3/7/2025 – In round seven of the Masters tournament at the Prague Chess Festival, Indian grandmaster Aravindh Chithambaram took the lead in the standings, and in round eight he defended it with a draw against David Navara, as the second-placed player, Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu, also signed a draw. The wins of the round were achieved by Anish Giri, who won with black against Sam Shankland, and Wei Yi, who benefited from a mistake by Thai Dai Van Nguyen in a rook ending. | Photo: Petr Vrabec

3/6/2025 – The seventh round of the Masters at the Prague Chess Festival saw Aravindh Chithambaram beating Anish Giri with black in what perhaps was the best game of the tournament so far. With this victory, Aravindh took the sole lead in the standings, as Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu was unable to get more than a draw against Wei Yi. Vincent Keymer fared similarly, as he put David Navara under pressure for a long time, but in the end had to be satisfied with half a point. Sam Shankland and Ediz Gürel had more luck: Shankland won with black against Le Quang Liem, while Gürel won with white against Thai Dai Van Nguyen. | Photo: Petr Vrabec

3/3/2025 – The fifth round of the Masters tournament in Prague brought only one victory. Wei Yi managed it against Sam Shankland, who completely failed in the opening. All four other games ended in draws, with Vincent Keymer missing a good chance to score. At the halfway stage, Aravindh Chithambaram and Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu are in the joint lead with 3½ out of 5 points each, a full point ahead of the chasing pack. In the Challengers, Nodirbek Yakubboev leads the field with 4 out of 5 points. | Photo: Petr Vrabec

2/28/2025 – Vincent Keymer started the Prague Chess Festival with a convincing win, but in round two he suffered a defeat against Aravindh Chithambaram (pictured), who surprised Keymer with a double-edged and rare opening. The four other games in the Masters section all ended in draws. In the Challengers, two of the five games ended decisively, but there could have easily been more. | Photo: Petr Vrabec

2/27/2025 – Vincent Keymer had a good start at the Masters section of the Chess Festival in Prague: he defeated top seed Wei Yi in Wednesday's first round. The second victory of the day was secured by Sam Shankland, who won against Ediz Gürel. The three remaining games all ended in draws. There were also two wins and three draws in the Challengers: the two winners were Jonas Buhl Bjerre, who beat Stamatis Kourkoulos-Arditis with black, and Ivan Salgado Lopez, who defeated Divya Deshmukh with white. | Photo: Petr Vrabec

2/21/2025 – Some chess players are remembered mainly for their spectacular defeats. One of them is the Chilean champion René Letelier, who lost a game to Bobby Fischer at the 1960 Chess Olympiad in Leipzig that went down in chess history. But Letelier also had many successes during his career. FIDE awarded him the IM title in 1960, he played for Chile in seven Chess Olympiads and was Chilean Champion five times. And in the course of his long career he played a number of remarkable games.

2/6/2025 – Levy Rozman is the world's most successful chess streamer. His YouTube channel Gotham Chess has 5.94 million subscribers, hundreds of thousands of whom regularly watch the 29-year-old New Yorker talking almost every day about current chess events and analysing games. But on 4 February, on his way to the Freestyle Grand Slam in Weissenhaus, Rozman presented himself live to his fans in Hamburg. German GM Jan Gustafsson and IM Georgios "The Big Greek" Souleidis, Germany's most successful streamer, supported Rozman as special guests.

2/4/2025 – FIDE published the new world rankings at the beginning of February, but they are no longer completely up-to-date, as the tournament in Wijk aan Zee could not be considered. Carlsen remains number one, but Caruana, who is ranked second in the FIDE world rankings, fell to fourth place in the live ratings list. Hou Yifan remains number one among the women; the best junior is still Gukesh Dommaraju, followed by Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu; and with Divya Deshmukh the best junior among the women also comes from India.

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