2/24/2025 – A trapped piece is a piece that has no escape squares or squares where it can safely move without being captured. A trapped piece can be a bishop or a knight, but also ‘heavier’ pieces such as a rook or a queen can be ensnared. Even the king can be put into a position where it no way to move around. In the first part of his article GM Efstratios Grivas deals with a trapped king and trapped queens.

2/23/2025 – French Grandmaster Marc'Andria Maurizzi delivered a commanding performance to win the Djerba Masters, a 10-player single round-robin held on the paradisiac Tunisian island. The 17-year-old secured first place with a round to spare and finished with an impressive 7½/9 score. Belgian GM Daniel Dardha claimed second place as the only other undefeated player, while Parham Maghsoodloo and Volodar Murzin shared third. | Photos: Djerba Chess Festival

2/23/2025 – As the Monaco Women's Grand Prix reached its rest day, all five games in round five ended in draws, leaving Kateryna Lagno in the sole lead. Three players - Humpy Koneru, Sara Khadem and Batkhuyag Munguntuul - remain just half a point behind. Lagno held a solid draw with black, while both Humpy and Elisabeth Paehtz (pictured) missed opportunities to convert promising positions. | Photo: FIDE / Niki Riga

2/23/2025 – Herman Grooten is an International Master, a renowned trainer and the author of several highly acclaimed books on chess training and strategy. In episode 218 of his "Understanding before Moving" show Herman looks at the career of Ian Nepomniachtchi. | Photo: Pascal Simon

2/23/2025 – If you've only been using ChessBase for a short time and want to benefit from as many of its unique functions as possible, our series offers you valuable, short and easy-to-digest tips for a successful start with ChessBase 18. In the third part of our new tutorial series, we show you how easily and conveniently you can insert variations from the engine analysis and the references into the notation (see the first two tutorial episodes) with ChessBase 18.

2/22/2025 – On 15 February, Sportstar premiered the Sportstar Aces Awards 2025 on their YouTube channel. Divya Deshmukh received the award for sportswoman of the year (non-Olympic). She won the World Junior Girls Championship 2024 and achieved a double gold (individual and team) at the Chess Olympiad. The Indian Men and Women's teams received the National Team of the Year award for winning historic gold medals at the Chess Olympiad held in Budapest, Hungary. | Photos: Sportstar

2/20/2025 – Magnus Carlsen continues to dominate the strongest online tournaments in the world. In the Chessable Masters, he first defeated Arjun Erigaisi on the second day of the playoffs in a close match, and then obtained a clear victory over none other than Hikaru Nakamura. The Norwegian thus reached the Grand Final, which will be played on Friday.

2/20/2025 – In his new Game of the Week show Merijn van Delft presents a game from the Djerba Festival - a short and instructive Sicilian, in which Daniel Dardha used a tricky variation to defeat Parham Maghsoodloo. | Merijn's show is available on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here.

2/20/2025 – Chess is an international game, and players of different cultures and backgrounds may be following diverse norms. Something that is highly valued in one culture might be viewed differently in another. So here is a question: does chess need a dress code? Magnus Carlsen was fined during the 2024 World Rapid & Blitz Chess Championship in New York for wearing jeans, and GM Zhu Jiner for wearing white laceless winter boots. Here's International Arbiter Shohreh Bayat's take on the subject.

2/19/2025 – Four players share the lead with 1½/2 points after the second round of the Monaco Women's Grand Prix. Sara Khadem secured the only decisive result of the day, capitalising on a blunder to defeat Harika Dronavalli. Meanwhile, Aleksandra Goryachkina and Tan Zhongyi both missed opportunities to join the leaders, with Goryachkina failing to convert her initiative against Alexandra Kosteniuk and Tan allowing Batkhuyag Munguntuul to escape with a draw in a tricky endgame. | Photo: FIDE / Niki Riga

2/19/2025 – One of the streamers covering the Freestyle Chess Tournament in Weissenhaus was Alexandra Botez. In a brief interview with Arne Kähler, she shared her excitement and exhaustion from the event, upcoming plans in Los Angeles, and a talk at MIT's Sports Analytics Conference. She reflected on her streaming career, team-building, and passion for competition, while also revealing details about her chess-inspired video game, designed to attract new players with innovative features like Battle Royale mechanics and magic spells. | Photo: Alexandra Botez at the Reykjavik Open 2023 | Photo: Gerd Densing

2/19/2025 – In their new episode of their "Two Knights Talk", Johannes Fischer and Arne Kähler talk, among other things, about the luxury at the Weissenhaus luxury resort and about the attraction of playing chess in such an environment. They consider how things are going and could go with Freestyle Chess and wonder why one should be careful with Boris Becker moments. And they pay tribute to Vincent Keymers skills in Freestyle Chess.