In an historic moment for the global chess community, World Chess officially introduces a Patron Saint of Chess: bringing the game into a centuries-old tradition of sports and cultural patronage. St. Teresa of Avila, a 16th-century Spanish mystic, writer, and intellectual, is an apt choice for chess’s first patron saint. One of the most influential […]
Monthly Archives: March 2025
Day 5 of the 2025 American Cup saw contrasting matches in the Champions Brackets, with Alice Lee securing a key win in the women’s section, while Hikaru Nakamura and Fabiano Caruana opted for a quick draw in the open section. Meanwhile, the Elimination Brackets featured intense battles, as Irina Krush and Nazi Paikidze advanced in […]
Anna Muzychuk extended her winning streak to three games, strengthening her lead in the Cyprus Women’s Grand Prix with four rounds remaining. Zhu Jiner remains just half a point behind after drawing with Alexandra Goryachkina, now in third place. Zhu’s performance has already pushed her into the world’s top eight in the live ratings. Elisabeth […]
At the January Tata Steel Challengers tournament in Wijk aan Zee in the Netherlands, at the start of their 4th round game, Uzbek GM Nodirbek Yakubboev refused to shake the extended hand of his opponent, Indian GM Vaishali Rameshbabu. This is what International Arbiter Alon Shulman, Councilor of the ECU Arbiters Council, has to say […]
Prepare for your next tournament with the new Opening Encyclopaedia 2025! Whether you want to build up a reliable and powerful opening repertoire or find new opening ideas for your existing repertoire, the Opening Encyclopaedia covers the entire opening theory in one product and is the ideal start for your opening training. Many new articles […]
Svitlana Demchenko introduces her new ChessBase training course, focusing on one of her favourite openings, the King’s Indian Attack (KIA). She explains its universal nature, emphasizing that players only need to learn a basic setup (1.Nf3, 2.g3, 3.Bg2, 4.O-O, 5.d3), making it ideal for both creative and lazy players. She showcases how the KIA can […]
The living chess legend from Argentina, Oscar Panno, celebrated his 90th birthday on Monday. The Argentine ranks sixth on the list of the oldest living chess grandmasters. His international career began in 1953 when he won the U20 World Championship. A number of remarkable achievements followed in what turned out to be a memorable chess […]
The third round of the FIDE Women’s Grand Prix in Cyprus featured hard-fought games, with high accuracy scores across the board. Anna Muzychuk secured the only decisive result, defeating Nana Dzagnidze in a queen endgame that lasted 83 moves – the longest game of the tournament so far. The remaining matches ended in well-contested draws, […]
Today, “coffee house” will most likely refer to ubiquitous American chains that have no particular connection with chess. In London during the 18th and 19th centuries coffee houses were at the epicentre of the chess world, where players met and reputations were formed. In CHESS Magazine Ben Graff explores an era when coffee houses were […]
The first round of the FIDE Women’s Grand Prix in Cyprus saw four closely contested games and two decisive results. Greece’s Stavroula Tsolakidou defeated Germany’s Elisabeth Paehtz, while China’s Zhu Jiner (pictured) overcame Olga Badelka. The tournament, held at Hilton Nicosia, features a strong lineup, including Grand Prix leader Aleksandra Goryachkina and Ukrainian stars Anna […]