1/1/2011 – For strength, the wonderful London Classic now has to rank as Britain's premier chess event, but for any British chessplayer, Christmas means Hastings, and always will. This year's International Chess Congress, the 86th to be held in the sea-lashed British town, sees David Howell in the lead, with four points from four games. FM Steve Giddins reports.

12/31/2010 – ... on the board the late 8th World Champion Mikhail Tal used to attract the admiration of chess enthusiasts all over the world, as well as the reverent title "chess magician from Riga". In this game, however, his opponent showed no fear and took with the bishop on b2. What do you think? This...
A)... gives Black the advantage;
B)... results in perpetual check;
C)... leads to victory for White.
The solution is here, but first ponder over it with a larger version of the diagram.

12/30/2010 – Originally the Arabs brought chess to Europe – now France is paying back the debt with a pilot project in Morocco. The French Chess Federation President and vice-President went to Marrakech to distribute 200,000 pamphlets to school children. Their enthusiasm moved the visitors to tears. Jean-Michel Péchiné, editor of Europe Echecs, sent us this moving pictorial.

12/30/2010 – The 53rd Reggio Emilio Masters is both the last super tournament of 2010 and the first of 2011 as it crosses the boundaries. The event sees the top Italian players as well as an interesting mix of strong 2700 players joining the ranks. At the top is the indefatigable Ivanchuk, not to mention the return of Morozevich to top competition. 'Paco' Vallejo-Pons leads after three rounds. Report with games.

12/30/2010 – Openings with isolated queen pawns often lead to dynamic play from the start. Sometimes even top grandmasters are not invulnerable to mistakes. In this position from the European Rapid Chess Championship, White's 13.Bg5 created the threat 14.Bxf6 followed by 15.Qxh7 mate. Which is the right move to counter this?
A) 13... g6
B) 13... h6
C) 13... Nxe5
The solution is here, but first ponder over it with a larger version of the diagram.

12/29/2010 – It's an age-old tradition – well, it happened for a second time. After the London Chess Classic the players and many prominent personalities from the capital's high society gather in the famous Simpson's-in-the-Strand for the closing ceremony, a sumptuous dinner and an evening of chess. The latter means they play consultation games against the Classic GMs. It's great fun for all involved.

12/29/2010 – The President of Turkish Chess Federation, Ali Nihat Yazici, has just published an open letter, announcing that the Turkish Chess Federation will no longer be organizing the 2011 European Individual Women Chess Championship in Gaziantep (which was scheduled for March 20 to 31). A great pity, since for the first time the prize fund would have matched that of the men. Open letter.

12/28/2010 – The Editor of Chess Notes has contributed over 80 articles to ChessBase, firstly Unsolved Chess Mysteries and then Chess Explorations. A handy A to Z has now been prepared, for ease of reference and as a reminder of the plethora of games, positions, exposés, quips, enigmas, photographs, quotes, compositions and quizzes presented in the two series.

12/28/2010 – Every year in the week before Christmas the ChessBase staff and business partners gather together for a company dinner. This year there was a very special event – which will be shown to you in part two of this report. In part one we present our new office quarters and many of the people who run the company. Pictorial report by Nadja Wittmann.

12/28/2010 – The European Rapid championship took place in Warsaw, Poland, with a field of over 700 players, allowing the casual club player to meet some of the world elite, such as Ivanchuk, Shirov, and Judit Polgar heads-on in competition. Zoltan Almasi prevailed after a 6-way tie was decided in a blitz playoff. The European Blitz Championship saw Vachier-Lagrave take the laurels. Report and miniatures.

12/27/2010 – All the deepest plans or endgame technique are useless if you fall victim to a shot that leaves you in a lost position or you miss the window of opportunity to finish the game, a chance that may only appear once. The positions here are all from recent master and grandmaster practice, representing shots both played and missed. Try your hand at these Master Moves.

12/27/2010 – Even a simple looking pawn ending can turn out to be a hard nut to crack, and sometimes a single, tiny tempo is the margin between a win and a draw. In this example from the European Rapid Chess Championship Black (to move) is in possession of a trump card - the distant passed pawn. The only question is whether  to play it straight away with 40...b3 or whether it is cleverer to hold back with it. Over the board, Black was obliged to take a quick decision. Fortunately for you, you can spend a bit more time on the analysis. As always, you will find the analysis of our endgame expert Dr. Karsten Müller in ChessBase Magazine Online.