4/10/2010 – Not the catchiest of headlines, that – but the Russian teams aren't known for their pretty names. The Championships were played in three groups, the Premier, Higher and Women's Leagues. Sergey Karjakin and Alexander Riazantsev were the top performers amongst the men (2889 and 2885), while Viktorija Cmilyte shone with a 2700 performance amongst the women. Illustrated report.

4/9/2010 – The German Schachbundesliga, the strongest team championships in the world, ends with a shootout this weekend between three contenders, two of whom (Bremen and Solingen) will play each other, while the third, Baden-Baden, plays the fourth in the table. To get in the mood we bring you pictorial impressions of the previous round and a beautiful annotated win by the youngest player.

4/9/2010 – This week too we are serving up some rook endgame knowledge – difficult stuff but very instructive. We have two training questions for you about the position in the diagram:
1. How do you evaluate the position after 104...Kg4?
2. How would you continue as White after 104...Ke4?
Take your time and analyse the position thoroughly, preferably using a board and pieces. If your interest has been awakened, you can carry on by answering the questions which we have put on the diagrams on the following page.

4/8/2010 – Our April 1st story on the Large Hadron Collider was not a joke: it generated a lot of feedback – some quite profound. GM Yasser Seirawan sent us his thoughts on the Fermi paradox, while other readers entreated us to carry more such "enlightening stories that explore the connection of chess to other areas of human endeavor". Don't miss Richard Feynman's story at the end of this feedback page.

4/8/2010 – Thursday is Ivanchuk day. In part two of a three-part discussion with the French chess magazine Europe Echecs the Ukrainian top grandmaster talks (with GM Robert Fontaine) about his his interests and hobbies, his chess preparation, seconds, the Anand-Topalov match, Karpov for FIDE President and his preferred World Championship form. Video interview.

4/8/2010 – This tournament, in Australia's capital, is named after the architect Erich Doeberl, who strongly supported it during his lifetime (it is still named after him). It was a nine-round Swiss Premier open, with close to a record number of participants. The Europeans suffered from jet lag, the locals made norms. Highlight: commentary by Australia's strongest ever player, Ian Rogers. Report by GM Dejan Bojkov.

4/7/2010 – In this week's Playchess lecture Dennis Monokroussos starts whetting our appetite for a feast to come: the World Chess Championship match between defending champ Viswanathan Anand and former FIDE title-holder Veselin Topalov. Both players, Dennis shows us, are willing to play the hottest lines in chess.

4/7/2010 – In the previous years this event consisted of a match between the two strongest Ukrainian chess clubs. This year the organisers decided to instead stage the strongest international woman tournament in the modern Ukrainian history. It was won by IM Anna Ushenina, a point and a half ahead of the field, and with a stellar 2649 performance. Big photo report by Anastasiya Karlovich.

4/6/2010 – Last April the fugitive Serbian banker Jezdimir Vasiljevic was arrested in Holland for submitting false asylum documents. He was on the most wanted list in his country, accused of stealing more than $130 million in a Ponzi scheme. Some of this went to the 1992 rematch between Bobby Fischer and Boris Spassky. On Friday Vasiljevic was extradited to Serbia, as the New York Times reports.

4/6/2010 – These championships are taking place from April 1–10 in Dagomys, Sochi, close to the Russian border with Georgia. The area is famous for its botanical gardens, tea plantations and spectacular scenery, with Caucasus Mountains overlooking the Black Sea. Ten teams are competing in the Premier League, eight in the Higher League and seven in the Women's section. Report after round five.

4/6/2010 – Commentators have remarked that certain masters have favourite moves, an example being Gideon Ståhlberg’s liking for the pawn advance ...c4 in the Queen’s Gambit Declined and the French Defence. The Editor of Chess Notes gives a number of examples of such predilections and invites readers to delve further into the subject on the basis of research with databases.

4/5/2010 – Cementing its status as the epicentre of the chessboxing universe, London’s historic Boston Dome hosted three action-packed fights. Followed by a sell-out 500-strong crowd. It was the first of five UK chessboxing events planned for London in 2010, ably promoted by Tim Woolgar of the GBCBO, in partnership with the WCBO. Pictures by James Bartosik, report by Rajko Vujatovic.