10/5/2023 – Allegations of abuse against Alejandro Ramirez, who was a commentator and coach at the Saint Louis Chess Centre, have shaken the chess world. The Board of Directors of the Saint Louis Chess Club now admits that it did not act early enough and has published improvements to its policies in a statement.

10/5/2023 – The favourites keep on winning in the open section of the European Club Cup, as the four top seeds share the lead with 8/8 match points going into the fifth round. On Thursday, Vishy Anand’s Superchess is set to face MVL’s Asnieres, while Magnus Carlsen’s Offerspill will play against Vincent Keymer’s Novy Bor. In the women’s section, TAJFUN SK Ljubljana lead the standings as the only team with a perfect score. | Photo: Niki Riga

10/4/2023 – On Thursday, 5 October, the US National Championships and the US Women's National Championships will begin in Saint Louis, each with 12 participants. Everyone with a name and a place in US top chess will be there. Only Hikaru Nakamura is missing.

10/4/2023 – Geurt Gijssen, born in 1934, is one of the most famous chess arbiters in the world of chess. He was the chief arbiter for the World Championship match between Kasparov and Karpov in 1987. He has been the top arbiter for several world championships, Olympiads and also the chairman of the FIDE rules commission for 20 years! What makes him so special? In this interview IM Sagar Shah sits down with Geurt and gets to know all about his life story. Towards the end Geurt also gives his advice to young and budding people who want to become chess arbiters.

10/4/2023 – Nine teams still have a perfect score after three rounds in the open section of the European Club Cup in Albania. Offerspill, led by Magnus Carlsen, is one of these nine teams. The former world champion won his second consecutive game after replying to 1.e4 by 1...a6 against IM Bojan Maksimovic. In the women’s section, TAJFUN SK Ljubljana and Garuda Ajka BSK are sharing the lead with 6/6 match points each. | Photo: Niki Riga

10/3/2023 – Hundreds of thousands of people in the Netherlands play chess or are interested in one of its numerous aspects. Some 20,000 are organized: they belong to a chess club. Quite a few people have found the way to the Max Euwe-Centrum, but many have no idea at all of its facilities and possibilities. ChessBase India's Sagar Shah and Amruta Mokal, who were reporting on the Levitov Chess Week, visited the tournament venue and the chess museum, and give us a complete video tour!

10/1/2023 – Control of the centre has been considered to be the heart of chess strategy from time immemorial. As José Raúl Capablanca pointed out, the fundamentals remain the same, though application may change in the course of time. The Cuban world champion wrote: “In chess the tactics may change but the strategic fundamental principles are always the same”. | GM Sundararajan Kidambi analyses three ‘hypermodern’ games.

9/30/2023 – In the latest edition of his Fast & Furious series, Robert Ris shows Mateusz Bartel’s spectacular win over Aryan Tari from the Polish Ekstraliga. Bartel only needed 18 moves to force his opponent’s resignation. | Fast & Furious is available on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here.

9/30/2023 – Possibly readers would enjoy a little bit of behind-the-scenes information on how chess composers work together. As always, this will be supplemented by endgame studies.| Photo: Midjourney

9/30/2023 – The Isle of Man plays host once more to the chess world's crème de la crème, as the 3rd FIDE Grand Swiss and 2nd FIDE Women’s Grand Swiss tournaments are set to launch on 25 October. The return of these prestigious world championship qualifying competitions to the Isle of Man marks a momentous occasion. Over the course of 12 days, from 25 October to 5 November, the island in the Irish Sea will emerge as the epicentre of the chess world, hosting an elite assembly of top-tier players fighting for the prizes, prestige and a spot in the 2024 Candidates.

9/30/2023 – With a remarkable performance, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave got to beat Magnus Carlsen in two consecutive matches to win the AI Cup, the sixth and final ‘regular’ event of the 2023 Champions Chess Tour. Carlsen had defeated MVL in the final of the winners’ bracket, before the Frenchman gained the right to a rematch by beating Ian Nepomniachtchi in the final of the losers’ bracket.

9/30/2023 – In the diagram position, the white king has not managed to castle. Time for Black to strike - I wish you massive pleasure!