It is 1 February and FIDE has published their new World Ranking List. There have been some changes in the rankings, mainly due to the results of the tournaments in Wijk aan Zee, but Carlsen, Caruana and Nakamura continue to lead the world rankings despite not having played a FIDE rated game in January. Ju Wenjun has moved back into second place behind Hou Yifan in the women's rankings.
The 51st edition of the Rilton Cup came to an end in Stockholm on Friday. The winner of the nine-round event was the Ukrainian GM Vitaly Sivuk, who now plays for Sweden, with a score of 7½/9. Israeli IMs Yahli Sokolovsky and Yair Parkhov (both with 7/9) finished second and third, respectively. | Photos: Lars OA Hedlund
Pia Cramling, the Grande Dame of Chess is celebrating her 60th Anniversary today. Heartfelt congratulations! Looking back and forward, our author, who was a spectator at the tournament where she made her final GM norm to obtain the Grandmaster title as fifth woman on earth, presents fantastic facts and funny figures from an unparalleled biography. | Photo: Carolina Byrmo via hemtrevligt.se
Sayantan Das won the sixth edition of the Cannes Chess Open. He defeated top seed Alexander Motylev in the final round to become the outright winner with 7½/9 points. This win also helped him to cross 2500 in the ratings list and become India’s 81st grandmaster. Sayantan had fulfilled all the norm requirements in January 2017. | Photo: Susan Polgar
Today, chess legend Svetozar Gligoric, who passed away in 2012, would have turned 100 years old. In World War II he fought as a partisan against the Germans, and after the war he became one of the world's best chess players. He was very popular among his peers and even managed to be friends with Bobby Fischer. Dagobert Kohlmeyer remembers the King's Indian expert. | Photos: Dagobert Kohlmeyer