4/25/2024 – ChessBase Magazine offers a window to the world of professional chess. Our columnist Nagesh Havanur takes a look at our recent issue, CBM 218. 540 games from Tata Steel Chess and Chessable Masters 2024, 12 opening surveys, 3 opening videos, 6 demo lectures and several exercises for training. Annotators include Wei Yi, Anish Giri, Nordibek Abdusattorov, Alireza Firouzja, Vidit Gujrathi and Praggnanandhaa among others. The icing on the cake is a special feature on Richard Rapport, with 28 annotated games. | Pictured: Gukesh D playing white against Ding Liren in Wijk aan Zee | Photo: Jurriaan Hoefsmit / Tata Steel Chess Tournament 2024

4/24/2024 – The top duels in the fifth round of the Women's European Championship ended in draws. This allowed 15-year-old Ukrainian WCM Bozhena Piddubna (pictured) to catch the leaders with a win. Piddubna is now sharing the lead with Ulviyya Fataliyeva (Azerbaijan) and Marta Garcia (Spain). Piddubna will play black against Fataliyeva in Thursday’s sixth round. | Photos: European Chess Union

4/24/2024 – Cheating in chess took centre stage when Magnus Carlsen lost to Hans Niemann in September 2022, and then tweeted about it. Now, top grandmasters Vladimir Kramnik and Fabiano Caruana are sharing numbers about how many cheaters there are. What is being debated, what is known, and what is only a feeling? In its latest issue, New In Chess magazine deals with a subject that concerns us all.

4/24/2024 – It is a famous game, played between Siegbert Tarrasch and Akiba Rubinstein in 1911. It ended in a draw, and is given as a model example for an active defence in rook endings in the books of Levenfish/Smyslov and Averbakh. However, matters are not that easy. Can you find the mistakes in the game play strategy?

4/24/2024 – Records were shattered and history was made at the 2024 FIDE Candidates. Two events — open and women’s — took place simultaneously for the first time at the same hall. We saw the first brother-sister duo, R Praggnanandhaa and R Vaishali, participating. In the end, D Gukesh broke a number of records: he was the youngest ever to win the Candidates Tournament and thus become the youngest ever challenger to the World Championship. Gukesh was interviewed by Sagar Shah in what turned out to be a conversation lasting close to two hours. | Photo: FIDE / Michal Walusza

4/23/2024 – A couple of weeks ago Leon Mendonca turned 18. After many spectacular successes — like a 9.0/9 score in a very strong GM Open a year ago and winning the Challegers group in Wijk aan Zee — Leon just won the Spring Chess Classic 2024 at the Saint Louis Chess Club – outright. The round robin event had ten grandmasters with an average rating of 2625. This remarkable young player has recorded a very interesting FritzTrainer for us. | Photos by Austin Fuller

4/20/2024 – 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. In the second episode, Leon talks about his opening preparation for an upcoming tournament. | Photo: Lennart Ootes/Tata Steel Chess Tournament 2024

4/20/2024 – From the diagram position, White starts a forced sequence at the end of which only the Rh8 remains of the black pieces. Have fun clearing the board!

4/20/2024 – Alexander Donchenko was the rating favourite at the third edition of the Sunway Formentera Open and lived up to the role at the end of the event. Before the final round, he was tied for first place with Vasyl Ivanchuk. Doncehnko scored a full point in the last round, while Ivanchuk only managed a draw. | Photos: Sunway Formentera Chess Festival

4/19/2024 – Round 12 of the Candidates Tournament saw three players scoring full points to greatly increase their chances of achieving overall victory. Hikaru Nakamura and Gukesh D defeated Alireza Firouzja and Nijat Abasov respectively to join Ian Nepomniachtchi in the lead, while Fabiano Caruana got the better of Vidit Gujrathi to go into the final two rounds at a half-point distance from the co-leaders. | Photo: FIDE / Michal Walusza

4/19/2024 – In his new Fast & Furious episode, Robert Ris shows a game which saw a surprising piece sacrifice that has good chances to become the novelty of the year. | Fast & Furious is available on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here.

4/19/2024 – Anish Giri has recorded a two-volume Fritztrainer course in which he gives an overview of all the openings. The course is now available, also in ChessBase Book format. In a live stream, Anish Giri and his co-author Sagar Shah talk about Giri's Fritztrainer and what else is important in the chess world.