2/9/2023 – The WR Chess Masters is a classical chess tournament which boasts the participation of 10 World-class Grandmasters. With a mix of youth and experience, this dynamic field will battle each other from February 15th-26th in a 9-game Round Robin event. The most special thing about the event is its time control. It has the same time control as the World Championship Match. How difficult is it to organize a super tournament from scratch? In this article, we talk to the man behind the WR Chess Masters - Wadim Rosenstein and get some insights.

2/9/2023 – Following the rest day, players returned well-prepared to the playing hall in Munich and drew all their games in round 6 of the Women’s Grand Prix. Alexandra Kosteniuk thus kept her 1½-point lead in the standings. Importantly, Kosteniuk’s closest chasers, Humpy Koneru and Nana Dzagnidze, have yet to face the former women’s world champion. | Photo: FIDE / Mark Livshitz

2/9/2023 – Magnus Carlsen advanced to the Grand Final of the Airthings Masters by beating Hikaru Nakamura in the winners’ bracket final. All four 15-minute games were drawn in the all-star showdown, leading to a sudden-death decider. Carlsen, who presented a bid merely one second shorter than Nakamura’s, drew with black in Armageddon to win the match. Nakamura will face either Wesley So or Arjun Erigaisi in the final of the losers’ bracket.

2/8/2023 – For many years, Luc Winants was Belgium's best chess player and at times the country's only grandmaster. He represented his country in many Chess Olympiads and remained undefeated in two Olympiads. Luc Winants died yesterday, 7 February, at the age of 60. | Photo: https://www.chess-and-strategy.com/

2/8/2023 – UAE Ministry of Tolerance and Coexistence, the International Chess Federation, and the Asian Chess Federation jointly held the Tolerance Games - Asian Chess Women's Contest that took place from February 06-07, 2023, in Abu-Dhabi, UAE. The event was a part of the Global Tolerance and Human Fraternity Summit in Etihad Towers. | Photo: FIDE

2/8/2023 – “In order to understand an opening, you need to know the historical background and have a good feeling for the dynamics”, says the GM Dorian Rogozenco in the introduction to this video course. Based on 30 years of personal experience at high level, Rogozenco provides a complete guide for Black in the modern theory of the Sveshnikov Sicilian.

2/5/2023 – 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 111th 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

2/5/2023 – It is rare to see female players take part in the open section of national championships. But 19-year-old IM Nurgyul Salimova decided to do it at the 2023 Bulgarian Championship. She scored an impressive 6/9 and edged past two grandmasters (who also collected 6 points) to finish second overall. Salimova obtained four wins, four draws and suffered her sole loss of the event against the top seed and eventual champion, GM Kiril Georgiev. | Photo: Nurgyul’s Instagram page

2/5/2023 – Alexandra Kosteniuk grabbed a third consecutive win in Munich to get a full-point lead over a 3-player chasing pack at the second stage of the Women’s Grand Prix series. Kosteniuk inflicted Dinara Wagner’s third consecutive loss. In the other decisive game of the round, Zhu Jiner beat Zhansaya Abdumalik with the black pieces. | Photo: FIDE / David Llada

2/4/2023 – By scoring six wins in as many matches, Poland grabbed gold at the first Chess Olympiad for People with Disabilities. The team of Physically Disabled Chess Players (IPCA) won second place with 10 match points, while the Philippines took home bronze after outscoring (according to tiebreak criteria) three other teams that also collected 8 match points. | Photos: FIDE / Mark Livshitz

2/4/2023 – First published in 1828, ‘The Spectator’ is a weekly British magazine on politics, culture, and current affairs. In the latest edition of the long-standing publication, an article written by Zoe Strimpel profiling living chess legend Judit Polgar was included in the Culture section. Strimpel writes: “It’s also why Judit Polgár, forty-six and one of the best players of all time, is so much more fascinating than her male counterparts”.

2/4/2023 – Yes, 24.Rxg7+! wins for White - but it's definitely a challenge to foresee the complete path to victory from the diagram position, even if it's initially paved with checks. Your perfect start to the (chess) weekend, right?