3/16/2010 – The third round started with a misunderstanding: Magnus Carlsen wanted to key in a move in the blindfold game but found 1.e4 already on the screen for his opponent Peter Svidler. Magnus did not know he had black! But never mind, after a shot of orange juice he went on to demolish Svidler 2-0. Aronian also did a 2-0 round against Jan Smeets. Ivanchuk leads overall. Round three report.

3/16/2010 – 18-year-old Niclas Huschenbeth showed great fighting spirit in coming from number 16 in the starting list to take the German championship title. Karsten Müller has selected and analysed one of the endgames of the new champion for ChessBase Magazine Online. This endgame is further proof that the young player from Hamburg prefers to fight out his games till the very last minute since during the tournament he turned down six offers of draws from his opponents. Here too he scored the full point with black, although White had drawing chances. But at the end of the game the domination by the bishop can be seen clearly.

3/16/2010 – After nine round Ian Nepomniachtchi was sole leader in the open group, with 7.5/9, followed by no less than seven other players on 7.0/9 and a further eleven on 6.5/9. So what would they all do? Nepomniachtchi drew in 14 moves, and two of his main rivals in 16. Thank heavens for the women, where the top boards brought in decisive results. The hero and leader was Lithuanian IM Viktorija Cmilyte.

3/15/2010 – The youngest and oldest players took painful 0-2 defeats on the first day in the Amber Blindfold and Rapid tournament. On the second day both bounced back with 2-0 wins. Magnus Carlsen demolished defending champion Levon Aronian, Gelfand fared similarly with Azeri GM Vugar Gashimov. Vasily Ivanchuk and Ruslan Ponomariov are in the lead in the overall standings with 3.0/4. Round two report.

3/15/2010 – The German weekly news magazine Der Spiegel is the largest and most influential in Europe. At irregular intervals it turns its spotlight on chess. Today's edition has an unprecedented three-page interview with the world's number one player, with questions regarding general intelligence, chess talent, work ethics and his chess trainer Garry Kasparov. Interesting new insights.

3/14/2010 – So far two candidates have declared their intention to run for President of the European Chess Union: the President of the Turkish Chess Federation Ali Nihat Yazici, and the Bulgarian IM and manager Silvio Danailov. GM Robert Fontaine from Europe Echecs spoke to both candidates. Danailov also revealed that at the World Championship match against Anand Topalov will not accept or offer draws.

3/10/2010 – 168 players took part in the biggest chess festival of closed tournaments in France, with seventeen groups, from the A Group (ten players, average 2526 Elo) all the way to the last group with an average Elo of about 1300. Israeli GM Evgeny Postny won first place with 6.0/9. The venue, the “Conseil General”, is normally reserved for local government meetings. IM Christophe Philippe reports.

3/8/2010 – This event is taking place from March 6th to 18th 2010 in Rijeka, Croatia. Top players include Almasi, Bacrot, Movsesian, Navara, Vallejo, Motylev, Adams, Tomashevsky, Alekseev, Baadur, Naiditsch, Akopian, Volokitin, Bologan and Caruana. After two rounds 34 players have perfect scores, in the women's section it is 17. The venue is spectacular: see if you can read its name from space.

3/8/2010 – At the New York, 1889 tournament a master lost a game by forfeit after only eight moves because he was, in the words of a newspaper report, ‘laboring under excitement’. The Editor of Chess Notes looks at three great players with reputations for heavy dependency on alcohol, examining how they have been treated by contemporaries and subsequent writers.

3/6/2010 – Here's another puzzle from our early-pictures scrapbook: who is the child in this photo? He was a boy prodigy, who at the sensational age of nineteen became the youngest grandmaster in the world. He has beaten twelve world champions. He lives in Europe and unlike his compatriots speaks flawless English. In our report we provide you with a few more or less helpful clues.

3/5/2010 – ... the German chess fans had the pleasure of watching at the last Bundesliga weekend in Heidelberg, when Vishy Anand's club OSG Baden-Baden had to acknowledge their first defeat of the season versus title contender Werder Bremen. This is his white game from Sunday. How would you assess the situation after 23...Qxe5? A) White is in trouble since the bishop f7 can't move; B) this piece can be unpinned, but Black has no problems whatsoever; C) White wins by force.

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

3/5/2010 – Actually at thirteen years and eleven months, but still according to our calculations the fifth youngest player in history to gain the title. Richárd did it in spite of a last-round loss to chess legend Lajos Portisch, who is almost 60 years older than the lad. The tournament was held in Hungary and was won by Alexander Beliavsky. Congratulations to the new GM.