5/8/2024 – Currently the ‘Dubai Police Global’ event that is being held in Dubai (03-13.05.2024), with a total of 361 players from 42 different countries – 37 from the UAE, 109 from India. Our friend and frequent new page contributor, international chess trainer GM Efstratios Grivas, is the lone Greek player. After a bad start, he played a very instructive game in Round 3, which he has extensively commented for us. You would do well to study his use of the Classical Attack.

5/2/2024 – "We held the magazine to await the outcome of the Candidates," writes the Executive Editor of CHESS Magazine, London. 17-year-old Dommaraju Gukesh became the youngest world title challenger in the history of the game, and will take on Ding Liren later this year in the first ever all-Asian match for the world title. Malcolm has analysed a couple of games from the Candidates.

4/1/2024 – FIDE published an updated world ranking list on 1 April. The climber of the month is undoubtedly Nodirbek Abdusattorov, who won the Masters at the Chess Festival in Prague and is now fourth in the world rankings after having gained 15 rating points. Also, joining the top ten is Arjun Erigaisi in ninth place, who earned 8 rating points in March, in Shenzhen and in the Bundesliga.

3/27/2024 – The conference “Chess in Education - Methodology and perspectives” will take place on May 18, 2024 via online. This activity is organised by the Armenian State Pedagogical University (ASPU), the Chess Scientific Research Institute and the Kasparov Chess Foundation, and led by GM Smbat Lputian. These conferences are significant because they provide a platform to explore the relationship between chess, cognitive science and education.

3/24/2024 – Nowadays when we talk about Bullet Chess definitely we refer to timing, and we mean a one-minute game. But there were times when this term could have a completely different meaning! ...

3/10/2024 – The 57th edition of the Biel Chess Festival will take place on July 13-26 with its usual mix of elite tournaments, amateur events and attractive side activities. Remarkably, this edition will see two Triathlons taking place simultaneously: the Masters and the Challengers. Praggnanandhaa, Vincent Keymer and Le Quang Liem are the top seeds in the main event.

2/1/2024 – It is 1 February and FIDE has published their new World Ranking List. There have been some changes in the rankings, mainly due to the results of the tournaments in Wijk aan Zee, but Carlsen, Caruana and Nakamura continue to lead the world rankings despite not having played a FIDE rated game in January. Ju Wenjun has moved back into second place behind Hou Yifan in the women's rankings.

1/23/2024 – The 84th Armenian National Championships held at the Petrosian Chess House in Yerevan ended with a victory for Robert Hovhanissyan. Manuel Petrosyan won the silver medal ahead of Zaven Andriasian, who had the same number of points but the worse tiebreak. Susanna Gaboyan won the 79th Women's Championship. | Photos: Official page

1/1/2024 – On 1st January FIDE published its new ranking list. Firouzja, who tried hard in the last days of December to gain a few more rating points, has achieved his goal: he has overtaken Wesley So and qualified for the Candidates by rating. Magnus Carlsen is still the clear number one, ahead of Fabiano Caruana and Hikaru Nakamura in second and third, while Vincent Keymer and Praggnanandhaa are the world's best juniors. Hou Yifan continues to top the women's list and Bibisara Assaubayeva is the world's best female junior.

12/25/2023 – For two decades we ended each year with traditional Christmas puzzles – here are some of the best from the early years. Many of our younger readers will not have seen them – remember, some of them were not born when we started. For others it will hopefully bring back nostalgic memories. And perhaps some additional joy on the big festive day. From today until January 1st 2024 we revive the tradition, with new contributors who will hopefully maintain it in the decades to come.

12/17/2023 – Today, 17 December 2023, Alexander "Big Al" Beliavsky celebrates his 70th birthday. 50 years ago, in 1973, he became World Junior Champion and has been a fixture in the chess universe ever since. For decades he was a world class player and in the course of his illustrious career Beliavsky defeated no less than nine world champions in classical chess - a feat achieved only by Paul Keres and Viktor Korchnoi! Eduard Frey congratulates and presents highlights of a remarkable career. | Alexander Beliavsky at his first Chess Olympiad in Lucerne 1982 | Photo: Dr. Klaus Krtschil via Wikipedia

12/4/2023 – For its December list FIDE has not yet rated the tournaments in St. Louis and Zagreb, so Alireza Firouzja's rating loss is still quite moderate. The 30 Elo-points Hans Niemann gained in the Tournament of Peace in Zagreb do not appear in the list either. But Carlsen remains the clear number one.

12/1/2023 – From 9 to 16 February 2024, the Weissenhaus Private Nature Luxury Resort on the Baltic Sea in Germany will be the venue for a super tournament in "Freestyle Chess", also known as Chess960. Seven world-class players, including world champion Ding Liren and Vincent Keymer, will challenge the G.O.A.T (Greatest of all Times), Magnus Carlsen, in a Chess960 tournament with classical time control.

