Nicholas Pert: The French Defence

4/6/2015 – Nicholas Pert, English grandmaster and experienced coach, loves the French Defence. He has played this opening in hundreds of games and it brought him many fine victories and helped him to become grandmaster. On his new ChessBase-DVD he distills this huge knowledge into a French repertoire. For Davide Nastasio this opened a window into a new world.

Mariya Muzychuk is the 15th World Champion

4/6/2015 – In the last game of the match, Natalia Pogonina needed a win at all costs, and the question was whether Mrs Comeback herself would be able to pull off a fourth miracle in the tournament. Unfortunately, the task was made all the harder as she had Black, and White only needed a draw, and Muzychuk pretty much shut down Natalia in the game. At the end, a new champion was crowned.

US Champ R5: Bloody Easter

4/6/2015 – A holiday for many people in America, but the players in the U.S. Chess Championship definitely did not take it off. After six draws in the previous round, the entertainment level in round five was off the charts. Blunders, unexpected results, complicated positions, awkward/brilliant moves, it had it all! Meanwhile in the Women's in a difficult melee, Krush kept her chances alive.

Going viral with planetoid Vishyanand

4/5/2015 – We had heard about an asteroid being named after the 15th World Champion some months ago. But with inherent devious cunning we decided to hold back the news, which was an ideal "fake April Fool's joke". It left many readers, thinking it was made – even Anand has his doubts. After we confirmed that it was genuine, Indian newspapers picked it up and turned it into a media storm.

WWch Final G3: One step from the title

4/5/2015 – After the nervous wreck that was game two, with errors and mistakes belying the nonchalant face both players displayed, game three was a different beast altogether. The two finalists duked it out in a Semi-Slav, sidestepping the Meran for less chaotic waters, and succeeding to a degree. It would go down as an uneventful game, were it not for one move.

US Champ R4: Peace

4/5/2015 – It was not the best played round of chess, and the excitement level went down just a little bit. The open section had six draws, some more exciting than others. The anticipated match up between So and Nakamura finished in a draw after Nakamura blundered a pawn, but was able to hold the draw. Meanwhile the action in the Women's was very up and down to say the least.

WWch Final G2: Muzychuk takes lead

4/4/2015 – The second game probably caused no end of heart attacks from fans of both players. The nerves, compounded by more than two weeks of non-stop play without break, began to show, and after a highly theoretical Ruy Lopez Breyer, Muzychuk set up a huge attack, while missing winner after winner. Would Pogonina regroup and defend, or would Muzychuk finally cash in? It was drama to the end.

US Champ R3: Sevian defeats Top Ten

4/3/2015 – The round was wild for all sides, and all boards, but the news of the round, without question, was 14-year-old Samuel Sevian's defeat of World no.8 Wesley So, who resigned just short of getting mated. This was hardly the only surprise as Nakamura let Kamsky escape after squeezing him the entire game, while Irina Krush was on the wrong side of a massive attack by Paikidze. Nakamura-So tomorrow!

Google Tooth?? You must be kidding!

4/3/2015 – Yep, the Google X lab project to replace human molars with electronic devices (and use them to play 3000+ level chess) was the April 1st hoax. Pure invention – well, as far as we know. So we are left with having to believe in a possible refutation to the English Opening and that the minor planet Vishyanand is circling the sun. Perfectly true – in fact you can name a planet yourself!

Clear case

4/3/2015 – 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.

WWch Final G1: At last

4/3/2015 – After over two weeks of relentless competition, the final match has arrived. It is hard to imagine the toll this has had on the players, since this is not like a two week tournament, each two games determined whether they would stay or go home. At last, only two warriors still stand, and both went through their own trials of fire. Report, game and player impressions.

U.S. Champ R2: Favorites perfect

4/3/2015 – One did with a very clean game, the other with a bit of luck. Hikaru Nakamura cleanly wiped Varuzhan Akobian off the board after Akobian sacrificed a pawn, got no compensation and lost. Wesley So had a win against Sam Shankland, missed it, and a huge blunder by White in that game gave So the win. The best game of the day, though, without a doubt, was played in the Women's section.

