10/22/2024 – Indian Grandmaster Sasikiran Krishnan (which is the actual correct name order), reflects on his remarkable chess journey, from learning the game as a child in Chennai to becoming one of India's top players. He shares personal stories about overcoming challenges both on and off the board, highlighting key moments in his career and life, like reaching 2700+ rating, winning the bronze medal at the Olympiad, and his impressive weight loss journey, where he dropped 35 kg, only to become too weak and end up in the hospital.

10/22/2024 – Queens are very peculiar pieces. They love to attack and hate to defend. The difference in the value of this piece when attacking and defending is striking. An attacking queen is perhaps twice as valuable than a defending one. In a way, it makes a lot of sense. A queen is a very mobile and precious piece. Being mobile, it can attack very well, creating double attacks, forks, moving from one side to the other with ease. Being precious, it is barely able to cover anything. (For the same reason we don’t use golden locks to protect our bicycles. Thieves would gladly steal both the bike and the lock.) The qualities of a queen are very visible in situations when it must fight less valuable pieces. Let's have a look at some examples! | Photo: Ecolinho (Pixabay)

10/22/2024 – In the diagram position White has still all the pawns he had at the beginning of the game, but he also has a bad bishop because he put all those pawns on the colour of his bishop. And though he is a pawn up, White is in trouble and has to fight for a draw. What should he do?

10/21/2024 – With 7 points from 9 games, Indian Grandmaster P.T. Sethuraman won the Weissenhaus Young Masters ahead of Pavel Eljanov. The young players of the Weissenhaus Chess Acadamy, Marius Deuer and Leonardo Costa finished third and fourth. 13-year old Hussain Besou narrowly missed an IM-norm, but gained tournament experience. Just as 12-year old Christian Glöckler. | Photo: WEISSENHAUS Chess Academy

10/21/2024 – The top teams had a smooth start to the European Club Cup in Vrnjacka Banja on Sunday, but there were some individual upsets: Praggnanandhaa (2746) lost in the first round against Francois Godart (2377), and Max Lutze (2148) of the SV Erkenschwick defeated GM Vajnap Sanal (2570). | Photo: Vincent Keymer watches his colleagues from team Novy Bor | Photos: ECU and Gerd Densing

10/21/2024 – The Neo-London System is an enhanced version of the classic London System, emphasizing creativity and sharper play by avoiding common black setups and exploiting the Bf5 variation's risks for Black. The course offers extensive training with interactive exercises and novelties for surprising opponents in unexplored positions.

10/21/2024 – In rook endings, the privilege of having connected passed pawns can easily make the difference. But even in this case there are many hidden resources. After our first lesson a few days ago, today we are going to study a key manoeuvre you have to know if you want to survive against two connected pawns (as in this diagram). We also bring you some historical examples to help you understand the technique. Learn and enjoy.

10/20/2024 – In the open section of the US Championships, defending champion Fabiano Caruana drew with second seed Wesley So, maintaining a half-point lead over his closest chasers - Awonder Liang and Hans Niemann - with three rounds remaining. Meanwhile, in the women’s section, Carissa Yip continued her dominant run, securing her eighth consecutive win by defeating Atousa Pourkashiyan. Yip, now 2½ points ahead of her nearest rival, is just three wins away from claiming the $64,000 Bobby Fischer prize for a perfect 11/11 score. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

10/20/2024 – In 2023 India got its highest ever classical super tournament in the form of the Chennai Grand Masters. The tournament, with an average rating of 2711, proved to be a perfect event for fighting and high-quality chess as well as an important event in the FIDE circuit. This year the contest is back - bigger and better. Not only has the rating average of masters grown to 2729, but we also have a Challengers section with 8 talented Indian youngsters fighting for one spot in the Masters. Read on to know all the players, prize money, schedule, venue and more!

10/20/2024 – Herman Grooten is an International Master, a renowned trainer and the author of several highly acclaimed books on chess training and strategy. In the 200th episode of his ChessBase show "Understanding before moving" Herman continues his series "Chess history in a nutshell" and continues to look at the career and legacy of Viswanathan Anand. | Photo: Pascal Simon

10/19/2024 – The DuoBeniajan Costa Cálida team, hailing from Murcia, won the 2024 edition of the Spanish División de Honor, the most prestigious team tournament in the Iberian country. Of the three teams that reached the final round with a chance to claim the title, only DuoBeniajan managed to secure victory, defeating Magic Extremadura thanks to wins from José Cuenca and Marcos Camacho. MyInvestor Casablanca and C.A. Silla finished in second and third place, respectively. | Photos: Spanish Chess Federation

10/19/2024 – In the diagram position, Black has a spectacular opportunity to attack White's king on e1. Your call!