Two Days with Garry Kasparov

1/29/2015 – The Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis has partnered with the Kasparov Chess Foundation on a five-year grant program to help develop chess prodigies from across the United States. Normally five young talents are invited for a two-day evaluation session with Garry Kasparov. How does that feel? Well ask our very own author Akshat Chandra, who was one of the candidates.

Magic of Chess Tactics 2: Advanced lessons

1/29/2015 – Although there are many works teaching fundamentals, themes such as advanced attacking techniques and more notably positional transformations are discussed much less often. In this second volume of Magic of Chess Tactics, C.D. Meyer and Karsten Mueller cover these topics in detail over six hours of lectures and hundreds of games, taking the student one step closer to mastery.

Gibraltar Rd3: The Chinese advance

1/29/2015 – Three Chinese players have a perfect score in Gibraltar: Ju Wenjun (who upset Richard Rapport), Wei Yi and Hou Yifan. The 15-year old prodigy is the youngest player in history to break 2700. Several people still have 3.0/3, but the matches are becoming tougher and tougher. Today's round was specially graced by the presence of the governor of Gibraltar, Sir James Dutton.

Gibraltar Rd2: Topalov Stopped

1/28/2015 – Round two of open events usually are still quite accessible for the top rated players, but when grandmasters face each other it really is anyone's game, no matter the rating difference. Topalov already had to concede half a point, and he did it in a wild, wild game. His opponent, Debarashi Das, was losing at some point, but he rallied together and was even close to winning.

Arkell and Lombaers win in sunny Malta

1/28/2015 – English GM Keith Arkell (2497) and Dutch player Peter Lombaers (2291) shared first place in a round robin in Sliema, Malta, held 9–15 January 2015. Both players scored 6.5/9. The much more experienced GM Arkell was declared the winner on tiebreak, but Peter Lombaers was even more satisfied, since it meant fulfilling his first IM norm. Pictorial report by Piotr Kaim.

Karen Grigoryan is the Armenian Champion

1/28/2015 – With a rating average of 2541, the National Championship of Armenia was a very strong event. Bottom seed Arman Mikaleyan led well past the mid-way mark. With just two rounds left he slipped, giving Karen Grigoryan the chance to race ahead and win the Championship. In the women’s section it was Susanna Gaboyan who took the title. Report with game analysis.

Chess in Jerusalem – a journey through time

1/28/2015 – Next month the city of Jerusalem will host the European individual championship, arguably the most important chess event in its 3000-year history. There have been many ups and downs for chess life in Israel's capital, and many personalities who contributed to promoting the noble game. In a two-part report Yochanan Afek traces the development in the past and current centuries.

Wei Yi at Tata Steel Challengers (1)

1/28/2015 – While Magnus Carlsen won the Tata Steel Masters, it was the young talent Wei Yi who won the Challengers section. There was a grim fight for the top spot in the Challengers right until the end, and there were plenty of tough struggles with some thoroughly exciting games to follow. Sagar Shah has selected some prime examples for you in this two-part wrap-up.

Gibraltar Rd1: Only one surprise

1/28/2015 – As it often happens in open tournaments, the first round of the event produced few surprises. Only one of the top-20 grandmasters lost, though that doesn't mean that there weren't some exciting games. Hou Yifan was slightly lucky at the end of her game, while Nakamura played a crowd pleaser. Round one report as well as impressions from the opening ceremony.

ChessBase Shop: new tools to browse and find

1/27/2015 – You walk into the chess store determined to find something to raise your game, or simply to entertain. On the shelves are dozens, no, hundreds of DVDs, representing thousands of hours of pure chess delight. What to choose and how to find it? In order to solve that exact dilemma, two new tools have been added to the ChessBase Shop: the Openings index and the new Shopping Consultant.

The last trump

1/27/2015 – 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.

Tata Steel Final Recap

1/27/2015 – Wijk aan Zee has come and gone; two weeks of exciting chess, surprises, and full of passionate chess. There were some quick draws, some games that were not as exciting as others, but there was not a single round in this event that did not have a gem, a point of interest, a spectacle to be admired. Some players did better than others, and we give you a summary of each one of them.

Anand as you never heard him before

1/27/2015 – It was an offbeat series of questions and answers in a highly enjoyable interview in The Indian Express, leading to a look at the very human side of top-level chess. While enjoying a rare break, Vishy Anand talks about about topics such as how he was once confused for a movie star, how he has a pretty poor memory, and even the dating scene in chess.

