3/7/2023 – After Sara Khadem, one of Iran's top women players, played without headscarf at the World Blitz and Rapid Chess Championships 2022, she left Iran with her family for fear of reprisals and now lives in Spain. The Spanish magazine Elle now published a portrait of Sara Khadem and made some chic fashion photos with her. | Photo: Elle

3/7/2023 – Today: Matthias Wuellenweber goes into detail about the new evaluation function for ChessBase 17. In our new video series, our developers personally explain the new features they have developed themselves. From the new data format to the beauty index. In no time at all, you'll learn how it's done.

3/7/2023 – The first quarter-finals of the Americas group of the World Chess Armageddon series were played on Monday. The venue is the World Chess Club Unter den Linden in Berlin. Wesley So won against Sam Shankland and Renato Terry prevailed in the Armageddon against Eric Hansen. The losers continue in the elimination group. | Photo: World Chess

3/7/2023 – Three players are sharing the lead at the European Championship in Vrnjacka Banja, Serbia. Eltaj Safarli from Azerbaijan is joined by the Ukrainian duo of Anton Korobov and Ruslan Ponomariov (pictured) as the three participants who have scored four victories in as many games. A total of 23 players stand a half point back — Gabriel Sargissian, Boris Gelfand and Alexey Sarana are the highest-rated players in the chasing pack. | Photos: European Chess Union

3/7/2023 – Pawns often open the way for their king - what should White do in the diagram position?

3/7/2023 – Magnus Carlsen played three classical games over the weekend, as he helped Offerspill win the Norwegian League title for the first time. These three encounters were Carlsen’s last rated classical games before the World Championship match, where either Ian Nepomniachtchi or Ding Liren will take the world crown. If Carlsen does not choose to fight to regain the title, these could end up being his last three classical games as world champion.

3/4/2023 – The new ChessBase Magazine #212 provides, among many other things, 50 games with detailed commentary, a large part of which comes from the Tata Steel Masters and Challengers. Anish Giri is also an excellent analyst: he takes a close look at nine games from Wijk aan Zee as well as at games from current rapid chess events in CBM #212. Other authors are Jorden van Foreest, Praggnanandhaa, Alexander Donchenko and Peter Heine Nielsen. "The Analysis" of the issue comes - how could it be otherwise - from the winner of the Tata Steel Masters: it's Giri's long-awaited victory over Magnus Carlsen. Find an abridged version of his analysis here. Enjoy!

3/4/2023 – The European Individual Chess Championship (EICC) started on Friday in the Serbian town of Vrnjačka Banja. Since the top half of the ratings list was paired against the lower half for the opening round, there were predominantly wins by the favourites, although there were also some exceptions to this ‘rule’. The symbolic first move in the game between Vuk Damjanovic and Gabriel Sargissian, the top seed, was made by ECU President Zurab Azmaiparashvili and Dragan Lazic, President of the Serbian Chess Federation. | Photos: European Chess Union

3/4/2023 – In the diagram position, Black wins by force if he plays his trumps in the right order. Attacking with patience - can you do it?

3/4/2023 – Sayantan Das won the sixth edition of the Cannes Chess Open. He defeated top seed Alexander Motylev in the final round to become the outright winner with 7½/9 points. This win also helped him to cross 2500 in the ratings list and become India’s 81st grandmaster. Sayantan had fulfilled all the norm requirements in January 2017. | Photo: Susan Polgar

3/3/2023 – “Armageddon Championship Series: Americas”, the first event of the cycle developed by World Chess, will take place on March 6-12 in Berlin. Wesley So, Jose Martinez, Ray Robson, Leinier Dominguez, Sam Shankland, Andrew Tang, Renato Terry and Eric Hansen will play a double-elimination blitz knockout, as they battle for €50,000 in prize money and two spots in the series’ Grand Finale.

3/3/2023 – In his Fast & Furious show, Robert Ris analyses a sharp positional battle which emerged out of a Winawer variation in the French Defence. | Fast & Furious is available on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here.