3/13/2013 – He is the top concern – the "main rival" – for the tournament favourite Magnus Carlsen. Armenian GM Levon Aronian, whose encounters with the Norwegian superstar are many and memorable, started his international career as the World Under-12 Champion in 1994. A steady climb took him to a permanent slot as number two or three place on the FIDE world rankings. Three days before the upcoming Candidates Tournament, where he will face Carlsen in round one, Michael von Keitz provides an Aronian portrait with full statistics.

3/13/2013 – "In my review of Chess for Novices, Vol. 1 I enjoyed the presentation," writes Steve Goldberg in his Chess Cafereview. "It a nice introduction to chess for a player who knows nothing more than how the pieces move. I titled the review "First Chess Steps." Now I have had the chance to review Chess for Novices, Vol. 2 and I am very impressed." The new review is called 'Bigger Chess Steps'

3/12/2013 – China defeated India and was poised to take Gold, if only Russia would beat Ukraine. But it was not to be – that match ended 2-2, and Ukraine was first with 16 match points, followed by China and Russia with 15 and 13 match points respectively. France beat Turkey 3½-½ to overtake them at the bottom of the table. Final illustrated report.

3/12/2013 – Friday March 15, 14:00h London time: Levon Aronian will play  Magnus Carlsen in the first round of the Candidates Tournament for the World Championship 2013. On Playchess, starting at around 15:00h GM Daniel King will be commenting. In this  preview of the event we bring you a charming anecdote by Malcolm Pein, some interesting statistics and predictions, and  full pairings of all rounds.

3/12/2013 – A surprise win by the US over Russia in round seven, and two clean victories by Ukraine and China, has put the Ukrainian women in pole position to win the Women's World Team Championship. But if they lose to Russia in the final round on Tuesday, and China beats India, it could be the Chinese girls on the top pedestal.  Report after round eight.

3/11/2013 – This Friday the erstwhile child prodigy from Baku will face former World Championship candidate Boris Gelfand in the first round of the Candidates Tournament for the 2013 World Championship. What are his chances? "We all have our favourite marks – Radjabov’s is Gelfand," writes Michael von Keitz in his  latest Candidate portrait.

3/11/2013 – Over the last years, we have first seen records replaced by CDs, which in turn are being replaced by completely digital music. Now the same is happening to printed books as ebook consumption has increased exponentially, and the change has been a frightening one for many. Before discussing what it means for chess players, here is a brief history of the ebook.

3/10/2013 – Forty years after the legendary "Match of all Time" between Bobby Fischer and Boris Spassky, coinciding with the 70th anniversary of the late American champion, the hotel in which the two contestants stayed in 1972, Hotel Loftleidir (now Icelandair Reykjavik Hotel Natura) has enshrined the towering legacy of the match in a memorial exhibition. Press release and pictures.

3/10/2013 – They have only six draws in twenty games – and in round six the Ukrainian team crushed the French girls to go into the sole lead at the Women's World Team Championship. Russia is in second, China in third place. Friday was a free day, which was used to tour the remarkable Kazakh capital. We include a pictorial report by Alina L'Ami.

3/9/2013 – One of the greatest chess players and heroes in the history of the game, 11th World Chess Champion Robert James "Bobby" Fischer, died at the age of 64 on January 17, 2008. Today the American chess legend would have turned 70. Valery Golubenko has a posthumous present for his idol since childhood, and, to celebrate the day, we bring you a

3/9/2013 – In an effort to turn chess into a spectator sport the Iranian Chess Federation (really!) is taking the initiative and staging an innovative match in which the players – former World Championship Challenger Nigel Short and GM Ehsan Ghaem Maghami, Iran’s strongest player – will explain their thought processes to the public during the game.

3/9/2013 – The late Bobby Fischer would have been 70 today (he was born on March 9th 1943). At the age of 26 he wrote his famous book My 60 Memorable Games, which is considered one of the best game collections ever. At 21 Magnus Carlsen is too young to write about his games, but others like Kasparov, Polgar, Nimzowitsch have done it. Read about this in Lubomir Kavalek's HuffPo column.