4/27/2022 – A consolation for all chess fans: even the best sometimes blunder. In Round 5 of the Oslo Esport Cup, World Champion Magnus Carlsen blundered a whole rook against Jorden van Foreest, which cost him the game, the match, and the lead in the tournament. With two rounds to go, Praggnanandhaa, who won his match against Eric Hansen 2.5-0.5, is now again sole first with 12/15 and three points ahead of Carlsen who follows with 9.0/15. | Photos and pictures: Play Magnus Group

4/27/2022 – After defeating GM Leinier Dominguez in a dramatic playoff, GM Levon Aronian (pictured) qualified for the finals of the 2022 American Cup, where he will face GM Fabiano Caruana for the 1st place prize of $50,000. In the women’s field, FM Alice Lee earned herself a rematch in the $25,000 final against GM Irina Krush, after winning an incredibly close match against WGM Tatev Abrahamyan that went all the way to Armageddon. | Photo: Saint Louis Chess Club / Bryan Adams

4/26/2022 – The American Cup kicked off Wednesday in Saint Louis with an Open Tournament and a Women's Tournament, both played in knockout mode. But those who lose a match get a second chance in an elimination bracket. Day 7 starts at 13:00 local time (20:00 CEST, 18:00 UTC). Follow the games live and with commentary.

4/26/2022 – The 16-year-old Indian Grandmaster Praggnanandhaa started the Oslo Esports Cup with a series of three won matches. But in his duel against Magnus Carlsen in round four he did not find his rhythm, and Carlsen outplayed his young opponent in all three games to win the match 3-0. After four rounds Carlsen and Pragg now both have 9.0/12 and share the lead in the tournament. | Photos and pictures: Play Magnus Group

4/26/2022 – Both GM Fabiano Caruana (pictured) and GM Irina Krush managed to qualify to the finals of the American Cup, after drawing the second game and avoiding a playoff in their Champions Bracket matches against GM Leinier Dominguez and FM Alice Lee. | Photo courtesy of Saint Louis Chess Club, Lennart Ootes

4/26/2022 – In the diagrammed position White is a piece up but Black's queenside pawns look dangerous. However, the white bishop has everything under control. How does White stop the black pawns and win the game?

4/22/2022 – An action packed day saw five matches decided in the playoffs and one match (Caruana-Xiong) made it all the way to Armageddon, finishing in a dramatic time scramble. After all was said and done, Aronian, Dominguez, Sevian, and Caruana from the Open Field along with Krush, Tokhirjonova, Lee, and Abrahamyan from the Women’s Field advanced to the next stage of the Champions Bracket. | Photos: Austin and Crystal Fuller, Saint Louis Chess Club, Lennart Ootes

4/21/2022 – "The chess world isn't a safe place for us," says popular chess streamer Tallulah Roberts, aka "lularobs", recounting an incident at the blitz tournament of the Reykjavik Open 2022. Jamaal S. Abdul-Alim, 2013 Chess Journalist of the Year, explains "why chess tournaments can be hostile for women and girls". | Photo: Reykjavik Open

4/21/2022 – This week Robert Ris analyses how the young Indian Gukesh used a relatively new concept in the Sicilian Richter-Rauzer to win a nice and crucial game at the La Roda Open. | "Fast and Furious" is available on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here.

4/21/2022 – It was a nobrainer decision for the young guy who started writing ChessBase 37 years ago: Hit arrow-right to execute a move. The number of people replaying games in some kind of chess software can be assumed to be in the millions. So the number of cursor-right chess keystrokes in nearly 40 years is probably a couple of hundred billions (US). Maybe even a trillion (10^12). Not clear whether this is a life time software achievement to be proud of. But its time to grant the poor arrow keys a bit of rest with some cool new replaying functionality.

4/21/2022 – A massive chess festival took place in Chihuahua, Mexico on April 12-17. Almost a thousand participants played in the numerous open tournaments, which included events for women, amateurs and different age categories. In the main event, Argentinian GM Sandro Mareco was the outright winner after scoring 7½ out of 9 points. Pablo Salinas (Chile), Kevin Cori (Peru) and Luis Ibarra (Mexico) finished a half point. | Photo: Official site

4/21/2022 – With 7.5/9 the Armenian Grandmaster Hrant Melkumyan was sole first at this year's Doeberl Cup in Canberra, Australia. The tournament has been held since 1963 and is Australia's most prestigious chess event. It is named after the Austrian self-made businessman Erich Doeberl, who emigrated to Australia in 1955. | Photo: Rosemary Doeberl, daughter of Erich Doeberl, with Hrant Melkumyan (Photo: Chesslife)