4/12/2024 – At the halfway mark in the Candidates Tournament, Ian Nepomniachtchi tops the standings with 4½ points to his name. Former co-leader Gukesh D was defeated by Alireza Firouzja, who came from losing 3 out of the first 6 games he played in Toronto. Gukesh is now sharing second place — a half point behind Nepomniachtchi — with Praggnanandhaa R and Fabiano Caruana. Rounds 8-10 will take place between Saturday and Monday, following the tournament’s second rest day. | Photo: FIDE / Michal Walusza

4/11/2024 – The Palazzo d'Avalos in Vasto (Chieti) is the venue for the Italian Team Championships, which began on Monday 8th April. The tournament favourites are Obiettivo Risarcimento, but they lost to current leaders Lazio Scacchi Master in round 4. The women's championships are being played at the same venue and started on Wednesday. | Photo: Italian Chess Federation

4/11/2024 – All four games ended decisively in round 6 of the Women’s Candidates, with Tan Zhongyi, Aleksandra Goryachkina, Kateryna Lagno and Lei Tingjie all collecting full points. Tan remains as the sole leader after obtaining a magnificent, attacking victory over Anna Muzychuk. | Photo: FIDE / Michal Walusza

4/11/2024 – Praggnanandhaa R (pictured) and Vidit Gujrathi scored full points in round 6 of the Candidates Tournament. Pragg inflicted a second consecutive defeat on Nijat Abasov, while Vidit got the better of an overly daring Alireza Firouzja. The remaining two games ended drawn, which leaves Gukesh D and Ian Nepomniachtchi still tied for first place in the standings. Pragg now stands a half point back, with as many points as Fabiano Caruana. | Photo: FIDE / Michal Walusza

4/10/2024 – It was all so nicely planned: during the Candidates Tournament a total eclipse of the sun was scheduled to pass over the venue in Canada, and FIDE scheduled the tournament to have a free day exactly when this happened. And they arranged a yacht cruise for players and visitors to witness this rare occurrence. Unfortunately, as sometimes happens, clouds got in the way. Still, it was a lifetime experience for so many. | All images by Michal Walusza for FIDE

4/10/2024 – Switzerland is a country with a long and rich chess tradition. Living up to its chess heritage and role as a home of the International Chess Federation, the Swiss threw a big party for chess on Sunday, April 7 and celebrated the 100th birthday of FIDE. | Photos: Stev Bonhage

4/10/2024 – The highlight game of round 5, in my opinion, was the game between the leader Ian Nepomniachtchi (Russia) and Ramesh Praggnanandhaa (India). A fierce and interesting game with mixed strategical and tactical motifs, quite typical of the form of chess nowadays! It was a very interesting battle and one deserved to study!

4/10/2024 – Tan Zhongyi remains as the sole leader at the Women’s Candidates after all four games ended drawn in Tuesday’s fifth round. None of the games lasted fewer than 44 moves, though, as a number of chances were missed in hard-fought struggles. Tan has a half-point lead over Aleksandra Goryachkina, while Vaishali R, Nurgyul Salimova and Kateryna Lagno (pictured) stand a half point further back. | Photo: FIDE / Michal Walusza

4/10/2024 – In his new Game of the Week show, Merijn van Delft takes a look at the Candidates and shows how Ian Nepomniachtchi instructively won against Alireza Firouzja in an Anti-Berlin. | Merijn’s show is available on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here.

4/10/2024 – Two games ended decisively in round 5 of the Candidates Tournament, though all four could have easily finished with decisive results. Praggnanandhaa R and Vidit Gujrathi got superior positions but failed to make the most of their advantages against Ian Nepomniachtchi and Fabiano Caruana respectively, while Hikaru Nakamura and Gukesh D obtained full points after their opponents faltered in technical endgames. Nepomniachtchi and Gukesh are now sharing the lead with 3½ points each. | Photo: FIDE / Michal Walusza

4/9/2024 – Four rounds have been played in the Candidates Tournament and Ian Nepomniachtchi is in the lead with 3.0 out of 4. But, as we often hear, nothing is decided yet because, after all, 14 rounds are played in Toronto, which is still a long way to go. But the numbers tell a different story: in the six Candidates Tournaments from London 2013 to Madrid 2022, the player leading after four rounds has always won. | Photo: Ian Nepomniachtchi at the Madrid 2022 Candidates Tournament, which he won comfortably. | Photo: Stev Bonhage (FIDE)

4/9/2024 – In the present world, good marketing is everything. Surprisingly enough, this applies also to chess openings. For example, the Kings Indian Defence has got a phantastic PR among club players. It is considered to be fun to play, and a good weapon when it comes to playing for a win. On the contrary, the Nimzo Indian Defence is perceived as dull and drawish. The result is that after 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4, club players (rated around 1800) play 2…g6 more often than 2…e6. Interestingly, with the GMs the ratio is considerably different. Players rated 2500+ play 2…e6 three times as often than 2…g6. But why? | Photo: Aron Nimzowitsch, name-giver of the Nimzo Indian Defence (Photo: L'Echiquier 1931)