2/24/2024 – The Methodical Attacking Principles within certain pawn structures hold high importance. From the opening to the middlegame, the patterns, plans, and theories derived from our initial pawn moves necessitate different actions. Those who frequently play the Queen's Gambit likely have a better understanding of an isolated pawn compared to aficionados of the Ruy Lopez. Svitlana discusses an excellent game by Jan-Krzysztof Duda, highlighting how he gradually leverages his pawn structure advantage for an unstoppable attack.

2/24/2024 – Klaus Darga was one of the best German players in the 1960s and 1970s. Darga represented Germany in team events multiple times and belonged to the extended world elite before he gave up his career for professional reasons around 1970. He later worked as a national coach for the German Chess Federation. Today he is celebrating his 90th birthday, making him the oldest chess grandmaster in the world.

2/24/2024 – The Kasparov Chess Foundation Academy invites you to watch an interview with grandmaster Elisabeth Paehtz, one of the strongest German female chess players since her youth. On February 25, 17:00 CET, Elisabeth will give a live interview at KCF Academy. Add it to your calendar!

2/24/2024 – In the diagram position, the white king will soon bite the queenside dust - somehow no wonder with the Bf5 controlling the b1-square. What would you do with Black?

2/24/2024 – The fourth edition of the Djerba Chess Festival is taking place on February 17-25 on the island of Djerba in Tunisia. Situated on the south-east coast of Tunisia, Djerba is a small, flat island at only 54 metres above sea level. The main event is the Masters, an 8-player single round-robin. After five rounds, Hans Niemann and Daniel Dardha (pictured) are sharing the lead. | All photos by Diana Mihajlova

2/23/2024 – As expected after the penultimate round, the German teams obtained a double victory at the Mitropa Cup and the Women’s Mitropa Cup. Germany competed with almost all of their best players and had a successful dress rehearsal for the upcoming Chess Olympiad in Budapest in September. | Photos: Frank Hoppe, Katharina Reinecke (German Chess Federation)

2/23/2024 – This week GM Daniel King analyses a few adventurous positions reached at the Freestyle G.O.A.T. Challenge in Germany, as he found a particular theme that kept appearing! | Power Play is on air most Fridays. Watch it on-demand with a ChessBase Premium account. All the usual puzzles, games and instruction will be on offer.

2/23/2024 – The Cuban Championships, open and women’s, took place on February 5-17 in two different parts of the Caribbean island: Holguín and Pinar del Río, respectively. Both events were decided on tiebreakers, with Ernesto Quesada and Lisandra Ordaz emerging victorious.

2/23/2024 – The Grand Chess Tour announced today the players selected to compete in the full 2024 tour. Joining the likes of Fabiano Caruana, Wesley So and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave are three rising stars who had not been ‘regulars’ in the tour previously: Gukesh D (pictured), Praggnanandhaa R and Nodirbek Abdusattorov. The first event of the series kicks off on May 6 in Warsaw, Poland. | Photo: Grand Chess Tour

2/23/2024 – Around the turn of the century, there was worldwide interest regarding chess confrontations between humans and computers. One of the last top-notch events featuring such a battle was seen in 2005, when three strong grandmasters played a match against three of the best engines in the world. In the end, Hydra, Junior and Fritz defeated Alexander Khalifman, Ruslan Ponomariov and Rustam Kasimdzhanov by an 8-4 score. The match took place in Bilbao, and saw Ponomariov beating Fritz in a memorable encounter.

2/23/2024 – In his new Game of the Week show, Merijn van Delft turns his attention to the Mitropa Cup and looks at a fine attacking game won by German Grandmaster Matthias Bluebaum against Swiss Grandmaster Nico Georgiadis. | Merijn’s show is available on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here.

2/22/2024 – Unichess and Emmedi Sport ASD invite you to Sardinia World Chess Festival 2024. The inaugural edition of this festival is offering a total prize fund of €50100. The top three prizes are €10000, €6000 and €4000 each. There are three categories - Open A (>1999), Open B (<2000) and Open C (<1600). There are 15 main prizes in Open A and ten each in Open B and C. That's not all. Total 78 prizes are up for grabs. Entry is FREE for players rated above 2450. For everyone else, entry fee is €100 by 31st March €130 till 15th April after organizing committee agrees. Eleven players have 2600, 19 players above 2500, 17 GMs and 9 IMs have already confirmed participation from 15 countries across the world. The tournament is organized by UniChess (FIDE Academy tier 1-2) along with Emmedi Sport ASD. Check out the article for all information. All tournament info photos are from tournament circular.