4/28/2026 – With almost 500 participants, the European Individual Championship in Katowice proved to be an attractive tournament for chess players in the Old Continent. However, it was somewhat lacking in top-level players. Among the "rank and file" was Roger Lorenz, who was impressed by the organisation, though less so by his own result. Nevertheless, his overall conclusion is positive. | Photos: Roger Lorenz

9/25/2025 – Chess players have an advantage when it comes to learning a language. If they start with the help of a chess magazine, they already have a rough idea of what it is about. Roger Lorenz learnt Italian in this way while on holiday - with the help of the magazine "Torre e Cavallo". Now he can (almost) fluently understand Italian game commentaries and invites others to join in.

7/10/2025 – The area around Lone Pine is best known as the backdrop for Western films such as "Django Unchained". However, chess history buffs will also recognise it as the venue for important chess tournaments in the 1970s. Roger Lorenz visited the site searching for clues.

11/17/2024 – At the European Championship in Petrovac - not far from the famous Sveti Stefan island (pictured) - the German Chess Federation is well represented in terms of quality and quantity. In addition to the top German grandmasters, ambitious amateurs are also taking part, e.g. Roger Lorenz, well known to readers of this site from his interesting articles. Here are his impressions.

4/26/2024 – Inspired by a data analysis of the style of play in American basketball, Roger Lorenz has carried out a similar analysis for top-level chess. There have indeed significant changes over the last few decades — not necessarily positive ones.

4/5/2024 – Igors Rausis, born on 7 April 1961, gained notoriety primarily as a cheater. In July 2019, he was caught using a mobile phone in the toilet at an open in Strasbourg, and in December 2019, FIDE banned him for six years and stripped him of his grandmaster title. Rausis then changed his name to Isa Kasimi. Rausis, who suffered from cancer for a long time, died on 28 March 2024. In an obituary, Roger Lorenz recalls the sympathetic side of the grandmaster. | Photo: Novy Bor Chess Club

4/4/2024 – Alpha Zero has revolutionised chess programming. The programme taught itself chess by playing against itself and storing its training knowledge in a neural network. All programmes have followed suit with this technique. Roger Lorenz uses a simple example to show how neural networks work and how they can be trained.

12/14/2023 – Nowadays you can easily download chess engines that play better than Carlsen, Caruana, Keymer or Nakamura. But if you feel like it, you can also try to program them yourself. Roger Lorenz has tried it. In one weekend - and with the help of ChatGPT. | Photo: Coding robot (image created with Automatic1111 and Stable Diffusion)