3/3/2023 – Shanghai and Chongqing will host the two major Women’s events of the year. More than three years after her last defence of the title in Shanghai and Vladivostok, women’s world champion Ju Wenjun will face the winner of the Candidates’ final match between Lei Tingjie and Tan Zhongyi.

3/3/2023 – Yochanan Afek (Hebrew: יוחנן אפק), born 1952 in Tel Aviv, is an Israeli chess player, composer, trainer and arbiter. He is the only person to possess international titles at five different facets of chess: International Master, International Grandmaster of chess composition, International Arbiter, FIDE master in problem solving, and International Judge for chess compositions. CHESS Magazine did a 60-second portrait of Afek. | Photo: Alina L'Ami

3/3/2023 – In the second half of February, the traditional Graz Open, by now the biggest Open in Austria, was held at the local Chamber of Commerce. Abhijeet Gupta won the A-Open ahead of 170 players. | Photo: Winners of the A-tournament. From left to right: Chief Arbiter Manfred Mussnig, Tournament Organizer Andrea Schmidbauer, GM Felix Blohberger, GM Abhijeet Gupta and GM Hagen Pötsch.

3/2/2023 – In the sixth volume of his FritzTrainer series, Ivan Sokolov, winner of the Olympiad as a coach of Uzbekistan, looks deeply into the ‘supreme discipline’ in chess, the Ruy Lopez, as he shares a number of top grandmasters’ secrets. Harald Wagner watched the seven-hour work and sent us a review.

3/2/2023 – Gukesh is just 16 years old, already a full-blown top GM with a live rating of 2730, currently number 20 in the world. Ilamparthi, is a young talent, 13 years old, currently the world under-14 champion, and an IM rated 2423. Both Gukesh and Ilamparthi did really well in Dusseldorf at the WR Masters and Juniors respectively. It was time for some fun on our train journey from Dusseldorf to ChessBase in Hamburg. This article includes ten tough positions posed by Ilamparthi to Gukesh!

3/2/2023 – GM Sethuraman S P gave himself the best gift on his 30th birthday, as he won the 2023 Cappelle-la-Grande Open. He and GM Harsha Bharathakoti scored an unbeaten 7½/9 each. Sethuraman won the tournament on tie-breaks. The game between them in the penultimate round ended in a draw. WIM Mounika Akshaya Bommini won the Best Woman prize. | Photo: L'Echiquier Cappellois

3/1/2023 – A year into Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the Berlin Chess Federation organized an event to mark its support for the Ukrainian people. First, a simultaneous exhibition was given by Ukrainian grandmaster Zahar Efimenko. Then, an international panel discussed the consequences of the war for the chess world. Paul Meyer-Dunker reports. | Photos: Berlin Chess Federation

3/1/2023 – Some of the top players and top youngsters were active in February, so there was some movement in the world rankings. Among the top players, Levon Aronian recorded the biggest gain; among the top youngsters, it was Gukesh. Ian Nepomniachtchi is the second highest-rated player in the world, albeit still below the 2800-mark. Ranked second and third, Ding Liren and Alireza Firouzja, did not play any rated games in February.

3/1/2023 – Tata Steel 2023: The tournament winner of the Masters, Anish Giri, comments on his best games as well as Jorden van Foreest, Praggnanandhaa and many more. In addition, video analyses by Dorian Rogozenco – "Special" on Anthony Miles: exclusive collection of 21 commented games + contributions on strategy and endgame – "English for Attackers": Alexey Kuzmin shows the highly topical gambit 1.c4 e5 2.Nc3 Nf6 3.Nf3 e4 4.Ng5 c6!? – "Theory Update from Wijk aan Zee I": Rustam Kasimdzhanov brings Spanish with 8.a4 b4 9.a5 up to date – Endgame series "Fundamental Endgame Knowledge" Part 2: Learn the most important rules and techniques in the ending Rook + Pawn vs. Rook from Dr. Karsten Mueller and much more.

3/1/2023 – The newly created FIDE Circuit Leaderboard tracks players’ performances in a number of eligible tournaments. At the end of the year, the top-rated player will get a spot in the 2024 Candidates Tournament. After obtaining two solid results at the Tata Steel Masters and the WR Chess Masters, Wesley So climbed to first place in this month’s list. Anish Giri and Levon stand second and third respectively. | Photo: Lennart Ootes / WR Chess Masters

3/1/2023 – One of the most brilliant chess minds in history has reactivated his Twitch channel. Vasyl Ivanchuk launched his streaming career last year, and has recently increased the number of videos uploaded. The Ukrainian genius will be playing the European Championship starting Friday, but before that, he has shared a bit of his encyclopaedic knowledge with us. | Photo: Amruta Mokal

2/28/2023 – Karsten Mueller released a brand new Fritztrainer a few weeks ago. For once, however, it's not about fabulous endgames, but about the basic rules of attacking play. In the interview with the German grandmaster, we see how wonderfully a good attack can be completed with the help of two examples.