6/3/2018 – The new ChessBase Online Playerbase contains chess profiles of about 525,000 players and about 38,000 photos: players.chessbase.com You want to know who is currently among the top ten or the top hundred? Or you want to know how your rating (or the rating of rivals and friends) developed over the years? Have a look! | Drawing: ChessBase

6/2/2018 – The city of Hamburg, Germany, is shaped by two rivers: the Elbe that runs from East to West and connects Hamburg to the sea, and the more idyllic Alster that runs from North to South through the city. In 1957 schoolteachers in Hamburg had the idea to let schools lying to the right of the Alster play chess against schools to the left of the Alster. In 1958 the first "Alsterufer" match took place. 60 years later it is one of the world's biggest chess tournaments - and a fantastic chess spectacle. | Fotos: Stefan Malzkorn

6/2/2018 – In the first three rounds of the Altibox Norway Chess tournaments, Magnus Carlsen was the only player to win a game, but in round four Sergey Karjakin and Levon Aronian put their first number 1 up on the crosstable. Viswanathan Anand and Wesley So drew, as did Hikaru Nakamura and Carlsen. The game between Ding Liren and Fabiano Caruana was postponed following a serious bicycle accident suffered by Ding, who fractured a hip. Carlsen's lead has now shrunk to half a point. Report and games annotated by GM ALEX YERMOLINSKY. | Photos: Lennart Ootes / Norway Chess

6/1/2018 – This DVD could be Carlsen's answer to Caruana's unbeatable Petroff Defence. Tiviakov in his most recent video series teaches us his experience with this formidable weapon for White, which avoids the Petroff, and eventually lets us enter into a comfortable Italian game, an opening which has become very popular recently. DAVIDE NASTASIO takes a closer look, and SERGEI TIVIAKOV annotates a fresh game of his own.

6/1/2018 – Ding Liren is at a career best 2798 on the Elo ratings and number four in the world. But Thursday night it emerged that he's suffered a hip fracture while bicycling in Norway and will miss today's fourth round. The scheduled game with Caruana has been postponed (for now) until the next rest day, June 4th. Before the incident, the players took part in a "cook-off" where they were paired up and got to play the roll of professional chefs for a while. Here Ding enjoys the fruits (or rather veggies) of his labour. Behind him (L-to-R): Vachier-Lagrave, Aronian, Caruana and Karjakin | Photo: Lennart Ootes / Altibox Norway Chess

6/1/2018 – Downfalls, comebacks, blunders and brilliancies, all was witnessed in the Siberian town of Poikovsky which is playing host to the Karpov Poikovsky International. Ian Nepomniachtchi had been leading the tournament for the most part but by the time the dust of the battles of round five had settled, he was not only joined by two co-leaders but had also suffered his first defeat of the tournament. Vidit Gujrathi also came very close to defeating Gelfand in the fifth round but the Israeli GM found a stunning stalemate tactic to save the day. A report on all the action at Poikovsky.

6/1/2018 – With his king running in the middle of the board, Black's position seems to be completely lost, and 34.Qe7+! Kd5 35.Rf2 in the diagram would indeed have sealed his fate. The immediate 34.Rf2?, however, could have (semi-) backfired for White. How?

5/31/2018 – Photojournalist ALINA l'AMI continues the story of her journey to the Kathmandu International Open, battling sleepless nights, meeting interesting characters, and all the while trying to make a decent showing across a chess board. A vicarious trek through the urban scene in remote Nepal.

5/31/2018 – The Rossolimo variation in the Sicilian is well-known and popular but who remembers Rossolimo? He was a connoisseur of the art of living, a chess artist, and an imaginative attacker with a passion for live and chess. Vlastimil Hort shares memories.

5/31/2018 – Magnus Carlsen seems to be in top form at this year's Norway Chess tournament. In Round 3, he defeated Levon Aronian in a near miniature and in a manner that was typically Carlsen-esque. This puts the World Champion in the clear lead after with 2½ of 3. The four other games ended in a draw, leaving Carlsen the only player who has yet scored a full point — and with two of them, he's already a heavy favourite to win the tournament if history is any guide. | Photo: Lennart Ootes / Norway Chess

5/30/2018 – Is there a correlation between the strength in chess of players and their ability to recall a position in chess using short-term memory? This was the research question of a budding young scientist, QIYU ZHOU, who gave professional and casual chess players positions to study and then attempt to reconstruct them within 30 seconds. Her results are meticulously documented in a paper we are pleased to publish. At the end, there is an appeal to our readers to help with associated material.

5/30/2018 – Jet-setting photojournalist and International Master ALINA l'AMI has collected her thoughts and pictures from remote Kathmandu, Nepal, and as far-flung a destination for a chess tournament as you're likely to see. Timeless, strange things, and a travellers Disneyland await.