3/15/2024 – The Freestyle Chess G.O.A.T Challenge in Weissenhaus caused quite a stir. Now Magnus Carlsen and Jan Henric Buettner are following suit and announcing the founding of the Freestyle Chess Players Club. They are also launching the Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour. Four to six tournaments a year are planned, the first in India in November 2024.

3/15/2024 – This year's Reykjavik Open kicks off in Reykjavik on Friday. With over 400 players, the field is particularly strong. Along with Daniel-Bogdan Deac, veteran Vasyl Ivanchuk is one of the Elo favourites. There are also a number of strong female pros in the field. | Photos: Organiser Reykjavik Open

3/15/2024 – Have you ever finished last in a tournament? Well, it happened to Vidit Gujrathi at the Prague Masters 2024. As Vidit himself pointed out, this might be the first time ever that he finished last in his entire chess career. And it happened 20 days before the most important event of his life - the Candidates, this cannot really be a good sign, can it?

3/15/2024 – The first players to be eliminated in the open section of the American Cup were Grigoriy Oparin and Sam Shankland. Oparin was defeated by Sam Sevian, while Shankland played no fewer than eight games before being knocked out by Leinier Dominguez. In the women’s section, Anna Zatonskih and Tatev Abrahamyan were eliminated by Zoey Tang and Jennifer Yu respectively. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

3/14/2024 – This episode was lost in the depths of 2023, but luckily returned! The Gruenfeld is a very hyper-modern opening, which gives White the centre, while Black has to fight around the flanks. If Black knows the opening well, White has a difficult time gaining some advantage. But with an example game from Vincent Keymer, the move "h4" is a beautiful way to attack the Black pieces. Svitlana shows us how to master this idea.

3/14/2024 – WGM Mitra Hejazipor was born on 19 February 1993 in Mashdad, Iran, and became Iranian Women's Champion in 2012. But she left her country because she did not want to wear the hijab, or headscarf, and went to France, where she became a French citizen in 2023. She also became the French women's champion that year. She recently played in the Werder Bremen Jubilee Tournament, which ended last week. After the tournament Mitra Hejazipor found time for an interview with Vera Jürgens and talked about her career, how chess helped her to see the world and whether she would like to become a professional chess player. | Photos: Werder Bremen

3/14/2024 – Emmanuel "Manny" Pacquiao (pictured) from the Philippines is considered by many to be one of the greatest boxers of all time. Srikanth Bangalore is a businessman from India and they both share a love of chess. To spread this love of chess, Bangalore has founded a remarkable project that Pacquiao supports: 1000GMs Inc, a non-profit organisation that aims to help young players improve their game. A part of this project are regular tournaments. | Photo: Manny "pacman" Pacquiao with his coach Freddie Roach | Photo: Roger Alcantara (Wikipedia)

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