On Thursday, the strong Isbank Turkish Super League, Turkey’s team championship, came to an end in Ankara. The Turkish Airline Sports Club topped the standings. The best player on board one was Dommaraju Gukesh, who climbed to eleventh place in the live elite ratings list and became the youngest-ever player to cross the 2750-mark. | Photos: Turkish Chess Federation
Veselin Topalov is officially at the top of the January rankings of the International chess federation (FIDE). Four Bulgarian chess masters are among the elites of the world.
FIDE publishes two official rankings - one in January and one in July. All other rankings are interstital. The 19th world champion Veselin Topalov is at the top of the men rankings with
As the end of the European Championship approaches, two players share the lead on 8/10 points. Kirill Shevchenko joined Alexey Sarana atop the standings after beating Benjamin Gledura with the white pieces. Twelve players stand a half point behind with one round to go in Vrnjacka Banja. | Photos: European Chess Union
Three players are sharing the lead at the European Championship in Vrnjacka Banja, Serbia. Eltaj Safarli from Azerbaijan is joined by the Ukrainian duo of Anton Korobov and Ruslan Ponomariov (pictured) as the three participants who have scored four victories in as many games. A total of 23 players stand a half point back Gabriel Sargissian, Boris Gelfand and Alexey Sarana are the highest-rated players in the chasing pack. | Photos: European Chess Union
In football, the area around the center line is usually a hazard-free space. But in chess, when a knight crosses the centre line – i.e. if it jumps from his own half of the playing field to that of the opponent – then it "usually sends a clear attack signal", writes Oliver Reeh in his tactics section in ChessBase Magazin #211. His collection of tasks in the new edition includes 38 games, which are peppered with many training questions. Attacking knights play an important role in almost all cases. We would like to present the first three tasks from the collection as well as an excerpt from his first interactive video here. Have fun!