4/21/2009 – The 2009 PWC Toronto Open Chess Championship took place from April 17th to 19th, 2009 – five rounds Swiss, prize fund $17,000+, entry fee $90 + bring your own clocks. Two players, Russian GM Bator Sambuev, 2498, and US GM Joshua Friedel took first place, with 5.0/5 points, leaving the likes of Nakamura, Perelshteyn and Shabalov in their wake. Illustrated report and games.

4/21/2009 – In 1963 the artist Marcel Duchamp posed for a picture at the Pasadena Art Museum in which he played a game of chess against a naked model. Inspired by this picture and the circumstances surrounding it two-time US Women's Champion WGM Jennifer Shahade, who has worked on a book on Duchamp, engaged in a one-sided nude chess game at the Philidelphia Soundstages. Here's the video.

4/20/2009 – Magnificent Chess Limited (MCL) is a new and innovative enterprise to revolutionize the mindset of Jamaican people and their Caribbean neighbours, through the democratization of the art of learning, teaching and playing chess. The organisers hosted a tournament which was duly won by the only GM in the Master's section, Alfonso Romero Holmes. Big pictorial report from Jamaica.

4/19/2009 – A day of surprise results: Vladimir Akopian, who has been languishing with 1.0/4 alone at the bottom of the table, beat second-placed Gata Kamsky in a titanic R+B vs R ending over 98 moves (Kamsky missed a number of drawing chances, the simplest on move 93). Vassily Ivanchuk self-destructed with the white pieces in 25 moves against Rustam Kasimdzhanov. Report with commentary.

4/18/2009 – Just before the time control Peter Svidler sacrificed an exchange and messed up his position. He defended tenaciously, but his opponent Gata Kamsky ground him down in 74 moves. All other games were drawn, Alexander Grischuk leads the event with 3.0/4 points. Full report with pictures and commentary – and excerpts from an interesting interview with Boris Spassky.

4/17/2009 – High drama at the Fourth FIDE Grand Prix: Sergey Karjakin took the 2-0 leader Levon Aronian to the cleaners in a 34-move slugfest; Alexander Grischuk continued his excellent form with a win over Rustam Kasimdzhanov (in time trouble); Alekseev outplayed Eljanov and Leko did the same to Akopian. We bring you pictures plus commentary by birthday boy Sergey Shipov.

4/16/2009 – For the third time we bring you a "final report" on the Russian Team Championship and Leagues in Dagomys-Sochi, southern Russian. It features pictures taken mainly after the end of the event – prize giving and medal distribution, the closing party. There are a number of faces you probably have not seen before. Here's a megabyte and a half of pictures by Irina Sudakova and Elena Mikheeva.

4/16/2009 – Peter Svidler profited from an over-optimistic combination that didn't work, unleashed by Vassily Ivanchuk. Levon Aronian nursed a small advantage into a promising knight endgame in which he won in 94 moves ("a perfect endgame, a textbook example of converting the advantage" – Shipov). It was Aronian's second win in two rounds. All other games were drawn. Pictures and GM commentary.

4/15/2009 – In 2004 he won the FIDE world championship in Tripoli, knocking out an insane gauntlet of players, including Vassily Ivanchuk, Alexander Grischuk, Veselin Topalov and Michael Adams. Last year the Uzbek GM assisted Vishy Anand, decisively, in defending the World Championship title. Our Playchess lecturer Dennis Monokroussos shows us an instructive attacking game by the king-maker.

4/15/2009 – It is no simple business for World Champion Anand whenever he has to appear on first board in the Bundesliga against a player who has 180 Elo points less, and when he, Anand, has Black. The pressure on him to win the game is naturally even greater. In his game against Solingen’s Daniel Stellwagen, he accomplished his task with a flourish. The variation which was up for discussion had already been treated by our authors Evgeny Postny and Igor Stohl in their articles in CBM 117. The move chosen by the young Dutch player, 13.Bb5, is called picturesque by one of them and spectacular by the other, but both of them had pointed out the forced draw after 13…hxg5. More ...

4/15/2009 – The fourth FIDE Grand Prix Tournament started with a number of exciting games. Alexander Grischuk outplayed Boris Gelfand very nicely, while Lev Aronian crushed Shakhriyar Mamedyarov with the black pieces in 32 moves. Gata Kamsky hung on for dear life in a very grim position against Peter Leko and held a draw in 121 moves. Round one report with a wrap-up by GM Sergey Shipov

4/14/2009 – The 11th European Senior Team Championship in Velden, Austria, ended with a convincing Gold for the Russian team. Silver and Bronze went to Switzerland and Finland. The best player in the event was Viktor Korchnoi: the indomitable septuagenarian – he has just turned 78 – scored 7.5/9 on board one and had the highest performance in the event. Big illustrated report by Franz Rulitz.