Spartak wins Russian Women's League – narrowly

4/10/2009 – The women's section is over. Spartak, which had been coasting, suffered a big setback by losing in the final round. Their main rival AVS drew their match, leaving both teams tied for first. But Spartak had 18 board points to AVS's 17 and so took gold. IM Tatiana Kosintseva scored 6.0/7 on board two with an incredible 2750 performance. Pictures and statistics.

Icon tasks in ChessBase 10

4/9/2009 – "Right-clicking gets you everywhere in ChessBase 10". It's a true statement; there are lots of features which can easily be reached by clicking the righthand mouse button; in fact, that's the only way to get to a few of them. We'll prove it -- never leaving the Database window to boot. Find out more in the latest ChessBase Workshop.

11th European Senior Team Championship in Velden

4/8/2009 – Hang on, doesn't that ring a bell? Yes, of course! In 1983 the candidate’s quarterfinal clash Smyslov vs Huebner was decided by the throw of a roulette ball, after a tie in the match, in Casino Velden, and almost 30 years ago Viktor Korchnoi played and won a candidate’s match here against Tigran Petrosian. After three rounds Viktor, now 78, has yet to concede a loss or draw. Report by Franz Rulitz.

Tomsk-400 leads in Russian Team Championship

4/8/2009 – After four rounds in the Premiere League the team of Tomsk-400 with Jakovenko, Timofeev, Inarkiev, Tiviakov and others is in the lead, followed by ShSM-64 and Ecomomist SGSEU-1. In the Women's tournament Spartak leads after five rounds with four wins and a draw, and in the Higher League it is Polytechnik and Yugra with 10/12 points. Video and photo report from Dagomys.

Anand on the World Championship in Bonn

4/8/2009 – In the fourth and final part of our interview series Viswanathan Anand talks about his games against Vladimir Kramnik last October. When did his seconds tell him he had missed a forced mate? When did he decide to play 1.d4 with white? How close exactly was game five, and how many minutes before its start did he decide what to play? Fascinating insights.

Bogoljubow: trash talking in chess

4/7/2009 – The tradition of trash talking is by no means new to chess. In 1925 Ukrainian-German grandmaster Efim Bogoljubow wrote some fairly nasty stuff about José Raúl Capablanca, and three years later was humiliated by the great Cuban in a highly instructive game which our Playchess lecturer Dennis Monokroussos will show us on Wednesday night (Thursday morning in Europe). 9 p.m. ET.

Database screwups

4/7/2009 – Our ChessBase Workshop columnist breaks a long-standing vow and offers -- *gasp* -- Windows tips regarding database recovery techniques. You can enjoy this unusual and historic moment merely by reading the latest installment of ChessBase Workshop.

Mammoth chess event won by 680½ to 671½

4/7/2009 – The city of Hamburg is divided in two parts by a river and lake. Every year for the last 51 years there has been a traditional chess tournament between schools located to the left and to the right of the Alster. This year the students from the left bank won the match by just nine points. At the same time one school was playing matches against teams in Madrid and Durban. Pictorial report.

ChessBase 10's database pane

4/7/2009 – There are numerous ways to configure your ChessBase 10's "database desktop", which is the first thing you see when you launch the program. It lets you navigate to a database anywhere on your computer. The latest edition of our ChessBase Workshop shows you how to find a configuration for the desktop which is exactly right for you. Steve Lopez explains.

Russian Team Championship and Leagues in Dagomys

4/6/2009 – The world financial crisis has led to a reduction of the teams, but still there are plenty of high-calibre players to get excited about. The Premier League has the “crème de la crème”, the Higher League is also full of strong GMs, and the Women's League features some of the strongest player in the world. We bring you an extraordinary photo report by WGM Irina Sudakova and Elena Mikheeva.

Washington Post: Kavalek on Stellwagen vs Anand

4/6/2009 – Every week the Washington Post provides a column by GM Lubomir Kavalek on its online edition. In the latest he takes a look at Anand's incredible final Bundesliga game against Daniel Stellwagen. Anand will be 40 this year, but instead of taking it easy he shows nerves of steel in picking one of the most complex and difficult opening lines in chess. Washington Post column.

