5/3/2016 – “I'm delighted today to launch a new "Agony Column" for ChessBase aimed at average to strong club players who are invited to air their games.” With these words, Jonathan Speelman starts his new column in which he will analyse reader games, good or bad, shedding some light in the fog. In this article he explains the premise in detail and analyzes Carlsen-Kramnik.

5/3/2016 – Every week ChessBase magazine author and renowned endgame expert Karsten Müller presents a remarkable or particularly instructive endgame in his blog. A click on the diagram opens a larger board. Test your endgame skills, improve and have fun!

5/3/2016 – What was it like in the pre-computer era to analyse a game or compose a chess study? Games were "adjourned" and studied by the players overnight; and compositions had to be repeatedly corrected when errors were discovered. After Fritz and co. arrived on the scene adjournments had to be abandoned and studies became flawless – and often breathtakingly virtuoso. Amatzia Avni describes the process.

5/2/2016 – Since the Norway Chess event won by Carlsen failed to make the May 2016 ratings list, the tale of the list was unquestionably Fabiano Caruana's epic victory at the US Championship. He managed to not only out do his two Top 10 rivals Hikaru Nakamura and Wesley So, but broke back into the 2800 club and regained the no. 2 spot. More...

5/2/2016 – The Chinese Championships 2016 took place from 17th to 28th April and were played in Xinghua. Most of the top Chinese players were absent but with an Elo-average of 2586 the tournament was strong. Elo-favorite Wei Yi still cruised to a smooth victory. He did not lose a single game and won with 7.5/11. New Chinese Women's Champion is Guo Qi. She scored 8.0/11.

5/2/2016 – For a long time the players in the Women's Grand Prix in Batumi all snatched points from each other and the lead changed all the time. Until Valentina Gunina took countermeasures: She simply won all her games! After defeating Zhao Xue in round ten Gunina now has 7.0/10, one-and-half points more than her closest rival, and thus wins the tournament with one round to go.

5/2/2016 – In spite of the release of ChessBase 13, the newest version of our flagship program, many players continue to use the older versions. There is nothing wrong with this, but it does mean missing out on the latest features and functions. Here is a review precisely by someone who was using the older program until he found the new power house.

5/1/2016 – In the first part of the interview with Boris Gelfand we spoke about the opening, middlegame, endgame, books he loved, focusing on chess. In the second part Boris tells us about his World Championship Match, how his family supports him, and when a player should think about going professional. He has extremely useful advice for parents of chess kids, and by the end of the article you will learn how to make beetroot salad with prunes and walnuts!

4/30/2016 – Happy end for Magnus Carlsen: after stumbling in round eight against Levon Aronian the World Champion won the Altibox Norway Chess tournament with an impressive victory against Pavel Eljanov in round nine. After a quiet opening Carlsen gradually increased the pressure until Eljanov cracked in time-trouble. Daniel King takes a close look at this crucial game.

4/30/2016 – Over Christmas we had an interesting problem: say you have found some moves somewhere, in coordinate notation without piece names – is it possible to reconstruct the original supposedly meaningful position to which they apply? Later the author, who has a Ph.D. in artificial intelligence, presented a second puzzle, and the winner gets a valuable prize.

4/30/2016 – Hikaru Nakamura came all guns blazing on day two of the Ultimate Blitz. He scored 11.0/18 and finished a full point ahead of others. Wesley So took the second spot with 10 points and Garry Kasparov was right behind him on 9.5. Caruana was able to muster only 5.5 points. The event was a huge success as it attracted a lot of attention from fans all over the world. By having a look at few of the games in this report there is only one thing we can say, "Garry you must play more often!"

4/29/2016 – After seven rounds Magnus Carlsen looked almost certain to win the Altibox Norway Chess tournament. But then he lost against Levon Aronian in round eight, endangering his tournament win. But things went his way in round nine. Aronian drew against Pentala Harikrishna while Carlsen defeated Pavel Eljanov to win Norway Chess for the first time.