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!

3/31/2021 – The Bayern Munich Football Club has launched an initiative called ‘Reds against Racism’. The club’s chess department also participated with an international team tournament played online. Former professional footballer Marco Bode played for Werder Bremen. Dijana Dengler reports.

3/31/2021 – This week Merijn van Delft shows how the young German FM Julian Kramer (Elo 2419) defeated Ivan Cheparinov (2667) at the European Club Cup. | 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.

3/31/2021 – The European Chess Club Cup is taking place online this year, on March 27-31. The rapid tournament has been split in three stages. In the first stage, no fewer than 91 teams fought to reach the playoffs, to be played on Monday. In the playoffs, 9 teams will move on to the final group (May 30-31), when they will be joined by the winners of the European Women’s Clup Cup, Cercle d’Echecs de Monte-Carlo. | The action kicks off at 14:30 CET.

3/31/2021 – The finals of the European Online Chess Club Cup started on Tuesday with rounds 1 to 4. Clichy Echecs 92 and Schachfreunde Deizisau were the best performers with six match points each, but since the French team scored one more individual point it currently occupies first place. The rapid online tournament ends on Wednesday with rounds 5 to 9 (starting at 14.30 CEST).

3/31/2021 – In about three weeks, on April 19, the second part of the Candidates Tournament 2020/2021 will start in Yekaterinburg, Russia. To get in the mood for the event, Eric van Reem, host of the "Let's talk about chess" podcast, invites his guests to become "Candidates Storytellers". Eric's first guest was well-known chess photographer Lennart Ootes, whose fantastic photos give chess tournaments a special touch and help to make them memorable. In an entertaining talk Lennart spoke about his work and shared funny memories of his time at the Candidates. | Photo: David Llada