12/3/2023 – Herman Grooten is an International Master, a renowned trainer and the author of several highly acclaimed books on chess training and strategy. In the 154th episode of his ChessBase show "Understanding before moving" Herman continues his series "Chess history in a nutshell" and continues to take a look at the legacy of Mikhail Botvinnik. | Photo: Pascal Simon

12/3/2023 – Vaishali Rameshbabu became the third Indian woman player (after Humpy Koneru and Harika Dronavalli) to earn the grandmaster title. Vaishali obtained the title by scoring a win against FM Tamer Tarik Selbes at the 2023 El Llobregat Open. Since her brother Pragganandhaa is also a grandmaster, Vaishali and Pragg became the world’s first-ever brother-sister grandmaster duo! | Photo: ChessBase India

12/3/2023 – Three decisive results in round 2 of the London Chess Classic left three players tied for first place with 1½ points each. Andrei Volokitin joined round-1 winners Dommaraju Gukesh and Michael Adams in the lead of the event after beating underdog Shreyas Royal with the white pieces. Meanwhile, Mateusz Bartel and Amin Tabatabaei bounced back from their losses on Friday and returned to a fifty-percent score. Gukesh barely escaped with a draw in his game against Nikita Vitiugov. | Photo: Abhyudaya Ram

12/2/2023 – Welcome to the ChessBase India Winter Chess Solving Championship, an initiative to promote chess composition and creative-logical thinking through chess. This introductory article serves as the curtain-raiser to the event: Satanick Mukhuty give you the rules, the details of the prizes, and the first six of the twelve problems to solve. This is a serious challenge.

12/2/2023 – As described in the article "The Never Ending Saga of Moroccan Chess" (Part 1 and Part 2), the International Prix Mohammed VI tournament had an unfortunate end, as the winners did not receive their prizes. That incident did not take away from the players' efforts and performances, though, as shown here by Diana Mihajlova. | Pictured: Rising star Kevin Michael George with his parents and his coach, GM Bassem Amin

12/2/2023 – Today some elementary endgame tactics. In the diagram position, the constellation on the kingside with the far advanced pawn h3 secures Black's advantage. But how to exploit this?

12/2/2023 – Dommaraju Gukesh and Michael Adams got off to winning starts at the 13th edition of the London Chess Classic. Gukesh defeated Mateusz Bartel’s French Defence, while Adams showcased his positional virtuosity playing white against Amin Tabatabaei. Both Gukesh and Adams will play black in the second round, against Nikita Vitiugov and Hans Niemann respectively. | Photo: Abhyudaya Ram

12/1/2023 – The International Chess Federation released the inaugural Gender Equality in Chess Index (GECI), an innovative instrument designed to measure and compare the level of gender equality in chess federations across the globe. The GECI incorporates three indicators of Participation, Performance, and Progress to offer an all-encompassing view of gender parity in chess. This index introduces a comprehensive scoring system ranging from 0 to 100.

12/1/2023 – With a final-round win over Richard Rapport, Fabiano Caruana secured tournament victory at the Sinquefield Cup in Saint Louis. This was Caruana’s third victory in this event, as he had previously won it in 2014 (when he famously grabbed seven wins in a row) and in 2018. Sole second place went to Leinier Dominguez, who drew Levon Aronian with the black pieces on Thursday. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

12/1/2023 – On October 7th, in their brutal attack, Hamas took 240 hostages from Israel. After tough negotiations some of them are being currently released. In world-wide actions people showed their support – including in chess circles. In Savion, Hungarian-Israeli IM Sofia Polgar held a simultaneous exhibition in order to show concern and solidarity. Sofia has sent us a report with some very moving pictures.

12/1/2023 – From 9 to 16 February 2024, the Weissenhaus Private Nature Luxury Resort on the Baltic Sea in Germany will be the venue for a super tournament in "Freestyle Chess", also known as Chess960. Seven world-class players, including world champion Ding Liren and Vincent Keymer, will challenge the G.O.A.T (Greatest of all Times), Magnus Carlsen, in a Chess960 tournament with classical time control.

11/30/2023 – Hans Niemann won the Tournament of Peace in spectacular fashion. The US grandmaster secured tournament victory with a round to spare, but nonetheless checkmated rating favourite Anton Korobov in the final round. Korobov, Ante Brkic and Vasyl Ivanchuk finished in shared second place, a whole 3 points behind the winner. | Photo: Official website