3/30/25 Update

 Below are some recent happenings from the chess world:

• The EICC (European Individual Chess Championship) was won by Matthias Bluebaum from Germany on tiebreak over Svane (also from German) and Rodshtein from Israel.

• The Women’s ECU (European Chess Union) Championship starts 3/31/25. 25th European Women's Chess Championship 2025 • Round 1 • lichess.org

• In the Women’s FIDE Grand Prix Ann Muzychuk took first on tiebreak over Zhu.

• Reminder that the Women’s World Championship Match begins this week. As this is in China with two Chinese players it will be interesting to see if it makes the mainstream news.

• Hikaru Nakamura won the Men’s Section and Alice Lee topped the Women’s Section in the American Cup. They pocketed $90k and $49k, respectively. Not bad considering Lee is only 15 years old.

• On the bad news side, Romanian GM Kirill Shevchenko has been banned for three years by FIDE for cheating last year. According to his FIDE profile his rating is 2653 and he is ranked 89th in the world. Ethics Commission sanctions Kirill Shevchenko with a ban of three years | ChessBase