3/10/2022 – Two exciting games were seen at the start of the FIDE Grand Prix semifinals in Belgrade. Richard Rapport scored a crucial win over Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and now only needs a draw on Thursday to vastly increase his chances of qualifying to the Candidates Tournament. Meanwhile, Anish Giri gave up two exchanges and got a favourable position out of a sharp Sicilian against Dmitry Andreikin. | Photos: Mark Livshitz

3/9/2022 – In his "Game of the Week" show #506, Merijn van Delft shows how Richard Rapport, who is known for his creative play, played on the queenside, in the center and on the kingside to win a crucial game against Vidit at the FIDE Grand Prix in Belgrade. | Merijn's show is available on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here.

3/9/2022 – The Italian Spring Tour 2022 features four strong tournaments. One of them is the 1st Grandiscacchi Cattolica International which ended with an Indian double victory. After nine rounds seven players shared first place with 6.5/9 each, but S.L. Narayanan (pictured) had the best tiebreak and won the tournament. Praggnanandhaa finished second. | Photo: ChessBase India

3/9/2022 – On 5 March 2022 Dr. Siegbert Tarrasch would have celebrated his 160th birthday. Throughout his life Tarrasch, who was a medical practitioner by profession, remained an amateur, but at his prime he was one of the world's best players, if not the best. Tarrasch was also a prolific and popular writer whose books have influenced countless players. Eugene Manlapao takes a look at the career of this great player and teacher.

3/9/2022 – In his "Weekly Show" Lawrence Trent talks a bit about the Grand Prix in Belgrade, but the focus of the show is game 1 of the Sweden-England Challenge match between Nils Grandelius and David Howell. In the first game, Nils missed a number of great opportunities to win in a funky sideline of the Berlin but David defended resolutely and the game ended in a draw. | Lawrence’s show is available on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here

3/8/2022 – In light of the ongoing war in Ukraine, and under the roof of the Year of the Woman in Chess, the FIDE Commission for Women’s Chess established a fundraiser for Ukrainian chess players and their families affected now by war. Also, the FIDE Women’s Commission, in partnership with Chess24, has prepared a series of events on the Women’s Day to support Ukrainian chess players and their families.

3/8/2022 – Today is International Women's Day, also in chess. The first strong female chess champion was Vera Menchik. José Raul Capablanca, who died 80 years ago today, on 8 March 1942, was one of many strong players who respected her. Vera Menchik died 26 June 1944 during a German V-1 flying bomb attack on London during World War II. Now it's war again. "Love is more important than victory", says musician Jason Kouchak and is currently writing a musical about Vera Menchik.

3/8/2022 – All pools at the preliminaries of the FIDE Grand Prix in Belgrade had a clear winner after Monday’s sixth and final round. Dmitry Andreikin, Anish Giri, Richard Rapport and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave moved on to the semifinals, and will get a rest day before the knockout stage, as no tiebreaks were needed in the qualifiers. | Photos: Mark Livshitz

3/8/2022 – ChessBase Magazine #206 once again offers a wealth of ideas and recommendations for your repertoire. Besides the three opening videos by Jan Werle, Daniel King and Mihail Marin as well as Rainer Knaak's collection of "Topical opening traps", the new issue contains eleven opening articles covering a broad spectrum: Reti, Caro-Kann, Sicilian Nimzowitsch and Taimanov Variation, Petroff, Ruy Lopez, London System, Slav, Gruenfeld and King's Indian - everywhere there are exciting ideas to get to know. In his article Evgeny Postny examines the queen sortie 5...Qb6 in the London System. In the highly topical variation, White sacrifices a pawn after 6.dxc5 Qxb2 7.Rb1 Qc3 8.Bb5. So it's straight to the point! The variation is "absolutely okay" from Black's point of view, according to Postny, but you shouldn't get involved without prior knowledge! Otherwise the danger is too great that you will lose the queen already in the opening. Take a look!

3/8/2022 – Last week the European Chess Union strongly condemned the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the involvement of Belarus and expressed its solidarity and support for the Ukrainian people. With immediate effect, and acting within its constitutional powers, the ECU suspended the Russian and Belarusian Chess Federations. They also appealed for wide-spread support for their efforts. Now they are pleased to announce the first very kind offers (reaching them) of support and solidarity to Ukrainian Chess friends.

3/8/2022 – It was Aron Nimzowitsch (pictured) who coined the paradoxical expression "The threat is stronger than its execution." This phrase sounds catchy and smart but if you think about it, you start to wonder how a threat can actually ever be stronger than its execution. Jan Markos has a number of good answers. (Foto: L'Echiquier 1931)

3/8/2022 – The acronym "LPDO" was probably coined by the English player Mike Cook, who used it to explain the majority of his losses in a 100-game blitz match against John Nunn. But it was Nunn who made the term popular by talking about this blitz match in his book "Secrets of Practical Chess". Keeping "LPDO" in mind might help to reduce blundering pieces, even in the endgame. In the diagrammed position Black's rook and bishop are both "loose". How did White manage to let them "drop off"?