Casablanca Chess made a strong impression on the first day of play in Morocco. The innovative format, where games start in positions selected from historical encounters, brought excitement to both participants and spectators. Following three rounds, Magnus Carlsen is leading with 2½ points after grabbing wins over Viswanathan Anand and Hikaru Nakamura. | Photo: Lennart Ootes
Magnus Carlsen, Hikaru Nakamura, Viswanathan Anand and Bassem Amin are testing the Casablanca Chess Variant in Morocco, as they play rapid games (15+10) starting from carefully selected positions derived from historical games. Rounds 1-3 take place on Saturday, while rounds 4-6 take place on Sunday. | Follow the games live starting from 17.15 CEST (11.15 ET, 20.45 IST)
Ian Nepomniachtchi scored a remarkable win over Vidit Gujrathi to become the sole leader at the Candidates Tournament in Toronto. The champion of the event’s two previous editions now has a half-point lead over Fabiano Caruana and Gukesh D, who drew their round-4 direct encounter. The players will get their first rest day on Monday. | Photo: FIDE / Michal Walusza
“Everyone has been waiting for this chess festival”, writes Alex Winkler in a press release from the organisation of the GRENKE Chess Classic and the GRENKE Chess Open. Six international stars, including Magnus Carlsen and Vincent Keymer, will compete in the Classic, which starts tomorrow, Tuesday 26 March, while over 2500 players will take part in the Open. But last-minute entrants can still take part: the registration is still open!
The ChessBase opening tutorials are a compact, quick introduction to opening theory. They will soon be available in full in the new ChessBase book format. Volume one on the open games (1.e4 e5) has already been published. In an interview with Stefan Liebig, chess trainer and grandmaster Dorian Rogozenco explains the concept: "Memorising variations is a thing of the past". | Photos: German Chess Federation