Naiditsch wins second Swiss at Basel

1/5/2015 – The fifth edition of the Basel Chess Festival took place from January 1st to 5th with top seeds Arkadij Naiditsch and Richard Rapport forming the cream of strong GMs and IMs in a field of 80 players in the Masters section. The traditional year opening Swiss tournament was held in the Hilton Hotel at Basel. The German grandmaster won his second back-to-back Swiss. An illustrated report.

Chennai Open attracts 937 players

1/5/2015 – The time has come for the 7th edition of the Chennai International Open in Chennai, India, held between Dec 30, 2014, to Jan 06, 2015. With a total prize fund of Rs.1.4 million ($22,135 approx), in three different groups – the Grandmaster Open, and two others. It is the proverbial 'bigger and better' with total entries all combined reaching a mammoth 937 players.

Best of 2014: Endgame wizardry

1/4/2015 – Asked to select a few of his favorite endgames from 2014, noted author and endgame expert, GM Karsten Mueller dug up five endgames, and commented "There were many fascinating endgames in 2014, so the following choice is not forced. Magnus Carlsen has such impressive technique that I mostly looked at his endgames, but I liked two others so much that I just had to include them."

The Knight that Jumps High Falls Prey to a Pawn (2)

1/4/2015 – In this second part on the world of shogi, you will see what the state of computer playing software is, and how they compare to chess engines, as well as online resources, and of course how they approach teaching the complex game to children. There is also a profile of Karolina Styczynska, who taught herself the game online, is now turning pro, after discovering the game in a comic.

South Africa's first Grandmaster

1/4/2015 – With an Elo-rating of 2399 (January 2015) Kenny Solomon is South Africa's number three but a few days ago he became the country's first grandmaster. In the Africa Chess Championship 2014 he finished with 7.0/9 and had a better tie-break than tournament favorite GM Ahmed Adly, World Junior Champion from 2007. This tie-break win made Solomon Grandmaster.

Hillarp Persson leads in Sweden

1/4/2015 – The Rilton Cup is Sweden's biggest and most famous international chess tournament. It was originally initiated by a donation from a doctor, Tore Rilton, and since 1985 the tournament is financially secure. A special challenge prize, donated by SEB Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken, is the Rilton-medal in genuine gold. With two rounds to go local GM Hillar Persson leads with 6.0/7

New Zealand Open

1/4/2015 – As far as Chess Centres go, it must be one of the quaintest around – a 1916 Church, and adjacent Church Hall. Last March, Nigel Short played a simul to open the New Zealand National Chess Centre - and now it is the venue for the 2015 New Zealand Open Championship. A pictorial report from Devonport, Auckland, with comments by GM and chess philanthropist Murray Chandler.

A look back at 2014

1/3/2015 – 2014 was a remarkable year, with tales of woe and celebration, tales of rising young stars and comeback stories to warm your heart. Throughout all this, ChessBase was always at the fore, trying to bring you the highest quality reporting, images, and analysis so you the reader never missed a thing. Here is a quick look at some of the headlines and stories that defined the year.

The Knight that Jumps High Falls Prey to a Pawn (1)

1/3/2015 – In chess, a number of specialized proverbs exist to pass on wisdom, such as pawns never move backwards, with lessons in the game and in life. Shogi is no different, and this is how a gentle article sharing this and an overview of the shogi world begins. Here you will see how the games overlap or differ, the conditions of becoming a professional, and how women also fight prejudice in shogi.

Harika on chess, life and more

1/2/2015 – She wants to do her best in the upcoming Women’s World Championship and to enter the Top Five in the world rankings. She is one of the chess queens of India and one of the top players in women chess for quite some time now. Meet grandmaster Dronavalli Harika, who is famous in the chess world for the beautiful smile she always wears. Here is an illustrated interview.

Sergei Tiviakov: How to combat rare lines as Black

1/2/2015 – Rare lines can be annoying. After studying the critical lines of your favorite opening carefully and with joy you want to try them at the board only to see that your opponent plays a rare line. But there is a reason why rare lines are rare. They are often not particularly good and not even dangerous. If you know what to do. Sergei Tiviakov tells you...

