10/8/2024 – The reigning champions of the Bundesliga, Viernheim, made a false start to the new season and lost to the host team in Hamburg. The defending champions were missing the top six boards due to the Global Chess League taking place concurrently. Baden-Baden also played without its top players in Munich. | Pictured: The cheerful Hamburger SK team with captain Reinhardt Ahrens | Photos: André Schulz

10/1/2024 – The Julius Baer Generation Cup ends with the Grand Finals. In Division I Magnus Carlsen faces Alireza Firouzja who eliminated Levon Aronian in the final of the Losers Bracket, in Division II Wesley So faces Denis Lazavik, and in Division III Vincent Keymer and Fabiano Caruana battle it out. | Pictures: Chess.com

10/1/2024 – The new FIDE World Ranking is out, reflecting the results of the Chess Olympiad in Budapest. Magnus Carlsen remains the world number one, ahead of Hikaru Nakamura in second place. But Indian Grandmaster Arjun Erigaisi, who scored 10.0/11 in Budapest, is the new world number three, although only one point ahead of Fabiano Caruana in fourth. World Champion Challenger Gukesh, who also won big in Budapest, is fifth and Nodirbek Abdusattorov, another top scorer at the Olympiad, is sixth.

10/1/2024 – Pascal Lautenschläger is the man behind the Fritztrainer courses. As head of video production, he recently produced his 500th Fritztrainer title. He was also recently honoured for his 20th anniversary with ChessBase. At the Chess Olympiad in Budapest Amruta Mokal used the opportunity to interview Pascal and to ask him about his work with some of the greatest players of all time.

9/28/2024 – The new 2024/25 Bundesliga season begins this weekend in Kirchweyhe, a week before the official start. Team Düsseldorf, promoted from the 2. Bundesliga, had asked for an earlier start because many of their players are involved in the Global Chess League in London the following weekend. This suggests that the coming season will be one of the strongest, if not the strongest, ever. Countless top players hope to help a German club win this year's Bundesliga. A preview.

9/26/2024 – Peter Svidler is the winner of the 2024 Jerusalem Masters. On the second day of the rapid chess tournament, the St Petersburg-born player built on his strong performance from the day before to finish the tournament in first place, one point ahead of Jorden van Foreest and Daniil Dubov. | Photos: Tournament page / Dr. ML Photos

9/26/2024 – The Vugar Gashimov Memorial is being held in Azerbaijan for the 10th time in memory of the world-class Azerbaijani player who died at a young age. Eight top players will compete in a combined rapid and blitz tournament from 26-28 September. | Photos: Shahid Ahmed (ChessBase India)

9/25/2024 – The Chess Federation of Israel is currently organising a chess festival in Jerusalem. The headliner of the event is a rapid chess invitational tournament. An open will also be played. At the end of the three-day event, 1000 chess fans will compete against 50 master players in a simultaneous match. | Follow the action live starting at 13.00 CEST.

9/25/2024 – The Chess Federation of Israel is currently organising a chess festival in Jerusalem. The headliner of the event is a rapid chess invitational tournament. An open will also be played. At the end of the three-day event, 1000 chess fans will compete against 50 master players in a simultaneous match. After five rounds, Peter Svidler and Vasyl Ivanchuk (pictured) are sharing the lead in the Masters. | Photo: Fred Lucas / Tata Steel Masters 2012

9/22/2024 – On the occasion of its 100th anniversary, FIDE honoured Magnus Carlsen as the "best player" in the world. The Norwegian thanked the Federation, but pointed out that the honour should have gone to Garry Kasparov, noting it was certainly no coincidence that he was overlooked in all FIDE honours. Carlsen also spoke out against the lifting of the suspension of the Russian and Belarusian Chess Federations.

9/18/2024 – It is halftime at the Chess Olympiad. On Monday night, the famous Bermuda Party took place. On Tuesday, the players relaxed and recharged their batteries. Time for a little halftime review. | Photos: FIDE / Michal Walusza, Maria Emelianova, Mark Livshitz

9/11/2024 – In the early rounds of the major international team tournaments, the top teams will play against nominally weaker teams in the middle of the seedings. However, it is important to get off to the best possible start in order to build up a good position for the next rounds and to build up spirit. Team USA, the number one seed, plays against Panama, India faces Morocco and China has to overcome the Dominican Republic.

9/5/2024 – Musician and chess fan Jason Kouchak was inspired by the beautiful summer to write a chess song. Together with his friend Stephen Johnstone, he celebrates the anniversary of Andrew Lloyd Webber's 'Starlight Express' with a fast-paced game of chess and a skate ride, and looks forward to the upcoming Global Chess Festival. | Photos: Julian Paix (unless otherwise noted)

9/4/2024 – On Friday 6th September at 20:00 CEST in Paris an explosive duel that the chess world has been waiting for for weeks will begin: Hans Niemann will face Magnus Carlsen in the semi-finals of the chess.com Speedchess Championship. After his defeat against Niemann in the 2022 Sinquefield Cup, Carlsen indirectly accused Niemann of cheating, which led to heated discussions, headlines around the world and a defamation suit by Niemann. Alireza Firouzja will play Hikaru Nakamura in the second semi-final. The four finalists in Paris will play online on the computer, but will face each other live.

9/3/2024 – Ernst Cassirer was a prominent and important German philosopher, who was born 150 years ago on July 28, 1874, in Breslau. In 1919, he was appointed to the chair of philosophy at the newly founded University of Hamburg, but after the Nazis rose to power, Cassirer emigrated to England, where he taught philosophy at Oxford. Later, he moved to the United States via Sweden, teaching at both Yale University and Columbia University in New York, where he died on April 13, 1945. Apart from philosophy Cassirer's great passion was chess, and he occasionally discussed both with Emanuel Lasker.

9/2/2024 – With the results of the Sinquefield Cup officially registers, there has been some movement in the top 20 of the world rankings. With his success at the Rubinstein Memorial, Vincent Keymer is now among the top 20 in the world and is also one of the 4 highest-rated juniors. However, Hans Niemann gained even more points with his 3 match victories. Hou Yifan remains the highest-rated woman player in the world. Nodirbek Abdusattorov and Divya Deshmukh top the junior lists.

8/29/2024 – With an unchallenged draw against Leonardo Costa, Dmitrij Kollars secured the 2024 German Championship title, held as a round-robin tournament for the first time in a long time. Fiona Sieber won the Women's Masters (which is not the national championship), despite Luisa Bashylina not making it easy for her in the final round. | Photos: Katherina Reinecke / German Chess Federation

8/27/2024 – The German chess community mourns the loss of Gregor Johann. The respected and highly esteemed chess enthusiast, organiser and arbiter died last Friday in an accident during a mountain hike in the Carinthian mountains. He was 55 years old.