Sayantan Das wins in Cannes, becomes India’s 81st GM

3/4/2023 – Sayantan Das won the sixth edition of the Cannes Chess Open. He defeated top seed Alexander Motylev in the final round to become the outright winner with 7½/9 points. This win also helped him to cross 2500 in the ratings list and become India’s 81st grandmaster. Sayantan had fulfilled all the norm requirements in January 2017. | Photo: Susan Polgar
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Armageddon Series: So, Hansen and Dominguez to play in Americas’ leg

3/3/2023 – “Armageddon Championship Series: Americas”, the first event of the cycle developed by World Chess, will take place on March 6-12 in Berlin. Wesley So, Jose Martinez, Ray Robson, Leinier Dominguez, Sam Shankland, Andrew Tang, Renato Terry and Eric Hansen will play a double-elimination blitz knockout, as they battle for €50,000 in prize money and two spots in the series’ Grand Finale.
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Robert Ris’ Fast and Furious: The ever-sharp French Winawer

3/3/2023 – In his Fast & Furious show, Robert Ris analyses a sharp positional battle which emerged out of a Winawer variation in the French Defence. | Fast & Furious is available on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here.

China to host Women’s Candidates Final and Women’s World Championship Match

3/3/2023 – Shanghai and Chongqing will host the two major Women’s events of the year. More than three years after her last defence of the title in Shanghai and Vladivostok, women’s world champion Ju Wenjun will face the winner of the Candidates’ final match between Lei Tingjie and Tan Zhongyi.
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60 seconds with Yochanan Afek

3/3/2023 – Yochanan Afek (Hebrew: יוחנן אפק), born 1952 in Tel Aviv, is an Israeli chess player, composer, trainer and arbiter. He is the only person to possess international titles at five different facets of chess: International Master, International Grandmaster of chess composition, International Arbiter, FIDE master in problem solving, and International Judge for chess compositions. CHESS Magazine did a 60-second portrait of Afek. | Photo: Alina L'Ami
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Abhijeet Gupta wins Graz Open

3/3/2023 – In the second half of February, the traditional Graz Open, by now the biggest Open in Austria, was held at the local Chamber of Commerce. Abhijeet Gupta won the A-Open ahead of 170 players. | Photo: Winners of the A-tournament. From left to right: Chief Arbiter Manfred Mussnig, Tournament Organizer Andrea Schmidbauer, GM Felix Blohberger, GM Abhijeet Gupta and GM Hagen Pötsch.
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The Sokolov FritzTrainer: Ruy Lopez structures (vol. 6) - A review

3/2/2023 – In the sixth volume of his FritzTrainer series, Ivan Sokolov, winner of the Olympiad as a coach of Uzbekistan, looks deeply into the ‘supreme discipline’ in chess, the Ruy Lopez, as he shares a number of top grandmasters’ secrets. Harald Wagner watched the seven-hour work and sent us a review.
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Ilamparthi tests Gukesh!

3/2/2023 – Gukesh is just 16 years old, already a full-blown top GM with a live rating of 2730, currently number 20 in the world. Ilamparthi, is a young talent, 13 years old, currently the world under-14 champion, and an IM rated 2423. Both Gukesh and Ilamparthi did really well in Dusseldorf at the WR Masters and Juniors respectively. It was time for some fun on our train journey from Dusseldorf to ChessBase in Hamburg. This article includes ten tough positions posed by Ilamparthi to Gukesh!

Sethuraman wins Cappelle-la-Grande Open on his 30th birthday

3/2/2023 – GM Sethuraman S P gave himself the best gift on his 30th birthday, as he won the 2023 Cappelle-la-Grande Open. He and GM Harsha Bharathakoti scored an unbeaten 7½/9 each. Sethuraman won the tournament on tie-breaks. The game between them in the penultimate round ended in a draw. WIM Mounika Akshaya Bommini won the Best Woman prize. | Photo: L'Echiquier Cappellois
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In Berlin: Solidary simul for Ukraine

3/1/2023 – A year into Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the Berlin Chess Federation organized an event to mark its support for the Ukrainian people. First, a simultaneous exhibition was given by Ukrainian grandmaster Zahar Efimenko. Then, an international panel discussed the consequences of the war for the chess world. Paul Meyer-Dunker reports. | Photos: Berlin Chess Federation
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FIDE ratings March 2023

3/1/2023 – Some of the top players and top youngsters were active in February, so there was some movement in the world rankings. Among the top players, Levon Aronian recorded the biggest gain; among the top youngsters, it was Gukesh. Ian Nepomniachtchi is the second highest-rated player in the world, albeit still below the 2800-mark. Ranked second and third, Ding Liren and Alireza Firouzja, did not play any rated games in February.
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NEW: ChessBase Magazine #212

