Take the five-minute tactics test on Playchess

3/20/2012 – Many may not realize that there are inherent differences in the versions of Playchess that come either Fritz 13, or ChessBase 11. One function they both provide, that does not come with the standalone Playchess program is the "Tactics training". This adrenaline rush test, is a five-minute quiz in which you must solve as many positions as possible. Find out more and see how well you can do!

University of Texas at Dallas' GM Invitational

3/20/2012 – The University of Texas at Dallas is known for many reasons. It has a fabulous engineering department, backed by Texas Instruments, and its Arts & Technology department works with companies that range from Blizzard to Zynga and Dreamworks, but its pride and joy is its chess team. Their GM Invitational made Conrad Holt America's newest GM. Report by GM Alejandro Ramirez.

Alina L'Ami hears the Call of the North

3/20/2012 – The Reykjavik Open 2012 took place from March 6–13, and our playing correspondent WGM Alina L'Ami sent us a number of beautiful reports from the Icelandic capital. She was obvious so enthralled by the Nordic country, its people and landscape, that she has written one more massively illustrated report. It is filled with a yearning to go back to Reykjavik next year. Maybe we should join her?

Gaziantep: Gunina overtakes Pähtz, wins European Women's Blitz

3/19/2012 – She already won the title in the classical time controls, now Russian IM Valentina Gunina added the Blitz title to it. In the final round she was able to defeat former women's world champion Antoaneta Stefanov 2-0 and overtake the leading Elisabeth Pähtz. The German IM will remain in Turkey, since she has signed a contract to train young talents. Big pictorial report.

Endgame study solving is fun for everybody

3/19/2012 – A fortnight ago we brought you a report on Harold van der Heijden, who had collected 76,132 studies in an electronic database. At the end of the story there was a study by the Dutch endgame expert himself – for you to solve. Simple and elegant it is not quite easy to calculate. Harold explains the solution and tells us about a GM who took just seconds to give the main line.

Schachbundesliga 2011/12 - OSG Baden Baden leads with Anand

3/19/2012 – The world's strongest league nears its end with rounds twelve and thirteen taking place this weekend. Aside from its singularly strong lineups, of particular note in the last two rounds was Anand's participation on behalf of his team OSG Baden Baden, marking possibly his last competitive appearance until his title defense in May. Illustrated report with video comments by Anand and Eljanov.

CBM training: Endgames from Gaziantep

3/18/2012 – The Turkish city is amongst the oldest continually inhabited in the world, but the games in this report are more recent – actually from the European Women's Championship that is still ongoing. Our ChessBase Magazin expert Dr Karsten Müller has been scanning them for interesting and intructive endings, and come up with four examples for your weekend Elo boost.

Xtreme Chess Championships – semifinals

3/18/2012 – In the semifinals of the The Extreme Chess Championships, a made for TV competition, Justus Williams broke Kassa’s own record for the youngest African-American master in history faces Duke University student Kassa Korley in the semi-finals. The second semifinals match featured poker player Alex Barnett and Stanford student, Elliott Liu, in a spectacular attack. Report and episode video.

A journey to the world of chess in Rishon Lezion

3/18/2012 – The Israeli grandmaster Boris Gelfand is almost totally occupied these days with his preparations for the match of his life against World Champion Vishy Anand in May. Nevertheless even in such a busy and tense period he still finds some time to support the intensive chess life of his hometown of Rishon-Lezion. Report by IM Yochanan Afek with a inspiring video chess in the kindergarten.

New ACP emerges with lofty goals and new events

3/17/2012 – The Association of Chess Professionals was founded in 2003 to protect chess professionals’ rights and promote their activities worldwide. After an optimistic start the ACP slowly seemed to run out of steam and display a lack of motivation or new ideas. That is set to change now, with a new board, initiatives and events – like an exciting new Women's World Championships in Rapid and Blitz.

ChessBase Magazine 146 – 'my latest favorite toy'

3/16/2012 – Normally I watch each product at least three times before writing my review," says Steven B. Dowd in Chess Cafe. "However, there was so much interesting material on ChessBase Magazine #146, I had to soften that approach. I can't imagine a better chess bargain than this product." He gives our electronic periodical, which appears on DVD, 6/6 stars in his review.