11/28/2023 – Do you know who the current World Chess Champion is? Can you name him and tell us which country he is from? If you can do this you belong to an absolute minority in the world of chess enthusiasts. Try to estimate how many of them can answer the two questions correctly. You are wrong! A recent survey, conducted by YouGov and World Chess, tell us the sad truth.

11/21/2023 – The German team won 2½:1½ against Croatia in the final round, but it was not enough to win gold. Serbia had a slightly better tiebreak score after beating Greece. Bulgaria took the title in the women’s tournament, with Azerbaijan and France also reaching the podium. | Photo: European Chess Union

11/20/2023 – With one round to go in Budva, Germany and Serbia are sharing the lead in the open section of the European Team Championship. On the penultimate day of play, Germany beat France thanks to a win by Rasmus Svane, while Serbia defeated England thanks to a win by Velimir Ivic. In the women’s championship, Bulgaria kept the sole lead by beating Poland by a 2½-1½ score. Azerbaijan defeated Greece to go into the last round a match point behind the leaders. | Photo: Paul Meyer-Dunker

11/19/2023 – The round-7 clash of co-leaders between England and Germany ended drawn in the open section of the European Team Championship, which allowed Serbia to join them in the lead thanks to a 2½-1½ victory over Romania — Alexey Sarana beat Bogdan-Daniel Deac in the one decisive game of the match. Meanwhile, Bulgaria grabbed the sole lead in the women’s section, as they inflicted France’s first loss of the event. | Pictured: Serbia’s Alexandr Predke | Photo: Mark Livshitz

11/18/2023 – Flashy games were seen on the top boards of both sections in round 6 of the European Team Chess Championships. In the open, England obtained a clear 3½-½ victory over the Netherlands to join Germany in the lead. Romania and Serbia are sharing third place, a match point behind the co-leaders. Meanwhile, in the women’s tournament, France became the sole leader after beating the top seeds from Georgia. | Pictured: Michael Adams, who turned 52 years old on Friday | Photo: Mark Livshitz

11/16/2023 – Germany beat Armenia to grab the sole lead after five rounds in the open section of the European Team Championship. Wins for Vincent Keymer and Matthias Bluebaum, both with black, gave the Germans match victory. Four teams are sharing second place a match point back, including Romania, who defeated the former co-leaders from Poland. In the women’s championship, France and Azerbaijan scored convincing wins to remain as co-leaders going into the rest day. | Photo: Paul Meyer-Dunker / German Chess Federation

11/15/2023 – No more teams have perfect scores in either section of the European Team Championships. In the open tournament, Armenia joined Germany and Poland in the lead thanks to a 3-1 victory over Israel. In the women’s tournament, Germany joined Azerbaijan and France thanks to a 2½-1½ victory over Hungary. Meanwhile, Magnus Carlsen scored his third win of the event, as he helped Norway to grab 2 match points in their match against Finland. | Photo: Mark Livshitz

11/14/2023 – Poland and Germany scored 2½-1½ victories on Monday to go into round 4 of the European Team Championship as co-leaders. Both teams had to compensate for an individual loss with two victories to keep their perfect scores. Meanwhile, Norway suffered a second upset loss in a row, this time against Iceland — despite Magnus Carlsen winning on the top board. In the women’s championship, France and Azerbaijan are tied for first place with 6/6 match points. | Photo: Paul Meyer-Dunker

11/13/2023 – After two rounds in the open section of the European Team Championship, six teams are sharing first place with 4/4 match points: Germany, France, the Netherlands, Serbia, Poland and Israel. Among the six teams standing a match point behind is Austria, who stunned Norway despite Valentin Dragnev failing to make the most of an advantageous position over Magnus Carlsen. In the women’s section, Azerbaijan, France, Poland, Spain and Serbia are sharing the lead, with Spain joining the leading pack after beating the top seeds from Georgia. | Photo: German Chess Federation

11/12/2023 – The European Team Championship kicked off with a big surprise on the top board. Azerbaijan, the rating favourites, were defeated by Denmark, as Shakhriyar Mamedyarov lost to Mads Andersen after his attempt at a winning attack backfired. Romania, the second seeds, only drew Austria, while Norway also got a draw against Slovakia despite Magnus Carlsen winning his game on the top board. In the women’s event, the most shocking result on the top boards was Greece holding Germany to a draw. | Photo: Mark Livshitz

11/8/2023 – The 24th edition of the European Team Chess Championships will take place on November 11-20 at the Conference Hall of Hotel Splendid in Budva, Montenegro. An open championship and a women’s championship will be played concurrently, with each event a 9-round Swiss tournament. Led by Shakhriyar Mamedyarov and Teimour Radjabov, the Azerbaijani team heads the starting rank in the open. In the women’s event, the Georgian squad, who recently won the World Team Championship, enters as the rating favourite. | Photo: A panoramic view of Budva, via Wikimedia Commons