10/25/2024 – The European Clubs Cups are being held in Vrnjacka Banja for a week from Sunday, 20 October. This time, 84 teams are competing in the open tournament and 18 teams in the women's tournament. Fourteen players rated 2700 or above are participating, with Arjun, Gukesh and Abdusattorov the top three seeds. | Follow the action live starting at 15.00 CEST (9.00 ET, 18.30 IST).

10/25/2024 – Novy Bor were the only team to emerge victorious in all their first five duels and took the sole lead at the European Club Cup. Alkalolid and Turkish Airline drew their match, with Arjun Erigaisi (photo) defeating Andreikin and breaking the 2800 rating barrier. In the Women's Cup, leaders Tajfun lost to Superchess. | Photos: European Chess Union

10/25/2024 – In their weekly review of the chess world, Arne Kähler and Johannes Fischer this time discuss a sensitive and unfortunately all-too-topical subject: cheating in chess! They talk about their experiences with cheating in chess and wonder why people cheat and what to do about it. They also take a brief look at the European Club Cup, where Arjun Erigaisi has broken the 2800 Elo barrier and Vincent Keymer is in good form.

10/25/2024 – Pawn underpromotions do not happen often in practical games, but they have been an important topic in study composition more than a hundred years. Recently, the famous Babson task (Black promotes to one of the four possible pieces and White must promote to the same piece in all four cases to win) has been conquered by Gady Costeff in an endgame study. Many thought it to be impossible to realize this extremely difficult task. In this first part of the three part series Harold van der Heijden describes the beginning of the story with the first underpromotions including the famous Allumwandlung.

10/25/2024 – Unlock the secrets of one of chess's most resilient openings with GM Àlvar Alonso Rosell's video courses about the Caro-Kann Defence. Explore cutting-edge theory, practical insights, and strategies used by top grandmasters today. Whether you're mastering core principles or discovering new lines, these courses will give you the tools to outsmart your opponents and succeed in high-level play.

10/24/2024 – It was long in the coming, for the impatient fans that is. Arjun Erigaisi made history by cementing Vishy Anand's legacy in Indian chess by becoming the second ever Indian (and we know a third is hot on his heels) to break that elusive 2800 barrier. In just over 12 months he has added over 100 Elo and as of now is world no.3 at 2802.1 Elo. Breathtaking! (photo: Michal Walusza/FIDE.com)

10/22/2024 – Queens are very peculiar pieces. They love to attack and hate to defend. The difference in the value of this piece when attacking and defending is striking. An attacking queen is perhaps twice as valuable than a defending one. In a way, it makes a lot of sense. A queen is a very mobile and precious piece. Being mobile, it can attack very well, creating double attacks, forks, moving from one side to the other with ease. Being precious, it is barely able to cover anything. (For the same reason we don’t use golden locks to protect our bicycles. Thieves would gladly steal both the bike and the lock.) The qualities of a queen are very visible in situations when it must fight less valuable pieces. Let's have a look at some examples! | Photo: Ecolinho (Pixabay)

10/22/2024 – In the diagram position White has still all the pawns he had at the beginning of the game, but he also has a bad bishop because he put all those pawns on the colour of his bishop. And though he is a pawn up, White is in trouble and has to fight for a draw. What should he do?

10/21/2024 – With 7 points from 9 games, Indian Grandmaster P.T. Sethuraman won the Weissenhaus Young Masters ahead of Pavel Eljanov. The young players of the Weissenhaus Chess Acadamy, Marius Deuer and Leonardo Costa finished third and fourth. 13-year old Hussain Besou narrowly missed an IM-norm, but gained tournament experience. Just as 12-year old Christian Glöckler. | Photo: WEISSENHAUS Chess Academy

10/21/2024 – The top teams had a smooth start to the European Club Cup in Vrnjacka Banja on Sunday, but there were some individual upsets: Praggnanandhaa (2746) lost in the first round against Francois Godart (2377), and Max Lutze (2148) of the SV Erkenschwick defeated GM Vajnap Sanal (2570). | Photo: Vincent Keymer watches his colleagues from team Novy Bor | Photos: ECU and Gerd Densing

10/21/2024 – The Neo-London System is an enhanced version of the classic London System, emphasizing creativity and sharper play by avoiding common black setups and exploiting the Bf5 variation's risks for Black. The course offers extensive training with interactive exercises and novelties for surprising opponents in unexplored positions.

10/21/2024 – In rook endings, the privilege of having connected passed pawns can easily make the difference. But even in this case there are many hidden resources. After our first lesson a few days ago, today we are going to study a key manoeuvre you have to know if you want to survive against two connected pawns (as in this diagram). We also bring you some historical examples to help you understand the technique. Learn and enjoy.