CBM training: Endgames from Tata Steel

1/16/2012 – Our endgame expert GM Karsten Müller, whose ChessBase Magazine section you probably know, turns his eye on the big event in Wijk aan Zee. Today he provides three instructive endings, one from each of the groups A–C, dealing with Aronian's army (Aronian-Nakamura), to exchange or not to exchange (Harikrishna-Lahno), and the power of prophylaxis (Tikkanen-Brandenburg). Learn and enjoy.

Wijk aan Zee Rd3: Carlsen beats Aronian to snatch lead

1/16/2012 – It was the clash of the titans as the top two players in the world bumped heads for first place. Magnus Carlsen scored an impressive win over Levon Aronian as he slowly built up an advantage into a convincing win. Radjabov joined Caruana and Aronian in second after a blunder by Navara. Both Harikrishna and Turov lead Group B and C respectively with 3.0/3. Illustrated report with video.

Live rating list of chess players’ earnings?

1/15/2012 – For some years now live ratings lists of the world's top players – calculated on a day-by-day basis – have become popular. Recently a live list for top female players was set up, and now one interested player and manager proposes a third list: one that tracks the earnings of the top chess stars, just like in many other sports. An interesting proposal that requires helping hands.

Wijk aan Zee: Aronian off to a 2.0/2 start, Caruana beats Karjakin

1/15/2012 – Two decisive results, and two extremes. Levon Aronian declared that it was time to take his game to another level (some of us mistakenly thought 2800 was another level), and after a veritable see-saw battle against Nakamura, he had the last word and is on 2.0/2. Fabiano Caruana joined the chasers with 1.5 after he beat Karjakin, who is now on a worrisome 0.0/2 start. Report with video analysis.

Susan Polgar in South Africa

1/14/2012 – The Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University in Port Elisabeth hosted the 2011 South African Junior Chess Championship, in which an impressive 1800+ youths participated. Efforts such as this have led to South Africa's first WGM, Melissa Greeff. To help promote chess there, Susan Polgar was invited to provide a simul as well as give a seminar on "Women in Chess". A pictorial report.

Wijk aan Zee: Carlsen, Aronian, and Giri are first to score

1/14/2012 – It was a day for the young up-and-comers, though with Carlsen and Aronian in the top two, perhaps up-and-camers is more appropriate. Carlsen had an edge in an endgame against Gashimov, and sure enough weaseled his way into a win. Aronian beat Karjakin with black in a complicated and exciting game, while Giri ground down Gelfand after 70 moves. Illustrated report with videos.

Feedback on the ICGA/Rybka disqualification scandal

1/13/2012 – It's a long read, but many of the letters we received in reaction to the defence of the Rybka program by Dr Søren Riis are quite passionate and well thought out in their content. We start with the summary of a long rebuttal of the Riis paper that was sent to us by the ICGA and circulated on the Internet – with links to the full version and ancillary documents. Take a deep breath.

David Friedgood: solutions to the chess problems

1/13/2012 – Last week our new problem expert, David Friedgood from England, introduced himself and presented four problems for our readers to solve. Two were from his earliest days as a composer, and two classical gems. Today he presents the solutions, carefully explained in every aspect. We can only stand in wonder at the beauty of this unique domain of chess. Don't miss.

Clearing work

1/13/2012 – It's nice to attack with such a magnificent white knight on f5, on the other hand here the black king also has two defensive knights for his protection. Asked concretely - what does the sacrifice 27.Rxf6+ lead to in this position?
A) victory for White;
B) perpetual;
C) advantage for Black. 

ChessBase Magazine, larger diagram and solution.

The World's Greatest Party – New Year celebrations in Rio de Janeiro

1/13/2012 – For nearly two years, Albert Silver has written articles, reports, how-to guides, and reviews for ChessBase, signed and unsigned, as the co-editor of the English site. Here is an introduction, in his own words, to this Brazilian polyglot we have welcomed to the ChessBase family. With it, he shares a report on the New Year celebrations in Rio de Janeiro, providing numerous pictures and a video.

CBM training: Knight dance, light initiative, hiding place

1/12/2012 – Did you watch his Endgame Magic Show? If you missed it you can still profit from the instructions provided by endgame expert Dr Karsten Müller in his popular ChessBase Magazine section. Today he provides two instructive endings from the Hastings Congress that ended last week – and a ladies' encounter in the Romanian league. Learn and enjoy.

Christmas puzzles prize contest: closing date is Sunday!

1/12/2012 – Our yearly puzzle week brought us, as usual, a sack-load of emails. From January 1st to 15th they will be counted as entries to our prize contest, where you can win a signed and dedicated book and programs autographed by world champions.You increase your chances by solving the brain teaser. In addition we show you a truly unbelievable optical illusion.

