This week's Wednesday Workout concludes a series from the Grenke Chess Festival with some crafty, tactical, and even defensive moments from games featuring American players.   Image   Download our printable worksheet or solve along with our interactive study.  ..read more

Image This weekend, April 26 through 28, the US Chess National Elementary School (K-6) Championship takes place in Columbus, Ohio! This national event features some of the best scholastic chess players in the United States and US Chess is proud to host this exciting event. First thing’s first, registration is still open until 11:00 a.m. EDT on Thursday, April 25. If you have not registered, please visit the event page and register online. There will be no on-site registration. Now, here are a few selections from the schedule of events tha ..read more

The inaugural 2023 HBCU Chess Classic, held last year on the historic Morris Brown College campus, was admittedly a tough act to follow. The excitement generated by a brand-new event — bolstered by local press coverage and celebrity guests GM Maurice Ashley and Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens — naturally fostered visions of bigger and better future tournaments. Despite these expectations, Alan Cowan and Shaniah Francis — co-founders of tournament host The Black Odyssey — knew the 2024 event would be a much more subdued version. In fact, their launch into adulthood following their 2023 graduations ..read more

This week's Tactics Tuesday highlights a number of American players' most interesting moments from the Grenke Chess Classic Open, held earlier this month in Germany.    Image   Download our printable worksheet or solve along with our interactive study.  ..read more

On Saturday April 20, 2024, Senior Director of Strategic Communication Dan Lucas was inducted into the Georgia Chess Association Hall of Fame. The ceremony took place before the start of round two at the Georgia State Championship tournament.   Image Image Caption Photo by Katie Lucas Accomplishments cited in Lucas’ nomination include: 30-year, award-winning chess journalist longest-serving editor of Georgia Chess (1999–2006), converting a newsletter into a national award-winning magazine second-longest serving Chess Life editor (2006-2018), winning Best Maga ..read more

For the better part of Sunday's last-round games in Toronto, at least one of the 2024 FIDE Candidates events appeared headed to a playoff match. Instead, both challengers were determined in regulation. Image Image Caption A victorious Gukesh celebrates a nerve-wracking end to the tournament of his life (so far) (Photo courtesy Michal Walusza/FIDE)   India's GM Gukesh D. (who turns 18 next month) will be history's youngest challenger, while China's GM Tan Zhongyi will seek to reclaim her title from GM Ju Wenjun (who defeated Tan in their 2018 match).  Today's annot ..read more

The penultimate round of the 2024 FIDE Candidates’ Tournament and Women’s Candidate Tournament took two divergent paths on Saturday in Toronto. In the Women’s event, five players entered with a mathematical chance (albeit a slim one for three of them), but now the situation is clear. GM Tan Zhongyi wins the tournament outright with at least a draw, whereas a loss and then a GM Lei Tingjie win forces a tiebreak. This scenario — where the leaders have separated from the field by the 14th round of play — is what we can call the “normal” outcome. In the Open event, only four players entered yest ..read more

“Only” half of the eight games played during Thursday’s 12th round of the 2024 FIDE Candidates and Women’s Candidates tournaments ended in decisive games (down from six on Wednesday), serving to illustrate just how high the “baseline” for drama and suspense has risen over the course of the last few weeks in Toronto. Enjoy a number of annotations from WGM Gulrukhbegim "Begim" Tokhirjonova, including incredibly detailed and instructive analysis of Nakamura – Firouzja and Salimova – Tan!   OPEN In the Open, literally half of the field still has a legitimate shot at first place ..read more

Action is heating up in Toronto as we are reaching the final stretch of the tournament. The 11th round featured three decisive games (out of four) in each section, all of which were reflective of the pressure that everyone is starting to feel. As the trailing players are now in must-win situations, we can expect to see even more action across the boards. (Editor's note: this article will updated shortly with photos and standings once a website issue is fixed.) OPEN GM Ian Nepomniachtchi once again emerged as the sole leader with a win over GM Vidit Gujrathi after a 5-and-a-half hour battle t ..read more

American GM Hans Niemann took clear first in the 2024 Grenke Open with a phenomenal 8/9 score. This week's Workout highlights a few key moments (and variations) from his characteristically sharp games.     Download our printable worksheet or solve along with our interactive study.  ..read more