2015 Women's World Championship is announced

1/27/2015 – After the alarming news that the 2014 Women's World Championship had been put on hold with no definition in sight, due to lack of sponsorship, FIDE has finally published the dates, location and prize fund. The event will be held in Sochi, Russia, it will start in less than two months, and the players have two weeks to sign the contracts. Here are the full details.

Gibraltar Open starts tomorrow!

1/26/2015 – Several events tried very hard to take away the title of the "strongest open" of the year. Qatar, Millionaire, Reykjavik, to name a few... but they all fall short of Gibraltar: for the first time in history a 2800 player will be participating in an open event, and with 30+ 2600 players the tournament is sure to be a complete slugfest. We bring you a preview of the tournament.

Three million view chess players playing soccer

1/26/2015 – When we published the pictorial by Alina L'Ami with her pictures and comments, we were confident it would be a success with the readers since the photos were fun, varied, and plain good, with her revealing comments. What was not expected is that one of the images from the article was then reposted on a social network where it instantly became viral.

A dangerous surprise: 1.d4 d5 2.Bf4

1/26/2015 – Some players like to play 1.d4 but are not happy after 1...d5. Maybe they fear the dangers of the Queen's Gambit or the intricacies of the Catalan. GM Henrik Danielsen from Iceland proposes a surprising alternative: 2.Bf4! The bishop move is rarely played and looks innocent. But in a 60 minute ChessBase DVD Danielsen shows why it is a good weapon for White.

Hawaii: Aloha Chess Friend

1/26/2015 – The beautiful Pacific island group will be the host of an Inaugural Chess Festival in March 2015 – a weeklong series of world-class events that bring chess enthusiasts from all over the world to the Hawaiian island of Oahu. You may be interested to attend this unique chess event – and participate in a crowdfunding initiative that can win you the chess vacation of a lifetime! Press release.

Wijk aan Zee: the pictures and their stories (2/2)

1/26/2015 – The first part of this series of pictures by Alina L'Ami was met with warmth and enthusiasm by the readers, and as promised here is the second part. In it are the moments when the players are oblivious to all but their own microcosm, the beauty of Wijk aan Zee when the conditions are just right, and of course what helps bring us closer to the author: her unfettered comments.

Carlsen wins Wijk masters, Wei Yi wins B

1/25/2015 – That Carlsen took first was no surprise, but the question was who would take second. It was a four-way tie for 2nd-5th, with Vachier-Lagrave pipping out his rivals, followed by Giri, So and Ding Liren. If there ever was a heralding of the new generation, this was it with all top five places taken by players under 24. The Wijk Challengers was won by 15-year-old Wei Yi. Last round analysis.

Ni Hua at the University of Melbourne

1/25/2015 – After scoring an extraordinary result of 10.5/11 in 2015 Australian Open Championship and shooting his rating back above 2700 in Sydney, GM Ni Hua's next stop was to the second largest city in Australia, Melbourne. In addition to visiting friends and to celebrate the great victory, the champion gave a simul at the University of Melbourne in the historic 1888 building.

ChessBase Chrismas Puzzles 2014 – solutions

1/25/2015 – Today is the final day to submit your solutions to 2015 New Year's Puzzle Contest. To get you in the mood we show you the final twelve solutions to our Christmas puzzles, which we published in the week from December 25–31, 2014. Some are deep and quite stunning, the ones from the December 31 "Curious Chess" section are just entertaining. We wish you a fine Sunday of problem solving.

Andrés Rodriguez double winner at Florianópolis

1/24/2015 – The Florianopolis Chess Club recently organized the 2015 Floripa Chess Open in the beautiful city of Florianópolis, in Santa Catarina, Brazil. The event had a field of 278 players, including several grandmasters, making it the largest open ever in Brazil. The very next day came the Floripa Masters, a norm laden round-robin. Both were won by GM Andrés Rodriguez, who was unstoppable.

Tata Steel Rd12: Giri claims clear second

1/24/2015 – It wasn't the prettiest of games, and it should have finished hours before it did, but Giri was able to best So after 111 moves! This win puts Giri half a point behind Carlsen, who drew Ding Liren with some minor problems. Wojtaszek seemed lost on what to do in his defeat against Saric. Meanwhile, in the Challengers, Wei Yi needs but a draw to qualify for next year's Masters.