The Elo ratings were introduced by the World Chess Federation as the official system to rank players on 1 July 1971. Robert "Bobby" Fischer led the rankings by a huge margin a year before his memorable World Championship match. The rating formula was developed by mathematician and chess enthusiast Arpad Elo.

Alexey Sarana triumphed in the 2025 Aktobe Open, held from June 22 to 30 in Kazakhstan, securing the title with 7 points. The tournament, named in memory of Vladimir Dvorkovich, saw a strong international field compete for a guaranteed prize fund of 78,000 USD. Sarana's consistent performance, including key victories in endgames, earned him the top spot, while five players tied for second place. | Foto: FIDE

They are absolutely vital. Gukesh won the World Championship with one – or we could say Ding Liren lost his title because he misplayed it. So can you understand and play pawn endings proficiently? Take a look at this position: White has six legal moves, all with his king. But only one of them ensures the win. Which one? We have four instructive and entertaining positions that will test your skills. And hopefully leave you a better, more effective player.

To mark the launch of a new community chess club, pupils from The Pointer School played a game of chess 52 metres above London atop the O2 Arena. The initiative aims to make structured chess coaching freely accessible to primary school children across Greenwich and South East London. Backed by a strong chess tradition and alumni like Shreyas Royal, the school continues to promote chess as a powerful tool for personal development.

In our previous article on historical chess statistics we showed you the number of rated players there were in 1993, their ages, ratings, and where they came from. Today we compare them with the current FIDE statistics, showing how things have developed in the three decades that have passed. Our report also contains a little puzzle for you to mull over – why does the chess superpower China have so few rated players?

The ChessBase Premium Account is a powerful all-in-one chess improvement tool that provides extensive online resources, training, playing opportunities, and cloud services to help players of all levels enhance their game effectively. And the service runs on anything: Windows, Macs, notebooks, tablets, your mobile phone. Watch this video by Sagar Shah explaining the services you get and how to best use it. And best of all: it will only cost you €4.99 per month!

The Arbiters’ Council of the European Chess Union asked Prof. Kenneth W. Regan to write a dissemination article about his system, to let every arbiter get acquainted with this very important anti-cheating tool. The article has been written in aw way to make the system understandable without any particular mathematical skill, in order to have the concept behind known to every arbiter. It appeared in the April issue of the ECU Magazine.

The 13th edition of the Norway Chess super-tournament is taking place from 26 May to 6 June in Stavanger. An open event and a women's event are being played concurrently with an identical number of players, the same format and an equivalent prize fund. Both world champions — Ju Wenjun and Gukesh Dommaraju — are participating, besides world number one Magnus Carlsen. | Follow the games live starting at 17.00 CEST (11.00 ET, 20.30 IST)

Last year FIDE celebrated its 100th anniversary. The book "100 Years of FIDE" is an illustrated history of the World Chess Federation. From it we excerpt passages, with kind permission, this time from the first World Championships in the post-war era – after the sudden death of World Champion Alexander Alekhine. It is a great chance to brush up your knowledge of chess history.

World Chess and the Algorand Foundation propose levelling the playing field with a "chess passport". In a whitepaper published last month, World Chess (LSE: CHSS) and the Algorand Foundation (ALGO) conceptualize a new blockchain-based system that would establish secure, private, and verifiable credentials for global sports organizations, including chess.

The 2025 Superbet Chess Classic in Bucharest marks the second stage of this year's Grand Chess Tour and the first of two classical tournaments in the series. Held on 6–16 May, the event brings together ten top grandmasters in a single round-robin format. Reigning tournament champion Fabiano Caruana and world champion Gukesh Dommaraju are part of the star-studded lineup. | Follow the games live with expert commentary starting at 14.00 CEST (8.00 ET, 17.30 IST)

Recently, on the last day of the Paris Freestyle chess even, Sagar Shah of ChessBase India was served dinner by a master chef, someone who takes traditional French dishes to a new dimension. The restaurant he visited, Cellar, provides some remarkable food and equally remarkable chess vibes. Sagar's video report shows you more.