3/14/2024 – Four players advanced to the Champions Bracket’s semifinals in each section of the American Cup. While all the quarterfinal matches in the women’s event were decided after three or four games, one match in the open event was decided in blitz tiebreaks — Levon Aronian got the better of Sam Sevian in the 3-minute phase. Aronian will face Fabiano Caruana in the next stage, while Wesley So will play against Ray Robson, who defeated Leinier Dominguez in a sharp battle. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

3/14/2024 – In this year's Academy Awards a wonderful 11-minute film won the award for Best Animated Short. It was inspired by John Lennon and Yoko Ono's 1971 peace anthem "Happy Xmas (War Is Over)". The short film "WAR IS OVER!" was created by son Sean Ono Lennon and director Dave Mullins. It is set in an alternate WWI reality where two soldiers on opposite sides of the conflict play a game of chess. The game used in the film was suggested by chess historian Edward Winter, and has a highly unusual ending.

3/13/2024 – In his new Game of the Week show, Merijn van Delft presents a real fighting game: Nodirbek Abdusattorov's win against Parham Maghsoodloo at the Prague Masters 2024. Both sides showed uncompromising fighting spirit, which led to a tense game full of unusual positions. | Merijn’s show is available on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here.

3/13/2024 – The Modern Gentlemen is the name of the joint project by musicians Matt Goss and Jason Kouchak. It revolves around the art of being a true gentleman in the modern world. For the two music lovers, chess is an essential part of this. | Photos: Julian Paix

3/13/2024 – "As arbiters, we must first and foremost have full knowledge of the Laws of Chess. The Laws of Chess are like the Bible, everything starts there." In this article IA Alon Shulman shares his thought process in dealing with cases, on implementing the Laws of Chess. Arbiters must first and foremost have full knowledge of them, everything starts there. Those laws are the basis of every decision that are make. "Secondly, we must always bear in mind that those laws don’t cover everything, and we need to impose the rational of the laws as a whole." | Photo Mark Livshitz

3/13/2024 – The third edition of the American Cup kicked off at the World Chess Hall of Fame in Saint Louis. Each match saw the contenders playing a classical game and a rapid game on opening day. In the open, only Fabiano Caruana scored back-to-back wins (over Grigoriy Oparin), which means he only needs a draw on Wednesday to advance to the next stage in the Champions Bracket. Meanwhile, three out of four matches finished with 2–0 scores in the women’s section, with Nazi Paikidze, Alice Lee and Gulrukhbegim Tokhirjonova obtaining consecutive wins on the first day of action. | Photo: Austin Fuller

3/10/2024 – The ChessBase opening tutorials are a compact, quick introduction to opening theory. They will soon be available in full in the new ChessBase book format. Volume one on the open games (1.e4 e5) has already been published. In an interview with Stefan Liebig, chess trainer and grandmaster Dorian Rogozenco explains the concept: "Memorising variations is a thing of the past". | Photos: German Chess Federation

3/10/2024 – The 57th edition of the Biel Chess Festival will take place on July 13-26 with its usual mix of elite tournaments, amateur events and attractive side activities. Remarkably, this edition will see two Triathlons taking place simultaneously: the Masters and the Challengers. Praggnanandhaa, Vincent Keymer and Le Quang Liem are the top seeds in the main event.

3/10/2024 – The Swiss Queens Wednesday Series, launched in partnership with the International Chess Federation (FIDE), is an initiative aimed at boosting women’s participation in chess. With tournaments every Wednesday, the series has attracted some of the strongest players from around the world. Five editions were played in February, with Martha Fierro, Valentina Gunina, Anastasia Bodnaruk, Gunay Mammadzada and Polina Shuvalova emerging victorious in each of them.

3/9/2024 – Jaroslav Svoboda, the owner of Czech Inn Hotels and operator of the Hotel Don Giovanni, the venue of the Prague Chess Festival, is a passionate chess fan. In a short interview he reveals that he learnt to play chess rather late in life, talks about his friendship to Vlastimil Hort and explains why Bobby Fischer is not an ideal role model. | Photo: The Hotel Don Giovanni

3/9/2024 – It is certainly one of the most famous games in chess history: the 13-year-old future FIDE World Champion Bobby Fischer played a spectacular combination against IM Donald Byrne, one that has been shown and analysed by generations of chess players and writers. Today on what would have been Bobby's 81 birthday, GM Efstratios Grivas gives us a comprehensive summary of all available analysis, including those of Garry Kasparov and GM Karsten Mueller of ChessBase. Many other sources were taken into account to make sure that no blind spots are remaining!

3/9/2024 – A closed Ruy Lopez, the board full to the brim: you might expect a long game, but after Black played 21...Kf7?? in the diagram position Black was suddenly busted. Have fun - with White!