3/30/2020 – A poem written in Valencian by Francesc de Castellví, Bernat Fenollar and Narcís de Vinyoles was the first literary work to describe a game with the modern rules — the queen could move multiple squares in all directions and the scope of the bishops widened importantly. SERGIO NEGRI tells us the story. | Image: A chessboard illustrated in Jacobus de Cessolis' "De ludo scachorum".

3/29/2020 – Each issue of the ChessBase Magazine offers a wealth of training material: lines to sharpen and o enlarge your opening repertoire, games from current top tournaments, analysis by top players, and training courses to improve your positional and tactical skills. Filiz Osmanodja, one of Germany's best women players, explains why she enjoys the ChessBase Magazine and why it is helpful for her.

3/29/2020 – IM Dorsa Derakhshani is a third year undergraduate at Saint Louis University on a chess scholarship. Being in St. Louis she's a 'regular' at the Saint Louis Chess Club, and has recorded several lectures for their extensive YouTube channel. Continuing from part 1, after arriving in the USA, Derakhshani has been finding her footing academically, and continuing to feed her chess passion, as she looks forward for building a future in the States.

3/28/2020 – Abram Gurvich was not only an expert chess composer but also a theatre and literary critic. As such, he rejected “all that is mechanical, systematized or unnatural”, favouring beauty as the driving force for chess players. Study of the Month columnist SIEGFRIED HORNECKER examines the work of the Russian composer, paying special attention to his article “The poetry of chess”.

3/28/2020 – Sally Landau marries Misha Tal for love. Then she separates from him on account of his affairs with other women. While both marry again, they remain friends. For some time Sally brings up her son, Gera, alone. After a spell of estrangement a rare bonding develops between father and son. Gera becomes a doctor and saves his father in one emergency after another. He settles down in Israel and begs dad to come there and stay with him for good. Misha adores his son, but he does not want to be a burden to him. Importantly, he loves his freedom and wants to live as he pleases. Gera feels helpless as he cannot change his decision. So Misha plays hide-and-seek with Death as ever before, and Death mocks, “How long?” In this concluding part of the series on Sally Landau’s story, our columnist unveils the last secret of Misha’s life.

3/28/2020 – With playchess.com you can create a virtual room for your chess club. We recently featured how to do so! The logical follow up is to organize an online tournament in your own club room. It is quite simple: All club members receive a special link, with one click the virtual tournament hall is accessed, the tournament director starts the round and the chessboard game windows open automatically for the participants. Just like in real life, this is a bit more demanding for the tournament director. This tutorial explains how it all works.

3/27/2020 – As many predicted, the Coronavirus outbreak has interrupted the one strong sporting event that was taking place amid the worldwide crisis, the FIDE Candidates Tournament. This is not a first, however. During the twentieth century, strong chess tournaments were taking place when war declarations — that would eventually turn global — put a stop or gravely affected chess competitions. | Image: World War I cartoon by Sava Zlachkin

3/27/2020 – How close are you to Paul Morphy? Probably not that close. After all, Morphy was by far the best player of his time but he had a short life (June 22, 1837 – July 10, 1884) and a short career. Still, Bob Jones in CHESS Magazine wanted to know how close he is to Morphy, and his search for an answer to this question brought back a lot of remarkable memories. You can make a similar connection to chess superstars with our utility WinChain!

3/27/2020 – Grandmaster Daniel King originally planned to be in Yekaterinburg, but instead reflects on Vachier-Lagrave's lead-tying win, and a famous line from Bobby Fischer. Power Play is live most Fridays at 17:00 UTC (18:00 CET, Noon EST) on playchess.com. You can watch the episode live for free! All the usual puzzles, games and instruction will be on offer. Puzzle and the live video...

3/27/2020 – The new issue of "New in Chess" is out and offers a wide and entertaining mix of reports, reviews, training and chess trivia but focuses on Fabiano Caruana's success at the Tata Steel Tournament in Wijk aan Zee 2020 in which Caruana scored seven wins, equalling the record scores of Carlsen and Kasparov. In an extensive interview with Dirk Jan ten Geuzendam Caruana shares thoughts about his play in Wijk, about the Candidates and about other topics. | Photo: Alina l'Ami

3/27/2020 – In the diagram position Black faces the question of how to exploit the immobilized rook d3. In the game he made the wrong choice. Can you do better?

3/26/2020 – Looking at the games of the Candidates one could see the influence of AlphaZero on modern chess, as in various games a quick launch of the h-pawn was seen. IM Robert Ris elaborates...Live from 18:00 UTC (19:00 CET / 14:00 EDT) and free to watch on-demand for a limited time (or forever for ChessBase Premium account holders. To chat when Robert is live, please visit videos.chessbase.com/live or login via Playchess for Windows. In the diagram, it's Black to play!