2/23/2024 – In his new Game of the Week show, Merijn van Delft turns his attention to the Mitropa Cup and looks at a fine attacking game won by German Grandmaster Matthias Bluebaum against Swiss Grandmaster Nico Georgiadis. | Merijn’s show is available on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here.

2/22/2024 – Unichess and Emmedi Sport ASD invite you to Sardinia World Chess Festival 2024. The inaugural edition of this festival is offering a total prize fund of €50100. The top three prizes are €10000, €6000 and €4000 each. There are three categories - Open A (>1999), Open B (<2000) and Open C (<1600). There are 15 main prizes in Open A and ten each in Open B and C. That's not all. Total 78 prizes are up for grabs. Entry is FREE for players rated above 2450. For everyone else, entry fee is €100 by 31st March €130 till 15th April after organizing committee agrees. Eleven players have 2600, 19 players above 2500, 17 GMs and 9 IMs have already confirmed participation from 15 countries across the world. The tournament is organized by UniChess (FIDE Academy tier 1-2) along with Emmedi Sport ASD. Check out the article for all information. All tournament info photos are from tournament circular.

2/22/2024 – The Germans are still on the road to success in the Mitropa Cup, beating Hungary 3-1 in round 7 of the Open and the women's tournament. Both German teams defended their lead in both tournaments and in both tournaments Switzerland is their closest rival. | Photos: German Chess Federation / Frank Hoppe

2/22/2024 – Magnus Carlsen was challenged, and he won what he called his "dream tournament." The world number one rated player was crowned the winner of the inaugural Freestyle Chess G.O.A.T. Challenge on Friday afternoon at the closing ceremony, held in the playing hall half an hour after the last game had ended. After the players received their prizes, organizer and host Jan Henric Buettner (pictured) announced big plans for the future. | Picture: ChessBase India

2/21/2024 – The road to Toronto for the 2024 Candidates Tournament is getting shorter and shorter. Some of the candidates were active in Wijk aan Zee. Thorsten Cmiel took a look at their games. Who is in good form and who is struggling? | Photos: Jurriaan Hoefsmit & Lennart Ootes – Tata Steel Chess Tournament 2024

2/21/2024 – The extensive supporting programme of the Freestyle tournament in Weissenhaus also included boxing training for the players and anyone interested. The training took place under the guidance of Denno Probst and his team from Chessboxing Cologne. Fabiano Caruana was not the only one to have fun. | Photos: Chessboxing Cologne

2/19/2024 – The Arabian Karpov Cup, as part of the 1st Jeddah International Youth Festival, successfully fulfilled its mission: to present a platform for young players from the Arab and African regions to play in an international tournament, so as to increase their rating or simply to gain experience. Emirati WCM Rouda Essa Al Sarkal, aged 15, won the event after obtaining 7½/9 points and outscoring Humaidan Mohamed Alzaabi on tie-break criteria. | Photos: Diana Mihajlova and the Jeddah Chess Festival

2/18/2024 – In the United States and Canada, February is Black History Month, a tradition that began in 1926 and seeks to commemorate important people and events in the history of the African diaspora. A good occasion for US Chess National Master and renowned coach Jerald Times to draw attention to the growing number of successful black chess players and the history of black chess players in the United States. | Photo: Rochelle Ballantyne | Source: YouTube, Stanford 125, Rochelle Ballantyne

2/18/2024 – Today’s column is about sacrifices and the exchange in particular. If you’re shown a chess position cold, then the first thing you do normally is to count the pieces just to check that the material is fairly balanced. But the relative activity is at least as important. The “joy of innumeracy” might turn out to be a valuable (in)ability in many chess positions! | Pictured: Lu Miaoyi at the 2023 Rapid and Blitz World Championships. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

2/18/2024 – Herman Grooten is an International Master, a renowned trainer and the author of several highly acclaimed books on chess training and strategy. In the 165th episode of his ChessBase show "Understanding before moving" Herman continues his series "Chess history in a nutshell" and has the pleasure to present the attacking skills of Mihail Tal. | Photo: Pascal Simon

2/18/2024 – The Saint Louis Chess Club, U.S. Chess and Kasparov Chess Foundation announced the Saint Louis Chess Conference, which will bring together the leading voices in chess with chess educators, researchers and enthusiasts. The Saint Louis Chess Conference will be held October 24-26 at the Chase Park Plaza in Saint Louis, Missouri, and will feature leading keynote speakers including Maurice Ashley, Garry Kasparov and Judit Polgár.

2/18/2024 – The FIDE Council awarded the title of Honorary Grandmaster to Andreas Dueckstein (Austria) and Iivo Nei (Estonia) for their consistently strong results in the 1950s-70s. Nei was an 8-time Estonian who tied for first with Paul Keres in Beverwijk (later Hoogovens). Dueckstein won the Austrian national championship three times and obtained victories over the likes of Mikhail Botvinnik and Bent Larsen. | Photos: Ron Kroon and Wim van Rossem / Anefo (Dutch National Archives)