Drama unfolded in the second round of the Pune Women’s Grand Prix as Vaishali Rameshbabu’s crucial mistake – playing her bishop one move too soon – handed Divya Deshmukh her second consecutive victory. Meanwhile, Zhu Jiner demonstrated masterful rook endgame technique to defeat Munguntuul Batkhuyag, placing both winners at the top of the leaderboard with […]
Monthly Archives: April 2025
On 4 April, Iceland’s first grandmaster Fridrik Olafsson passed away. Olafsson had celebrated his 90th birthday in January. After ending his career as a professional chess player, he became a lawyer and eventually became FIDE President. FIDE published Olfasson’s last interview, in which he talks about computers, his chess career and his friendship with Bobby […]
The fifth leg of the 2024/25 Women’s Grand Prix series is taking place in Pune, India, on 14–23 April. A 10-player single round-robin, the event has Humpy Koneru, Zhu Jiner and Polina Shuvalova as the top seeds. The top two finishers in the series will qualify for the next edition of the Women’s Candidates Tournament. […]
Tactical analysis is not just exciting, but it is very practical. With ChessBase 18, it is easy to use its findings. In this episode, learn how you can use this ChessBase function to complement your analysis and make it more effective.
After getting the lead in the match on Sunday, Magnus Carlsen did not allow Hikaru Nakamura to get realistic chances of a comeback in the final of the Freestyle Chess Grand Slam leg in Paris, as he secured tournament victory with a draw. Fabiano Caruana defeated Vincent Keymer in their two-game match to grab third […]
The Women’s World Championship match is going very one-sidedly. Today, the defending champion Ju Wenjun won a fourth game in a row against challenger Tan Zhonqui, increasing her lead to 6-2. Ju Wenjun is now only half a point away from retaining the title, as match will most likely come to a premature end. | […]
Have you mastered the ‘Prokeš Manoeuvre’? Can you confidently handle the endgame rook against two advanced pawns, as explained in two previous articles? Well, here is a final test: try winning some new positions against our diagram engine, and then check with the analysis given at the end to make sure you have understood everything. And […]
Ju Wenjun moved closer to retaining her title by defeating Tan Zhongyi in game 7 of the 2025 Women’s World Chess Championship, marking her third consecutive victory and extending her lead to 5–2. The match resumed in Chongqing, Tan’s hometown, after the first six games were played in Shanghai. Although Tan gained an extra pawn […]
In this sneak peek, IM Robert Ris presents Volume 3 of his “Mastering Chess Strategy” series for ChessBase, focusing on how to exploit various weaknesses in an opponent’s position. He explains that after the earlier volumes defined and classified weaknesses (e.g., weak pawns, weak squares), this third installment dives deeper into identifying and prioritizing multiple […]
Teodora Injac of Serbia won the 25th European Women’s Chess Championship in Rhodes with an impressive 9½/11, finishing 1½ points clear of the field. Despite losing her first-round game to 16-year-old Anastasia Kirtadze – having missed a mate-in-two – Injac rebounded with nine straight wins, including victories over key contenders. Irina Bulmaga, Mai Narva and […]