trio has participated in all three editions of the six-player double round robin. Pentala Harikrishna is returning to the Chinese city after having played in 2017 but not in 2018, while the newcomers are Dmitry Jakovenko and Richard Rapport. After three rounds, Giri is the only player on a plus score. Harikrishna fell victim to Anish in round two but bounced right back the very next day. | Photo: cca.imsa.cn

4/19/2019 – After White's 49.Rd7 in the diagram position Black must find the right move with his attacked knight h7 to clinch victory. 49...Nf8 or 49...Ng5. What would have been your choice against a reigning World Champion?

4/19/2019 – The 2019 edition of the European Senior Championships for men and women over 50 and over 65 was played between the 6th and the 14th of April. The organizers decided to reschedule the event earlier than initially announced, which complicated some of the logistics. Elena Fatalibekova, Tatiana Grabuzova, Jens Kristiansen and Zurab Sturua took home gold medals. The Amateur Championships for players U-1700, U-2000 and U-2300 took place concurrently. | Photo: Official site

4/18/2019 – The second part of the opening tutorial shows how to create a repertoire database and how to import games from the ChessBase Magazine and other sources to your repertoire database to save a lot of time and effort. | Drawing: ChessBase

4/18/2019 – On Thursday at 15:00 UTC (17:00 CEST / 11 AM EDT), join us for a live question and answer session with world number two Fabiano Caruana, who will tackle ChessBase reader questions for about 30 minutes. Post your question in the comments section below and you'll be entered into a contest for a new Opening Encyclopedia autographed by Fabiano!

4/18/2019 – Today's topic: The Italian with 4.c3 ♞f6 5.d4 exd4 6.e5, offers both sides dynamic chances. In this show IM Robert Ris will review GM games to illustrate the main plans and help you learn about the thematic attacking ideas in the ensuing pawn structure. The live show at 17:00 UTC (19:00 CEST / 2 PM EDT) is free to watch, and available on-demand for ChessBase Premium account holders (but FREE for a limited time!). To chat, please visit videos.chessbase.com/live or login via Playchess for Windows.