Toronto to host the 2024 Open and Women’s Candidates Tournaments

3/29/2023 – Toronto will host the 2024 FIDE Candidates and Women’s Candidates, scheduled for April 3-25, with a prize fund of EUR 750,000. It will be the first time in chess history that both events will be held at the same time and venue, and also the first time that the Candidates Tournament will be held in North America. The event will be sponsored by the Scheinberg family, as part of the long-term collaboration agreement that was announced in 2022.
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Endgame Magic #233: Highlights from the Bundesliga - with Iniyan!

3/29/2023 – Iniyan is yet another talented Indian player climbing up the ranks of competitive chess. This week, he visited Hamburg and joined Karsten Müller in his Endgame Magic show. It was a joyous exchange of ideas using games from the German Bundesliga. | You can watch the Endgame Magic Show on-demand with a ChessBase Premium account.

European Women’s Championship - Final round: Live!

3/29/2023 – The European Women’s Chess Championship is taking place on March 17-30 at the Hotel Palas in Petrovac, Montenegro. The event features 136 players from 34 federations. The top 9 players in the final standings will get a spot in the next edition of the FIDE Women’s World Cup. | Follow the games from the final round live with computer analysis starting at 13.00 CEST (7.00 ET, 17.30 IST)
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New Delhi GP: Assaubayeva scores again

3/29/2023 – The third round of the Grand Prix in New Delhi was played on Tuesday. Three of four games finished drawn for a second day in a row, and also for the second day running, Bibisara Assaubayeva was the only player to collect a full point. The 19-year-old beat Nino Batsiashvili with the white pieces. With only two games played, Assaubayeva has a half-point lead over five chasers — who have all played three games so far. | Photo: FIDE / Ismael Nieto

Endgames from Vrnjacka Banja (4)

3/28/2023 – Close to 250 games were played daily for 11 rounds at the European Championship that came to an end two weeks ago. The players were fighting for an entrance to the World Championship cycle via the World Cup, which made for very competitive struggles. Karsten Müller kept an eye on the games, and sent us many notable endgames with instructive analyses. Replay here ten of his finds! | Pictured: Bulgarian grandmaster Ivan Cheparinov | Photo: European Chess Union

World no.18 D Gukesh battles 21 players

3/28/2023 – 16-year-old Dommaraju Gukesh is one of the brightest talents of India and World Chess. He is now World no.18 with a FIDE Rating of 2730. The current India no.2 graced the ChessBase India Chess Club with his presence on Saturday, 18th March 2023. There was a big challenge in front of him – he was to give a simultaneous exhibition to 21 players, with the top five seeds having an Elo rating of over 2000. The spectacular even simul was held at the Phoenix Marketcity Mall in Mumbai. | Photo: Abhyudaya Ram
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The Monthly Dragon - Tackling the early 6.f4 "Levenfish" like GM Simon Williams

3/28/2023 – The "Ginger GM" Simon Williams enjoys playing the Dragon a lot, but is an even bigger fan of the Dragadorf. But, what happens if the opponent plays the interesting 6.f4 Levenfish variation for White? Simon Williams knew the answer and dominated his opponent. Chris Ward analysed the game closely, and found some interesting options for Black and White to take care of!| Photo: John Upham
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Study of the Month - A short history of endgame study castling III

3/28/2023 – Castling in endgame studies is a rich and entertaining topic - be it real castling, the threat of castling, or even just retroanalysis that proves that castling is impossible. Last year we began a new series in which we chronologically explore the most interesting endgame studies with castling ideas. We aim at a mix between informative and interesting endgame studies again this month, a mostly light-hearted article without too much text. | Photo: Pixabay
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Rook vs bishop

3/28/2023 – In the diagram position, it is White to move and draw. White is an exchange up but he still is in trouble because his pawns are weak and his rook has trouble defending them. In the game White did not find a way to draw the game and lost. Can you do better?

New Delhi GP: Assaubayeva beats Vaishali

3/28/2023 – The second-round games of the Women’s Grand Prix in New Delhi were played on Monday. Bibisara Assaubayeva, the 19-year-old IM from Kazakhstan, is the only player who has so far scored a win in the tournament, as she defeated India’s Vaishali Rameshbabu with black. A look at the standings does not help much at the moment: six players have played two games, four have played only one. | Photo: FIDE / Ismael Nieto

Hikaru Nakamura wins the American Cup

3/27/2023 – Hikaru Nakamura pulled through to become the 2023 American Cup Champion after defeating Wesley So 2½-1½ in a difficult final Elimination Match. The finale started out with three solid draws, but finished abruptly in the fourth game after a blunder by So got his queen trapped inside Nakamura’s territory. | Photo: Saint Louis Chess Club / Lennart Ootes
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The Iniyan Challenge

3/27/2023 – It is usual for rook endgames to end in a draw. At least, they usually have a strong tendency to do so. Recently young grandmaster Iniyan visited our company and showed us a position from one of his games which should be won by White. But he needed to work very hard to do so. Even our endgame expert Dr. Karsten Müller, and a visiting super-GM colleague of Iniyan had great difficulty finding the win. Can you help find the convincing proof?

What is happening in New Delhi at the Women’s Grand Prix?

