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

4/9/2022 – From 31 May to 10 June, the Norway Chess Tournament will be held for the tenth time in Stavanger. The lineup is headed by Magnus Carlsen, who will be joined by a number of very active players and a few surprising inclusions. Vishy Anand and Veselin Topalov do not play often lately, but will make their way to Stavanger, much like Richard Rapport and Teimour Radjabov, who will participate despite having to play the Candidates shortly after the event comes to an end. Perhaps the most surprising participant, though, is Wang Hao, who had announced his retirement from professional competitions about a year ago.

4/5/2022 – Since it is likely that Sergey Karjakin will not play in the upcoming Candidates Tournament — his six-month ban is still pending a potential appeal — the spot left behind by the Russian will be filled by the highest-rated, eligible player in FIDE’s ranking list published on May 1. Ding Liren is the clear frontrunner in this race, but he only played 4 games since June 2021, with the regulations stipulating that a minimum of 30 games are needed to be eligible. Ding is quickly making up for lost ground, as three events have been organized in China to get him to play the 26 games needed by the end of the month. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

4/5/2022 – With a 1½-½ victory in Monday’s rapid tiebreakers, Wesley So became the winner of the FIDE Grand Prix’s third leg in Berlin. So beat Hikaru Nakamura with the white pieces in game 2 of the playoff to take home €24,000 in prize money and finish the series in third place overall. | Photos: World Chess

4/5/2022 – In his Endgame Magic Show #189 Karsten Müller talks with Elisabeth Pähtz about the endgame. Elisabeth, World Junior Girls Champion in 2005, European Women's Rapid Champion in 2018, and currently number 13 on the women's ranking list, has an active style, and this also shows in her endgames, e.g. in an entertaining game against Zhansaya Abdumalik at the Online-FIDE-Steinitz-Memorial 2020. | You can watch the Endgame Magic Show on-demand with a ChessBase Premium account.

4/5/2022 – In his "Game of the Week" show #509, Merijn van Delft shows how Hikaru Nakamura won against Andrey Esipenko in the final round of the preliminaries at the FIDE Grand Prix in Berlin - it was an interesting, tense fighting game and winning it guaranteed Nakamura a place in the Candidates. | Merijn's show is available on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here.

4/5/2022 – The diagrammed position is tricky: Black is two dangerous passed pawns up but it is White to move and the rook on h7 is hanging. Now, should White take the rook or look for something better to save the draw?

4/4/2022 – Arjun Erigaisi won his fourth consecutive individual tournament as he bagged the first leg of the MPL Indian Chess Tour. This was his fifth overall triumph of the year 2022. He qualified to the Tour finals and will also play at the Meltwater Champions Chess Tour. Runner-up Raunak Sadhwani scored only two draws in the 15-round event, while Gukesh and Surya Ganguly were placed third and fourth. The top eight finishers get an automatic invitation to the next leg, which is scheduled to take place in June.