1/19/2023 – In his "Fast & Furious" show Robert Ris presents a new concept for White in the Ragozin. It was prepared by Anish Giri who used it to beat Gukesh at the Tata Steel Tournament in Wijk aan Zee in great style. | "Fast and Furious" is available on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here.

1/19/2023 – The FIDE World Championship 2023 is due to take place in Astana, Kazakhstan, from April 7th to May 1st. A new World Champion will be crowned, as Ian Nepomniachtchi and Ding Liren will battle to seize the throne left vacant by Magnus Carlsen’s withdrawal. The General Partner of the event, which boasts a sensational prize fund of 2 million euros, will be Freedom Holding Corp, a US-based corporation with Kazakh roots.

1/19/2023 – The 37th edition of the Reykjavik Open will be held from March 29th until April 4th, 2023 in Harpa, the 28.000 sq. m. concert and conference hall in downtown Reykjavik. The tournament has been the flagship of Icelandic chess for many years and one of the most prestigious and well-liked open tournaments on the calendar every year. | Press release, Icelandic Chess Federation.

1/19/2023 – Round 5 of the Tata Steel Challengers tournament took place on Wednesday, while the participants of the Masters had their first rest day. Three decisive results left Mustafa Yilmaz as the sole leader in the standings. The Turkish champion defeated top seed Amin Tabatabaei with the black pieces. | Photo: Lennart Ootes / Tata Steel Chess Tournament 2023

1/18/2023 – In his “Game of the Week” show #551 Merijn van Delft takes a look how Anish Giri won against Magnus Carlsen in round 4 of the Masters at the Tata Steel Tournament in Wijk aan Zee. | Merijn’s show is available on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here.

1/18/2023 – For much of its storied existence, Howard University in Washington D.C. – a historically Black university located in America’s capital city – has been known as "The Mecca of Black Education," or just "The Mecca". This year, at the Pan-American Intercollegiate Team Championship the Howard University Chess Club achieved the best result it has ever achieved in the Team Championship. A success that is partly due to hard training and the help of Jerald Times, an award-winning chess educator from New York City, and Tani Adewumi, the 12-year old chess talent from Nigeria, who helped the team to prepare. | Photo: (from left to right: Goodness Atanda, Lawrence D. Custis, Samir Acharya, Malcolm Wooten and Malik Castro-DeVarona | Photo: Jerald Times

1/18/2023 – Gaining the initiative in chess is one of the most effective tools to decide a game in your favour. It always depends on what kind of player you are of course, and for some it seems easier, others struggle a lot more to make initiative moves. Anish Giri is momentarily storming towards the Tata Steel chess title, with his spectacular playing style. Svitlana presents us his victory against Gukesh D., where he took over the game with a few moves for the win. The same applies to Max Wamerdam's game against Jergus Pechac, and it contains a valuable lesson.

1/18/2023 – Can a massive volume of lengthy chess interviews, some dating back to over two decades, attract chess enthusiasts today. Can they be of interest to a heavily satiated chess audience? You bet they can. Frederic Friedel started reading the 476-page book – and was immediately hooked. He describes the reason for his fascination and tells us what is unique about this work.

1/18/2023 – Round 4 of the Tata Steel Masters saw the two highest-rated players in the world losing on adjacent boards, as Anish Giri and Praggnanandhaa defeated Magnus Carlsen and Ding Liren respectively. Giri is now sharing the lead with Nodirbek Abdusattorov, who got the better of Parham Maghsoodloo. In the Challengers, four decisive results left three players sharing the lead on 3/4 points. | Photo: Lennart Ootes / Tata Steel Chess Tournament 2023

1/17/2023 – Last month World Chess, the company that ran the World Chess Championships, announced its plans to float on the main London Stock Exchange in November, inviting institutional and retail investors to subscribe for eight million Euro shares. This comes at the heels of planned 483 million takeover of PlayMagnus by the giant Chess.com. What this all means is discussed by Peter O’Brien in the latest issue of The British Chess Magazine.

1/17/2023 – In the diagram position both sides have dangerous passed pawns. But it is Black to move - and he can win by making the most of his passed pawns. How?

1/16/2023 – Fabiano Caruana scored the one decisive game in round 3 of the Tata Steel Masters, as he beat Jorden van Foreest with the white pieces to join the leading pack, now comprising five players. The longest games of the day in this section saw Vincent Keymer and Arjun Erigaisi successfully defending tough positions against Praggnanandhaa and Levon Aronian, respectively. Meanwhile, six players are sharing first place in the Challengers. | Photo: Lennart Ootes / Tata Steel Chess Tournament 2023