The most important tournament of the year begins on April 3 in Toronto, Canada: the Candidates Tournament. Eight participants, 14 rounds, the winner plays for the World Championship. Two of the eight participants have already won one or more Candidates Tournaments, four have already played one or more Candidates Tournaments, the youngest candidate is 17, the oldest is 36 years old. But who will win? | Photos: Official website / FIDE
The first game of the Women's World Championship will be played today in Shanghai. Defending champion Ju Wenjun will take on challenger Lei Tingjie. The match consists of 12 games and lasts three weeks. It was officially opened with a press conference yesterday.| Photos: FIDE
After achieving her third Grandmaster norm in the Grand Swiss Tournament in Riga 2021 Germany's number one women player Elisabeth Pähtz (pictured) finally seemed to have secured the title, but when it turned out that her second norm might not have been valid, things got complicated. But in FIDE's decisions of the Council meeting on 25 November Pähtz's title was now confirmed. And Mexico was mentioned indirectly as possible host for the World Championship match between Ding Liren and Ian Nepomniachtchi in 2023. | Photo: Lars OA Hedlund
In the third and final instalment of the Chess Artistry Adventure series, we bring you seven more studies, six of them originals, by world-class composers like Arpad Rusz, Amatzia Avni, Michael Pasman, and more. We also briefly discuss the composers and try to understand how they can turn positions from games into original compositions. Like in the previous article, we also have an assortment of flavours here. Some of the studies are concrete and tactical, while others are a bit on the technical side. However, regardless of style, each composition is deeply instructional, and you can be sure to come out wiser as a chess player if you go through them all.