2/6/2023 – A fourth consecutive win at the Munich Grand Prix left Alexandra Kosteniuk 1½ points ahead of her closest chasers in the standings. On Sunday, the runaway leader defeated Tan Zhongyi with white after finding herself in some trouble during the opening phase of the game. Sharing second place on 2½/4 are Nana Dzagnidze, Mariya Muzychuk and Humpy Koneru. The latter two scored full points in round 4. | Photo: FIDE / David Llada

2/6/2023 – The six strongest performers of the Airthings Masters Play-In will join Magnus Carlsen and Wesley So in Division I of the tournament’s knockout phase starting Monday. Meanwhile, 16 players will battle it out in Division II, and 32 will play in Division III. In Friday’s Play-In, Dommaraju Gukesh was the clear winner of the 9-round Swiss after impressively collecting 7½ points. The Indian prodigy then went on to get a 2-0 victory over former world champion Vladimir Kramnik.

2/5/2023 – The recent firefight in Wijk aan Zee was a magnificent tournament. While trying to follow his nose (i.e. not merely checking the engine evaluation) as to what was going on in the players’ minds during the battle, Jon Speelman found a number of remarkable ideas! | Photos: Jurriaan Hoefsmit / Tata Steel Chess Tournament 2023

2/5/2023 – Herman Grooten is an International Master, a renowned trainer and the author of several highly acclaimed books about chess training and chess strategy. In the 111th instalment of his ChessBase show "Understanding before Moving", Herman continues to explain why it is good to study and to play the Sicilian. | Photo: Pascal Simon

2/5/2023 – It is rare to see female players take part in the open section of national championships. But 19-year-old IM Nurgyul Salimova decided to do it at the 2023 Bulgarian Championship. She scored an impressive 6/9 and edged past two grandmasters (who also collected 6 points) to finish second overall. Salimova obtained four wins, four draws and suffered her sole loss of the event against the top seed and eventual champion, GM Kiril Georgiev. | Photo: Nurgyul’s Instagram page

2/5/2023 – Alexandra Kosteniuk grabbed a third consecutive win in Munich to get a full-point lead over a 3-player chasing pack at the second stage of the Women’s Grand Prix series. Kosteniuk inflicted Dinara Wagner’s third consecutive loss. In the other decisive game of the round, Zhu Jiner beat Zhansaya Abdumalik with the black pieces. | Photo: FIDE / David Llada

2/4/2023 – By scoring six wins in as many matches, Poland grabbed gold at the first Chess Olympiad for People with Disabilities. The team of Physically Disabled Chess Players (IPCA) won second place with 10 match points, while the Philippines took home bronze after outscoring (according to tiebreak criteria) three other teams that also collected 8 match points. | Photos: FIDE / Mark Livshitz

2/4/2023 – First published in 1828, ‘The Spectator’ is a weekly British magazine on politics, culture, and current affairs. In the latest edition of the long-standing publication, an article written by Zoe Strimpel profiling living chess legend Judit Polgar was included in the Culture section. Strimpel writes: “It’s also why Judit Polgár, forty-six and one of the best players of all time, is so much more fascinating than her male counterparts”.

2/4/2023 – Yes, 24.Rxg7+! wins for White - but it's definitely a challenge to foresee the complete path to victory from the diagram position, even if it's initially paved with checks. Your perfect start to the (chess) weekend, right?

2/4/2023 – An entertaining second round at the Munich Grand Prix saw Alexandra Kosteniuk and Anna Muzychuk scoring wins with black, as they defeated local representatives Elisabeth Paehtz and Dinara Wagner, respectively. Three other games, albeit not decisive, were fiercely fought, with Humpy Koneru, Harika Dronavalli and Nana Dzagnidze showing great defensive skills to salvage half points. | Photo: FIDE / David Llada

2/3/2023 – Anish Giri won the Tata Steel Chess Masters 2023 ahead of all the top players in the world - Magnus Carlsen, Wesley So, Ding Liren, Fabiano Caruana. He played some phenomenal chess throughout the event to win it with a rating performance of 2849, scoring 8.5/13 and gaining 16 Elo points. Anish has been very close to winning the tournament multiple times, but this is the first time he has clinched the trophy at Wijk Aan Zee! We invited him for a livestream to get his thoughts on winning this prestigious tournament. Check out his full interview with IM Sagar Shah below.

2/3/2023 – In his 'Fast & Furious' show, Robert Ris looks back at the Tata Steel Tournament in Wijk and presents what he calls "the most spectacular game of the tournament". It was exciting from the start. | "Fast and Furious" is available on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here.