3/1/2023 – Tata Steel 2023: The tournament winner of the Masters, Anish Giri, comments on his best games as well as Jorden van Foreest, Praggnanandhaa and many more. In addition, video analyses by Dorian Rogozenco – "Special" on Anthony Miles: exclusive collection of 21 commented games + contributions on strategy and endgame – "English for Attackers": Alexey Kuzmin shows the highly topical gambit 1.c4 e5 2.Nc3 Nf6 3.Nf3 e4 4.Ng5 c6!? – "Theory Update from Wijk aan Zee I": Rustam Kasimdzhanov brings Spanish with 8.a4 b4 9.a5 up to date – Endgame series "Fundamental Endgame Knowledge" Part 2: Learn the most important rules and techniques in the ending Rook + Pawn vs. Rook from Dr. Karsten Mueller and much more.
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FIDE Circuit Leaderboard: Wesley So takes the lead

3/1/2023 – The newly created FIDE Circuit Leaderboard tracks players’ performances in a number of eligible tournaments. At the end of the year, the top-rated player will get a spot in the 2024 Candidates Tournament. After obtaining two solid results at the Tata Steel Masters and the WR Chess Masters, Wesley So climbed to first place in this month’s list. Anish Giri and Levon stand second and third respectively. | Photo: Lennart Ootes / WR Chess Masters
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Learning from the best: Ivanchuk ups streaming game

3/1/2023 – One of the most brilliant chess minds in history has reactivated his Twitch channel. Vasyl Ivanchuk launched his streaming career last year, and has recently increased the number of videos uploaded. The Ukrainian genius will be playing the European Championship starting Friday, but before that, he has shared a bit of his encyclopaedic knowledge with us. | Photo: Amruta Mokal
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Basic rules of attacking play with Dr. Karsten Mueller

2/28/2023 – Karsten Mueller released a brand new Fritztrainer a few weeks ago. For once, however, it's not about fabulous endgames, but about the basic rules of attacking play. In the interview with the German grandmaster, we see how wonderfully a good attack can be completed with the help of two examples.
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Explained by the engineers! - The new 2D board of ChessBase 17

2/28/2023 – Today: Jeroen Van den Belt shows us the new menu of the 2D-Board for ChessBase 17. In our new video series, our developers personally explain the new features they have developed themselves. From the new data format to the beauty index. In no time at all, you'll learn how it's done.

The battering ram

2/28/2023 – In endgames with two rooks on both sides you should wath out for tactical possibilities and chances to attack the enemy king. In the diagram position it is White to move. What should he do?

Ilamparthi wins WR Chess Juniors U-14 Boys and Blitz 2023

2/28/2023 – The reigning World Under-14 Open champion, Ilamparthi A R won WR Chess Junior Under-14 Boys with a perfect 5/5. He also won the Blitz event. These triumphs came 11 days after he became India's latest International Master at the 21st Rochefort Chess Festival Masters 2023. Ilamparthi, along with other participants of the junior tournament, also got training by the former world championship challenger, the legendary GM Boris Gelfand, and Germany no.1 female, GM Elisabeth Paehtz. We all hope he soon becomes a GM and strong enough to participate in the Masters events. Photo: Lennart Ootes/WR Chess 2023
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Romanian Championships: Shevchenko and Lehaci win maiden titles

2/28/2023 – GM Kirill Shevchenko (pictured) and WIM Miruna-Daria Lehaci are the new champions of Romania. Both won their maiden national titles. The Romanian Championships took place on February 19–26 in Sebes, and saw the triumph of young players. The open, women’s and amateur sections were 9-round Swiss tournaments with classical time control. | Photos: Romanian Chess Federation
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A brief history of the European Chess Championships

2/28/2023 – The very competitive European Chess Championships will take place in March, with the open event set to start on March 3 in Vrnjacka Banja, Serbia. We take a brief look at the 23 years of history of the championships, which are traditionally taken very seriously by ambitious players, whose main objective often is to get a ticket to the FIDE World Cup. | Pictured: 2022 European champion Matthias Bluebaum
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Endgame Magic #229: Indian talent Leon Luke Mendonca shows endgame highlights from his games

2/27/2023 – In his Endgame Magic Show #229 Karsten has the 16-year old Indian Grandmaster Leon Luke Mendonca as his guest and they will look at endgame highlights from Leon's practice. | You can watch the Endgame Magic Show on-demand with a ChessBase Premium account.

WR Chess: interviews with the winners

2/27/2023 – We have reported extensively on the WR Chess Masters 2023, which ended on Sunday in Düsseldorf, Germany. Today we bring you unique impressions of the opinions and mood of the participants on the final days of this wonderful event. They were recorded by IM Sagar Shah, who runs ChessBase India and one of the biggest video chess portals in the world. Just sit back and enjoy.

Endgames from Düsseldorf (2)

2/27/2023 – A new super-tournament took place in Düsseldorf, with five vetted GMs facing five raising talents. Karsten Müller kept a close eye on the event, and sent us a number of fascinating endgames, annotated. Find here five instructive positions. Time to learn and enjoy! | Pictured: Andrey Esipenko | Photo: Lennart Ootes

Wissmann wins in Finland, solvers move to Poland and the Netherlands

2/27/2023 – The 44th Finnish Championship in solving took place in the Chess Arena in Helsinki. In the close contest for the top honours, five solvers managed to score more than 50 points. Dutch GM solver Dolf Wissmann missed only 1.5 points and emerged as a deserved winner, ahead of two other GMs, Martynas Limontas of Lithuania and Jorma Paavilainen of Finland, who shared the second place. | Photos: Hannu Harkola
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