1/30/2024 – From 24 to 30 January 2024, Jeddah is hosting a highly competitive U18 youth tournament. The ninth and final round will be played on Tuesday, January 30 starting at 14.00 CET (08.00 ET, 18.30 IST)

1/30/2024 – Last weekend, Mumbai hosted the second Lollapalooza music festival on the Asian continent. The headliner was former Police singer Sting. And former World Champion Viswanathan Anand was right in the middle of the crowd, singing along as a big Police fan.

1/30/2024 – Using chess as an educational tool requires a combination of skills from educators, including knowledge of the subject matter, effective communication skills, and the ability to inspire and motivate students to maintain their interest in the game.

1/30/2024 – Queen and knight can form an impressive attacking duo. How did White use the attacking power of knight and queen in the diagram position?

1/30/2024 – The 2024 Chessable Masters is the first of four Champions Chess Tour events and determines one of the players who’ll make it to the in-person CCT Finals. The event starts on January 31 at 11:00 ET/17:00 CET. Magnus Carlsen, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and Vladimir Fedoseev already earned spots in the Chessable Masters Division I based on their performance in last year’s AI Cup.

1/29/2024 – Leon Luke Mendonca was the surprise winner of the Tata Steel Challenger tournament in Wijk aan Zee. He started with 3 out of 6 points, and was lost in the lower part of the table, until he recovered with 6.5 points out of his last 7 games, to reach first place! The Indian Grandmaster and ChessBase Host, Arne Kaehler, started a video series in 2023, on how a typical day in a life of a professional chess player looks like. The insights of young Leon (turning 18 in March) are tremendous, and you can learn a lot in this first video. | Photo: Lennart Ootes/Tata Steel Chess Tournament 2024

1/29/2024 – Hans-Joachim Hecht, a Grandmaster since 1973, was a member of the successful German national team in the 1960s and 1970s, became German team champion eight times with his clubs SG Solingen and Bayern Munich and won the European Cup once. Today he celebrates his 85th birthday. Congratulations to him! | Photos: German Chess Federation, Münchener Schachakademie

1/29/2024 – Wouldn’t it be great to convert all your chess pieces into better pieces on every move? Markus Reinhardt’s Variaschach is actually based on this principle. But, of course, it’s not really that simple. Reinhardt himself presents his variation and plays a blitz game against GM Elisabeth Paehtz.

1/29/2024 – What role do traps play in chess? And what is important for successful trapping? In the current ChessBase Magazine #217, Jan Markos deals with the topic of "traps" in his series "Practical Tips for the Tournament Player" and works out four rules that you should definitely observe in your own games. We invite you: this week you can download Jan Markos' article - consisting of a video and a small collection of exercises - as a free sample. Directly via your web browser in the new ChessBase Books format. This is because CBM #217 is the first issue to also include full mobile access. So you can read it directly via your web browser on your iPad, tablet or Mac. Have fun!

1/29/2024 – It was a thrilling event from start to finish. The final round of the Tata Steel Masters saw four co-leaders grabbing wins to set up a four-way blitz playoff. Wei Yi, Gukesh D., Anish Giri and Nodirbek Abdusattorov played the knockout tiebreaker, which saw 24-year-old Wei claiming overall victory after showcasing his well-known tactical sharpness in the deciding stage. Meanwhile, Leon Luke Mendonca took clear first place in the Challengers after beating Divya Deshmukh with the white pieces. | Photo: Tata Steel Chess Tournament / Lennart Ootes

1/28/2024 – FIDE has introduced a series of changes to the qualification paths that will be in effect for the Candidates Tournament in 2026. Most notably, the runner-up from the World Championship match no longer automatically qualifies for the Candidates. The alterations are aimed at enhancing the competitive landscape, encouraging player participation, and ensuring a fair representation of the top contenders.

1/28/2024 – Herman Grooten is an International Master, a renowned trainer and the author of several highly acclaimed books on chess training and strategy. In the 162nd episode of his ChessBase show "Understanding before moving" Herman continues his series "Chess history in a nutshell" and takes a look at the legacy of Vassily Smyslov, the seventh World Champion in the history of chess. | Photo: Pascal Simon