4/22/2024 – Tan Zhongyi obtained the draw she needed to claim outright victory at the Women’s Candidates Tournament in Toronto. The Chinese GM grabbed the sole lead from the get-go, as she obtained back-to-back wins in the first two rounds. At some point, Lei Tingjie managed to catch her atop the standings, but Tan turned out to be more consistent than her compatriot in the long run. With her triumph, Tan became Ju Wenjun’s challenger in the next match for the Women’s World Chess Championship. | Photo: FIDE / Michal Walusza

4/19/2024 – Three out of four games ended drawn in round 12 of the Women’s Candidates Tournament, as Vaishali R scored her third win in a row in her encounter with black against Anna Muzychuk. The games that featured Tan Zhongyi and Lei Tingjie could have easily ended with decisive results — Tan escaped with a draw from a losing position against Nurgyul Salimova, while Lei failed to make the most of clear winning chances against Kateryna Lagno. Thus, Tan kept her half-point lead over Lei. | Photo: FIDE / Michal Walusza

4/18/2024 – Three games ended decisively in round 11 of the Women’s Candidates Tournament, with Tan Zhongyi beating Kateryna Lagno in a key matchup, Vaishali R taking down Aleksandra Goryachkina, and Humpy Koneru defeating Nurgyul Salimova. These results left Tan atop the standings, with a half-point advantage over Lei Tingjie. Goryachkina’s loss left her a whole two points behind Tan with only three rounds to go in Toronto. | Photo: FIDE / Michal Walusza

4/17/2024 – Lei Tingjie scored a fourth win in five rounds to join Tan Zhongyi in the lead of the Women’s Candidates Tournament in Toronto. Lei defeated direct contender Aleksandra Goryachkina with the black pieces. With four rounds to go, the Chinese leading duo stands a full point ahead of Goryachkina and Kateryna Lagno. Meanwhile, one more game ended decisively on Monday, with Vaishali R first surviving a losing position and then managing to beat Nurgyul Salimova. | Photo: FIDE / Michal Walusza

4/13/2024 – The World Chess Hall of Fame (WCHOF) opened “Clash for the Crown: Celebrating Chess Champions”, an all-new exhibition on April 11, 2024. The exhibition explores the histories of the World Chess Championship and Women’s World Chess Championship through a display of artifacts from the collection of the WCHOF, FIDE and loans from world chess champions including World’s No. 1 Magnus Carlsen and private lenders.

4/6/2024 – Tan Zhongyi scored two wins in as many games to become the early leader at the Women’s Candidates Tournament in Toronto. After beating Lei Tingjie in the first round, Tan got the better of Vaishali R on Friday to keep her perfect score. Now in sole second place stands Aleksandra Goryachkina, who defeated Anna Muzychuk with the white pieces. | Photo: FIDE / Michal Walusza

4/5/2024 – Tan Zhongyi became the early leader after beating Lei Tingjie in round 1 of the Women’s Candidates Tournament. Playing black, Tan showed proficient technique to convert her extra pawn into a full point in a rook and bishop endgame. The three remaining games ended drawn. | Photo: FIDE / Michal Walusza

4/3/2024 – The wait is over. We are one day away from kick-off at the Candidates Tournaments in Toronto, and the ChessBase India team is already on-site, producing video content for all of us to enjoy. Sagar Shah and co. have met a number of chess personalities already, including Levy Rozman (a.k.a. Gotham Chess) and Vidit Gujrathi, one of the participants in the open section. Check it out!

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.

3/31/2024 – In this pictorial Quiz for Easter, you need to guess who is in the photograph. Ten chess players in rare and unusual photographs. Some are easy, others are less easy, some include a hint. Check it out! At the bottom you will find the solutions and photo credits. Happy Easter to everyone!

3/26/2024 – The FIDE Candidates Tournament 2024 is set to take place in Toronto, Canada, on April 3-23. This event marks a historic occasion as it is the first time the Candidates and the Women’s Candidates are organized together under one roof and on the same dates. The opening ceremony will take place on the evening of April 3, while both tournaments will be set in motion on April 4 at 14.30 local time.

3/1/2024 – With the top players mainly playing online and freestyle, there has been little change at the top of the rankings. Magnus Carlsen, the current World Champion in Rapid and Blitz, is still the world number one, as he has been since July 2011. Fabiano Caruana follows in second place and is the only other player besides Carlsen with a rating of 2800+.

2/9/2024 – The Tata Steel 2024 tournament is over, and the masters tournament had at least one clear Underdog with Ju Wenjun, as the only player with a rating under 2600! But despite this setting, she won against the third highest rated player - Alireza Firouzja. Master coach Robert Ris describes perfectly well, why this happened, what went wrong for Alireza, and what Ju Wenjun accomplished delightfully.

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.

