9/19/2023 – Organizers announced the planned date of the 6th Festival immediately after the conclusion of the June Prague International Chess Festival. After three summer years, the Festival will return to its traditional season, specifically between February and March, and place, i.e. Don Giovanni Hotel Prague. To be precise, the dates are 26th February to 7th March 2024. | Photo: Petr Vrabec

9/19/2023 – An opening trap is particularly effective if it is built up with natural-looking development moves and is thus hardly recognisable for an uninformed opponent. Trap expert Rainer Knaak presents a collection of promising traps from tournament practice in every issue of ChessBase Magazine. In the current issue #215 there are eight examples - from Trompowsky via Sicilian and Ruy Lopez to King's Indian. Rainer Knaak also demonstrates three of his favourite traps in video in CBM #215; you can watch one of the videos here!

9/19/2023 – The Honour Division of the Spanish League is taking place on September 16-22 in Linares, Jaén. Eight teams take part in the single round-robin competition. Each match is played over six boards, with the obligatory inclusion of a female representative on each team’s roster. After three rounds, rating favourites DuoBeniaján Costa Cálida lead the standings with 6/6 match points. Magic Extremadura and defending champions C.A. Solvay stand a match point behind. | Pictured: Pia Cramling (C.A. Silla) facing Alberto Quintín (MyInvestor Casablanca) | Photo: FEDA

9/19/2023 – In the endgame, passed pawns are often powerful, but one should not underestimate being material up. In the diagram position Black is an exchange up, but has to fight against two strong passed pawns - what should he do?

9/19/2023 – Day 5 of the Armageddon Championship Series witnessed intense battles, culminating in Wesley So and Richard Rapport advancing to the Armageddon semifinals. Unfortunately, this also meant bidding farewell to Humpy Koneru and Gukesh, both of whom exited the competition. | Photos: Max Avdeev / World Chess

9/18/2023 – Held in six age categories — U8, U10, U12, U14, U16 and U18 (open and girls sections separately) — from September 5-14 at the Dorna Ceremony Hall in Mamaia, Romania, the European Youth Chess Championship 2023 attracted over 900 participants from 46 European federations, including more than 100 titled players. | Photos: International Chess Federation

9/15/2023 – In his new Power Play Show, GM Daniel King shares his insights on Praggnanandhaa’s ability to use one of Magnus Carlsen’s favourite strategies: playing an early Bg5 to provoke ...g5. | 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.

9/15/2023 – From 22 to 26 September, Ilya Levitov is organising a “Chess Week” for the second time. Ten strong players will compete in a double-round rapid chess tournament, including two former world champions, Vishy Anand and Vladimir Kramnik. Four years ago, the winner was Ian Nepomniachtchi, who will attempt to defend his title in Amsterdam. | Photo: Adele and Ilya Levitov with Ian Nepomniachtchi

9/15/2023 – Vladimir Kramnik recently caused a stir with an online game against Hans Niemann, in which he wanted to let himself be mated quickly in protest of Niemann’s alleged cheating in the previous game. Kramnik, however, is not so much concerned with Niemann himself, but with the cheating problem in online chess in general. He estimates that the problem is much bigger than people think and presented his arguments in a long video interview. | Photo: Amruta Mokal

9/15/2023 – The Armageddon Championship Series: Grand Finale began on September 14 at the World Chess Club in Berlin. In an evening filled with suspense and strategic brilliance, Gukesh D and Jan-Krzysztof Duda emerged as victors, each securing a commanding 2-0 win against their formidable opponents, Wesley So and Sam Shankland. | Photo: World Chess

9/15/2023 – ChessBase Magazine #215 offers over an hour of video playing time with its three opening videos alone (the total playing time of all videos in CBM #215 is more than seven hours). Robert Ris uses three new games by Richard Rapport to examine what White can hope for in the Vienna Game after 5.Qf3. Ivan Sokolov examines the highly topical variation 11.h4!? in the Semi-Tarrasch, especially Giri's novelty 13.Rh3 against Praggnanandhaa. And Daniel King gives a recommendation for the side line 3...e5 against the Sicilian Rossolimo Variation which has already been tested at the highest level. You can watch an extract from Robert Ris' analysis here!

9/14/2023 – Grandmaster Leon Mendonca is a rising star in the chess world and one of India's most promising young talents. This year, at seventeen, he crossed the 2600 Elo barrier (current Elo is 2622) for the first time and is probably one of the most active chess players in 2023 (almost 100 rated games). Leon has recorded a very interesting Fritztrainer on the venomous variation 1.Nf3 d5 2.e3, which most club-level players do not know how to effectively counter.