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Chess News
  1. The GRENKE Chess Classic is taking place from March 26 to April 1 in Karlsruhe, Germany. The tournament is a 6-player double round-robin with a time control of 45 minutes for the game plus 10-second increments per move. World champion Ding Liren and world number one Magnus Carlsen are joined by Vincent Keymer, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Richard Rapport and Daniel Fridman. | Follow the action live with expert commentary starting at 15.00 CET (10.00 ET, 19.30 IST)
  2. What to do against 1.e4? Many players choose to open with the Sicilian to play for a win with Black and get interesting positions, but they are afraid of the long forced variations in the Najdorf, the Dragon or the Sveshnikov. The Kalashnikov Variation (1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 e5 5.Nb5 d6!?) is an interesting alternative. The positions offer a wealth of tactical and strategic possibilities, but the theory is straightforward. In a new course, French GM Fabien Libiszewski shows how to score in the Kalashnikov Variation.
  3. It is quite difficult to find the right trainer for a chess player. More so when there are so many lucrative options available. While some prefer to work on their own, others need a chess coach to guide and help them improve their game. Peter Long shares his experiences and thoughts as a trainer. Instead of focusing on gaining more knowledge, attending camps and playing tournaments incessantly, creating a structure will help students to fix their gaps and become stronger players.
  4. Take a look at this picture. It is not a Hollywood star, but a chess celebrity. Can you recognize him? Capablanca, Nezhmetdinov, Frank Marshall? No, not any of them! The answer is Andor Lilienthal, an extraordinary chess grandmaster, born in Moscow, but moved to Hungary. In his career, he played against ten world champions, and defeated six of them. Retrospect by Himank Ghosh. | Photo: Edward Winter's Chess Notes archives.
  5. The American Cup, one of the United States’ premier chess tournaments, returns to Saint Louis. Now in its third year, the event runs from March 12-21, 2024, at the iconic World Chess Hall of Fame, featuring sixteen of America’s top chess talents. With $400,000 in prize money up for grabs, the competitors will prove their mettle under mounting pressure in the double-elimination knockout format. | Follow the games live with expert commentary starting at 19.00 CET (14.00 ET, 23.30 IST)
  6. Chess is a really fun game to play, but equally enjoyable is solving artificial positions – problems and studies – many that defy the imagination. In this ChessBase Challenge instalment, we have a set of puzzles that can challenge your brain. Can you solve the position? Can you find the mind-boggling strategy that is required to reach the goal? You have a week to do so. Then we will provide the full solution.
  7. Have you ever finished last in a tournament? Well, it happened to Vidit Gujrathi at the Prague Masters 2024. As Vidit himself pointed out, this might be the first time ever that he finished last in his entire chess career. And it happened 20 days before the most important event of his life - the Candidates, this cannot really be a good sign, can it?
  8. "As arbiters, we must first and foremost have full knowledge of the Laws of Chess. The Laws of Chess are like the Bible, everything starts there." In this article IA Alon Shulman shares his thought process in dealing with cases, on implementing the Laws of Chess. Arbiters must first and foremost have full knowledge of them, everything starts there. Those laws are the basis of every decision that are make. "Secondly, we must always bear in mind that those laws don’t cover everything, and we need to impose the rational of the laws as a whole." | Photo Mark Livshitz
  9. Chess players have certainly heard of Daniel Fernandez, who has already published a couple of Fritztrainers for ChessBase. But recently, non-chess players also got to know him because of a YouTube video with the title - "We Used An Adult Toy To Beat A Chess Grandmaster". How did this video happen? Are chess players cheating more often nowadays? And why can Daniel speak at least five languages, and helped out in a koala sanctuary? This, and many more questions, you can see in the interview with the English Grandmaster.
  10. Magnus Carlsen has been the World #1, since 2011! Apart from his tremendous chess talent, he also has a relatively higher HRV: his heart rate is typically between 75 bpm – 95 bpm, which enables him to balance alertness (for tactical danger and opportunities) and calmness (to optimize logical thinking and decision-making)! Calm heartbeats during critical moments lead to better decisions!