5/7/2016 – India number two Pentala Harikrishna played in one of the strongest Round Robin tournaments of his career-The Altibox Norway Chess 2016. He performed very well scoring 4.5/9. In this interview he speaks about his tournament, what went right, what were his mistakes, how he prepared and how did he find his second. Hari is slowly and steadily climbing the ladder and when asked about his Elo race with Anand, "Well, it is not so important," was his straightforward reply!

5/6/2016 – 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.

5/6/2016 – The spectacular game Wesley So played at the Ultimate Blitz Challenge against legendary World Champion Garry Kasparov – with echos of Anderssen and Morphy – will go down in history. But there were other highlights in a month filled with exciting chess. Huffington Post columnist Lubomir Kavalek treats us to seven examples taken from the events in Norway and St Louis. It's a column to enjoy.

5/5/2016 – While the Bundesliga is certainly the best-known of the world class league championships, it is hardly the only one, and no less impressive is the Russian Team Championships with players such as Kramnik, Karjakin, and Svidler, not to mention top women like Kosteniuk, Lagno, and others. It doesn't stop there, so read the report and check out the tons of exciting chess.

5/5/2016 – The Stockholm Chess Society is the third oldest continuously running chess club in the world, first founded in 1866. Celebrating its 150th anniversary, the Hasselbacken Open has been organized, bringing players from all over the world, and the organizers have held nothing back with photos, GM video commentary, and more! See the report and don't miss the sacrificial masterpiece by Shirov.

5/4/2016 – GM Viktor Gavrikov, who was born on 29th July 1957 in Criuleni, Moldova, was a strong grandmaster. In 1985 he won the Soviet Championship, arguably his biggest triumph. After the collapse of the Soviet Union Gavrikov moved to Switzerland and later relocated to Bulgaria. He worked as a trainer and author. On 27th April Gavrikov died in a hospital in Burgas. Obituary...

5/4/2016 – Favorite to win the Italian Team Championship 2016 was the team of Padova, which started with top players such as Etienne Bacrot, Boris Gelfand and Peter Leko. But in round four the favorites lost their top encounter against the team of Chieti and in the end finished only second. Chieti, however, won both the men's and the women's event.

5/4/2016 – Each new issue of "New in Chess" is a little event. The latest edition features Sergey Karjakin on its cover and offers a wealth of interesting articles: Mihail Marin, for example, enthuses about Alekhine's computer moves while Nigel Short tells about a remarkable record he holds. And Matthew Sadler has only good things to say about Sergey Tiviakov's latest DVD.

5/3/2016 – Valentina Gunina won the Women's Grand Prix tournament in Batumi and now is first in the overall Grand Prix 2015-2016 standings. Gunina has the same number of points as Nana Dzagnidze but has played one tournament less. Women's World Champion Hou Yifan withdrew from the Grand Prix because she is dissatisfied with the current World Championship format.

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.