A hitchhiker's guide to the European Championship

4/9/2005 – Remember last year's European Individual Chess Championship in Antalya, Turkey? With GMs in swimming pools and girls relaxing in Turkish steam baths? This year's championship, which is open to all European players, regardless of their titles or ratings, is being held from June 17th in Warsaw, Poland. We have no pictures from the Polish steam baths yet, but full details of the tournament.

Karol Józef Wojtyla, 1920–2005

4/8/2005 – As we write, one of the largest gatherings in human history is taking place in the city of Rome, where over four million devotees have assembled to bid farewell to Pope John Paul II, who died on April 2nd. In his youth the Polish head of the Catholic church was a polyglot athlete, actor, playwright, and, some believe, an avid chess player.

Chess Trainers sought – by scam artists

4/8/2005 – Everyone knows the Nigerian scam, which promises people startling rewards in semi-legal operations, in return for a relatively modest advance fee. After decades of working under different guises the fraudsters have at last turned their attention to chess. How would you like a cushy job as a chess trainer in Lagos, with a $12,000 paycheck per month. You wish...

News and views from the world of chess

4/7/2005 – Grandmaster Akopian mistakenly arrested on murder suspicion. Fischer ready to sue the US government for $200 million. Kasparov forms a new political party. Karpov criticises him and defends Putin. Indian chess row apparently resolved. US chess club advocates Scholar's Mate instead of sex. Who said chess was boring?

Double-checking your opening

4/6/2005 – ChessBase Workshop often concentrates on a single program feature in each column. In the latest edition, you'll learn how to combine multiple program features to "double-check" and research your opening choices.

The German Bundesliga – preparing to rumble

4/6/2005 – It is the strongest team championships in the world. Stars like Anand, Adams, Svidler and Shirov participate. Currently three teams are tied for first, with the big showdown coming up this weekend. You can watch the critical games live, on Playchess.com and other transmission sites. Full information...

Radio ChessBase: Around the World in 80 moves

4/6/2005 – Glasgow 3rd Floor Chess Radio is back with an hour on the best chess of the past week, as always on Wednesday at 20:30h CET on Playchess.com. Presented by the aerodynamic duo of IMs Jacob Aagaard and John Shaw

7th Dubai Open Chess Championship

4/6/2005 – It is one of the strongest open chess tournaments in the world, with 53 grandmasters and 30 IMs (including five WGMs and seven WIMs) at last count. The 7th Dubai Open has been organised by the Dubai Chess & Culture Club under the auspices of H.H.Sheikh Rashid Bin Hamdan Al Maktum. The prize fund is US $40,000, with special prizes for local players of US $5,000. More...

Fit to Kill – with all the right moves

4/6/2005 – It is a witty and elegant new production in the tradition of Sleuth and Deathtrap. The off Broadway play Fit to Kill is about a chess master who is caught up in deadly schemes involving his older but sexy and vibrant wife and a young reporter with an agenda of her own. It opens at the Clurman Theatre in New York City (410 West 42nd Street) this Saturday. Guess who's the chess consultant.

The Garry Kasparov Interview, Part 1

4/5/2005 – This is the one you've been waiting for. Actually, the three you've been waiting for. Our epic post-retirement interview with Garry Kasparov covers his best games, the future of chess, retirement plans, Kramnik, Karpov, Deep Blue, computers, and much, much more. And of course there are plenty of fantastic photos.

Club-2700 – a one-act play

4/4/2005 – "We writers like to seek inspiration in the strangest places," wrote Alex Shternshain of Ottawa, Canada. "But I bet no writer has ever found his inspiration in the FIDE rating list – until now." Alex submitted a one-act play titled "Club-2700", suggesting Sandra Bullock for Caissa and R2D2 for Deep Blue. Now all we need is to find a producer.

Kasparov on the future of Russian politics

4/4/2005 – This week on Sunday Profile, an Australian news program, Gary Kasparov was interviewed by Monica Attard, one of the country's most respected news and current affairs journalists. The subject: Kasparov's decision to leave the world of professional chess and enter into the fray of Russian politics, and the personal consequences that entails. Very powerful stuff.

