1/18/2020 – With a convincing win in game eight, challenger Aleksandra Goryachkina took the lead in the Women's World Championship match against defending champion Ju Wenjun. After 8 of 12 games, it is now 4½ : 3½ to Goryachkina. | Photo: Eteri Kublashvili / wwcm2020.fide.com

1/17/2020 – Temur Kuybokarov was born on July 22, 2000 in Tashkent, the capital of Uzbekistan. In 2016, he moved to Perth, Australia, with his parents, and since 2018, the year in which he became a grandmaster, he has played for Australia. This year he became Australian Champion. The 19-year-old won the national championship, which took place in Sydney from January 2 to 13, with 9 out of 11.

12/23/2019 – The Ukrainian grandmaster Anton Korobov (pictured) won the strong Sunway Sitges Open with 8½ points from 10 games. Half a point behind were GMs Vasif Durarbayli from Azerbaijan and Rasmus Svane from Hamburg, Germany. They contested a two-game blitz playoff (won by Durarbayli) to determine second and third places. | Photo: Lennart Ootes (archive)

12/13/2019 – About seven million players worldwide have joined the Football Fantasy League to try their luck as virtual managers of a virtual English Premier League team. They play on the internet but the Premier League games in the real world define how good they are. Magnus Carlsen is very good: on Sunday, December 8, the World Champion and his fictitious team Kjell Ankedal were number 6 on the world's ranking list. Which made headlines. | Photo: Magnus Carlsen at the Tata Steel Chess India Tournament | Photo: Lennart Ootes

11/24/2019 – Magnus Carlsen recently resigned from the Norwegian Chess Federation, but continues to play in the Second Norwegian League for his newly founded club Offerspill. So far, the world champion has played twice and — not surprisingly — won twice. Both games were one-sided, but still interesting. | Photo: Lennart Ootes (archive)

11/9/2019 – With an Elo rating of 2670, the Ukrainian GM Anton Korobov is currently number 68 in the classical world rankings. However, he is ranked sixth in the world in rapid chess at 2798! Korobov demonstrated his mastery of this format in the rapid portion of the Superbet tournament of the Grand Chess Tour in Bucharest. He finished Day 3 with a two point lead over the field. | Photos: Grand Chess Tour / Lennart Ootes

11/7/2019 – Anish Giri started well among ten world-class players, at the Superbet Rapid Tournament of the Grand Chess Tour in Bucharest: He is in the lead after the first three rapid games with 2½ out of 3, half a point behind them are Vishy Anand, Anton Korobov and Levon Aronian on positions two to four. | Photos: Lennart Ootes, Grand Chess Tour

10/15/2019 – Lennart Ootes is one of the most prolific and renowned chess photographers. Chess players from all over the world enjoy his images of top players and amateurs. Recently, the Dutch photographer launched his own website on which he presents about 30,000 (not a typo!) of his pictures. In an interview with ChessBase, Ootes talks about his passion for chess and photography, the right moments for taking a picture and his joys of travelling. | Photo: David Llada

9/9/2019 – GM Romain Edouard, Editor-in-Chief of Thinkers Publishing, recently came out with a book of his own, a memoir on his years working as a second for Veselin Topalov, years in which the Bulgarian former FIDE World Champion was at the peak of his powers. He shares some perspective in this brief interview. | Photo: Vladimír Jagr

7/17/2019 – Leinier Dominguez seems to be in good shape at the Sparkassen Chess Meeting in Dortmund. In round three he won against defending champion Ian Nepomniachtchi with a nice, tactical combination and is now in sole first place with 2½/3. Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu scored the second win of the round, with black against Daniel Fridman. Kaido Kulaots and Radoslaw Wojtaszek drew, as did Teimour Radjabov and Richard Rapport. Live games of round four from 13:15 UTC (15:15 CEST, 9:15 EDT). | Photos: Georgios Souleidis

7/4/2019 – With a German rating of 2246 Simon Reinhard is a strong amateur. But he probably learns openings better, more efficiently, and faster than most top grandmasters. After all, Reinhard is several times World Memory Champion. In an interview, he talks about the art of remembering and how memory techniques can help to train openings, middlegames and endgames in chess. | Photo: André Schulz

6/27/2019 – With Falkbeer's Countergambit (1.e4 e5 2.f4 d5 3.exd5 e4!?) Black tries to spoil the fun White wants to have in the King's Gambit. A number of top players have tried this countergambit which led to entertaining games. Today, the line is only rarely seen but today, June 27, 2019, Ernst Karl Falkbeer, who gave the countergambit its name, would have celebrated his 200th birthday.

6/19/2019 – On May 22, 2019, before the Lindores Abbey Tournament and Norway Chess, Energi Danmark invited Magnus Carlsen to come to Copenhagen, Denmark, to play a two-game exhibition match against 14-year old Danish IM Jonas Suhl Bjerre and a simul against 24 opponents. Carlsen won the match 2-0 and the simul 24-0 but between simul and match he still found time for an interview in which he talked about his development, how he got better, strategy, planning, and the way he thinks. | Photo: Screenshot from the interview | Energi Danmark

6/17/2019 – With 7.0/9 Vietnamese Grandmaster Le Quang Liem was sole winner of the Asian Continental Championships in Xingtai, China, five players qualified for the World Cup 2019, Dinara Saduakossava won the women's event with 7½/9, Nihal Sarin finished first in the blitz tournament, and a number of interesting games were played. | Photos: Chinese Chess Federation

6/17/2019 – So far, 2019 has been a good year for Vladislav Artemiev: in February 2019 the Russian Grandmaster had a rating of 2709 but after winning the Gibraltar Masters in January and the European Individual Championship in March he now has a rating of 2761 and is number 10 on the FIDE World Ranking List. At the strong Karpov Tournament in Poikovsky Artemiev was the number one seed but he needed a strong finish to win the tournament on tie-break. | Photos: Vasily Papin

6/15/2019 – The Altibox Norway Chess Tournament ended with a rematch of the 2018 World Championship duel in London: Fabiano Caruana against Magnus Carlsen. But this time Caruana won. In the classical game, Caruana missed the win in a complicated position but in the Armageddon game he outplayed the world champion. Carlsen had already won the tournament on Thursday and in the end finished with 13½ out of 18 points. Levon Aronian and Yu Yangyi followed with 10½ points each, but thanks to a better tie-break Aronian finished second. | Photo: Lennart Ootes / norwaychess.no

6/11/2019 – Chances to sacrifice your queen after nine moves are rare. But in round five of the Asian Continental Championship in Xingtai, China, the Indian Grandmaster Karthikeyan Murali had such a chance. He used it to win a brilliancy against Alireza Firouzja and to take the lead in the tournament. | Photo: Amruta Mokal (Archive)

6/7/2019 – Magnus Carlsen was close to losing against Levon Aronian in round two of the Altibox Norway Chess tournament, but in round three he appeared to be well-recovered, and won a seemingly effortless game against Alexander Grischuk. With this win Carlsen now leads the field. Aronian also appeared to be well-recovered and defeated Shakhriyar Mamedyarov with Black. Ding Liren won against Fabiano Caruana, Wesley So got the better of Yu Yangyi, and Vishy Anand defeated Maxime Vachier-Lagrave in the only match-up that went to Armageddon. Analyses by CONSTANTIN LUPULESCU. | Photo: Lennart Ootes / Altibox Norway Chess