2/8/2018 – American Chess Magazine #5 is out, featuring a dashing Magnus "Clark Kent" Carlsen on the cover. The issue is packed with great stories, and we present the annotated game from Vassily Ivanchuk's World Cup run. That prompted ACM reader Art Jensen to send in this photo of his own cat "Taz" enjoying the article! The issue also includes reviews of two ChessBase DVDs.

2/8/2018 – Carl Portman is an English chess player who wrote a unique book on chess. This is not another theoretical book, this is a legacy book as he likes to call it titled 'Chess Behind Bars' by Quality Chess. In his interview with Amruta Mokal for ChessBase India, Carl talks about why he decided to start Chess in Prison voluntarily in England, what motivates him to continue working on this project, how successful he was in this unique project, how he tries to push this in governors' prison agenda, different situations he had to face and how he dealt with it.

2/7/2018 – Ever wonder how you save your Playchess games? The answer to this question might come as a surprise: you do not need to save them! Why? Because the games are saved automatically. Here's a quick explanation how this works and where you can see the games you have saved.

2/7/2018 – Jan Timman turned 66 years old on December 14th, 2017, and received an unusual gift from his friend of 50 years, IM Hans Bohm: a study competition launched in his honour. 66 composers from around the world competed for a 2000 euro prize fund. Noted study expert Yochanan Afek brings us the highlights — pull up a chair, settle in, and enjoy. | Pictured (clockwise from left): The jury: Jan Timman, Hans Böhm, Yochanan Afek, Harold van der Heijden | Photo: Dorette van der Heijden

2/7/2018 – The northern Chinese city of Harbin was the venue for a friendly competition between Hou Yifan and Anatoly Karpov. Over two days, the pair contested six rapid games. Karpov won the match 3½ : 2½. These days the 66-year-old Karpov rarely competes in serious tournaments. But he is still dangerous. | Photo: Imsa.cn

2/6/2018 – On Saturday, February 3, the Russian Chess Federation held presidential elections. The current president Andrey Filatov started the day facing several challengers, notably Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, the current FIDE president, who is expected to stand for reelection to the body in September at the Chess Olympiad in Batumi. Ilyumzhinov received support from an unlikely source in former ECU president Silvio Danailov, but ultimately Ilyumzhinov withdrew his bid before the actually voting was held, and Filatov was easily returned to office, along with his team. | Photo: ruchess.ru

2/6/2018 – Tuesday at 6pm UK time Daniel King will go on air on playchess.com. You can watch the episode live for free. Daniel King will be discussing a positional masterpiece by Levon Aronian. All the usual puzzles, games and instruction will be on offer. Puzzle and the live video...

2/6/2018 – Tuesdays at 18:00 CET (5pm UK time, Noon EST) 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. This week features games from the German Bundesliga.

2/6/2018 – "All rook endings are drawn", is an often quoted witticism. However, things are not that simple. In fact, a lot of rook endings are won — provided the side that has an advantage knows what to do with this advantage. Which, of course, is easier said than done.

2/6/2018 – Armenia honours its World Chess Champion Tigran Petrosian with a banknote. The likeness of the 9th World Chess Champion graces the new 2000 dram which has recently been issued for the first time in the country, as part of a new series of notes.

2/6/2018 – Carsten Hensel was manager of Peter Leko and Vladimir Kramnik and was directly involved in the most important chess events during a very tumultuous time for chess. Now he wrote a book about the life of Vladmir Kramnik which will appear soon. In an interview Hensel talks about the book, his work with Kramnik and various World Championship matches. | Photo: Vladimir Kramnik on the cover of the book

2/5/2018 – On Sunday January 14th 2018, something very unusual happened in England. A chess tournament took place with upwards of 260 players, all of whom were female. The southern semi-final of the ECF National Schools Girls’ Championships was made up of eighty seven separate teams of three. Thirty two schools took part. This may be commonplace in countries such as Turkey, India, the USA and others, but in the UK it is almost unique. IM Andrew Martin has the story. | Photo: Jasmine Andrews