Bobby Fischer: latest news and pictures

4/4/2005 – It's more than a week since Bobby Fischer arrived in Reykjavik, and news of his new life in the Nordic country has been steadily reaching us. For instance that Iceland will never deport him. Or of a 60 Minutes program that is in preparation. We bring you a collection of new Fischer photos, articles, declarations, even editorial cartoons.

Burn, Baby, Burn

4/3/2005 – Sun burn? Yes. Rug burn? Sure. How about Amos Burn? This Monday's lecture by Dennis Monokroussos will show you that he's more than a variation of the French Defense. Come to Playchess.com for the interactive lecture. Click here for info and times.

Short on beauty, Kasparov and the chess scene

4/3/2005 – Nigel Short's Sunday Telegraph column is informative and entertaining. It can also do wonders for your vocabulary. Nigel's prose is erudite and occasionally sesquipedalian (oh dear, now we have caught it!). But not to fear. Together with our excerpts we provide, as a reading aid, a special version of the Short English Dictionary.

April 1st: Forbidden draws or kriegspiel tournament?

4/3/2005 – It happens to us, year after year. We always forget that at the beginning of this month people are celebrating a pagan ritual known as "April Fool". And each time we are tricked by some malicious prankster in the ChessBase news team into publishing an article that is gratuitously false. This year the evil-doer acted in a particularly devious fashion.

FIDE ratings: Garry Kasparov retires at 2812

4/2/2005 – For twenty years he has been at the top of the rating lists, in 1990 he was the first player to cross the 2800 mark. In 1999 he achieved a record 2851 rating. Now Garry Kasparov has retired from professional chess, still at the top, with a rating of 2812. His heir apparent is Vishy Anand at 2785, followed by Topalov, Leko and Kramnik. Latest FIDE ratings.

Draws forbidden in Super-GM tournaments

4/1/2005 – When a bunch of world class players get together for a tournament the danger is that there will be a lot of draws. A new organiser who is staging a Super GM event in Sofia, Bulgaria, has come up with a new idea: ban draw offers. The participants have to play on until the arbiter says they can stop. Will this become a fixed feature in chess events?

Amber 12: Bareev beats Anand 2-0 in first round Kriegspiel

4/1/2005 – He may have finished at the bottom of the table in the Amber Blindfold and Rapid tournament, but Russian GM Evgeny Bareev started with a stunning 2-0 victory over Vishy Anand in the Kriegspiel section which started today in Monaco. He and Peter Leko (2-0 against Svidler) are expected to dominate. Full illustrated report.

ChessBase Cafe: How the pros do it

3/31/2005 – If you've got a burning question about using ChessBase software there's a good place to go for an answer. The latest ChessBase Cafe column describes graphically how Garry Kasparov uses ChessBase to store and manage some of the most profound analyses known to mankind. Mig Greengard gives us an inside view of the legendary Garrybase.

Amber 10: Anand winner on all fronts

3/31/2005 – In the blindfold section he is two points ahead, in the rapid one. With one round to go it is clear that Vishy Anand will win in both groups, and that he will be the winner in the overall tally. Only one player achieved a similar result before, back in 1997. Can you guess who? The answer to this tricky question is given in our illustrated report.

BBC World Service: listen to Garry Kasparov

3/31/2005 – "I was struck by how modest he sounded about his ambitions," says BBC political analyst in Moscow Masha Lipman about Garry Kasparov's plans to go into politics. "He wasn't sure whether he could make a difference, but he wanted to give it a try." Here's a substantial interview conducted on Wednesday by the BBC World Service. Catch it quickly.

Amber 11: Anand wins Rapid and Blindfold

3/31/2005 – There was a theoretical chance that he would share first in the rapid section with Alexander Morozevich, especially since the Russian won his final eleventh round game. But Vishy Anand, the dominating player in Monaco, drew his own game against Gelfand to take uncontested first in all sections. His overall performance: 2871. Games, results and tables.

Amber 09: Mountain tribes of Monaco

3/30/2005 – They wear red bandanas and, armed with bows and arrows, rule supreme in the mountains around Monaco. They also play blindfold and rapid chess. After the Easter Monday rest Vishy Anand, the supreme leader, defeated Dutch champion Loek van Wely 1½:½, increasing his overall lead to three full points. Full illustrated report.