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!

Interview with Natalia Pogonina (2/2)

4/14/2015 – Is the women's chess world divided into two camps, Hou Yifan vs the rest? How does one deal with issues such as the prevalent male chauvinism in chess? What are the other advantages for being a finalist or the champion? What should players do to help promote the game? These are a few of the questions Natalia Pogonina is asked in this second part of the in-depth interview.

Using Deep Fritz 14 on a smartphone

4/13/2015 – Recently, Danny Gormally wrote an entertaining article ‘The Komodo files’ where the Grandmaster describes his experience of working with a chess engine. While it is certainly the Summa Cum Laude of chess engines, the weekend chess warriors may balk at carrying a laptop. In this article you will see how you can easily fulfill your needs with Deep Fritz on a smartphone.

Going new ways: GM Hedinn Steingrimsson

4/13/2015 – When he was twelve Hedinn Steingrimsson became U12 World Champion. Three years later he beat Grandmasters and International Masters to win the Icelandic championship. He is now a grandmaster himself and continues to play successfully. But he also discovered the joys of teaching and searching for new ways to make training better and more efficient. An interview.

Dubai: Fedoseev, Shabalov lead after seven rounds

4/13/2015 – The Dubai Open is in its final stages with just two rounds left, and the event is heating up. Vladimir Fedoseev and Alexander Shabalov are leading jointly with a score of 6.0/7, followed by a pack of seven on 5.5. In round six the tournament was marred when it was discovered that the two-time Georgian Champion Gaioz Nigalidze had been cheating with a smartphone hidden in the toilet.

U.S. Champ Final: Who else?!

4/13/2015 – A cheeky title, playing on last year's report. The favorites of the tournament in both sections won the tournament in the last round, and with few difficulties. Krush obtained an easy draw against Nemcova. She could have even pushed a slightly better endgame, but the draw guaranteed her first place. In the Open, Onischuk blundered, and Nakamura wrapped up the tournament.

Interview with Natalia Pogonina (1/2)

4/12/2015 – "The race after titles, fame and money is destroying people from the inside", says Natalia Pogonina in an in-depth interview conducted after the exciting Women World Championship. After being dubbed (justifiably) the queen of comebacks after producing three victories in must-win situations, the finalist discusses the special preparation made, and her mental approach.

US Champ R10: Leaders in Position

4/12/2015 – Round ten set up an end that might be somewhat anti-climatic. In the Open So was able to recover from his forfeit loss by beating Kamsky with black, something that hadn't happened since 2012. Robson and Nakamura drew in a boring game, leaving Nakamura one game away from the title. In the Women's Krush won, Nemcova lost and it will all come down to their showdown.

What is wrong with Wesley So?

4/11/2015 – It was incredible and mind numbing: the number eight player in the world rankings, Wesley So, won four games, drew one and incredibly lost three, one against a 14-year-old GM with the white pieces. Then in round nine he was forfeited for writing or having an encouraging note to himself below his scoresheet. Clearly the 21-year-old GM was in emotional distress. Here is some background.

Dubai: Three players lead after four rounds

4/11/2015 – Not the ones in our thumbnail, but David Howell, Nils Grandelius and Yuri Solodovnichenko, all with perfect 4.0/4 scores. Sagar Shah, our reporter in Dubai, tells us what it is like to face a stronger player, equipped with precise calculation and sense of initiative: 'When you lose and you don’t really know where you went wrong it means that there is something to be learnt from that game!'

BBC Radio talks with John Nunn

4/11/2015 – The prospect of a game of chess over the radio combined with an interview is now an established success thanks to its revival by Dominic Lawson. Readers will recall that BBC Radio 4 has resurrected a concept dating back to Bobby Fischer with the series "Across the Board". Not limiting itself to it, Tim Harford interviewed John Nunn on math, computers and Lasker.

US Champ R9: Forfeit?!

4/11/2015 – A shocking development in the US Chess Championship. Wesley So, one of the top players in the world, was forfeited in his game against Akobian by the tournament's Chief Arbiter, Tony Rich. The reason? Note taking! He had been warned several times not to do so but ignored the warnings. In the Women's, Krush finally caught up to Nemcova. As to the controversy, what do you think?