3/1/2024 – With the top players mainly playing online and freestyle, there has been little change at the top of the rankings. Magnus Carlsen, the current World Champion in Rapid and Blitz, is still the world number one, as he has been since July 2011. Fabiano Caruana follows in second place and is the only other player besides Carlsen with a rating of 2800+.

3/1/2024 – The Masters and Challengers are the focus of the Prague Chess Festival, but the Open also has a strong line-up and an attractive field. GM Eltaj Safarli from Azerbaijan (Elo 2614) tops the seeding list, followed by Indian GM S.P. Sethuraman in second place, 11 Elo points behind. A total of 263 players are competing in Prague, including well-known streamers Andrea and Alexandra Botez and Dina Belenkaya, who are broadcasting their games live with commentary. | Photo: Petr Vrabec

3/1/2024 – Tata Steel 2024: Analyses of the tournament winner Wei Yi as well as Nodirbek Abdusattorov, Alexander Donchenko, Alireza Firouzja, Anish Giri, Erwin l'Ami, Praggnanandhaa, Eline Roebers and Vidit Gujrathi - Mihail Marin looks back at Linares 1992: Kasparov vs. the young generation - French à la Erigaisi: Sergey Grigoriants serves up a fresh idea in the Advance Variation: 1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.e5 c5 4.c3 Nc6 5.Nf3 Bd7 6.Be2 f6!? - Inviting Nimzo-Inder: In the fashionable variation 4.f3 d5 5.a3 Be7 6.e4 dxe4 7.fxe4 c5 White gets a protected passed pawn on d5; Jan Werle shows why Black can afford it! - "Fundamental Endgame Knowledge" Part #8: What you need to know in the endgame with bishop and pawn; video course with Karsten Mueller and much more. Enjoy CBM #218 in the new ChessBase book format on any device: iPad, tablet, Mac. Windows PC or laptop!

3/1/2024 – An eventful third round in the Masters section of the Prague Chess Festival saw Nodirbek Abdusattorov beating David Navara to catch Parham Maghsoodloo in the lead of the standings. Richard Rapport and Thai Dai Van Nguyen also scored full points — Rapport inflicted Praggnanandhaa’s second loss in a row after the Indian prodigy blundered twice from a superior position. In the Challengers, Abhimanyu Mishra defeated Vaclav Finek to join Anton Korobov and Ediz Gurel in the lead. | Photo: Petr Vrabec

2/29/2024 – A top grandmaster tournament, the 5th Shenzhen Chess Masters, began today in Longgang, a district of the Chinese metropolis with a population of 17 million. Eight players are taking part, including five players with an Elo rating of over 2700. Anish Giri and Erigaisi started with victories.| Photos: Shenzhen News Network

2/29/2024 – In his new Fast & Furious episode, Robert Ris takes a look how Praggnanandhaa and Vincent Keymer set the board on fire in the first round of the Prague Chess Festival. They started with an Italian and were both willing to enter a complicated and sharp theoretical line. | Fast & Furious is available on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here.

2/26/2024 – The German Bundesliga is a traditional team tournament featuring some of the best players in the world. After 11 rounds in the 2023/24 season, Viernheim have a clear 3-point lead over the perennial favourites from Baden-Baden. In round 9, Viernheim’s Nodirbek Abdusattorov obtained a memorable attacking victory over Gata Kamsky. The game was expertly analysed by IM Robert Ris!

2/26/2024 – Eva Moser was the best female chess player in Austrian history and one of the few female players to win the absolute title of her country. The Austrian Chess Federation is honouring the world-class player, who died too young, with an international women's chess tournament. From Sunday in Graz. | Photo: Austrian Chess Federation

2/26/2024 – Chess is often considered a calm and quiet game, where the only sound is the clicking of the pieces. But what if we could hear the heartbeat of the players, and see how their body reacts to the tension and excitement of the game? That is exactly what was done in the Freestyle Chess 2024 event in Weissenhaus, where the heart rate of some of the world’s best chess players were monitored as they faced each other! We start this series with a look back at how it all started. | Photo Lennart Ootes

2/26/2024 – The Svetozar Gligoric Trophy is an award given by FIDE to the individual who displays exemplary behaviour promoting the spirit of fair play and sportsmanship in chess. Proposals for nominations from Continental Federations, National Federations, and FIDE Commissions shall be submitted to the Gligoric Trophy Award Commission of FIDE no later than 10 August 2024.

2/25/2024 – Rounds 9-11 of the German League (Bundesliga) took place from Friday to Sunday in Viernheim, a midsize industrial town on Mannheim’s outskirts. On Saturday, the all-important clash between Viernheim and Baden-Baden saw Viernheim coming out on top thanks to wins by Parham Maghsoodloo and David Anton. After round 11, Viernheim are leading the standings with a perfect score, 3 match points ahead of the defending champions from Baden-Baden. Vishy Anand, Hikaru Nakamura and Nijat Abasov all played during the weekend, with Anand beating Abasov to re-enter the world’s top-10 in the live ratings list. | Photo: Angelika Valkova

2/25/2024 – MegaBase 2024 is Chess History in action. Regularly updated every month, the Main Database currently offers 10.6 million games, many of them annotated. In the first part of his review he dealt with the treatment of chess in the 21st Century in the MegaBase. Here he offers a rare discovery from a world championship match that fell into oblivion.