Karpos Open under way in Macedonia

4/2/2015 – With the so many events running, it would be easy to overlook the lovely Karpos Open, currently being held in Skopje, Macedonia, but it shouldn't considering the excellent conditions, held in a five-star hotel, and generous prize fund that has attracted 98 titled players of whom 33 are GMs ready to fight for their spot in the sun. An illustrated report by Diana Mihajlova

Interview with Boris Gelfand

4/2/2015 – Since the 1980s Boris Gelfand has been one of the world's best players. In 2012 he finally played a match for the World Championship title against Vishy Anand in Moscow and had good chances to win. In a 33-minute interview with Tania Kisilevski from the Russian TV station ETV he now revealed interesting things about his life as a chess professional.

Master Class - José Raúl Capablanca

4/2/2015 – How does one dissect a player such as José Raúl Capablanca, considered one of the greatest talents to ever live, and described as a "chess machine". Three grandmasters do exactly that, unveiling surprises about the champion's play. Add to that tons of training questions, plus hundreds of his games analyzed by Lasker, Alekhine and Capablanca himself, and you have a DVD you must not miss!

U.S. Champ R1: Comedy of Errors

4/2/2015 – At least you can say the games were exciting! Many of the games, in both sections, were decided by blunders or big mistakes. Nakamura won thanks to a blunder by Holt, So because of a blunder by Naroditsky, Onischuk blundered a pawn but managed to hold a draw, Robson beat Troff also because of a blunder. In the Women's section, something very similar happened.

Google Tooth – the latest in wearables

4/1/2015 – Everyone is doing it: after the iPhone and Android we are now confronted with Google Glass, Apple Watch, the Pebble. Computers are getting smaller and can be built to accompany you wherever you go. Now Google X, the semi-secret facility run by the search giant, is working on a dental computer. Why do we tell you this? Because Google Tooth comes bundled with a chess app.

April 2015 ratings: Youth on the rise

4/1/2015 – After an incredibly busy couple of months, the April ratings list was a fairly quiet one for the top players for the most part. It isn't that the players were all on vacation, hardly, considering David Navara logged in 29 games in just one month. On the other hand, the juniors and girls saw several incredible results, including the rise of 10-year-old Abdutassorov, now rated 2465.

Minor planet named after chess player

4/1/2015 – In 1988 an asteroid or minor planet was discovered, but remained unnamed for more than ten years. Michael Rudenko, committee member of the Minor Planet Center, a chess buff with a Playchess account, decided it was appropriate to name the object after Viswanathan Anand, himself an astronomy buff. It is now officially known as '(4538) Vishyanand'.
More...
 2

A successful detour

4/1/2015 – 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. And don't miss the Endgame Magic Show, today at 4 pm. Special studio guest: Rustam Kasimdzhanov.

The Bremer Counter Attack

4/1/2015 – Can an opening be solved, can a line be thoroughly refuted and unplayable? How about the Anglo Scandinavian (1.c4 d5) being used to bust the English Opening? Timo Immonen has done some remarkable work towards this end, and the announcement of it comes in the unusual form of a chapter in a trilogy of fictional thrillers, presenting the main anti-English line.

WWch Semis TB: Oh the humanity!

3/31/2015 – The Women World Championship has been one of the most exciting on record, with drama, tension, front runners, and comebacks, and plain old fighting chess. The semifinal tiebreaks lived up to the billing, and it all came down to strong play and missed opportunities, the kind to leave a player awake at night. See what happened in this report illustrated by powerful images.

U.S. Chess Champ begins tomorrow

3/31/2015 – The United States Chess Championship is one of the strongest tournaments in the world. In terms of national championships it is only below Russia's in strength. Hikaru Nakamura and Wesley So will be the favorites this year in the open section, but the fight will clearly be wild in the women's as well. We bring you a preview as well as a report from the opening ceremony.

Aeroflot R5: Black victories

3/31/2015 – We are a little over the halfway mark in the Aeroflot Open, and the excitement continues. Sasikirian drew two of his games in a row, allowing three people to catch up with him. Van Foreest won by default against Salgado (who withdrew from the tournament), while Nepomniachtchi and Dubov won with Black to catch up with 4.0/5. Meanwhile Mamedyarov, the top seed is struggling with 50%.