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

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.

4/9/2022 – In the diagrammed position, White had a spectacular way to attack Black's exposed king. Readers of this column may dare anything - just trust your intuition!

4/8/2022 – At the end of last year, the Uzbek Grandmaster Nodirbek Abdusattorov won the World Rapid Championship in Warsaw at the age of 17, becoming the youngest World Rapid Champion of all time. In the course of the event he defeated Fabiano Caruana, Levon Aronian, Ian Nepomniachtchi – and Magnus Carlsen! "What a fight!" writes Anish Giri about Abdusattorov's encounter with the World Champion in his analysis for ChessBase Magazine Extra #206. It's "The brilliancy" of the new issue. Take a look!

4/8/2022 – People across the globe observe April 2 as World Autism Awareness Day. To commemorate the day, a supervision panel of the Infinite Chess FIDE Project was held online. The initiative aims to enhance knowledge and awareness about chess for children with ASD, give practical advice to teachers and parents, study the benefits of introducing chess and develop teaching methods.

4/8/2022 – The Kvika Reykjavík Open kicked off on Tuesday, with one round played on opening day and a double round on Wednesday. Hans Niemann (United States) and Lukasz Jarmula (Poland) are the only players to have won all three of their games. No fewer than 31 players stand a half point back, including a number of Indian rising stars. | Pictured: Top seed Pouya Idani (Iran) | Photo: Thorsteinn Magnusson

4/7/2022 – This week Robert Ris takes a look at the game Saric-Abasov played in the 10th round of the European Individual Championships - a model game that illustrates how to attack the Sicilian. | "Fast and Furious" is available on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here.