New Year 2015 Puzzle Contest – results

2/1/2015 – On the first day of the year we give you four puzzles for a New Year 2015 think fest – and three weeks for you to work on them. As usual there was brisk participation with obvious enjoyment on the part of our readers. Today we present the solutions and announce the prize winners. They get ChessBase software with personalized dedications from some seriously strong players. Did you win?

February 2015 ratings: the fulfillment of promise

1/31/2015 – It should come as no surprise that the list of February is a celebration of youth fulfilling their promise. Though it was not a mere month that revealed it, it was nevertheless a month that seemed to punctuate a year of toil and resolve for stars Giri, So, MVL and Ding Liren. Still, their results were overshadowed by one who became world no.1 and gained 426 Elo in two weeks!

Gibraltar Rd5: Brilliant Nakamura

1/31/2015 – Hikaru Nakamura is the only person in Gibratar to keep his perfect score, and he did so with uncompromising and aggressive chess. Baskaran Adhiban simply was not up to the challenge: he got lost in the complications and by move 18 Naka's deadly pawns reached the 3rd rank (!). Tomorrow will be a showdown of monsters, as Nakamura takes on the top player with 4.5: Veselin Topalov.

Who's Who at the «Zurich Chess Challenge 2015»

1/31/2015 – Together with the six players of the leading elite, there will join in a group of legendary personalities from the world of chess at the 4th edition of the «Zurich Chess Challenge 2015» (February 13th-19th 2015). Recently added to the mouthwatering activities is a Legends Match in rapid games between Viktor Korchnoi and Wolfgang Uhlmann. The event just gets better and better.

Classical enigma

1/31/2015 – 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.

Gibraltar Rd4: And then there were four

1/31/2015 – Four people are tied for the lead in Gibraltar with a perfect 4.0/4. Hikaru Nakamura, Renier Vazquez, Baskaran Adhiban and the prodigy Wei Yi are all going forward. However their list of pursuers is admirable; Topalov, Svidler, Yu Yangyi, Harikrishna, only to name a few, are all half a point behind. Round four highlights and two impressive Master Classes you don't want to miss.

Grandmaster blunders: a statistical analysis

1/30/2015 – Everyone remembers the blunder from game six of the last world championship match, a move that caused shock and disbelief by fans and experts alike. Of course, grandmasters and even a world champion is only human, but how likely is such an oversight likely to occur. Using an engine and a database of millions of games, Joe Doliner set out to find the mathematical truth.

Huffington Post on the Dutch Chess Fest

1/30/2015 – Rising young stars, falling legends, deflated chess computers, clumsy soccer games, brilliant attacks, a commentator faux-pas, chess hungry spectators, windy beaches – all this was present during the Tata Steel traditional chess tournament in Wijk aan Zee. Huffington correspondent Lubomir Kavalek looks back at some of the critical encounters.

Wei Yi at Tata Steel Challengers (2)

1/30/2015 – The Challengers group of the Tata Steel Masters saw young talent Wei Yi fighting David Navara for the top spot right to the end, where the Chinese player edged out his Czech rival by a mere half point. With this win Wei Yi is just five Elo points away from breaking Magnus Carlsen's record of the youngest player to cross 2700 Elo. Detailed report with lots of interesting analysis.

Fedoseev wins 2015 Dvorkovich Memorial

1/29/2015 – With the rapid event of the Vladimir Dvorkovich Memorial done, it was time for the standard time controls. The Dvorkovich Memorial is a stage of the Russian Chess Cup circuit, one of the most important series of events within the Russian chess calendar. The circuit awards the top performers throughout the year in all three time controls, and this time was a tribute to youth.

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.