4/25/2018 – Round 6 of the Vugar Gashimov Memorial in Shamkir brought interesting games, but only one win. Anish Giri benefited from a tactical blackout by David Navara, to net his first full point of the tournament. The four remaining games ended in a draw, two without much excitement, but two after an interesting run. | Photos: Shamkir Chess

4/25/2018 – In chess, braving the gap often leads to disaster after a few moves. We should be able to avoid things going so far. The ChessBase Opening Encyclopaedia offers you an effective remedy against all sorts of semi-digested knowledge and a means of building up a comprehensive and powerful repertoire. It features complete coverage of all opening areas on a single DVD and constitutes the best possible introduction to opening training from many renowned specialists in their own area of expertise have contributed to this Chess Base Opening Encyclopaedia, e.g. Avrukh, Berg, Gormally, Krasenkow, Kosintseva, Kuzmin, Marin, Moskalenko, Postny, Ribli, Rogozenko, Stohl, Sumets and Szabo.

4/25/2018 – The World Chess Hall of Fame and Museum, which opened across the street from the Saint Louis Chess Club in September, 2011, has long boasted of having the "world's largest chess piece" outside its front door. King ‘Kong’, as it was known, was massive and many doubted the record — officially sanctioned by Guinness World Records — would ever be broken. But in 2014, St. Louis were bested by a small town in Belgium! Now they've taken the record back. | Photo: Austin Fuller

4/25/2018 – At the beginning of April the 13-year old German talent Vincent Keymer created a sensation by winning the strong Grenke Open in Karlsruhe. In an interview Keymer reveals how he experienced the last day of the tournament, how a positive, optimistic approach helped him to play, and why he likes bike-riding to keep in shape. | Photo: André Schulz

4/25/2018 – What should you do when you are in the mood for some chess don't necessarily feel like serious training? Perhaps treat yourself to some "chess-cinema" and simply review a few nice games? ChessBase 14 makes this easy and fun. | Drawing: ChessBase

4/24/2018 – Sam Shankland, after a big win Monday over Varuzhan Akobian, is in the sole lead with five rounds to go. Fabiano Caruana caught up with Wesley So after posting his third win of the tournament and the pair are in second place heading into the lone rest day. So drew his game with Zviad Izoria. Annie Wang is on | Photo: Lennart Ootes

4/24/2018 – Tuesdays at 18:00 CEST (5 pm UK time, Noon EDT) Lawrence Trent goes on air on Playchess.com. In his show, Lawrence will be dealing with the latest trends, games and combinations from elite chess tournaments. Today, Lawrence will have a look at games from the U.S. Championship and U.S. Women's Championship.

4/24/2018 – After a lethargic start, the Vugar Gashimov Memorial in Shamkir has slowly gained momentum. On Monday two games were decided: Magnus Carlsen celebrated his first win, against Radoslaw Wojtaszek, and Veselin Topalov made it two in a row by beating David Navara with the black pieces. Topalov continues in sole first place as we reach the one and only rest day. | Photos: Shamkirchess.az

4/24/2018 – Nino Khurtsidze died Monday in Tbilisi after a long illness. The multiple times youth and junior world champion was one of the best players in Georgia. In 2017, she was diagnosed with cancer at the age of 41. | Photo: David Llada

4/24/2018 – Two passed pawns are strong, but a bishop is often stronger — particularly so if it is supported by its king.

4/24/2018 – The Fischer and Capablanca Memorial tournaments were held April 9th to 17th in Heraklion, on the Greek island of Crete. The pair of closed round-robin tournaments were won by IMs Praggnanandhaa and Hagen Poetsch respectively. GM DANIEL FERNANDEZ was one of the grandmaster guests and sends this report of the highlights. Plus, IM SAGAR SHAH goes through Pragg's tournament in detail. | Pictured: ViceGovernor of Crete, Evripidis Koukiadakis, makes the first move on the game Praggnanandhaa vs Taylor | Photo: Kostas Klokas

4/23/2018 – Essential knowledge! Checkmate. That’s the aim of the game. There are numerous ways to checkmate the enemy king, but there are common patterns that recur over and over again, and having these at our mental fingertips is essential for when we want to finish the game. From Beginner to Brain-buster, this DVD presents 100 puzzles, divided into 10 groups of 10 positions. Naturally, Level 1 is the easiest, and the puzzles increase in difficulty right through to Level 10. You can jump in at whatever level you wish, but try to solve all ten positions on each level before you move on to the next.