4/9/2021 – Three players are sharing the lead after round 5 at the Polgar Challenge, the first event of the Julius Baer Challengers Chess Tour. Praggnanandhaa, Christopher Yoo and Nodirbek Abdusattorov each scored 4 points on the first day of competition. Three players stand a half point behind, including Lei Tingjie, who was the sole leader after round 4 and was inches away from scoring a win in her last game of the day. | Photo: David Llada

4/9/2021 – Round 5 of the men's tournament at the German "Kader-Challenge" in Magdeburg brought a number of interesting endgames and two decisive results. Niclas Huschenbeth won against Dmitrij Kollars and Daniel Fridman defeated Frederik Svane. Rasmus Svane drew against Luis Engel but that was enough to defend his lead and with 3.5/5 he is still sole first. In the women's tournament table leader Jana Schneider (pictured) lost her first game - against Annmarie Mütsch - but still leads with 3.0/4. | Photo: Bernd Vökler

4/9/2021 – It was an Easter puzzle. We asked you to take a try to solve this truly remarkable study by a truly remarkable composer, Mario Matouš. You were asked to win the position against a rampaging queen which wants to sacrifice itself to stalemate the black monarch. Were you able to solve it? Many readers found the problem quite difficult, and extremely clever. Today we give you the full solution, on a replay board with full engine support.

4/8/2021 – In this week’s show, well-known Dutch trainer Robert Ris takes a look at the Fantasy Variation, an interesting way to fight the Caro-Kann that often leads to sharp and double-edged positions. | “Fast and Furious” is available on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here.

4/8/2021 – Wednesday, April 7, brought a double shift for the players in the German "Kader-Challenge" - rounds 3 and 4. Rasmus Svane made the most of these opportunities: in round 3 he won against his younger brother Frederik and in round 4 he defeated Niclas Huschenbeth, and is now sole leader with 3.0/4. In the women's tournament only one round was played. Jana Schneider continued to win and now leads with 3.0/3. But it was Antonia Ziegenfuß, who played the game of the day: she defeated Elisabeth Pähtz in a powerful attacking game. | Photo: Frank Hoppe

4/8/2021 – In the last couple of decades, China has become a chess powerhouse, with Ding Liren fighting at the highest level, the national squads accumulating success after success in team events and the women players continuing to show their strength. A week and a half before the resumption of the Candidates — where two of the participants are Chinese — we revisit two brilliant games by players born in the world’s most populous country: Liu Wenzhe and Wei Yi. | Photo: Niki Riga

4/7/2021 – This week Merijn van Delft shows a duel between two brothers - Rasmus Svane and Frederik Svane. The two faced each other in round three of the German "Kader-Challenge" in Magdeburg and everyone who expected a lifeless draw was pleasantly disappointed. | Merijn's show is available at 16.00 UTC (17:00 CET, 12:00 EDT) and on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here.

4/7/2021 – Leontxo Garcia is a Spanish lecturer, presenter, commentator and one of the best and most famous chess journalists in the world. Leontxo also is Eric van Reem's guest in episode 27 of Eric's "Lets-Talk-About-Chess" podcast, where he shares funny and interesting stories about the Candidates, e.g. how he fled from Yekaterinburg at the Candidates 2020 though still officially quarantined. | Photo: Vishy Anand, Leontxo Garcia, Magnus Carlsen (Bilbao 2012)

4/7/2021 – The young German Grandmaster Vincent Keymer played a major role in the surprising success of the SF Deizisau in the European Online Chess Club Cup: in the preliminaries he scored 7.0/9, in the play-offs he came to 3.0/4, and in the finals he convinced with 5.5/7. In a video made by the SF Deizisau, Keymer now analyses his victory against Yuriy Kuzubov in the last round of the play-offs - a strategically and tactically highly interesting game. | Photo: Vincent Keymer

4/7/2021 – 110 years ago, a very strong tournament was played in San Sebastián. Almost all the top players of the time participated. In the end, the winner was a newcomer, José Raúl Capablanca, who was still completely unknown in Europe.

4/7/2021 – With a rating of 2670 Matthias Blübaum is Germany's number one but in round 1 of the "Kader-Challenge" tournament in Magdeburg he surprisingly lost against FM Frederik Svane. However, in round 2 Blübaum bounced back and won against Niclas Huschenbeth, crowning a fine game with a unique mate. The other four games all ended in a draw and with 1.5/2 Frederik Svane remains sole leader. In the women's tournament Jana Schneider leads with 2.0/2. | Photo: Georgios Souleidis (Archive)

4/6/2021 – The "Kader-Challenge", where ten of the best German players meet over-the-board in Magdeburg, began with a surprise. Frederik Svane (pictured), a FM with a rating of 2421, convincingly outplayed Germany's current number one Matthias Blübaum and took the lead as the four other games all ended in draw. In the women's tournament, Germany's number one women player, Elisabeth Pähtz, fared better than Blübaum and won the first round with Black against Annmarie Mütsch. | Photo: Bernd Vökler (Archive)