8/15/2025 – Wasselonne is one of the many picturesque towns in France's Alsace region. The local Mossig Chess Club invited players to an open tournament. In addition to many French players, several chess enthusiasts from neighbouring Germany also accepted the invitation, including Bettina Trabert and her son Max. Vladyslav Larkin from Ukraine won the tournament on tiebreak criteria. | Full report with photos and anecdotes by Bettina Trabert, who participated alongisde her son Max.

4/23/2025 – This year's World Junior Championships in Rapid and Blitz were held on the island of Rhodes in Greece. The most gold medals went to the team from Kazakhstan. Bettina Trabert led the small delegation and was particularly pleased with the silver medal won by her son Max in the U16 Blitz World Championships.

8/23/2024 – Spilimbergo is a pleasant little town of about 12,000 inhabitants, located about 100 kilometres north-east of Venice. The town is most famous for its over 100-year-old mosaic school - and for chess! The festival was held for the 22nd time this year and attracted 450 participants from 31 countries. Among them was Levy 'Gotham Chess' Rozman, who came to the Italian city to take another step on his way to becoming a grandmaster. In the end, however, the winner of the tournament was the Iranian IM Orimi Mahdi Gholami, who won with 7 out of 9 rating points. Bettina Trabert reports. | Photo: Old town centre of Spilimbergo | Photo: Wikipedia

2/4/2024 – The Northwest Cup took place for the first time in Oldenburg and then moved to Bad Zwischenahn. This year it celebrated its 25th anniversary. The railway strike in Germany made it difficult for participants to travel to the event, but well over 380 chess enthusiasts made it to the tournament hall, including Bettina Trabert. | Photos: Bettina Trabert

1/11/2024 – A number of tournaments are traditionally organised at the turn of the year. The Staufer Open in Schwäbisch Gmünd, Germany took place for the 34th time. Well over 500 chess enthusiasts took part in two competitions. Eltaj Safarli was the clear winner in the A Open. Bettina Trabert reports.

10/23/2023 – Magdeburg is a city steeped in history, including a long chess tradition. Every year an international open is held, this year for the 28th time. Over 200 players took part. The victory went to the only grandmaster in the field, Oleg Korneev. Bettina Trabert reports.| Photo: A view into the tournament hall | Photos: Bettina Trabert

11/9/2022 – At the beginning of November, there were plenty of opportunities to play chess in the south of Germany: The open tournaments in Deizisau and Baden-Baden gave committed chess players the chance to play 14 games in a total of eight tournament days. Jonathan Carlstedt won in Deizisan and Oleg Korneev won in Baden-Baden. Bettina Trabert reports.