6/4/2024 – The position shown is taken from a game in the current Dubai Open. White has just captured on d7 with his king, and is playing to win. Black has seven move, all with his king. Only one allows him to hold a draw. Can you tell where the black king must go? Let international trainer Efstratios Grivas explain it all to you and help you understand exactly how this kind of endgame works. You can also register for the interactive training program of the Grivas Chess International Academy, starting June 2024.

6/4/2024 – In queen endings it is often a good idea to centralise your queen and king safety plays a crucial role. In the diagram position, which is from a game Vaishali played against Aleksandra Goryachkina at the Women's Candidates, it is White to move and win. What should White do?

6/4/2024 – In the clash of co-leaders at the Norway Chess Women tournament, Anna Muzychuk defeated Ju Wenjun with white in Armageddon to go into the final three rounds atop the standings. Meanwhile, Humpy Koneru got the better of R Vaishali in their classical encounter and Lei Tingjie beat Pia Cramling in the Armageddon tiebreaker. | Photo: Stev Bonhage / Norway Chess

6/4/2024 – An exciting round in Stavanger saw Hikaru Nakamura beating Magnus Carlsen on time in the Armageddon decider to close the gap to the world number one in the standings — Naka now stands a half point behind Carlsen in sole second place. R Praggnanandhaa and Alireza Firouzja also prevailed in Armageddon, against Ding Liren and Fabiano Caruana, respectively. | Photo: Stev Bonhage / Norway Chess

6/3/2024 – In the Endgame Magic Show #270 Karsten Müller and Arne Kähler continue to take a look at endgame highlights from the strong tournament in Sharjah, focusing on zugzwang positions. | You can watch the Endgame Magic Show on-demand with a ChessBase Premium account.

6/3/2024 – The World Championship Match 2024, in which the reigning champion Ding Liren (China) and the youngest challenger in chess history, Gukesh D (India), will fight for the title, is provisionally scheduled between November 20 and December 15, 2024. After opening the bidding procedure to host the event, FIDE received three applications that met all the criteria. These bids came from New Delhi (India), Chennai (India) and Singapore, vying to host the FIDE World Chess Championship 2024. In an interview, Sagar Shah of ChessBase India discussed these developments with FIDE CEO Emil Sutovsky.

6/3/2024 – The FIDE has published its new world ranking list as of 1 June. There are hardly any changes at the top of the list. Magnus Carlsen (open) and Hou Yifan (women) continue to occupy the top positions. However, a number of prominent players lost a lot of points and thus also dropped down the rankings in the most recent open tournaments in Dubai and Sharjah. The name Karjakin is no longer on the list – apparently due to inactivity.

6/3/2024 – Ju Wenjun inflicted a first loss on R Vaishali at the Norway Chess Women tournament to shake things up in the standings table. The women’s world champion is now sharing the lead with Anna Muzychuk, who beat Lei Tingjie with black in Armageddon to grab 1½ points in the event’s sixth round. Pia Cramling also drew with black in the rapid tiebreaker to prevail in her match against Humpy Koneru. | Photo: Stev Bonhage / Norway Chess

6/3/2024 – Magnus Carlsen climbed to sole first place in the standings of the Norway Chess super-tournament after inflicting what was Ding Liren’s fourth consecutive classical loss in Stavanger. The world champion blundered a mate-in-two in a balanced position to lose the game. Meanwhile, Fabiano Caruana and Alireza Firouzja prevailed in Armageddon tiebreakers against Hikaru Nakamura and R Praggnanandhaa, respectively. | Photo: Stev Bonhage / Norway Chess

6/2/2024 – Study composition is one of the aspects of chess that has been both most helped and most muddied by computers. Sometimes it turns out that a study is actually unsound or at least has dual(s), and sometimes there are complications regarding the 50-move rule, for example. But if you have an idea, then it has never been easier to test it, so that a process that would once have taken days can now be finalised in mere minutes. | Photo: John Upham

6/2/2024 – Herman Grooten is an International Master, a renowned trainer and the author of several highly acclaimed books on chess training and strategy. In the 179th episode of his ChessBase show "Understanding before moving" Herman continues his series "Chess history in a nutshell" and continues to look at the career and games of Anatoly Karpov, World Champion from 1975 to 1985. | Photo: Pascal Simon

6/2/2024 – Anna Muzychuk collected a second consecutive classical win in round 5 of the Norway Chess Women tournament. The Ukrainian GM beat Pia Cramling to climb to sole second place in the standings. R Vaishali is still the sole leader in Stavanger, as she prevailed in the Armageddon tiebreaker against Lei Tingjie. Ju Wenjun, now in third place, won a fifth rapid tiebreaker in a row. | Photo: Stev Bonhage / Norway Chess