Peter Leko News Today

Switzerland is a country with a long and rich chess tradition. Living up to its chess heritage and role as a home of the International Chess Federation, the Swiss threw a big party for chess on Sunday, April 7 and celebrated the 100th birthday of FIDE. | Photos: Stev Bonhage

Take a look at this picture. It is not a Hollywood star, but a chess celebrity. Can you recognize him? Capablanca, Nezhmetdinov, Frank Marshall? No, not any of them! The answer is Andor Lilienthal, an extraordinary chess grandmaster, born in Moscow, but moved to Hungary. In his career, he played against ten world champions, and defeated six of them. Retrospect by Himank Ghosh. | Photo: Edward Winter's Chess Notes archives.

“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!

In the United States and Canada, February is Black History Month, a tradition that began in 1926 and seeks to commemorate important people and events in the history of the African diaspora. A good occasion for US Chess National Master and renowned coach Jerald Times to draw attention to the growing number of successful black chess players and the history of black chess players in the United States. | Photo: Rochelle Ballantyne | Source: <a href=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jAAfLLy0VEs&quot...

Magnus Carlsen and Levon Aronian defeated Nodirbek Abdusattorov and Fabiano Caruana respectively to get ahead on the scoreboard in the semi-finals of the Freestyle G.O.A.T. Challenge. Meanwhile, in the consolation bracket, Alireza Firouzja and Vincent Keymer got the better of Ding Liren and Gukesh D. | Photo: Amruta Mokal

Magnus Carlsen is set to face Nodirbek Abusattorov in the semi-finals of the Freestyle G.O.A.T. Challenge after beating Alireza Firouzja in rapid tiebreaks. Abdusattorov drew Ding Liren to get a 1½-½ victory in their mini-match. In the other pairing of the semi-finals, Levon Aronian will play Fabiano Caruana. Aronian defeated Vincent Keymer in the second encounter of their match, while Caruana obtained the half point he needed to beat Gukesh D in their 2-game confrontation. | Photo: Am...

A new super-tournament is taking place on February 9-16 at the Weissenhaus Luxury Resort in Germany. The Freestyle Chess G.O.A.T. Challenge is an 8-player, innovative event featuring, among others, world number one Magnus Carlsen and world champion Ding Liren. The last three rounds of the rapid round-robin are set to take place today, February 10. | Follow the games live with expert commentary starting at 13.00 CET (7.00 ET, 17.30 IST)

A new super tournament starts in Weissenhaus, near Hamburg, Germany, today. But it is not just any other super tournament. This event is introduced by none other than the World no.1 Magnus Carlsen himself and it will be in Fischer-Random format or as Carlsen likes to say, Freestyle. Hence, the name WEISSENHAUS Freestyle Chess G.O.A.T. Challenge. Carlsen's handpicked opponents for this eight-player tournament are: Fabiano Caruana (USA), Ding Liren (CHN), Alireza Firouzja (FRA), Nodirbek Abdus...

Chess960 or Freestyle chess will soon be the centre of attention. The 1st German Chess960 Championship will take place in Berlin, Germany, on 9 February and in the German spa Weissenhaus at the Baltic see the world's best chess players will compete in the Freestyle Chess G.O.A.T. Challenge. But who invented this form of chess? Chess historian Hans D. Post has been searching the archives. | Picture: Philip Julius van Zuylen van Nijevelt, who probably was the first to come up with the idea of ...

The history of the Candidates Tournaments and Candidates Matches dates back to 1950. In its anniversary year, FIDE is looking forward to the Candidates Tournaments in Toronto in April 2024 and provides an overview of the history of these competitions. | Photos: Via FIDE