The king's way

1/6/2011 – Bishop endings when both are of the same colour are often extremely drawish, since after all the bishop can only go on to half of the squares on the board. Thus in this game from the Schaakfestival in Groningen a draw would have been unavoidable after  40...b3? 41.Bc1 Bxe5 42.Bb2. But over the board the Dutch grandmaster Sipke Ernst found a much better move, which leads by force to a position in which the choice of the correct route for the king is decisive. Can you also see which liquidation he chose? You will find analysis of the endgame by GM Dr. Karsten Müller at ChessBase Magazine Online.

Indians Sengupta and Das win Hastings

1/6/2011 – In a dramatic last round at the Sussex seaside it was the Indian players Deep Sengupta and Arghyadip Das who emerged as joint winners of the 2010/11 Hastings Masters. The first-named faced the overnight leader, Romain Edouard, on top board and played a splendid attacking game against the French GM's Sicilian. Steve Giddins reports on rounds 7-9.

Reggio Emilia - Gashimov beats Paco and catches up

1/5/2011 – After watching Vallejo Pons take off with a 3.5/4 start, and the rest of the field parked at a squalid 50%, it seemed as if the Spaniard was all but assured of the tournament victory. However, Azerbaidjani Gashimov had other ideas and scored 3.5/4 in the last rounds including a shattering win over Paco himself to tie for the lead. It is anyone's guess for the last two rounds. Illustrated report.

Arte: through the night with...

1/5/2011 – Garry Kasparov, who requires no introduction on the news page, and Peter Andreas Thiel, a German-born American entrepreneur and venture capitalist who was instrumental in founding or promoting companies like PayPal, Facebook and LinkedIn (and is a 2300 strength chess player). The two spent a day together in New York, and the European TV network Arte recorded the event.

Monokroussos: ChessBase Tutorials 1 – Open Games review

1/5/2011 – The new ChessBase Tutorials have been top sellers in this Christmas season. Rather than focusing in great detail on a particular variation or opening, each opening tutorial offers a broad overview of an entire family of openings. The discs include 24 video clips (actually, 48: 24 in English and 24 in German) running approximately five hours. Review by Dennis Monokroussos + video sample.

The ChessBase Christmas Party – part 2

1/4/2011 – Last week we told you about the ChessBase Christmas party – but left one part of the report pending: the special guest we had invited to give the our staff, friends and business partners a seasonally heart-warming musical experience. The guest was an actress, singer, composer and book author, who gave us a preview of songs from her next album. Vaile at ChessBase.

A race or zugzwang?

1/3/2011 – Rook endings in which both sides have passed pawns can be very sharp, and today's example from recent tournament praxis is hard to evaluate.  White can

- play 54.h6 and bet on the race between the passed pawns, 
- send his g-pawn forwards with 54.g5
- or else put Black in zugzwang with 54.Re8. Which move would you choose?

You can find the analysis by Dr. Karsten Müller in ChessBase Magazine Online.

Hastings: Howell caught by Edouard, Shyam and Prasanna

1/3/2011 – Round 5 of the 2010/11 Hastings Masters saw a thoroughly bloodthirsty day's play, including an absolute thriller in which David Howell won his fifth game in succession. In the sixth round, however, the young Brit played a feeble Benoni and lost to rating top seed Romain Edouard. Both players now share the top of the score table with two Indian IMs. Report by Steve Giddins.

Reggio Emilia - Paco blasts Short and leads with 3013 performance

1/2/2011 – While Nigel Short had seemed constantly to rise from the ashes in his games, Vallejo-Pons had been the most inspired player so far. Their game confirmed the Spaniard's great form as he played an exceptional game, winning with a beautiful middlegame melee. On the rest day, Morozevich started his year with a win over Navara, joining Short and five others on 50%. Illustrated round four report.

GM title for Illya Nyzhnyk in Groningen

1/1/2011 – Just three months and two days after his 14th birthday the Ukrainian prodigy held GM Abhijeet Gupta to a draw. It was the penultimate round of the Groningen Chess Festival, but young Illya had enough points to secure his final GM norm, making him the currently youngest grandmaster in the world, and the eleventh youngest in history. Illustrated report.

FIDE ratings January 2011: Carlsen regains the number one slot

1/1/2011 – Magnus Carlsen was the world's top player from January to November 2010, when he was overtaken by World Champion Viswanathan Anand. In the past two months Anand gained six more points, but the 20-year-old picked up twelve to regain his top ranking. Magnus' perennial rival Sergey Karjakin gained 16 points to enter the top-five bracket. January 1st 2011 FIDE rankings.

Hastings after round four

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.

On New Year's Eve: fireworks on the board

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.

Chess comes to Marrakech – for a second time

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.

Reggio Emilia sees return of Morozevich; Paco leads with 2.5/3

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.

Test your IQ(P) II

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.

London Chess Classic – the Simpson's simul

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.

Turkish Chess Federation cancels European Women Championship

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.

Edward Winter's Chess Explorations (55)

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.

The ChessBase Christmas Party – part 1

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.

European Rapid and Blitz championships

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.

Master Moves #1

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.

The tragedy of a single tempo

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.

Christmas greetings with music and puzzles

12/25/2010 – We wish all our readers and friends, all over the world, a Merry Christmas 2010, wherever they are and in whatever language they speak. The greetings are sent to you from snow-covered Hamburg, in the north of Europe frozen to a standstill, with thousands stranded at airports and train stations, trying desperately to get to their loved ones. Here is something to cheer them up.