All about Basque – Interview with GM Feliz Izeta

1/12/2012 – The Donostia Chess Festival has just ended. It used the innovative and dynamic "Basque system", a world's first. Not only did the participants play two games at the same time; if they lost in the knock-out format the event was not over. Anastasiya Karlovich talks to the organizer and person responsible for making this idea a reality: GM Feliz Izeta, who discusses all that is Basque.

ChessBase DVDs – The Art of the Exchange Sacrifice

1/11/2012 – This month in Chess Cafe Steven B. Dowd is reviewing ChessBase DVDs that "show the power of original ideas in chess, their categorization, and learning how strong players formulate and classify these ideas will make you a better player." In the current review he looks at Ari Ziegler's DVD, which gets only four stars ("good") because of certain shortcomings, but actually deserves six.

Chess in the US in the eyes of the English

1/11/2012 – The 21st North American Open, 26-29 December 2011, was held in Las Vegas and won by Spanish GM Francisco Vallejo Pons with an undefeated 6/7 score. GMs Varuzhan Akobian, Ivan Sokolov and untitled Roman Yankovsky finished 2nd-4th with 5½/7. British chess teacher Sabrina Chevannes was in the city of lights and sent us her impressions in this pictorial report.

Gott Nytt Ar!!! Shimanov wins 41st Rilton Cup in Stockholm

1/10/2012 – This beautiful event was won by Russian GM Aleksandr Shimanov, who is also a singing talent. Our reporter Alina l'Ami started with a 1-0-1-0-1-0-1 tic-tac-toe score, but then drew a game and won her last one to pocket her third IM norm. Amazing, since the Romanian WGM spent a lot of time exploring the delights of the Swedish capital. Here's her big illustrated report.

Endgame Magic with GM Karsten Müller

1/10/2012 – Endgame knowledge is not easy to acquire and thus a valuable weapon to have. In his Endgame Magic Show on Playchess.com, renowned endgame expert GM Karsten Müller helps you to hone your endgame skills with a bunch of practical endgames. He shows how to handle these positions, which will help to improve your practical results. Example and more information!

Gashimov wins Donostia Blitz tournament!

1/10/2012 – Why the exclam? Because it was not Vugar Gashimov, the super-GM rated 2761 and ranked number nien in the world, who went through the high-class field of 13 GMs, three rated over 2700. It was rather his older brother and manager Sakhan, who does not have a FIDE title and is rated 2351 (= 3834th in the world). Final report by WGM Anastasiya Karlovich.

Wijk Aan Zee: Tata Steel Super-GM tournament starts soon!

1/10/2012 – The Wijk Aan Zee Super-GM tournament starts January 13, and brings a record 2754.5 Elo average, with Carlsen, Aronian, Topalov, Nakamura, as well as juniors Giri and Caruana. The B and C events include eight female players as well as Timman and Nyzhnyk in the B group, and comeback kid Sadler in the C group. Playchess will have live commentators with King, Seirawan, Pelletier and Trent.

Gender differences in chess

1/9/2012 – A new and very commendable women's live rating list of top players is being maintained by the Russian chess news portal ChessPro. Fired by this list we did a little additional research to find out how many female players there are in the top 100 and top 1000. What would you estimate? And what are the possible reasons for the superiority of males in certain intellectual activities? Latest research.

Master Moves #21 - Hastings special

1/9/2012 – 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 were played at the Hastings Chess Congress. Try your hand at harrying the Hastings hostiles!

Hastings Congress 2011/12 won by GM Wang Yue

1/8/2012 – Aside from national championships, the Hastings Congress is the longest running chess tournament in history, with a tradition going back to 1919, won by Capablanca. Over the years, the grand event has seen almost every world champion (except Fischer and Kasparov), and the ultimate who's who of greats. This year Chinese GM Wang Yue added his name to the illustrious list of winners.

ChessBase DVDs – The Battleground of Ideas

1/7/2012 – This month in Chess Cafe Steven B. Dowd is reviewing opening, middlegame, and endgame DVDs by ChessBase, starting with Sergei Tiviakov's Scandinavian. "This is one of those rare trainers that actually gives insight into the grandmaster's lab" he writes, adding that for counter-punchers who like activity as Black the opening is perfect and the six-star DVD too good to pass up.

David Friedgood: introducing myself

1/7/2012 – Chess problems are a world of their own. They share with chess the rules of the game, but introduce dimensions that are missing in the over-the-board version. We are glad to welcome a new contributor to our somewhat sporadic section on problem chess, which was nevertheless very popular with our readers. We wish you happy solving over the weekend.