3/24/2022 – Rating favourites Magnus Carlsen, Ding Liren, Jan-Krzysztof Duda and Le Quang Liem all won their quarterfinal matches at the Charity Cup. Out of the four, only Le needed four games to defeat David Navara, as the remaining three winners of the day managed to knock out their opponents after only three encounters. | Photo: Alina l’Ami

3/24/2022 – All eight games played on Wednesday at the FIDE Grand Prix in Berlin finished drawn, which means Levon Aronian, Leinier Dominguez, Alexandr Predke and Nikita Vitiugov continue to lead their respective pools. After the round was over, Dina Belenkaya asked the players to share their opinion on FIDE‘s decision to ban Sergey Karjakin from competitive chess for six months. | Photos: World Chess

3/23/2022 – In his "Weekly Show" Lawrence Trent talks about the Charity Cup but his main focus in on the FIDE Grand Prix in Berlin and the implications for the Candidates. Lawrence analyses the big upset from round 1, the game Alexandr Predke vs Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, in which the Russian GM took apart the French maestro who completely underestimated the danger in his position. | Lawrence’s show is available on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here

3/23/2022 – Last week, the Canadian WIM spoke about the isolated pawn in depth. In this episode, she talks about the hanging pawns, which evenly often occur in similar openings. The dynamic is different, and Svitlana lets us play with both sides again, fighting with, and against the hanging pawns, trying to find the best moves.

3/23/2022 – The final day of the Charity Cup preliminaries had its fair share of drama, with half the players getting knocked out of the competition after 15 rounds. Praggnanandhaa and Richard Rapport did not make the cut, with Pragg missing winning chances before losing his last game of the prelims against David Anton. Anton, who came from scoring wins in the two previous rounds, climbed all the way up to fourth place thanks to this victory and will face Jan-Krzysztof Duda in the quarterfinals. | Photo: Alina l’Ami

3/23/2022 – This year the Romanian Championships took place from 21 to 27 February at Eforie Nord. In Spring and Summer, Eforie Nord is full of tourists but in the off-season it was quiet, and the tranquility of the place made Eforie the perfect location to play chess. Mircea-Emilian Parligras (pictured) won the Open Championship with 7.0/9, Alessia Ciolacu won the Women's Championship with 7.5/9. | Photos: Florin Ardelean / We Love Sport

3/23/2022 – In an exciting first round, the third leg of the Grand Prix series saw four players getting off to winning starts at Berlin’s Unter den Linden. Levon Aronian and Leinier Dominguez got crucial wins against direct contenders Hikaru Nakamura and Daniil Dubov, while Nikita Vitiugov got the better of Amin Tabatabaei, the lowest-rated player in pool D. The most surprising result of the day was Alexandr Predke’s win over Maxime Vachier-Lagrave. | Photos: World Chess

3/22/2022 – Citing personal reasons, Dmitry Andreikin withdrew from the third leg of the FIDE Grand Prix. Andrey Esipenko (pictured), who also played in the first leg as a replacement, stepped in. The tournament is set to take place in Berlin, with two spots in the Candidates still up for grabs, albeit it is highly unlikely for Richard Rapport not to get one of those after his victory in Belgrade. | Photos: World Chess

3/22/2022 – In the diagrammed position it is White to move and he has to think about the pawn endgame that will arise after the imminent exchange of rooks. What should White play to get a winning pawn endgame?

3/22/2022 – With three rounds to go, Le Quang Liem is still the sole leader of the preliminaries at the Charity Cup. The Vietnamese stands three points ahead of second-placed Magnus Carlsen and has already secured a spot in the knockout stage. On day 3, Jorden van Foreest was the highest scorer, as he collected three wins and a draw. Moreover, the Dutchman had a superior position in the one game he drew, against Carlsen. | Photo: Jurriaan Hoefsmit – Tata Steel Chess Tournament 2021

3/21/2022 – The German Bundesliga started its new season, and the first matches brought many fascinating endgames. Karsten was spoiled for choice but in the Endgame Magic Show #186 he presents an absolute highlight in which the much lower-rated player defeated a strong Grandmaster in study-like fashion. | You can watch the Endgame Magic Show on-demand with a ChessBase Premium account.

3/21/2022 – In reaction to public statements made by Sergey Karjakin about the war in Ukraine, the FIDE and Ethics and Disciplinary Commission banned Karjakin for six months "from participating as a player in any FIDE rated chess competition, taking effect from the date of this decision, 21 March 2022." Therefore, Karjakin will not be able to play in the Candidates Tournament that is scheduled to take place from 16 June to 7 July in Madrid, Spain. Grandmaster Sergei Shipov, who regularly works as a commentator, was not banned by FIDE for his statements about the war because "in comparison with Sergey Karjakin, Sergei Shipov is considerably less known and has, therefore, a less powerful platform." | Picture: Sergey Karjakin, Sergei Shipov | Picture: FIDE