4/18/2025 – 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. | Follow the action live with expert commentary starting at 12.00 CEST (6.00 ET, 15.30 IST)

4/18/2025 – Round four of the FIDE Women’s Grand Prix in Pune saw a thrilling day of chess, with four decisive results and standout endgame performances from Indian stars Humpy Koneru and Divya Deshmukh. Zhu Jiner remains in the lead on 3½/4, closely followed by Humpy and Divya. The round featured impressive technical finishes, a near-win in a dramatic Harika–Vaishali draw, and strong showings from Salimova and Zhu. With five rounds remaining, the tournament remains wide open. | Photo: Abhilash Shinde

4/17/2025 – You want to understand chess? Who doesn't? – To make the path to that goal a little easier, GM Robert Ris explains in two more episodes of his strategy series what he believes is important. Understand his ideas, and it will be easier for you to develop good plans of your own.

4/17/2025 – Garry Kasparov and Anatoly Karpov played five matches for the world championship. The fourth match was played in Seville in 1987. After 23 games, the score was 12–11 in Karpov’s favor, putting Kasparov in a must-win situation to retain his title. The final game was adjourned after five hours of play, to be resumed the next day. The sealed position is the subject of this article.

4/16/2025 – The Classical Sicilian remains one of the most resilient and strategically rich responses to 1.e4. In this new ChessBase course, Grandmaster S.P. Sethuraman offers an in-depth guide to this time-tested defence, covering key lines such as 6.Bg5, 6.f3 and 6.Bc4. Designed for ambitious club players and competitive improvers alike, the course balances theoretical depth with practical insight, featuring model games, tactical drills and move-order nuances. With over five hours of video content, it’s a comprehensive repertoire for Black.

4/16/2025 – In a very one-sided match, Ju Wenjun defended her title as women's world champion against Tan Zhongyi. Although the challenger took the lead in the second game, she suffered four consecutive defeats from the fifth game onwards. A draw in the ninth game today was enough for Ju Wenjun to win the match - played to the best of twelve games - early and defend her title. | Photo: Anna Shtourman

4/16/2025 – After the 2022 Olympiad in Chennai, FIDE set up a Fair Play Commission aimed at preventing cheating in chess. The commission received sweeping powers, over and above those of the arbiters or chess tournaments. Is that necessary and justified? Malcolm Pein, writer for The Daily Telegraph, takes vigorous offence at the working of the commission in the editorial of the London-based magazine CHESS.

4/16/2025 – ChessBase Magazine offers a window to the world of professional chess. Our columnist Nagesh Havanur takes a look at our current issue, CBM 224. 209 games from the Tata Steel Tournament, 15 annotated, 11 opening surveys, 4 opening videos, 7 demo lectures and several exercises for training. Annotators include Anish Giri, Nodirbek Abdusattorov, Praggnanandhaa and Karsten Müller, among others. The icing on the cake is a special feature on Viktor Korchnoi, with 24 annotated games. | Photo: Tata Steel Chess / Lennart Ootes

4/16/2025 – The 2025 FIDE Women's World Chess Championship is taking place from April 3 to 21 in two Chinese cities: Shanghai and Chongqing. It features a highly anticipated rematch between two of China's top grandmasters: the reigning Champion, Ju Wenjun, and the Challenger, Tan Zhongyi. The title of the Women's World Chess Champion is decided in 12 games and a tiebreak, if necessary. After 7 games Ju Wenjun leads 5-2. | Follow the games live with expert commentary starting at 9.00 CEST (3.00 ET, 12.30 IST)

4/16/2025 – 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 perfect scores. | Photo: Abhilash Shinde

4/15/2025 – 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 Olafsson's last interview, in which he talks about computers, his chess career and his friendship with Bobby Fischer and Boris Spassky, among other things.

4/15/2025 – 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.