7/30/2119 – From July 20th to the 31st, the Swiss watch metropolis of Biel/Bienne will once again be a focus of chess activity in Europe. The festival features many interesting and young players as well as a new format that combines rapid, classical and blitz chess. Vidit won again with Black adding to his immpressive run. Shankland is second. Live games and commentary from 12:00 UTC (14:00 CEST / 8:00 AM EDT).

9/23/2022 – The International Chess Federation has shared a statement regarding the scandal that has taken over the chess over. FIDE wrote: “As the world’s chess governing body, it is our duty to protect the integrity of the game and its image, and in view that the incident keeps escalating, we find it necessary to take a step forward”. | Photo: Amruta Mokal

9/30/2022 – After an initial statement that acknowledged the current controversy shaking the chess world, FIDE has now announced the creation of a panel by its Fair Play Commission to investigate the "the World Champion's claims of alleged cheating by Niemann and Niemann's self-statement regarding online cheating."

12/6/2022 – After achieving her third Grandmaster norm in the Grand Swiss Tournament in Riga 2021 Germany's number one women player Elisabeth Pähtz (pictured) finally seemed to have secured the title, but when it turned out that her second norm might not have been valid, things got complicated. But in FIDE's decisions of the Council meeting on 25 November Pähtz's title was now confirmed. And Mexico was mentioned indirectly as possible host for the World Championship match between Ding Liren and Ian Nepomniachtchi in 2023. | Photo: Lars OA Hedlund

11/24/2022 – The FIDE World Rapid & Blitz Championship will take place in Almaty, Kazakhstan, from December 25-31 at the Baluan Sholak Sports Palace, the arena that has hosted many international sports competitions as well as live concerts and various shows. You can now register for the event!

11/7/2022 – FIDE is happy to confirm the dates and the venue for the World Rapid and Blitz Championships 2022. The prestigious event will take place in Almaty, Kazakhstan's largest metropolis, set in the foothills of the Trans-Ili Alatau mountains. The championship will be played on its traditional dates, between December 25 (arrival and opening) and December 30 (last playing day and closing). | Photo: advantour.com

10/4/2022 – At the beginning of October the FIDE published its new ranking list. With a rating of 2856 Magnus Carlsen continues to lead the list though he lost 5 points in the Sinquefield Cup. Currently, Carlsen is 44 ratings points away from 2900 but also 45 rating points ahead of Ding Liren, who has a rating of 2811 and is the world's number two. Hou Yifan continues to lead the women's ranking list, five juniors have a rating of 2700 or more, and Zhu Jiner from China is number one on the list of female juniors.

9/23/2022 – FIDE has announced a new world championship: an Open World Team Championship in which club teams can participate. The partner of the World Championship, which will offer a prize fund of 250,000 euros, is the logistics company WR Group based in Düsseldorf, Germany, where the tournament is "tentatively" scheduled to be played in May 2023.

9/1/2022 – The Chess Olympiad has brought movement into the world rankings. The top junior players in particular gained a lot of rating points while a number of established top players lost rating points. Magnus Carlsen remains the clear number one by a large margin.

7/4/2022 – On 1 July the FIDE published the new world ranking list. Magnus Carlsen and Hou Yifan continue to lead the "Top 100" and "Top 100 Women" by a large margin. Alireza Firouzja, who turned 19 at the beginning of the Candidates, is still the best junior, while Zhu Jiner from China continues to lead the "Girls'" list.

6/16/2022 – The 2022 FIDE Presidential election will be held on August 7, 2022, at the FIDE General Assembly in Chennai, India. The Electoral Commission, after a preliminary exam, approved the following list of valid Presidential ticket candidacies: Mr. Andrii Baryshpolets and Mr. Peter-Heine Nielsen; Mr. Inalbek Cheripov and Mr. Lewis Ncube; Mr. Arkady Dvorkovich and Mr. Anand Viswanathan; Mr. Bachar Kouatly and Mr. Ian Wilkinson.

11/19/2119 – When Magnus Carlsen decides to leave the Norwegian Chess Federation or gives interviews in Norway or plays for his new club in Norway's second league it is usually Tarjei Svensen who shares the news with the world, via his twitter account @TarjeiJS, which has thousands of ardent followers. STEFAN LOEFFLER spoke with the Norwegian chess journalist about Carlsen, chess in Norway and his wish to be always up-to-date. | Photos: Lennart Ootes

9/22/2119 – The 2019-2020 FIDE Women's Grand Prix, part of the Women's World Championship cycle, takes place in Skolkovo, a business centre in Moscow also known as the Russian Silicon Valley. Twelve players are competing in the first of four single round-robin events that will grant two spots at the next Women's Candidates Tournament. In the final round, Humpy Koneru earned the final half point needed to clinch victory ahead of Ju Wenjun. | Photo: Official site

10/20/2022 – The news broke out minutes ago. Hans Niemann posted on his Twitter the official complaint against Magnus Carlsen, the Play Magnus Group, Chess.com, Daniel Rensch, and Hikaru Nakamura. The complaint states that he is seeking "damages in an amount to be determined at trial, but no less than One Hundred Million Dollars ($100,000,000)". The text of the complaint does not mince words.