Mikhalchishin: Bishop against Knight

3/16/2012 – Which of these pieces is stronger in the endgame? Nowadays players usually prefer the bishop, but that wasn't always the case. Chigorin and his followers preferred to play with the knight. The famous chess trainer GM Adrian Mikhalchishin shares this preference and tells you exactly why on this 60 Minutes Trainer, which you can download in our shop. Review by GM Hedinn Steingrimsson

Lady Levity

3/16/2012 – In this position White played 35.Bh5, planning after 35...Rxh6 36.Bxf7 to activate her bishop and open lines against the enemy king. How should Black continue now?
A) 36...Rxh1
B) 36...g4
C) 36...Rf6
Two losers, one winning move!
ChessBase Magazine, larger diagram and solution.

Endless Tactics Positions with Fritz 13

3/16/2012 – Tactics are the building blocks of chess, without which strategy will fall flat on its face, and for this reason regularly working on tactical test suites is always of interest. While you can buy any number, whether from the ChessBase Shop, books, or other, Fritz 13 also provides the means to easily construct endless new ones for you to test yourself. Learn how in this tutorial.

Gaziantep: Tatiana Kosintseva wins European Rapid

3/16/2012 – The two-day European Women's Rapid Chess Championship saw two Russians on the winners' rostrum: GM Tatiana Kosintseva won with 9.0/11 points, followed by GM Alexandra Kosteniuk and German IM Elisabeth Pähtz, both with 8.5/11 points, but Kosteniuk taking Silver on tiebreak points. We bring you pictures and highlights. This weekend is the Blitz Championship.

Judith Polgar: Queen among the Kings

3/15/2012 – Angie's Diary is an online writing magazine and resource to allow published authors and aspiring writers to be read, published and sell more books. The site is interesting because there are a number of original articles on chess. Yesterday there was one on Judit Polgar, written by the English Professor Andrew J. Sacks, who kindly gave us permission to reproduce it on our site.

Edward Winter's Chess Explorations (80)

3/15/2012 – Chessplayers love a challenge, and earlier this month the Editor of Chess Notes set what seemed an almost impossible one: to decipher Bobby Fischer’s score-sheet of his hitherto unknown victory over Svetozar Gligorić in a 1992 training game. Luc Winants of Belgium rose magnificently to the challenge, but are any improvements still possible to his reconstruction? Over to our readers...

Master Moves #23 - Cappelle-La-Grande

3/15/2012 – 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 are from Cappelle-La-Grande. Will you be crowned in this contest?

Young Idani wins 10th Khazar Cup

3/14/2012 – The Guilan Province, which is located in the north of Iran, has a lot of natural attractions, such as the great Caspian Sea and the Hyrcanian Forests, but is also home to most of the famous Iranian chess players. They recently held the 10th Kahazar Cup, with nearly 50 titled players, and ended in a fantastic victory for 16-year-old IM Pouya Idani from Iran. An illustrated report by Shohreh Bayat.

Battle for “Migingo” in Nairobi

3/14/2012 – Nairobi Chess Club continues to make waves in African chess. In 2009 it organized the first Internet match against the famous Wageningen Chess Club, which had Jan Timman on board one. This year the long awaited match against the Uganda National the match affectionately called “The Battle for Migingo”. Big and sometimes startling report by Kim Bhari.

Gaziantep: Muzychuk falters, Gunina wins EIWCC title

3/14/2012 – It was a thrilling final round. The Slovenian GM Anna Muzychuk was in the lead by a full point, but suffered a defeat at the hands of the Russian IM Valentina Gunina. At the same time a super-aggressive game by Tatiana Kosentseva allowed her to join the top group with 8.5/11 points each. Gunina won the title on tiebreak. The event continues with Rapid and Blitz, so stay tuned.

Endgame Magic with GM Karsten Müller and GM Daniel King

3/14/2012 – Endgame knowledge is not easy to acquire and is thus a valuable weapon. In his Endgame Magic Show on Playchess, the renowned endgame expert GM Karsten Müller assists you with a bunch of practical endgames. He shows how to handle the positions, which will help improve your practical results. The special guest will be GM Daniel King. An example and more information.

Historical material on Euwe and Capablanca

3/13/2012 – The Dutch channel Geschiedenis 24 specializes in historic archive footage, which is provided on cable and satellite – but also on the Internet. G24 has happily dug into its chess holdings and put some remarkable material online. We start with a portrait of the former World Champion Max Euwe, which includes a segment with José Raúl Capablanca talking. A treasure trove.

ChessBase 11: finding top theoretical novelty

3/13/2012 – Do you know the option "Theoretical weight" in our database program? Steven Dowd shows theory fans how to use just a few clicks to scour games from recent tournaments for TNs. "Based on games I knew had important TNs, I found that the database handled it with great accuracy for the most part," he writes, giving the program 6/6 stars in his latest Chess Cafe review.