3/18/2026 – The Reykjavík Open returns from 25 to 31 March at the Harpa Concert Hall and Conference Centre, once again bringing together a large international field for its traditional nine-round Swiss competition. Led by top seed Bogdan-Daniel Deac and featuring a mix of experienced contenders - such as Vasyl Ivanchuk - and young stars, the fully subscribed event continues a tradition that dates back to Mikhail Tal's victory in the inaugural 1964 edition. A varied festival programme will accompany the main tournament. | Photo: Official website

3/18/2026 – The international chess festival in the Slovenian resort town of Bled, staged for nearly a century, has concluded. Lithuania's Zanas Nainys (pictured, right) emerged as the clear winner of the event, which catered especially for ambitious titled players, amateurs and rising juniors. A powerful finish saw him overtake Leon Mazi - who had defeated him in round four - to claim first place. | Photos: Bled Chess Festival

3/17/2026 – A month ago Valery Golubenko played what may well have been one of the longest chess games ever seen, measured by number of moves, under today’s rather restrictive conditions of modern chess life. It began in the morning and was finally stopped by the rules as the sun was setting.

3/17/2026 – World number one Magnus Carlsen is set to return to classical tournament play at the TePe Sigeman Chess Tournament, scheduled for 1–7 May in Malmö. The Norwegian will face a compact but ambitious field that includes recent Tata Steel Masters winner Nodirbek Abdusattorov, Arjun Erigaisi and several leading young talents. Played as an eight-player round-robin, the long-running Swedish event once again combines established elite names with emerging contenders. | Pictured: Carlsen and Abdusattorov at the Paris leg of the 2025 Freestyle Chess Grand Slam | Photo: Lennart Ootes

3/17/2026 – Frederick Waldhausen Gordon of Scotland produced a striking late surge to win the 2026 British Rapidplay Championship in Peterborough, defeating top seed Gawain Maroroa Jones in the decisive final-round encounter. The two-day Swiss event attracted 228 participants, including seven grandmasters. Maroroa Jones and Shreyas Royal shared second place, while Trisha Kanyamarala, Harriet Hunt and Bodhana Sivanandan were declared co-winners of the British Women's Rapidplay title. | Photo: Ife Olayinka

3/17/2026 – Black knight's knightmare: In the fight bishop against knight the bishop often wants dynamics: White to move and win.

3/16/2026 – With the Candidates Tournament set to begin later this month, FIDE CEO Emil Sutovsky has addressed concerns about security, travel logistics and organisational preparations in an interview with Sagar Shah. While acknowledging regional tensions, Sutovsky stressed that plans for the event in Cyprus remain unchanged, with contingency measures in place and close coordination with local authorities. | Pictured: Sutovsky at the 2024 World Corporate Chess Championship in New York. | Photo: FIDE / Rafal Oleksiewicz

3/16/2026 – In the latest episode of his Power Play Show, GM Daniel King looks at Anish Giri v. Yaaz Kaan Erdogmus. | Watch Power Play on-demand with a ChessBase Premium account. All the usual puzzles, games and instruction will be on offer.

3/16/2026 – Hikaru Nakamura was defeated 6–4 by Awonder Liang in a three-day training match in Saint Louis held as preparation for the Candidates Tournament. After two drawn classical games, all eight encounters in the rapid and blitz sessions ended decisively, with Liang ultimately prevailing. The match provided Nakamura with competitive practice ahead of a demanding event, for which several of his future rivals have recently been active. | Photo: Saint Louis Chess Club / Lennart Ootes

3/16/2026 – The Prague Chess Festival produced such a nice collection of fascinating games that we are returning to this tournament once more. Jorden van Foreest was well on his way to win the tournament, but crashed in the final rounds, leaving Nodirbek Abdusattorov as the convincing winner and the new number four in the world rankings. Today's Game of the Week is the wildly entertaining attacking game David Navara produced after Nodirbek Yakubboev grabbed a poisoned pawn. Merijn's show is available on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here.

3/16/2026 – In the current ChessBase Magazine #230, Nico Zwirs analyses the game between his compatriots Jorden Van Foreest and Anish Giri from the Tata Steel Masters 2026 in the video. The focus is on the opening, as Van Foreest had clearly prepared something special against the Najdorf Variation – known to be one of Giri's specialities. After 11...Qc7, he continued with 12.a3 – ‘A Karpovian move!’. White's idea is to move the b3 knight via c1 and a2 to b4 and from there to target the light squares d5 (and c6). Van Foreest thus invested four moves in improving his knight and securing his king's position. A new concept that paid off in full in this game! Take a look at this week's CBM reading sample!

3/16/2026 – Were you able to solve the challenge positions we gave you last week? Were you able find the way to promote the pawns to win? Today we bring you all solutions, with very instructive video explanations by Jared Modica, a chess content creator from Austin, Texas. He shows us how to solve tatical lines of play, and how to handle pawns in endgames.