9/26/2022 – A day after getting a convincing victory at the Generation Cup, as he anticipated, Magnus Carlsen has shared a public statement regarding the polemic surrounding his withdrawal from the Sinquefield Cup and his quick resignation against Hans Niemann. The world champion wrote: “I believe that Niemann has cheated more — and more recently — than he has publicly admitted”. | Photo: Amruta Mokal

9/8/2022 – In the last few days the chess world has been in enormous upheaval after the World Champion Magnus Carlsen withdrew from the Sinquefield Cup in protest after three rounds, with an unspoken accusation of cheating of the player who had defeated him, US rising star Hans Niemann. Lines were drawn, accusations made and defenses stated. Here is a full overview of both sides of this explosive controversy.

9/20/2022 – It is the story that refuses to die, and with the renewed silent protest by World Champion Magnus Carlsen it is little wonder too. Could he be justified in these dramatic gestures? The world's greatest expert on cheating detection in chess, Professor Kenneth Regan, has analyzed all of Hans Niemann's games over the last two years, online and offline, and renders his verdict.

10/17/2022 – There are several ways to check a player's performance using an engine. One is to simply ask an engine to analyze every move and highlight every disagreement however small. Another is to use the tool in ChessBase and Fritz known as Let's Check. Here are the results from the recent Sinquefield Cup including a 100% match and the curiously high results by...

10/11/2022 – While the World Champion made his position on Hans Niemann quite clear, a later Tweet openly suggested that GM Dlugy had had a role in it as Hans Niemann's 'mentor'. Shortly thereafter, Chess.com shared emails with Dlugy with the press. GM Dlugy has now released a very long and detailed statement regarding multiple aspects, including the accusations as well as his role and impressions of Hans Niemann.

7/21/2022 – Ending months of speculation, Magnus Carlsen has officially announced he will not be defending his title in a rematch against Ian Nepomniachtchi come the end of 2022. As a result, the second-place winner of the 2022 Candidates Tournament, Ding Liren, will face the Russian to determine the new World Champion. (Photo: Albert Silver)

10/4/2022 – The cheating accusations against Hans Niemann continue to make waves. To check these accusations, a number of chess players have statistically analysed Niemann's games with the help of computer programmes. The latest research comes from the Brazilian streamer, programmer and data analyst "Rafaelvleite". He comes to the conclusion that Niemann's play "after 2018 shows unexpected" results "not compatible with" a rating of 2700. Here are excerpts from his article about his research.

10/14/2022 – Under the name "C-Squared" Fabiano Caruana and Cristian Chirila recently launched a new chess podcast. Episode five featured Alejandro Ramirez, Costa Rica's first grandmaster, ChessBase author, trainer and popular commentator. The three talked about Ramirez's career, chess in Costa Rica, but above all about the Hans Niemann case. Asked whether he believes Niemann cheated when playing over-the-board, Ramirez said: "It does seem very likely."

10/26/2022 – The Fischer Random World Championship, which started yesterday in Reykjavik, is overshadowed by the Niemann lawsuit, in which Niemann sued Magnus Carlsen, Hikaru Nakamura, Daniel Rensch, chess.com and the Play Magnus Group for 100 million USD. Carlsen and Nakamura are playing in the World Championship, but did not want to comment on the lawsuit. However, the Icelandic Grandmaster Hjörvar Gretarsson, who is a lawyer by profession and who also takes part in the Championship, commented the lawsuit and a game he had played against Niemann. | Photo: David Llada

11/8/2022 – At the end of October, former World Champion Anatoly Karpov had a severe accident that caused a traumatic brain injury and a fractured neck of the femur. Moreover, he has been battling pneumonia. But according to current news Karpov is on the road to recovery and was even able to complain about the bad hospital food. | Photo: Anatoly Karpov with his wife Natalia and his daughter Sofia

10/13/2022 – After Maxim Dlugy's recent statement on the actions that brought him into the spotlight, suggesting a connection with the accusations Magnus Carlsen had initially made against Hans Niemann. In an interview with DER SPIEGEL, Europe's most influential news magazine and portal, Max speaks of those accusations for the first time and discusses whether he will take legal action.

9/21/2022 – Right after dominating the preliminary stage of the Generation Cup, Magnus Carlsen gave his first interview since his sudden withdrawal from the Sinquefield Cup. Carlsen did not confirm he had resigned his game against Hans Niemann due to suspicious of cheating, but added that “people can draw their own conclusions, and they certainly have”.

10/28/2022 – After the incident at the Sinquefield Cup, strict controls for technical aids are undertaken at the Fischer Random World Championship. But how well do these controls work? A journalist from the Norwegian TV station NRK tried it out.

