1/16/2025 – The Bundesliga weekend was all about Magnus Carlsen. Media all over Germany and international newspapers such as the New York Times reported on Carlsen's debut for St. Pauli and his convincing victory over Max Warmerdam. But there were other fine games this Bundesliga weekend. For example, a textbook Sicilian by German Grandmaster Luis Engel (photo) and a remarkable mating attack by Parham Maghsoodloo. | Photo: Arne Kähler

1/10/2025 – In 2024, FC St. Pauli, which had just been promoted to the top division of the Bundesliga, pulled off a coup: they were able to convince Magnus Carlsen, a football fan and the world's number one, to become a member of their team. But it remained unclear how often Carlsen would play in the coming season. But the time has come sooner than expected, as Carlsen will play in St. Pauli's home matches against Solingen and Düsseldorf this weekend. And if Düsseldorf choose not to go to Hamburg with their best lineup, Carlsen could even face Gukesh, the newly crowned world champion, on Sunday. | Photo: Nils Rohde

1/4/2025 – The dispute over Magnus Carlsen's trousers in the rapid tournament and the crowning of two world champions in the blitz section, which was not provided for in the rules, dominated the news cycle surrounding the 2024 World Rapid and Blitz Championships 2024 - with one important sporting decision taking a back seat: thanks to his performance in New York, Fabiano Caruna won the FIDE Circuit 2024 and thus qualified for the 2026 Candidates Tournament. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

1/2/2025 – Just in time for the start of the new year, FIDE has published the new world rankings. With an Elo rating of 2831, Magnus Carlsen remains the clear number one, followed in second, third and fourth place by Fabiano Caruana (2803), Hikaru Nakamura (2802) and Arjun Erigaisi (2801). Gukesh Dommaraju, the new classical world champion, follows in fifth place with 2777 points, but is the highest-rated junior (under 20) in the world.

12/30/2024 – The World Rapid Championships, which were played from 26 to 28 December in New York, made unexpected headlines. The reason for this was not the surprising victory of the young Russian GM Volodar Murzin, but the withdrawal of Magnus Carlsen from the tournament after he was accused of violating the dress code. This led to a dispute that escalated quickly. Carlsen withdrew from the World Rapid Championship after 8 rounds and announced he would not play in the Blitz section either. But as Carlsen now explained in a surprising interview with Levy Rozman, he will take part in the Blitz after all. And will be wearing jeans. | Photo: FIDE / Lennart Ootes

12/13/2024 – The young Russian grandmaster Andrey Esipenko (photo) won the highly competitive Qatar Masters with 7½ points after 9 rounds of play. Second and third place were shared by Arjun Erigaisi and Nodirbek Abdusattorov, each with 7 points. Arjun missed the opportunity to overtake Fabiano Caruana in the FIDE Circuit. Whoever has the most FIDE Circuit points at the end of the year will qualify for the 2026 Candidates Tournament. | Photo: Anna Shtourman / Qatar Masters

12/3/2024 – Fabiano Caruana was the clear rating favourite at the U.S. Masters, an open tournament that was played in Charlotte from 28 November to 1 December. Caruana and other top players rarely play open tournaments, but the U.S. Masters promised FIDE Circuit points, and thus winning the tournament might help Caruana to qualify for the Candidates 2026. Caruana started the tournament with five wins, then lost to GM Nikolas Theodorou but after scoring 3.0/3 in the last rounds he still finished clear first with 8.0/9, gaining 17.11 FIDE Circuit points. | Photos: Charlotte Chess Center

11/14/2024 – In round 6 of the European Championship in Petrovac, Montenegro, Serbian Grandmaster Aleksandar Indjic won an impressive endgame against co-leader Maxim Chigaev. As all other top games ended with draws, Indjic is now the sole leader and starts the rest day with 5.5/6. Half a point behind are eight players with 5.0/6 each. | Photo: ECU

10/31/2024 – After a quick draw in game 2, Pia Cramling and Levy Rozman showed fighting spirit and enthusiasm in the third game of their "Battle of Generations" match in Stockholm. In a game that was complex from the start, Rozman managed to find ways to put Cramling under pressure, but the Swedish Grandmaster defended precisely and the entertaining game ended in a draw after 30 moves. Cramling now leads the match 6-3. | Photo: chess.com