3/27/2023 – The FIDE Women’s Grand Prix 2022-23 is into its third leg, and it is a huge moment for Indian chess. The start to the event has been rocky. One of the participants, Zhansaya Abdumalik, has withdrawn from the tournament after reaching New Delhi and spending a day at the venue. The players wrote an official letter to the FIDE President, and FIDE responded back with an official statement. Meanwhile, Zhansaya’s compatriot Bibisara Assaubayeva, who is present at the venue, wrote a post on social media voicing her opinions. We try to put it all together in this article. | Photo: Aditya Sur Roy
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Texas Tech wins KCF University Cup and meets with Kasparov in New York

3/26/2023 – The Kasparov Chess Foundation organized the third annual KCF University Cup in February this year. The tournament, which attracted well over 500 university students from every continent, was won by Texas Tech University. Francesco Bortolussi, who played board 4 for the winning team, sent us a first-person account of the tournament itself and of the team’s visit to New York City, where they had a training session with the legend himself, Garry Kasparov! | Photo: Alexander Onischuk
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Understanding before Moving 118: Play the Sicilian!

3/26/2023 – Herman Grooten is an International Master, a renowned trainer and the author of several highly acclaimed books about chess training and chess strategy. In the 118th instalment of his ChessBase show "Understanding before Moving", Herman continues to explain why it is good to study and to play the Sicilian. | Photo: Pascal Simon

The American Cup: Live!

3/26/2023 – America’s best chess players return to the Saint Louis Chess Club to battle over the board from March 17- 26 for the second annual American Cup. With $300,000 in prize money, the competitors will prove their mettle under mounting pressure in a double-elimination knockout tournament. Unlike in the inaugural edition, Hikaru Nakamura will be among the participants this time around. | Follow the games live with expert commentary starting at 20.30 CEST (14.30 EDT, 0.00 IST)
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American Cup: Krush successfully defends her title

3/26/2023 – Irina Krush claimed her second consecutive American Cup title in the women’s section after obtaining a 2½-1½ victory over Alice Lee. On Saturday, Lee defeated Krush in classical chess to force a rapid playoff. Krush, however, showed the better nerves in a topsy-turvy pair of rapid games to grab the title. Meanwhile, Wesley So defeated Hikaru Nakamura — also in playoffs — to force an extra rapid match in the open section. | Photo: Saint Louis Chess Club / Lennart Ootes
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New Delhi GP: Abdumalik withdraws, first round postponed due to organizational issues

3/25/2023 – The third stage of the Women’s Grand Prix series, set to take place in New Delhi, did not start as scheduled on Saturday, March 25. It was reported that some of the players were not received by official transport at the airport and that, at the hotel, they were informed that the rooms were not ready and the breakfast was not included in the price. Due to these conditions, Zhansaya Abdumalik withdrew from the event. FIDE and the eleven remaining players decided that the event would take place anyway, albeit starting on Sunday. | Photo: International Chess Federation

Leon Mendonca's immaculate 9.0/9 in the 27th Hit Open

3/25/2023 – Generally after winning a tournament in a dominating fashion, players tend to relax. That's not what GM Leon Luke Mendonca did. After clinching 27th Hit Open 2023 on the previous day, the teenager went on to defeat FM Domen Tisaj to score a perfect 9/9. Leon, who has just turned 17, performed at 3196, which earned him 26.4 Elo rating points. This is Leon's second consecutive tournament triumph this month: he remains undefeated after winning 38th ChessOrg Festival Bad Woerishofen 2023 on 11th March. Report with full post-match interview.

Forward, always forward!

3/25/2023 – From the diagram position Black's knight landed by force... on the square f1! In the end it was only enough for half a point, but she had a fat chance of winning on the way. Have fun!

American Cup: Krush strikes first

3/25/2023 – The 2023 American Cup Finals kicked off in exciting fashion with the first games between Hikaru Nakamura against Wesley So and Irina Krush against Alice Lee. In the open, Nakamura sacrificed his queen for two rooks in a roller-coaster game that would ultimately end in a draw. Meanwhile, Krush took a 1-0 lead after winning a very sharp first game as White. | Photo: Saint Louis Chess Club / Lennart Ootes
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Kiolbasa beats Bulmaga, leads European Women’s Championship

3/25/2023 – The participants of the European Women’s Championship in Montenegro had a rest day on Friday. After six rounds in the 11-round Swiss tournament, Polish IM Oliwia Kiolbasa is leading the standings with 5⅕ points. Defending champion Monika Socko and Estonian IM Mai Narva stand a half point back, while fifteen players are still within close reach of the leader on 4⅕ points. | Photos: Official site
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Positional Milestones

3/24/2023 – The "Special" of the current ChessBase Magazine is dedicated to Anthony Miles. In addition to a collection of 21 extensively analysed brilliant games of the first English grandmaster, you will also find a multifaceted contribution by Mihail Marin on Miles' chess understanding and playing style. Marin's database of 12 games from the years 1978 to 2000 is peppered with many training exercises. For the first time for ChessBase Magazine, our author also offers two interactive videos in which you can put your strategic understanding to the test. And of course Marin again introduces the "hero" of this issue in the introductory video to his contribution - you can watch the 20-minute video here.
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Explained by the engineers! - Threats and weak moves function for ChessBase 17!

3/24/2023 – Today: Matthias Wuellenweber shows us how the threat and weak moves function work for ChessBase 17. In our new video series, our developers personally explain the new features they have developed themselves. From the new data format to the beauty index. In no time at all, you'll learn how it's done.