10/4/2022 – There is a sense of frustration at this stage by parties wide and large, and while the quote in the headline will hit closer to home for chess players, the venerable British newspaper 'The Guardian' also took an unprecedented step by declaring their own official position regarding the entire scandal.

12/3/2022 – After the last news announcing Hans Niemann's lawsuit against Magnus Carlsen, Chess.com and more to the tune of $100 million each, there have been developments such as the judge who was assigned the case recusing himself, as well as the latest in which the parties cited now seek a dismissal.

10/20/2022 – You've seen videos using it, and articles displaying it, and here is the tutorial on how to use it in all its glory. The Engine Correlation in Let's Check can be a wonderful tool when used properly and comes with a variety of options in both ChessBase 16 and the Fritz interface. Here is the easy-to-use definitive guide.

11/30/2022 – Chess engines have been helping chess players for over 40 years, first as opponents, and later as analysts, but over that lengthy timeframe, very little has been added to the core landscape of chess engine analysis. ChessBase 17 aims to change that and seriously extend the analysis done, and the information it produces.

11/26/2022 – In the diagram position, White just played Rd1 to d4, threatening to take the black knight on b4 and to play Rh4 with a mating attack. But it's Black to move and win - if he keeps calm and calculates the lines! How should Black proceed?

12/6/2022 – In queen endings attacks on the king occur quite often. How did White use the power of his king and queen to win the game?

11/25/2022 – The new Chessbase 17 is out, and among the numerous new features is the completely revamped Search function. On the surface this might not sound terribly exciting, but the proof is in the pudding, and when you see it in action you will understand. Check out this article and video to see what the fuss is all about!

11/29/2022 – It is a well-known but still slightly surprising fact that king, bishop and outside pawn cannot win against a bare king if the defending king is in front of the pawn and the bishop does not control the queening square of the pawn - a constellation Hans Kmoch called the "impotent pair". In the diagram position Black is close to such a draw but has to be precise to reach it. What should he do?

11/22/2022 – In the diagram position it is Black to move and win. Do you see how? But be careful: Black's winning idea might be obvious but Black has to calculate precisely.

12/7/2022 – ChessBase Magazine offers a window to the world of professional chess. Issue #210 contains 7578 recent games, (45 annotated) 12 opening surveys, 9 demo lectures and several exercises for training. Annotators include Anish Giri, Ajun Erigaisi, Gabriel Sargissian, Ivan Sokolov, Luke McShane, Pentala Harikrishna, Pragganandhaa, Maria Muzychuk and Wesley So among others. The icing on the cake is a feature on Ding Liren who will play the world championship match with Ian Nepomniachtchi now that Carlsen has announced that he will not defend the title. Prof. Nagesh Havanur took a closer look.

12/3/2022 – In the diagram position, the fork 18...e4?? blundered the game for Black, but he did have a subtle way to get a clear advantage - enjoy the notes by Wesley So!

11/1/2022 – The diagram shows a position which can often occur in rook endings. Both sides have passed pawns and it all seems to come down to a race between the passed pawns. However, in the diagram position White has a winning maneuver that one should know. How should White proceed?

11/1/2022 – Using an engine to find out how many moves in a game match its top choice, is but one way to measure a move's quality with an engine. Another key way is what analysts such as Ken Regan use: a tool to compare the engine's evaluation of a move with its own choice of best move, and see by how much the evaluations differ. Now you can do this too using the Centipawn Analysis tool in ChessBase 16!

11/19/2022 – The razor-sharp diagram position should be drawn with best play, but until then there are still some cliffs to be avoided on both sides. White starts - please fasten your seatbelts!

11/15/2022 – One important defensive method in rook endings is giving checks - pawns that stop this "rain of checks" are called "umbrellas". In the diagrammed position it is White to move. How can he draw the game and stop Black from opening a functioning umbrella?

11/12/2022 – In the diagram position, White missed the moment to turn the activity of his pieces into something tangible. Without time pressure and with the certainty that 'something is possible' - can you do better?

10/18/2022 – One of the most surprising discoveries in the 6-piece tablebase concerned the endgame Q+g+h pawn vs queen, which often is a theoretical draw when the defender is well placed. However, in a practical game with limited time, the endgame is usually too difficult to hold. The diagrammed position occurred in a game between M. Carlsen and G. Meier, played at the Chess Olympiad 2022. Black lost, but he could have drawn. How?

11/8/2022 – Rook endings often have drawish tendencies but pawn races are often very sharp. In the diagram position, we have both: a rook ending and a pawn race and the position is very sharp. Black is two pawns up but the far advanced white pawns are dangerous. White just played 53.Rd7+ - how should Black react?

11/5/2022 – After the initial move 20...Qb6+! in the diagram position 21.Rf2 is easy enough to refute, but what would you do after 21.Nf2? Good luck - and enjoy the position!

10/25/2022 – Pawn endings should be calculated very carefully. In the diagrammed position it is White to move and draw. How?