1/29/2024 – It was a thrilling event from start to finish. The final round of the Tata Steel Masters saw four co-leaders grabbing wins to set up a four-way blitz playoff. Wei Yi, Gukesh D., Anish Giri and Nodirbek Abdusattorov played the knockout tiebreaker, which saw 24-year-old Wei claiming overall victory after showcasing his well-known tactical sharpness in the deciding stage. Meanwhile, Leon Luke Mendonca took clear first place in the Challengers after beating Divya Deshmukh with the white pieces. | Photo: Tata Steel Chess Tournament / Lennart Ootes

1/28/2024 – The 86th edition of the Tata Steel Chess Tournament is taking place on January 13-28 in Wijk aan Zee. Both the Masters and the Challengers 1re 14-player single round-robin events. Ding Liren, the current classical world champion, is the top seed in the Masters, which also features Ju Wenjun, the women’s world champion, in the lineup. | Follow the games live with expert commentary starting at 12.00 CET (6.00 ET, 16.30 IST)

1/28/2024 – Five out of seven games ended decisively in the penultimate round of the Tata Steel Masters, leaving five players tied for first place going into the last day of action. Vidit Gujrathi defeated former sole leader Nodirbek Abdusattorov to create the exciting scenario for Sunday. Vidit and Abdusattorov are joined by Gukesh D., Wei Yi and Anish Giri in the lead. Similarly, in the Challengers, Leon Luke Mendonca caught former sole leader Marc’Andria Maurizzi atop the standings. | Photo: Tata Steel Chess Tournament / Jurriaan Hoefsmit

1/27/2024 – A magnificent round of chess saw Nodirbek Abdusattorov beating Ju Wenjun to become the sole leader at the Tata Steel Masters in Wijk aan Zee. Standing in sole second place is Gukesh D., who failed to find a couple of tactical shots that would have granted him a full point against Alireza Firouzja. Four players are sharing third place, including Wei Yi and Vidit Gujrathi, who obtained remarkable wins on Friday. In the Challengers, Marc’Andria Maurizzi grabbed a fourth consecutive win and remains a full point ahead of Leon Luke Mendonca. | Photo: Tata Steel Chess Tournament / Jurriaan Hoefsmit

1/24/2024 – Five games ended decisively, all favouring the player who had the white pieces, in round 9 of the Tata Steel Masters. Praggnanandhaa R. and Nodirbek Abdusattorov scored victories and joined the 4-player leading pack, which also includes Gukesh D. and Anish Giri. Former co-leader Alireza Firouzja, on his part, was defeated by Alexander Donchenko. Firouzja is now one of three players standing a half point behind the leaders. In the Challengers, Marc’Andria Maurizzi remains atop the standings after beating Divya Deshmukh. | Photo: Tata Steel Chess Tournament / Jurriaan Hoefsmit

1/21/2024 – The organisers in Stavanger have announced the participants of the upcoming Norway Chess Tournament. As a novelty, a women’s tournament will now be organised in parallel under the same conditions as the open event from 27 May to 7 June. Each tournament will feature six players, with both world champions included — Ju Wenjun and Ding Liren — besides local hero and world number one Magnus Carlsen.

1/19/2024 – Ju Wenjun, in the Masters, and Eline Roebers, in the Challengers, obtained remarkable wins over much higher-rated opponents in round 5 of the Tata Steel Chess Festival. Ju defeated an overly ambitious Alireza Firouzja, while Roebers patiently made the most of a positional advantage in her game against top seed Hans Niemann. Firouzja’s loss allowed Anish Giri to go into round 6 with a full-point lead, while Erwin l’Ami is the sole leader in the Challengers. | Photo: Tata Steel Chess Tournament / Jurriaan Hoefsmit

1/17/2024 – Anish Giri scored a second consecutive win to become the sole leader at the Tata Steel Masters in Wijk aan Zee. The defending champion defeated Gukesh D. with the white pieces. Two more games ended decisively in round 4: Wei Yi beat Parham Maghsoodloo, while Praggnanadhaa R. got the better of Ding Liren — Pragg had also beat Ding in the 2023 edition. In the Challengers, Hans Niemann, Anton Korobov and Erwin l’Ami are sharing the lead after winning their games on Tuesday. | Photo: Tata Steel Chess Tournament / Lennart Ootes

1/16/2024 – Defending champion Anish Giri joined Alireza Firouzja in the lead of the Tata Steel Masters after beating Alexander Donchenko with the black pieces. Full points were also scored by Ding Liren, Nodirbek Abdusattorov and Jorden van Foreest — all three grabbed their first wins of the event. In the Challengers, six players are sharing first place with 2/3 points following a round that saw five out of seven games ending decisively. | Photo: Tata Steel Chess Tournament / Jurriaan Hoefsmit

1/15/2024 – Alireza Firouzja became the first sole leader in this year’s Tata Steel Masters after beating Parham Maghsoodloo with white in the second round — the Frenchman is the only player who started the event with back-to-back victories. Gukesh D. and Max Warmerdam also grabbed wins on Sunday. Meanwhile, in the Challengers, five players are sharing first place with 1½/2 points. | Photo: Tata Steel Chess Tournament / Lennart Ootes