4/15/2022 – The Meltwater Champions Chess Tour breaks new ground next week with the launch of its first fully in-person esports event, the Oslo Esports Cup. Carlsen, who tops the tour standings, heads a line-up of eight of the world’s best chess players, which also includes the likes of Anish Giri and Jan-Krzysztof Duda. The first Major of the season will run from April 22 to 28.

4/14/2022 – Prior to the Candidates Tournament in 2013, two of the favourites to gain the right to challenge Vishy Anand in the next World Championship match were Vladimir Kramnik and Levon Aronian — together with Magnus Carlsen, of course. In order to prepare for the all-important event, amid a scarcity of strong tournaments, Kramnik and Aronian played a 6-game match in Zurich. It was an exciting confrontation, which ended in a draw, with each player getting a win apiece.

4/14/2022 – This week Robert Ris takes a look at the game Niemann-Thorhallsson from the Reykjavik Open. The young American Hans Moke Niemann is one of the main experts of the Jobava-London System and in this game he managed to defeat the experienced Icelandic GM Thorhallsson in only 21 moves. | "Fast and Furious" is available on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here.

4/14/2022 – As has only just become known, the long-time organiser and tournament director of the Biel Chess Festival, Peter Burri, has died. Burri was involved in the organisation for 40 years and was the tournament director of the traditional tournament for 20 years. The 55th edition in summer will be played as a memorial tournament for him.

4/14/2022 – A strong open tournament is taking place at the small Norwegian city of Fagernes. Six players rated 2600 or above made their way to the touristic destination located three hours north of Oslo. After five rounds (out of nine), eight players are sharing the lead on 4 points, including top seed Arjun Erigaisi. | Photo: Tom Eriksen

4/14/2022 – How do you build an opening repertoire and learn the variations? Fritz 18 offers many possibilities for this, and you can even compare your learning success with other users. In a short series of tutorials, we show you how to do it. In the first episode, we deal with learning and testing the opening repertoire. The next episodes will deal with building the opening repertoire. With the new "Easy Game" mode in Fritz 18, you can check your knowledge of an existing repertoire, and you can replay and practise it. Let's go!

4/11/2022 – Ding Liren, currently the world's number three, has very good chances to play in the Candidates Tournament as the highest-rated, eligible player in FIDE’s ranking list published on 1 May. However, to qualify and to replace the suspended Sergey Karjakin, Ding needs to have played 30 FIDE-rated games from May 2021 to May 2022. When Karjakin was suspended by the FIDE for supporting Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Ding had just played four of the required 30 games, but now he is catching up: after a four-player, twelve-round tournament in Hangzhou, he played a six-game match against Wei Yi. After five draws, Ding won the last game and the match. | Photos: Imedia

4/11/2022 – Thanks to back-to-back wins in Sunday’s double round, Max Warmerdam climbed to sole first place at the Reykjavik Open. The Dutch grandmaster defeated Simon Williams and Johann Hjartarson to become the only player to go into Monday’s round 8 with a 6/7 score. Five players stand a half point behind — Pouya Idani, Praggnanandhaa, Mads Andersen, Matthieu Cornette and Tania Sachdev. | Photo: Thorsteinn Magnusson

4/11/2022 – With over 1,300 articles, the Opening Encyclopaedia 2022 covers the entire range of openings. A huge fund of ideas and high-quality analyses! In the new edition, the number of articles has increased - 66 new opening articles and 388 new opening overviews have been added compared to the previous year. New feature - GM Dorian Rogozenco goes into detail about the latest opening trends in top chess, with many videos.

4/10/2022 – In a two-day event played last weekend, Saint Louis University won the President’s Cup, a team event featuring the top four US schools from the Pan-American Intercollegiate Team Championship. Webster University came in second place, merely a half point behind the winners — board points, and not team wins, were the deciding factor. | Photo: Texas Tech Chess

4/10/2022 – Lukasz Jarmula had taken the sole lead at the Reykjavík Open by beating Hans Niemann in round 4. The Polish grandmaster drew top seed Pouya Idani in round 5 to remain in sole first place, but a loss to Danish GM Mads Andersen has now left him sharing second place a half point behind the leaders. Besides Andersen, Johann Hjartarson, Praggnanandhaa (pictured) and Max Warmerdam also won in Sunday’s early round and are now sharing the lead on 5/6 points. | Photo: Thorsteinn Magnusson

4/10/2022 – 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 74th instalment of his ChessBase show "Understanding before Moving", Herman talks about pieces that are out of play. | Photo: Pascal Simon