4/3/2021 – The Schachfreunde Deizisau won the European Chess Club Cup a few days ago. The star-studded tournament was undoubtedly a top-class event. Good reason for Karsten Müller to examine the extensive game material in detail. During his research, he found bishop-related examples: he discovered an imprisoned bishop, saw how another one fought alone against a number of pawns, and found a pure opposite-coloured bishops endgame that was not a draw. | Photo: Pascal Simon

4/3/2021 – 26...Rxh4! in the diagam position was very strong, however, after 27.gxh4 Black failed to crown his combination and take the game home. Can you do better?

4/3/2021 – Take a look at this position. Can White (to play) win? It is a truly remarkable study by a truly remarkable composer. Mario Matouš gives us a wonderful position to solve. The theme is a rampaging queen which wants to sacrifice itself to stalemate the black monarch. Can you solve it? The composer was born in Czechoslovakia in 1947, and died 2013. Here's a memorial by Emil Vlasák.

4/3/2021 – A 9-round over-the-board tournament is taking place in La Nucía, a municipality in the comarca of Marina Baixa, Alicante in Spain. No fewer than 180 players registered to participate, 11 of which have a 2400+ Elo rating. After 5 rounds, 58-year-old Armenian grandmaster Karen Movsziszian is the sole leader. | All photos: Patricia Claros Aguilar

4/2/2021 – In this Power Play Show, GM Daniel King looks at a game from the Capablanca-Lasker World Championship match played 100 years ago (give or take a few days)! | Power Play is on air most Fridays. Watch it on-demand with a ChessBase Premium account. All the usual puzzles, games and instruction will be on offer.

4/2/2021 – The months of February and March are quite busy with excitement in Japan’s chess calendar. Qualifying tournaments are held in various regional chess clubs to select candidates for the strongest event of the year, held in May — the Japan Chess Championship, a FIDE-rated event. Mayur Gondhalekar brings you all the news and updates from Japan in a two-part report. | Pictured: The playing hall at the ‘En Passant Chess Club’ in Osaka

4/2/2021 – Australia’s Gold Coast metropolitan region is known for sandy beaches and surfing. And a simul. International Master Alex Wohl took on 20 chess players in an outdoor simultaneous exhibition. Woman International Master Alexey Root and Wohl report on chess activity at the Gold Coast’s Burleigh Market. | Photo: Kgbo [CC BY-SA 4.0], via Wikimedia Commons

4/1/2021 – With a commanding performance, Schachfreunde Deizisau secured victory in the European Chess Club Cup. The winning team, consisting exclusively of German players, kept a series of top clubs at bay: Clichy (France), Mednyi Vsadnik (Russia) and Odlar Yurdu (Azerbaijan), among others. This was probably one of the most remarkable successes ever achieved by a German club. | Pictured: Vincent Keymer | Photo: Georgios Souleidis

4/1/2021 – In this week’s show, well-known Dutch trainer Robert Ris takes a look at the move 6.Qd3!? against the Najdorf, which recently has given Black a lot of trouble and led to fascinating games. | “Fast and Furious” is available on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here.

4/1/2021 – As José Raúl Capablanca famously said: ”You may learn much more from a game you lose than from a game you win. You will have to lose hundreds of games before becoming a good player.” The Bongcloud attack might be the perfect opening for you to become a better player! While the main idea is to “shock” your opponent, the move 2.Ke2 signals your intention to plunge one of the most vulnerable pieces right onto the middle of the action. The king bravely states: ”Here I am folks! Try to get a piece of me.” The Bongcloud is a deadly weapon, and once you manage to pull it off, your opponents will be smoked.

4/1/2021 – Magnus Carlsen was born on 30 November 1990 and played his first tournament when he was eight and a half years old. At the age of 13 he became a Grandmaster, and since July 2011 he has been the world's number one. In 2013 Carlsen became World Champion. His successes have made him a star, his way of playing and presenting chess has changed the chess world. Now, "The Magnus Carlsen Story" was published on YouTube, seven short videos that review Carlsen's amazing career. | Photo: Screenshot from the video series

4/1/2021 – Quantum Chess is a variant of regular chess in which every piece is endowed with quantum powers. The game is real and the stakes are high, as the future of humanity hangs in the balance. Was actor and comedian Paul Rudd able to beat Stephen Hawking, one of the greatest minds of our generation, in a game of chess that will determine the future of humanity? Take a look!