10/30/2024 – Pia Cramling and Levy Rozman needed only 14 moves to find a repetition and to draw the second game of their "Battle of Generations" match in Stockholm. Cramling, who won the first game of the match, now leads 4.5-1.5 - with 3 points at stake in each of the four classic games. However, in his post-match review, Rozman revealed some of the many subtleties and transpositions that the Queen's Gambit has to offer, and demonstrated why it can be difficult to play with ease and confidence when you are well prepared. | Photo: chess.com

10/29/2024 – With currently 5.55 million YouTube subscribers, Levy "Gotham Chess" Rozman is the most successful chess streamer in the world. He is an IM, his current Elo rating is 2347 and his declared goal is to become a Grandmaster. From 28 October to 3 November, he will now compete against Swedish chess Grandmaster Pia Cramling in an audience-attracting exhibition match in Stockholm. The two will play 4 classical games, 6 rapid games and 12 blitz games. The start went well for Pia Cramling: in the first classical game, she outplayed Rozman with Black to take a 3-0 lead. | Photos: chess.com

10/17/2024 – The fifth round of the US Championships was overshadowed by a serious incident. After Christopher Yoo was defeated by Fabiano Caruana, he lost his nerve: he crumpled up his scoresheet and then stormed out of the tournament hall. In the process, he punched a videographer in the back. The organisers notified the police and Yoo was expelled from the tournament. His previous results were cancelled, including his defeat against Caruana. Nevertheless, Caruana is in the lead with 3 out of 4 points, ahead of Awonder Liang and Hans Niemann with 3 out of 5. In the women's tournament, Carissa Yip continued her winning streak and claimed her fifth victory in a row. | Photo: Screenshot from the Siant Louis Chess Club webcast

10/12/2024 – Sports psychology knows that you play best when you play relaxed, but sports psychology also knows that ease does not come easily when you absolutely want to win. As May Li, the young heroine in Kyla Zhao's entertaining new book "May the Best Player Win" has to learn. "May the Best Player Win" has just been published, but has already received a number of enthusiastic reviews. In a wide-ranging interview with ChessBase, Kyla Zhao talked about her book, her interest in chess, her career, writing books, gender equality in chess and much more.

9/10/2024 – Today, Tuesday 10 September, at 18:00, the 45th Chess Olympiad in Budapest will begin with the Opening Ceremony. To get in the mood for this Olympiad, it might be worth looking back at another Olympiad - the one held in Thessaloniki, Greece, in 1988. The English comedian, writer, actor and chess enthusiast Stephen Fry made a documentary about it - witty, entertaining, full of irony and humour. As Fry said: "An event I wouldn't have missed for the world." | Image: Screenshot from the documentary - Stephen Fry (left), Jonathan Speelman (right)

7/27/2024 – Boris Spassky, world champion from 1969 to 1972, is regarded as a universal player. He played 1.e4 and 1.d4 and was equally at home in dynamic tactical positions as he was in positional-strategic ones. And he was a feared attacking player. It's no wonder that he managed a few nice queen sacrifices in the course of his career. A small selection. | Photo: Boris Spassky at the 1984 Thessaloniki Chess Olympiad / Gerhard Hund

7/3/2024 – With 8 points from 10 games (+6, =4), 16-year-old Chinese player Haowen Xue secured the sole tournament victory at the strong Arona Open in Tenerife, which ended on 30 June. Second place went to 15-year-old Englishman Shreyas Royal, who is hoping to replace David Howell as the youngest English grandmaster of all time, but narrowly missed out on his third GM norm in Tenerife. The winner of the tournament, Haowen Xue, has yet to get a title, but is no unknown. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

6/28/2024 – Faustino Oro was born in Argentina on 14 October 2013 and has a good chance of becoming the youngest International Master in the history of chess. He has already achieved two norms and will easily surpass the 2400 rating mark in the next FIDE world ranking, which will be published on 1 July. The Argentine therefore only needs a third norm to win the title. And that seems to be within his grasp at an IM tournament in Barcelona. | Photo: Infobae

6/5/2024 – Faustino Oro is breaking records left, right and centre. In 2023, the 10-year-old Argentinian, who was born on 14 October 2013, became the youngest player ever to break the 2300 Elo mark at the age of 9. He also achieved his first IM norm earlier than anyone else and now, after another IM norm at the Continental Americas Championship 2024, he has a good chance of becoming the youngest IM of all time. | Photo: Faustino Oro at the Sunway Sitges Tournament 2023 | Photo: David Llada