3/26/2024 – Yochanan Afek, International Grandmaster of chess composition, has been providing us with articles for decades. He lives in Amsterdam, where Sagar Shah caught up with him and conducted a 90-minute interview, discussing some of the great problem compositions that we have from him. We have the puzzles in a replay board, where you can follow the discussion, using the built-in engine to answer residual questions you might have. Very entertaining and instructive.

3/26/2024 – After it set off from India, the Chess Torch relay — which will travel the world celebrating the first centenary of FIDE — has reached the African continent. The torch arrived in Ghana’s capital, Accra. Highlighting the transformative power of chess in education, Seth Panwum, Chairman of Ghana’s National Sports Authority, remarked: “We want to develop the best versions of our young ones, and we see that chess in education can play a great role in it”. | Photos: Niki Riga

3/25/2024 – A young Chinese girl, Lu Miaoyi, made a big impression in the Reykjavík Open 2024. Her mother, Xu Yuanyuan, is also a Woman Grandmaster. It is already clear that her 14-year-old daughter will soon overtake her and win the IM title and then the title of grandmaster. | Photo: Hallfríður Sigurðardóttir / Reykjavik Open

3/25/2024 – “Everyone has been waiting for this chess festival”, writes Alex Winkler in a press release from the organisation of the GRENKE Chess Classic and the GRENKE Chess Open. Six international stars, including Magnus Carlsen and Vincent Keymer, will compete in the Classic, which starts tomorrow, Tuesday 26 March, while over 2500 players will take part in the Open. But last-minute entrants can still take part: the registration is still open!

3/25/2024 – Take a look at this picture. It is not a Hollywood star, but a chess celebrity. Can you recognize him? Capablanca, Nezhmetdinov, Frank Marshall? No, not any of them! The answer is Andor Lilienthal, an extraordinary chess grandmaster, born in Moscow, but moved to Hungary. In his career, he played against ten world champions, and defeated six of them. Retrospect by Himank Ghosh. | Photo: Edward Winter's Chess Notes archives.

3/25/2024 – We owe the vast majority of chess knowledge available to us today to the masters of the past, no matter whether it's about opening theory, strategic concepts or techniques in the endgame. Former German national coach Dorian Rogozenco honours the achievements by these masters in his "Modern Classics" series in ChessBase Magazine. In each issue he familiarises you with a selected brilliancy. This week we offer you Nezhmetdinov-Chernikov (1962) from the current CBM #218 as a free sample - you can even watch and enjoy the video analysis on your smartphone in ChessBase book format. Have fun!

3/22/2024 – In his new Fast & Furious episode, Robert Ris shows how Levon Aronian surprised Wesley So in a classical line of the Nimzo-Indian. Aronian’s 5...c5!? worked out perfectly as he went on to win the game. | Fast & Furious is available on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here.

3/22/2024 – Romanian grandmaster Bogdan-Daniel Deac won the Reykjavik Open after scoring 7½/9 points, leaving seven players tied for second place a half point back. According to tiebreak criteria, Sebastian Maze from France and Paulius Pultinevicius from Lithuania grabbed second and third place, respectively. Deac entered the event as the rating favourite, and obtained clear first place after scoring back-to-back wins in the final two rounds. | Photo: Hallfríður Sigurðardóttir

3/21/2024 – The American Cup, one of the United States’ premier chess tournaments, returns to Saint Louis. Now in its third year, the event runs from March 12-21, 2024, at the iconic World Chess Hall of Fame, featuring sixteen of America’s top chess talents. With $400,000 in prize money up for grabs, the competitors will prove their mettle under mounting pressure in the double-elimination knockout format. | Follow the games live with expert commentary starting at 19.00 CET (14.00 ET, 23.30 IST)

3/21/2024 – In his new Game of the Week show, Merijn van Delft looks at an all-Dutch confrontation from the Bundesliga, between Lucas van Foreest and Erik van den Doel. Erik played very patiently and suddenly managed to get an edge in a game featuring very instructive moments. | Merijn’s show is available on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here.

3/21/2024 – Judit and Sofia Polgar joined last Thursday (March 14) to play in a simultaneous exhibition in the German parliament (Bundestag) in a moving tribute to the Israeli hostages held by Hamas. The aim of the initiative is to strengthen the ties between countries and to promote solidarity between people. The prestigious initiative has been recognized by UNESCO for promoting interracial dialogue through the game of chess. | Press Release by Yochanan Afek, photos: Judit Polgar/Chess 4 All

3/20/2024 – We just witnessed beautiful chess in Weissenhaus, Germany, played by the top players, which may have led you to start believing you can do the same! But openings can be a great challenge when dealing with Chess960, since one may not know where to start. Thus, we share five tips which may help in battling through the hazy storm of displaced pieces.