Thirty years later – Makro tells it all

11/7/2011 – He's been in the middle of chess politics for almost thirty years now, the mercurial second-in-charge of FIDE. Deputy President Georgios Makropoulos was in the middle of everything when the infamous "toiletgate" scandal broke, and watched some of FIDE's commercial enterprises go down the drain. In this yard-long interview "Makro" speaks about it all – in typically candid and provocative fashion.

ETCC R3: Azerbaijan, Spain lead, Russian women dominate

11/6/2011 – After shocking England in the second round of the open section the Greece hosts succumb to higher rated Azerbaijan in the third round. Tournament favourites Russia were held to a draw by lower rated Netherlands, so plenty of fight remains in the open section with uncompromising play all around. The Russian women’s team continued its rampage. Round three report.

ChessBase Tutorial: Indian Defences

11/6/2011 – This month in the Chess Cafe Steven Dowd looks at "an ingenious way for people to become acquainted with an opening." He confesses he has never seen this type of product before and "being an old-school skeptic, I wondered how well a video could introduce a player to opening structures." After working through the product he comes to the conclusion that the DVD deserves five stars out of six.

ETCC R4: Germany and Bulgaria triumph, Germany leads

11/6/2011 – Normally we are scheduled to cover the European Team Championship after every second round. But round four was so interesting that we are slipping it in. The sensations: Russia was soundly defeated by Bulgaria 3-1, and even more sensationally: Germany beat Ukraine 3½-½ to take the overall lead in the event. We bring you the most interesting games in our round four extra report.

FIDE ratings – big gains by Radjabov and Morozevich

11/5/2011 – The top has a new occupant: Azeri GM Teimour Radjabov took a 29-point leap from 13th to place five, while Alexander Morozevich gained 25 points to move from place seventeen to nine. Amongst the women's the sensation is of course GM Zhao Xue, who has gained 61 points from 22 games in the last two months. Carlsen, Anand, Aronian and Kramnik remain at the top. November 2011 ratings.

CBM Endgame training: Which way to go + knight tactics

11/5/2011 – GM Karsten Müller's endgame instructions in ChessBase Magazine are extremely popular, and earning numerous players quite a few additional rating points in practical tournament play. Today Dr Müller concentrates turns his attention to knight manoeuvres, with examples derived from recent international games. This a free weekend lesson in endgame technique.

Grivas: Chess Expertise Step by Step

11/5/2011 – Greek grandmaster Efstratios Grivas is a highly experienced chess trainer and chess author. He has participated in the ChessBase sponsored program of training sessions for talented young players. In addition he has recorded a number of training DVDs, the latest of which deals with rook handling in the endgame, with four hours of personal video instructions. Do not miss this one.

Sicilian Tactics

11/4/2011 – Black has driven the white c3-knight to e2 with 18...b4. The strike 19...Nxe4 20.Qxe4 Bxg5 (with the idea ...Bc6) now ultimately leads to what?

A) piece win for White;
B) plus exchange for Black;
C) a roughly balanced ending.

The solution is here, but first ponder over it with a larger version of the diagram.

European Team Chess Championship starts in Halkidiki

11/4/2011 – This nine-round Swiss, which will run from November 4-12, has a total of 38 countries in the open and 28 in the women's section. In round one on Thursday the top seed Russia squeaked out a win over Moldova, ranking 20th, while the Russian women – actually the Kosintseva sisters – demolished the Israelis 3-1. We bring you a richly illustrated round one report.

Whoah! We're Going To Ibiza

11/3/2011 – Ibiza (or Eivissa) is a Spanish island in the Mediterranean Sea, 79 km off the coast of the city of Valencia in Spain. It is known as the Party Capital of the world, but also for its beautiful Mediterranean scenery and climate. The Eivissa Chess Festival, which was held there, was comfortably won by Dutch GM Erwin l'Ami (7.5/8 points). His wife, WGM Alina l'Ami, sent us this lovely pictorial report.

White Mouse Sebag wins trip to Bejing

11/3/2011 – The qualifier for a fully funded trip to the SportAccord World Mind Games in Bejing (December 8-16), which was held on the Playchess server, was won by a player called Sourisblanche – white mouse in French. Turns out this is Marie Sebag, former wonder girl and at 25 a full grandmaster, who outplayed her very strong but tiring rivals from Asia and Russia. Congratulations Marie!

Edward Winter's Chess Explorations (72)

11/3/2011 – The Editor of Chess Notes turns his attention to one of chess history’s most famous games, a 15-move miniature from the nineteenth century which features ‘Boden’s Mate’. The books contain a large amount of contradictory information about when the game was played, and a particular mystery is the exact identity of Boden’s opponent. The chess historian investigates.

