On the dark squares

4/7/2012 – Following a double exchange sacrifice, White had just blocked her opponent's threats in the d-file with 22.Bb3-d5 (diagram) and now was ready to play 23.Qh6. What is the best defence for Black against this?
A) 22...Kf8
B) 22...Qd6
C) 22...??

ChessBase Magazine, larger diagram and solution.

2012 Chinese Championship – Ding Liren completes hat trick

4/7/2012 – With three rounds to spare, Ding Liren was in the lead, and his only real rival was 17-year-old Yu Yangyi, whom he faced and held in round nine. 19-year-old Liren won with 8.0/11, making him the youngest player to achieve a hat trick. Yu Yangyi came in second and Ni Hua came third. In the Women's championship WGM Huang Qian won the title on tiebreak. Report with GM commentary.

Chess Olympiad in Istanbul – official web site up

4/6/2012 – The 40th Chess Olympiad is scheduled to take place in the Turkish metropole of Istanbul, from August 27 to September 10th, 2012. With just over four months to go the national federations will have to make haste with the arrangements. The official web site, launched this week, provides information on rules, travel and accommodation. Details, contacts, videos.

First India-Israel chess match is won by hosts

4/6/2012 – This premiere event took place in New Delhi, India, and was intended to commemorate the year 2012, which is special for both the Indian and Israeli chess communities because of the World Championship match in May 10th in Moscow. In a series of blindfold, rapid and blitz games the higher-ranked Indian GMs defeated their Israeli counterparts with a 29.5-18.5 score. Report, games and videos.

Vladimir Kramnik – My Path to the Top

4/6/2012 – Vladimir Kramnik needs no introduction, and aside from being in the top five players for some 20 years, he is also the only player in history to defeat Garry Kasparov in match. In his review, Albert Silver describes this games collection as less about his ascent to chess Olympus, as it is a detailed inside look into world championship match preparation. Read why it is the ultimate test of fire.

European Seniors Championship in Rogaška Slatina

4/5/2012 – This event, staged in an idyllically beautiful spa town in Slovenia, was open to any player who had reached his 59th birthday by January 1st 2012 – and to females who had reached their 49th birthday on that day. Seniors, says tournament director GM Adrian Mikhalchishin, are being generally neglected in favour of youth, although chess can provide invaluable mental therapy for the aged.

Judit Polgar – projects and videos

4/5/2012 – Judit Polgar recently informed us of an upcoming software project, Judit Polgar – Chess Playground, to teach chess to children. The small video trailer posted at the site is very cute and promises to help parents draw their kids into the royal game. A perfect complement to our own Blackeye Chess for the iPhone and iPad. Furthermore, she linked us to a lovely video on her recent trip to Brazil.

The ChessBase April Fool's prank

4/4/2012 – Over the years – over a decade, actually – it has become progressively more difficult for us to hide our traditional (and very popular) April Fool's stories. And keep them entertaining in the process. Armed insurgents with advanced Google searches and forum discussions are waiting to hunt them down. This year we used a particularly devious tactic involving the South Pacific town of Pago Pago.

Kramnik on Chess, Anand, Topalov and his future – Part 2

4/4/2012 – The indepth interview by GM Vlad Tkachiev with former World Champion Vladimir Kramnik was avidly received by our readers – with an unusually large number posting part one on their Facebook pages. It dealt with chess in general and his main rivals Kasparov and Anand. In part two he speaks critically about Veselin Topalov, about retirement and his own future in the game.

Scholastic Chess in Hawaii is Booming!

4/4/2012 – Hawaii is generally off of the chess radar. It’s not home to any GMs or IMs, although there is one FIDE Master and a few National Masters. Rated events are few and far between. In truth, many of Hawaii's players get in more rated chess on the U.S. Mainland (mostly at the big opens in Las Vegas or national scholastic events) than at home in Hawaii. Pictorial report by Beau Mueller.

Chinese Championship 2012 – Two teens lead

4/4/2012 – It is a sign of the times that a national championship as strong as that of China has four teenagers out of eleven players, two of whom are in the clear lead. 19-year-old Ding Liren is close to winning his third title, followed closely by 17-year-old Yu Yangyi, whom he faces in the next round. During the rest day, Hou Yifan gave a simul, interview, and even had a statue inaugurated in her honor.

Endgame Magic with GM Karsten Müller and WFM Sabrina Chevannes

4/3/2012 – Endgame knowledge is not easy to acquire and is thus a valuable weapon. In his Endgame Magic Show on Playchess, the well-known endgame expert GM Karsten Müller will assist you with a bunch of practical endgames. He shows how to handle the positions, which will help improve your results. The special guest is WFM Sabrina Chevannes. An example and more information.

