Magnus Carlsen and Gukesh Dommaraju emerged as the key winners in round nine of the Norway Chess tournament, both scoring classical victories to take the top two spots in the standings ahead of the final round. Carlsen now leads on 15 points, half a point ahead of Gukesh, with Hikaru Nakamura and Fabiano Caruana still […]
Monthly Archives: June 2025
This year, Valencia is celebrating the 550th anniversary of the birth of modern chess. The date of birth is considered to be 15 May 1475, when the book by Francesch Vicent, who came from Segorbe, was printed in Valencia. For this reason, 15 May has now been declared Chess Day in Valencia. Viswanathan Anand was […]
What was the chess world like, 32 years ago? How many players were there, how strong were they, how many were grandmasters? In 1993 the newly founded Professional Chess Association, seeking to win Intel as its main sponsor, commissioned the collection of statistics. Today we look at the results, and ask you to comment on […]
The conversation with Matthias Wüllenweber about Fritz 20 highlights the numerous innovations in the new version: A key focus is on the new opponent characters, including legends like Fischer, Lasker, Capablanca, and Karpov. Another highlight is the AI-powered voice commentary, featuring over 170 chess-related themes that provide both entertainment and educational value—available in multiple languages […]
Last year FIDE celebrated its 100th anniversary. The book “100 Years of FIDE” is an illustrated history of the World Chess Federation. From it we excerpt passages, with kind permission, this time from the first World Championships in the post-war era – after the sudden death of World Champion Alexander Alekhine. It is a great […]
Eight days ago, on Saturday, 24 May, the funeral service for Grand Master Vlastimil Hort, who passed away on 12 May, took place in Eitorf. His wife, Brigitte; his son; his grandson; and his friends and relatives said goodbye to this kind-hearted man. One fan expressed his grief by posting a song on YouTube.
Humpy Koneru reclaimed the sole lead at the Norway Chess Women tournament by defeating Sara Khadem for a second time in classical play. With two rounds to go, Humpy leads on 13½ points, ahead of Anna Muzychuk and Ju Wenjun. While Muzychuk won in Armageddon against Lei Tingjie, Ju lost to Vaishali Rameshbabu in the […]
Sam Shankland won the 2025 American Continental Chess Championship in Foz do Iguaçu, Brazil, after finishing in a seven-way tie for first place and prevailing on the Buchholz tiebreak criterion. The event, held from 23 to 31 May, awarded four places for the 2025 FIDE World Cup. José Eduardo Martínez and Alexandr Fier joined Shankland […]
Ju Wenjun took the sole lead at the Norway Chess Women tournament after claiming her first classical win of the event against Sara Khadem in round seven. Humpy Koneru and Anna Muzychuk drew both their games, allowing Muzychuk, who had the black pieces, to collect 1½ points. Lei Tingjie also notched her first classical victory […]
Recently GM and international trainer Eftratios Grivas reminded us that the knight is a piece that cannot win/lose a tempo. In this series GM of studies he demonstrated the principles involved in using this fact to win, or to defend a dangerous position. Were you able to follow everything? Today you can find out if […]