12/3/2019 – Alexandra Kosteniuk won the women's European Rapid Chess Championship on tiebreak score ahead of Olga Girya after both finished with 9/11. Five players ended up a full point behind, with former women's world champion Antoaneta Stefanova getting third place. | Photos: European Chess Union

11/29/2019 – A good password paired with strong encryption protects data against unexpected loss. No password is unbreakable, but some can last for quote a long time. After 39 years, recently a few old Unix passwords were cracked. Computer pioneer Ken Thompson had hidden his access behind a chess opening. | Photo: Bell Labs

11/23/2019 – Two major FIDE events will take place in Russia next year. On November 11th, representatives of the organizing bodies signed an agreement for the Candidates Tournament in the magnificent Central Chess Club in Moscow. They announced that the Candidates will be held in Yekaterinburg from March 15th to April 5th. Organizers of other anticipated events have released detailed information in recent weeks, including the Olympiad, the Tata Steel Masters and the TePe Sigeman tournament. | Photo: Eteri Kublashvili

11/5/2019 – German chess fans (especially those in Hamburg) can look forward to a nice chess event in the countries second largest city. Today, the opening press conference took place at the Kehrwieder Theater in the "Speicherstadt" district, the venue of the Hamburg Grand Prix tournament which runs from November 5th to November 17th. | Photos: Nadja Wittmann

11/2/2019 – The Ukrainian team was unable to fend off the Russians as they regained 1st place in the final round at the European Teams in Batumi. Russia led the Women's tournament from start to finish and thus took double-gold. Games and live commentary of Round 9.

10/24/2019 – Alireza Firouzja is the world's highest rated junior player and is currently proving his strength at the Hoogeveen Chess Festival. After three games he leads Jorge Cori 3-0. The match between Jan Timman against Zhansaya Abdumalik remains balanced. In the top Open group, 13 year old Javokhir Sindarov is in sole possession of first place with 5½/6. | Photo: Harry Gielen / Official site

10/9/2019 – The annual Isle of Man Open has become a top tournament in recent years and has now been "promoted" by FIDE into the "Grand Swiss", a tournament that is now one of the qualification routes for the 2020 Candidates Tournament. The elite field is led by World Champion Magnus Carlsen. Today is the opening ceremony, while Round 1 starts Thursday.

9/19/2019 – In 1970 Bobby Fischer played his last Olympiad — in Siegen, Germany. After the Olympiad he gave two simuls in Germany, one in Solingen, one in Münster. Now the score sheets of the games, unknown pictures of Fischer and newspaper articles about the simul in Münster were rediscoved. A remarkable find! | Photos: Norbert Rauch

9/17/2019 – Women's world champion Ju Wenjun is the sole leader of the Skolkovo Grand Prix after six rounds. A three-player chasing group is close behind though, with Kateryna Lagno, Humpy Koneru and World Championship challenger Aleksandra Goryachkina all standing at a half-point distance. The twelve participants are having a rest day, before the final five rounds take place through next Monday. | Photo: David Llada / FIDE

9/15/2019 – Hans Ree was the fourth chess player born in the Netherlands to receive the Grandmaster title from FIDE after Max Euwe, Jan Hein Donner and Jan Timman. Following his active years as a player, he became one of the most important chess journalists. Today Ree celebrates his 75th birthday. | Photo: Dutch National Archive

9/14/2019 – The chess world has a new power couple: Last Friday, the Hungarian Grandmaster Gabor Papp and the German national player WGM Sarah Hoolt tied the knot. Congratulations! | Photo: Georgios Souleidis

8/7/2019 – Ian Nepomniachtchi won the rapid chess exhibition tournament — part of what was dubbed "Levitov Chess Week" in Amsterdam — on Tuesday, ahead of Alexander Gríschuk, who came equal on points with 5.0/7. Anish Giri was the only undefeated player and came third with a half point less. | Photo: Zairon CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons

8/7/2019 – Alexei Shirov showed he can still play, at the 5th CellaVison Cup in Lund, Sweden. He won the tournament with 7 of 8 thanks to better tiebreak score ahead of Kryakvin and Külaots. Pia Cramling took the women's prize with 6 points. The tournament also featured paintings by Mariya Yugina, wife of GM Mihail Marin. | Photos: Lars OA Hedlund

8/5/2019 – Eight top grandmasters are currently playing in Amsterdam a rapid and blitz chess tournament, invited to honour the 40th birthday of the former Executive Director of the Russian Chess Federation, Ilya Levitov. Among them is Vladimir Kramnik, who retired from the tournament chess in January. He and Viswanathan Anand won the blitz tournament which was held on Saturday. | Photo: Peter Doggers / chess.com

8/1/2019 – In honour of the Soviet-Latvian World Champion Mikhail Tal, a blitz tournament and a rapid tournament were held in Riga. Vladimir Fedoseev won the rapid with a score of 9½/11. David Navara was second and Rasmus Svane finished third. Igor Kovalenko won the blitz tournament. Both featured a live commentary webcast courtesy European ChessTV. | Photos: TalChessMemorial.com

7/26/2019 – Boris Johnson has completed an improbable rise to the top of British politics. After the resignation of Theresa May as the United Kingdom's Prime Minister, Johnson is next in line to unravel the Gordian knot of the so-called "Brexit". Back in 2014, as the Mayor of London, he was a guest at the London Chess Classic and spoke clever things about the game of chess. But is his game up to the task ahead?

7/18/2019 – In yesterday's 4th round of the Sparkassen Chess meeting, all games ended without a winner. Leinier Dominguez (pictured right) thus defended his lead in the tournament. Wojtaszek, Radjabov (pictured left) and Rapport remain a half point back in this short seven-round sprint. Thursday is the tournament's second (and final) rest day. Play resumes on Friday at 13:15 UTC (15:15 CEST, 9:15 AM EDT) | Photos: Georgios Souleidis

7/11/2019 – The 18-year-old grandmaster Lucas van Foreest was the unexpected winner of the Dutch Championship defeating none other than his big brother Jorden in a tiebreak. After seven rounds in Amsterdam, the brothers had each had 5.0 points. Lucas won one of the two blitz games and drew the other. Their little sister Machteld van Foreest did well in the Women's Championship making it a true family affair, but WGM Iozefina Paulet earned the Women's Champ title with 6.0/7. | Photo: Harry Gielen