Chengdu R3: Russia beats China

4/21/2015 – It was the match of the day, and a hugely important one for the standings. China and Russia faced each other but it wasn't even close: Russia took a convincing 3-1 victory. Georgia edged out Poland by 2.5-1.5 and now leads the tournament by a match point, only one more than both Russia and USA. The American's tied with Kazakhstan to be on 4.0/6. Round three impression and an interview!

Shamkir R5: A day of beauty

4/21/2015 – What an amazing day in Shamkir! Three decisive games, all three absolutely beautiful. Carlsen played with unbelievable technique from start to end against MVL. Mamedyarov somehow tricked Kramnik in an equal position and then played perfectly to wrap up the endgame. Anand came with a brutal new idea in the Spanish, sacrificed a piece and won beautifully against So.

Chess gender debate in the international press

4/21/2015 – The latest issue of the Dutch magazine New in Chess carried an article entitled "Vive la Différence!". In it the former World Championship challenger Nigel Short provocatively claims that there are genetic reasons why men are more successful in chess than women. This two-page article went viral, was picked up by the international news services and generated a world-wide media storm.

Perfect endgame play – with tablebases

4/21/2015 – Can you win an endgame queen vs rook? Don't be so sure – even the best players on the planet can run into problems with it. Especially in rapid chess playoff games, with tens of thousands of dollars at stake. Computers, on the other hand, can handle engames with four, five and six pieces on the board with absolute perfection. And can be installed on your notebook computer.

Dancing with knights

4/21/2015 – 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!

World Team CC: Russia loses two in a row

4/21/2015 – After losing against Ukraine in the first round of the World Team Championship Russia also lost its second match - against Cuba - and now trails the table. Egypt hold Israel to a draw, Ukraine lost against Armenia, India and China drew against the USA and Hungary. India now leads, followed by China, Israel, and Cuba. But all in all the round was peaceful.

Chengdu R2: No one perfect

4/20/2015 – It's only been two rounds, but already no team can claim a perfect 2.0/2 match points in Chengdu. Ukraine came back with a vengeance and destroyed Kazakhstan 3.5-0.5 Poland was stopped by USA and the teams split the point. The matches between powerhouse India vs. China and Russia vs. Armenia also ended in draws. Georgia leads thanks to their board point advantage after squashing Egypt.

Shamkir R4: 3.5/4!

4/20/2015 – Wesley So continues his rampage in Shamkir. What a recovery after the "worst tournament of his life"!. The American beat Rauf Mamedov, who had managed to hold all his games until round four. The other games were draws, some more interesting than others, with Magnus Carlsen pushing against Michael Adams and Vladimir Kramnik playing a crazy sacrificial line against Vishy Anand.

World Team CC, Rd 1: Ukraine beats Russia

4/20/2015 – On Sunday, 19th April 2015, the 10th World Team Championship began in Tsaghkadzor, Armenia - with a number of small surprises. Ukraine won 2.5-1.5 against Russia, and with the same result Israel, led by Boris Gelfand, won against Armenia, and China against the USA. India won 3-1 against Egypt while Hungary drew against Cuba. Impressions...

Nigel Short wins Thai Open

4/20/2015 – Nigel Short added another tournament win to his long list of successes. With focused play he won the last round of the Thai Open in Bangkok against Indian IM Diptayan Ghosh with Black to finish with 7.5/9 and win the tournament on tie-break. Second place went to Indian GM Surya Shekhar Ganguly, third place to Kamil Dragun from Poland. Both also scored 7.5/9.

Chengdu R1: Big Surprises!

4/20/2015 – Big results in Chengdu! The first surprise was that Kazakhstan upset India, despite the return of Humpy to the Indian squad. Georgia held Russia to a draw, but the big news of the day was Poland's absolute demolition of Ukraine. 3.5-0.5 was the final score after Ushenina flagged in a bad position. No one would have predicted this, but Poland is the early leader!

Shamkir R3: Carlsen, So win

4/19/2015 – Already we have two people that are clear leaders. With an amazing start with 2.5/3, both Wesley So and Magnus Carlsen won today, against Mickey Adams and Fabiano Caruana. Both players did it in pretty different styles, but in both games the ultimate winners were always in control. Kramnik is trailing them by only half a point. Anand almost joined him, but Giri survived.