Chess in the backwaters of Kerala

1/2/2015 – Imagine you wake up early to play a morning round and are greeted by a musky fragrance caused by the raindrops caressing the flora around you; summoning a feeling so powerfully evocative that it cleanses your body and purifies your mind. Blessed with such an environment, imagine playing your favourite game in this land referred in India as 'God’s own country'. A breathtaking pictorial.

Svensk springare

1/2/2015 – 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.

Naiditsch tops Zurich Christmas Open

1/2/2015 – Chess never takes a break, and especially not during the holidays! If anything, tournaments are more prolific during this season. The traditional Zurich Christmas Open celebrated its 38th edition this year and it attracted many grandmasters from around the World. At the end, there was one dominating performance, and that was of German grandmaster Arkadij Naiditsch.

January 2015 ratings: a few extraordinary results

1/1/2015 – It would be easy to presume that with the last month of the year having just played through, with little in the way of Super GM tournaments to discuss, that the list ushering in the new year would have little to say, but as it is, not so. As you will see, this list contains not a few extraordinary results such as the boy who went from 1949 to 2517 in three months!

New Year 2015 Puzzle Contest

1/1/2015 – In the last week of 2014, as every year, we celebrated a week of chess puzzles, this year drawing from problems and studies we had published fifteen years ago. Today we give you four puzzles that are part of our New Year 2015 contest. You have three weeks to work on them, and there are valuable prizes to win. For today we wish all our readers a Happy New Year!

Review: Simon Williams' Most Amazing Moves

1/1/2015 – "In his greeting words at the start of this Fritztrainer Simon Williams says cheerfully: ‘It was a lot of fun for me doing this DVD’. I am sure it will be as much fun for the audience, who can look through the amazing chess moves presented in this video – five and a half hour of uninterrupted fun!" Reviewer Diana Mihajlova thinks this DVD definitely makes a perfect New Year's gift.

Happy New Year 2015 from Pal Benko

12/31/2014 – Our friend, famous chess composer GM Pal Benko, got into the New Year spirit by sending us seven little problems to solve. They are all miniatures, requiring mate in three moves. And together they spell out HNY-2015. The positions look deceptively easy, but some have very clever solutions that are not easy to find. All are cook free. With Pal we wish our readers a Happy New Year 2015!

Christmas Puzzles 2014 – Curious chess

12/31/2014 – New Year's Eve is a time for light-headed celebration, for Champagne and fireworks, for parties and laughter. In this spirit we bring you the seventh installment of our Christmas puzzle with a number of curious chess problems which are not hard to solve but require a keen sense of humour. They all come from an author who inspired our 2002 Christmas column. Enjoy.

Komodo 8: Deep Blue revisited (part two)

12/31/2014 – The first two games of the titanic match between the world's strongest player versus the world strongest chess computer showed significant changes. While the computer played moves that baffled humans, the number of moves a grandmaster would outright scoff at were dwindling and could only be judged as eccentric. Today's best engines are actually no different, just stronger.

Groningen Chess Festival

12/31/2014 – The traditional Groningen Chess Festival in the Netherlands has concluded its 52nd edition. The festival included lectures, trivia, several open sections and matches. The International Open was demolished by Donchenko with a brutal 8.0/9 and a 2803 performance rating. Oh, and he made a grandmaster norm! Despite his 2500+ rating the young winner of the event is not yet a GM!

Knight on rim is dim

12/30/2014 – 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!

Christmas Puzzles 2014 – My Favourite Studies (2)

12/30/2014 – As mentioned before, artistic endgame studies used to be great fun, providing human brains hours of solving pleasure. Until the day when this was replaced by the less challenging action of pressing Alt-F2 in a computer program. In part two of this article our senior editor Frederic Friedel helps the flesh-and-blood thought processes along with some useful solving hints.

Veterans win Nutcracker by slimmest of margins

12/29/2014 – The rapid games of Nutcracker generations match was worthy of the overall competition, though easy to foresee after the first leg. The classical section had seen Prince team, with Russia’s most promising teenage talent, hold their own against the veteran King team with players still very much a part of the world’s elite. In the end, experience prevailed in a thrilling finale.