9/6/2023 – Out of the four players who were sharing the lead after the first day of action at Tata Steel India Rapid tournament, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave recorded the best score in rounds 4-6. The Frenchman is now the sole leader in Kolkata with 4½ out of 6 points. Teimour Radjabov stands in sole second place, a half point back. | Photo: ChessBase India

9/6/2023 – The World Cup had it's fair share of underdog surprises in the first round. Robert Ris decided to pick a game from round three, though! Anish Giri faced Nijat Abasov, and in the tiebreaker, the GM from Azerbaijan played aggressive moves, which caused a lot of trouble for Giri. Ris shows us exactly, how the 150 points weaker player won impressively.

9/6/2023 – Apart from Kirill Alexeenko (to Austria) and Nikita Vitiugov (to England), the FIDE transfer list shows several other prominent Russian grandmasters who have left their federation after Russia invaded Ukraine. Evgeny Alekseev now plays for Israel and Sanan Sjugirov is the new number one in Hungary.

9/6/2023 – The new ChessBase Magazine #215 offers, among other things, 36 extensively annotated games. More than half of them build the "Special" of this issue: an exclusive collection of outstanding games by Hikaru Nakamura! In addition, Anish Giri, Grigoriy Oparin, Ivan Cheparinov, Thai Dai Van Nguyen et al. provide analyses from Norway Chess 2023 and Sharjah Masters 2023. Arjun Erigaisi played a brilliancy against Vladislav Kovalev in Sharjah - you can find an abridged version of his analysis here!

9/6/2023 – There has been an official announcement from the UK Government of a package of measures that will support the England teams, our best juniors, new tournaments and our deaf and blind players. This is the culmination of a 25-year quest and a 12-month-long campaign. Initiator Malcolm Pein tells us how it all came about and what it means for the future of British chess.

9/6/2023 – The first two rounds of the Women's Team World Championship get underway this afternoon in Bydgoszcz. The tournament starts with two groups of six teams each. The top four teams will progress to the knockout stage. The event was officially opened yesterday. | Photos: Michal Walusza (FIDE)

9/3/2023 – The Julius Baer Generation Cup was the fifth event of the 2023 Champions Chess Tour. The tournament, which took place from August 30 to September 3, featured three divisions, each a double-elimination knockout, where if you lose one match you drop to a lower bracket and can still win the tournament. | Replay the games and find brackets for each of the three divisions.

9/3/2023 – 2...d6 is Black's favourite Sicilian. In the new CBM #215 Christian Braun presents a concept for White with 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.e5!? that is attractive in various respects: White immediately forces the pace, leads the game into terrain that is often unknown to the opponent and gets "dynamic and powerful play" with little risk of his own. You don't need to learn too many variations by heart in this straightforward system either. Take a look at the article in CBM #215 and then do a first practical test on the chess server right away!

9/3/2023 – Divya Deshmukh, a late replacement and the lowest-rated player in the field, won the rapid section of the Tata Steel India tournament. The 17-year-old from Maharashtra outscored some of the strongest women players in the world to finish in sole first place with 7 out of 9 points. Ju Wenjun, who entered the last round tied for first with Divya, grabbed second place. | Photo: Vivek Sohani

9/2/2023 – Magnus Carlsen won the winners’ final of the Julius Baer Generation Cup with a smooth 3-0 victory over Alireza Firouzja. The Norwegian has thus reached the Grand Final set to take place on Sunday. His opponent will be the winner of the losers’ bracket, where Denis Lazavik and Nodirbek Abdusattorov will first play in the semifinals on Saturday; the winner will then face Firouzja.

9/2/2023 – The French Defence is one of the most popular openings – for club players to grandmasters. It’s a very solid opening against 1.e4, but leaves room for counterplay and initiative. In this two-volume video course former world-champion and startrainer Rustam Kasimdzhanov shows you the ins and outs of the hugely complex opening. This week you can save 20 Euros – the Summer Special price is just €39.90 (instead of list €59.80). Don't miss the chance of improving your chess understanding!

9/2/2023 – After 11...b6? (diagram) pieces will be traded on the queenside - but not the way Black might have imagined! Do you see how White gets an advantage?