World Women's Team Championship in Chengdu

4/18/2015 – The World Women's Team Championship will start tomorrow in Chengdu. The ten countries participating this year are China, Russia, Ukraine, USA, India, Poland, Armenia, Georgia, Egypt and Kazakhstan. As is traditional in Chengdu, the opening ceremony included the very important drawing of lots, and since its in Chengdu, the players had to pick their own pandas.

Shamkir R2: Carlsen, of course

4/18/2015 – Today's round was certainly duller than the one we started out with, and the day ended with four solid draws. None of the players seemed to be in any danger of losing, or even of falling a significantly worse position, and the results seemed like logical conclusions. The one decisive game went to Magnus Carlsen, who wiped Shakhriyar Mamedyarov off the board. Round two report.

Dragan Solak wins 17th Dubai Open

4/18/2015 – The 17th Dubai Open reached it’s pinnacle of exictement when after the penultimate round there were no less than five players in the lead with 6.5/8. They included the top seed David Howell, Vladimir Fedoseev, Eltaj Safarli, Dragan Solak and Alexander Shabalov. In the end six players had 7.0/9 points, with Dragan Solak edging out his rivals on tie-break. Giant report by Sagar Shah in Dubai.

Shamkir R1: Sweating Blood

4/17/2015 – An awesome way to start the 2015 Shamkir Tournament. It seemed as if most of the players with white today were pressuring their opponents from the get-go. Giri cracked soon and So devastated his position. Adams lasted longer, but also fell to Kramnik. Meanwhile Carlsen and Caruana had monumentally difficult problems set in front of them, but somehow they both managed to hold.

The helping pawn

4/17/2015 – Tactics can seem deceptively simple, particularly when seeing an engine analysing grandmaster games. Strange, however, how difficult it is to find the right move and to calculate variations properly when playing yourself. It is easier if you solve tactical puzzles regularly. In the ChessBase Magazine and his tactics column Oliver Reeh helps you to do so.

Nakamura and Krush Captured U.S. Titles

4/16/2015 – The 2015 U.S. Chess Championships in Saint Louis, Missouri, ended last Sunday as expected: the top-rated grandmaster Hikaru Nakamura won his 4th U.S. title; on the women's side, Irina Krush defended the title, her seventh. But it was not that simple, as Huffington correspondent Lubomir Kavalek looks back at this dramatic championship.

Shamkir Chess starts tomorrow

4/16/2015 – Top level chess is about to be difficult to follow: three major tournaments start within the next few days! Tomorrow the closed tournament in Shamkir will start. Headlined by Carlsen, Caruana, So, Kramnik, Anand, Giri, MVL, Adams plus two of the top Azerbaijani players, it promises to be one of the best events of the year, and of course, we bring you World-class live commentary.

Nicholas Pert: The Solid Slav Defence

4/16/2015 – "I would strongly recommend Pert’s excellent DVD," writes reviewer Zhigen Lin, former Australian U16 champion. This DVD is an excellent was to get started with and opening that a vast majority of the world’s best players are using. The DVD is recorded by a player who used the Slav as his main black weapon to gain his GM title. It is probably advisable to listen to what he has to say.

Joys of chess: "Rechtes gegen Linkes Alsterufer"

4/15/2015 – Every year the town of Hamburg, Germany, supported by ChessBase, Barclaycard, and Yes2Chess, celebrates one of the biggest chess events of the world: "Rechtes gegen Linkes Alsterufer". Schools west of the river "Alster" play against schools from east of the "Alster". More than 2.500 students turned this event into a lively, funny, and very loud celebration of the joys of chess.

Daniel King: Test Your Rook Endgames

4/15/2015 – To know endgames is good, to know rook endgames is even better. After all, they occur more often than any other endgame. But how to play the notoriously tricky rook endgames better? Daniel King has an answer. In volume 16 of his Power Play series he helps you to understand the nature of this endgame better. Moshe Rachmuth felt his game improve immediately.

Russian Art

4/14/2015 – Andrey Filatov, President of the Russian Chess Federation, likes to combine chess and art. During the transmission of the Women's World Championship in Sochi people could see a virtual exhibtion of Russian Art, and some of paintings shown there were part of the exhibition "The Legacy of WWII in Russian Art" in London that ended a few days ago. Press Release.

Magic rook and magic square

4/14/2015 – 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!