Master Moves #25

4/3/2012 – All the deepest plans or endgame technique are useless if you fall victim to a shot that leaves you in a lost position. Likewise, sometimes that superior play will only offer a single window of opportunity to deliver that final blow, so it is vital to be ready for it when it does. All the shots below are from recent events. Show you can find these shots that shocked.

Rajlich: Busting the King's Gambit, this time for sure

4/2/2012 – Fifty years ago Bobby Fischer published a famous article, "A Bust to the King's Gambit", in which he claimed to have refuted this formerly popular opening. Now chess programmer IM Vasik Rajlich has actually done it, with technical means. 3000 processor cores, running for over four months, exhaustively analysed all lines that follow after 1.e4 e5 2.f4 exf4 and came to some extraordinary conclusions.

Chess Festival of El Haouaria – Tunisia

4/2/2012 – A very ambitious international chess event is currently unfolding in Tunisia, he most modern, enlightened and prosperous African country. The 1st International Chess Festival of El Haouaria is the brainchild of "the two Ks": Kamel Meddeb and Kamel Njili. After a few hiccups and with better weather it has become a great success, as Diana Mihajlova reports.

European Championship: Jakovenko is champion with last round victory

4/1/2012 – It’s never over until it’s over, and the last round of the embattled European Championship merely reiterated this truism. Laurent Fressinet was the clear favorite as he held a half-point lead over the rest, but Dmitry Jakovenko crowned his final sprint to the top with a decisive victory taking the title. Fressinet came second, and Vladimir Malakhov third. Final report with GM commentary.

Capablanca's Chess + Billiards match

4/1/2012 – We all know chess boxing – where two players engage in alternating rounds of chess and pugilism. It was introduced eight years ago, and some people still profess to like it. But did you know about an earlier, less crude, attempt to combine chess with a disparate sport? It was tried by the great J.R. Capablanca, who played a chess-billiards match in 1922. It unsurprisingly ended 1-1.

The 'Let's Check' Crystal Ball

4/1/2012 – Wouldn't it be nice to see your opponent's preparation? Follow what the chess community is currently studying? Or even predict novelties before they are played? Well, it can be done. Our cloud database Let's Check creates a special LiveBook which you can use to look into the future, and follow other people's work – in real time, as it is happening. We can tell you how.

Chess Match of the Century table up for sale

4/1/2012 – Wondering what to do with all that extra cash lying around? Looking for a nice present for your chess-fanatic husband? Well, the international auction house Bruun Rasmussen in Copenhagen may have just the thing for you: the board, chess pieces, table and clock used in parts of the 1972 Reyjkavik match. Price estimate: up to 1,800,000 Krone = Euros 241,000 or US $324,000. Press release.

Zero Tolerance, Sofia Rules and Dress Code

3/31/2012 – The events that have clouded the European Chess Championship in Plovdiv – after Shakhriyar Mamedyarov another Azeri GM, Eltaj Safarli, has abandoned the event after defaulting in round nine – have generated a great deal of discussion: is "zero tolerance" really necessary, how should one regulate draw offers, and should arbiters be measuring skirt lengths? Reader feedback.

CBM training: More endgames from Plovdiv

3/31/2012 – 350 participants, a number rated over 2700 – that is a guarantee for interesting endgames cropping up in every round. Our ChessBase Magazin expert Dr Karsten Müller continues to scour the games of the European Individual Championship for interesting and instructive endings, and brings you four examples to peruse over the weekend. Learn and enjoy.

Chinese Championship 2012 – Ding Liren takes off

3/31/2012 – The Chinese championship recently started and once more Hou Yifan is playing in the men's group. This time she is actually fourth in the starting ranks, currently ahead of Ni Hua. Her opening round was a mini-disaster as she lost to 19-year-old IM Wang Chen, but top-seed Wang Yue also fell to reigning champion, 19-year-old Ding Liren, who caught fire and is leading with 3.5/4. Report.

Kramnik on Chess, Anand, Topalov and his future – Part 1

3/31/2012 – "This is an interview I’ve long dreamt about," writes GM Vlad Tkachiev. However: "it’s not easy to wear someone down with tricky, controversial questions when they’re so pleasant – so impeccably polite, even aristocratic..." This long interview, conducted for the Russian news portal WhyChess, last year, starts with Vladimir Kramnik's take on chess and one of his main rivals in the game.

European Championship: Mamedyarov defaulted again, quits tournament

3/30/2012 – The second seed Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, who lost a game owing to the "zero tolerance" rule yesterday, today defaulted by breaking the "Sofia Rule", which does not allow draw offers to be made before move 40, and always through the arbiter. A second game, Baron-Safarli, was similarly defaulted. Mamedyarov quit the tournament and will not be playing in the remaining rounds. What a mess.