Chess classes for convicts in Brazil

11/2/2011 – It is an inspiring story: a chess trainer, Walter Ferreira Jr., has been working with the inmates of a correctional facility in Itaúna-MG, Brazil, where he has installed a library of chess books and the students play with sets they have fashioned out of bottle caps. The lessons are keenly followed, as is the lecture and simul of a visiting master. The project is drawing international attention.

Anand wins Corsican Masters Knockout

11/1/2011 – The fourteen top players from the Corsican Open were joined by two seeded world-class grandmaster for the Masters Knockout. The latter showed why they sit on the top of international rating lists by going through to the final. There World Champion Vishy Anand outplayed Azeri Super-GM Shakhriyar Mamedyarov with a clean 2-0 result. Annotations by GM Elshan Moradiabadi.

Now it's official: Kasparov is training Nakamura

11/1/2011 – Some knew, some thought they knew, and speculation was rampant during the Grand Slam Final in São Paulo and Bilbao. Yes, Garry Kasparov, who famously trained Magnus Carlsen, is now working with Hikaru Nakamura. The real story is in the details, straight from the protagonists themselves, and you can find them in the latest issue of New in Chess Magazine.

15th Corsican Circuit – final Anand vs Mamedyarov on Monday

10/31/2011 – The Open tournament was won by Indian GM Krishnan Sasikiran, half a point ahead of English GM Gawain Jones and a full point clear of the rest of the field. In the Corsica Masters Knockout "Sasi" gave his compatriot Vishy Anand a scare, but the World Champion went throught to the final against Azeri GM Shakhriyar Mamedyarov. The match starts at 2 p.m. Report with videos.

Fritz 13 and Let's Check – Lesson one: getting started

10/31/2011 – You have ordered Fritz 13, on DVD or as a download in the ChessBase Shop. And you have heard a lot about the new Let's Check function. How do you get started? In our tutorial series we begin with some very basic instructions on how to activate the program and then take a few initial steps into the world of cloud computing. Too daunting? Take a look – it's easier than you think.

Iran, Seirawan and the incorrect chessboard

10/30/2011 – A number of recent articles published on our news page have raised serious questions. Should players who boycott colleagues from certain countries be punished with disqualification? Are Yasser Seirawan's thoughts on the current state of chess endorsable? What was behind the photo-shoot error of two high-ranking German politicians. Entertaining, thought provoking feedback from our readers.

Endgame lessons at the Chigorin Memorial 2011

10/29/2011 – The annual M. Chigorin International Chess Festival was held in the Hotel Azimut from October 12-22 in St. Petersburg, with a rapid tournament and, of greater interest to us, a nine-round Swiss with classical time controls. It was won with a clear half-point lead by GM Dmitry Bocharov. We use the opportunity to give you your weekly point-winning endgame lesson by GM Karsten Müller.

Seirawan's comeback – his views on the chess world today

10/28/2011 – Yasser Seirawan is something of a legend: World Junior Champion in 1979, four times US Champion, he has played played all the chess greats. In 2007 the Syrian born US grandmaster stopped playing competitive chess, but has now returned to the game, last week coming joint first in the Barcelona GM. After this success he gave IM Anna Matnadze an extensive, must-read interview.

CHESS Magazine: Starry, Starry Knights

10/28/2011 – This is the story of GM Stuart Conquest’s adventurous summer, losing his belongings in Switzerland but finding the grave of a famous chessplayer in London. He did some digging (literally!) and found out a lot more about the player, and a world famous artist who was in London at the same time and may have crossed his path. Read all about it in the latest issue of CHESS Magazine.

Reminder: SportAccord World Mind Games qualifier on Saturday

10/28/2011 – As previously reported – from December 8-16 a special Mind Games event is being staged in the capital of China, with the disciplines bridge, chess, draughts, go and xiangqi. In the chess section there are players like Karjakin, Ivanchuk, Ponomariov, Grischuk and Kamsky. Would you like to attend? You can, by taking part in a special Playchess qualifier on Saturday, October 29.

Andrew Martin – First Steps in Defence

10/27/2011 – Everyone knows that attacking in chess is fun, but do you realise that the same can be said about defence? Especially if it is raised to the level of an art, as defined and described by an internationally know chess trainer, IM Andrew Martin from England, who gives us a lot of precious tips that will help you to save many valuable half points. Brand new training DVD.

Move by move – politicians playing chess

10/27/2011 – A new book is creating quite a discussion in Germany. It is about two politicians, one a former chancellor of the country (1974 to 1982), the other quite plausibly a future chancellor (2013–), one 93 years old and razor sharp in his mind, the other, 64, a preeminent critic of global predatory capitalism. Both are chess players and the book uses a game motif on its cover. Take a closer look.