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

5/29/2024 – Astrologers may feel vindicated. After all, Dommaraju Gukesh, the winner of the 2024 Candidates Tournament, and Tan Zhongyi, the winner of the 2024 Women's Candidates Tournament, were both born on 29 May, Gukesh in Chennai, India, in 2006 and Tan Zhongyi in Chongqing, China, in 1991. Congratulations! | Photos: David Llada (Gukesh) and Lennart Ootes (Tan Zhongyi)

4/9/2024 – Four rounds have been played in the Candidates Tournament and Ian Nepomniachtchi is in the lead with 3.0 out of 4. But, as we often hear, nothing is decided yet because, after all, 14 rounds are played in Toronto, which is still a long way to go. But the numbers tell a different story: in the six Candidates Tournaments from London 2013 to Madrid 2022, the player leading after four rounds has always won. | Photo: Ian Nepomniachtchi at the Madrid 2022 Candidates Tournament, which he won comfortably. | Photo: Stev Bonhage (FIDE)

3/24/2024 – The most important tournament of the year begins on April 3 in Toronto, Canada: the Candidates Tournament. Eight participants, 14 rounds, the winner plays for the World Championship. Two of the eight participants have already won one or more Candidates Tournaments, four have already played one or more Candidates Tournaments, the youngest candidate is 17, the oldest is 36 years old. But who will win? | Photos: Official website / FIDE

3/9/2024 – Jaroslav Svoboda, the owner of Czech Inn Hotels and operator of the Hotel Don Giovanni, the venue of the Prague Chess Festival, is a passionate chess fan. In a short interview he reveals that he learnt to play chess rather late in life, talks about his friendship to Vlastimil Hort and explains why Bobby Fischer is not an ideal role model. | Photo: The Hotel Don Giovanni

3/7/2024 – Greek grandmaster Stamatis Kourkoulos-Arditis is on the verge of victory at the Karel Janecek Open, which is being held as part of the Prague Chess Festival. With one round to go, he has 7.5 out of 8, and is one point ahead of six players with 6.5 out of 8. In round 8, Kourkoulos-Arditis scored an important win with Black in a theoretically interesting and tactically rich game. | Photo: Johannes Fischer