Edward Winter's Chess Explorations (19)

4/5/2009 – The Editor of Chess Notes had extensive contact with Capablanca’s second wife and has been able to draw together her detailed (and absorbing) reminiscences of life with the Cuban genius. Here, by way of introduction, is a compendium of photographs and other illustrations, many of which were made available by the late Olga Capablanca herself. Enjoy a pictorial feast.

Happy New Year! Iranian Women's Championship at Nowruz

4/4/2009 – Nowruz means "New Year" and is celebrated by Iranians and related people all over the world, on the day of the astronomical vernal equinox, around March 21st. This year it marked the start of the Iranian Women's Championship Final. After seven rounds an 11-year-old was in the lead. We invite you to meet the Iranian chess players in this lovely pictorial report by Reza Mahdipour.

ChessBase Training Enhancements – an April 1st hoax

4/3/2009 – Yes, yes, everybody recognised it as such within seconds. But since we only published the story in the late afternoon, our readers had ample time to jump to the conclusion that some of the other stories were jokes. Specifically: "Kiss the Queen" by Ivanchuk and the crazy game Hübner-Rogoff. We bring you some new insights and a lot of delightful letters from our readers.

Zurich: A chance to meet the World Champions

4/2/2009 – They will all be there, for the 200th jubilee of the oldest chess club in the world: the Schachgesellschaft Zürich. The festivities, which include a Jubilee Open, will see Anand, Karpov, Korchnoi, Kramnik, Spassky, Ponomariov and Topalov playing a Champions Rapid. They are joined by Garry Kasparov for a Champions Simul against 200 opponents. One could be you, if you solve a Jubilee Quiz.

Training Enhancement – New product line by ChessBase

4/1/2009 – After dropping its efforts to make chess an Olympic discipline FIDE has now abandoned its "doping tests", so that players will no longer be hounded by medical officials after their games. The decision allows our company to release a new line of Training Enhancement products which until now it had to hold back due to the IOC restrictions. Order now or first read more about our new products.

Kissing the Queen – Ivanchuk's new chess game

4/1/2009 – Capablanca brought us a 10x8 version of chess; Bobby gave us Fischer Random; Yasser Seirawan has one with two new pieces. Famous players tend to do this at the end of their active careers. But Vassily Ivanchuk has just turned forty, and is at the hight of his chess powers. His is easily the raciest of all the chess variants we know. He explains it in an article and a remarkable three-part video interview.

Rogoff: Things are not going to get better soon

4/1/2009 – Are you baffled by the global financial crisis? Are the contradictory statements put out by various experts confusing you? Then listen to this interview with one of the world's leading economists, Kenneth S. Rogoff, who very lucidly explains the current situation, its causes and its possible remedies. Ken is also a chess grandmaster, and in 1972 he played the following jewel of a game.

April 2009 ratings: Topalov 29 points ahead of everyone else

4/1/2009 – Veselin Topalov has once again crossed the 2800 mark, missing his highest-ever rating, 2813, by one point. The Bulgarian is 29 points ahead of the second-ranked player, World Champion Vishy Anand, and a resounding 53 points ahead of former World Champion Vladimir Kramnik. Vassily Ivanchuk is the big loser in the latest list, shedding 33 points and dropping from third to 12th. Top lists.

Albert Einstein – physicist and chess player

3/31/2009 – He disliked the competitive aspect of the game, and although he was a great player Albert Einstein never really pursued the game with any degree of ambition. The physics world's gain was our loss, as you will see in Dennis Monokroussos' Playchess lecture on Wednesday night (Thursday morning in Europe). Be there at 9 p.m. ET., 3 a.m. CEST.

Senterej – Ethiopian chess with a flying start

3/31/2009 – The setup is the same as Western chess, with most of the rules in place. But what is really special about Senterej is that at the start, before the first capture is made, both players can move their pieces as many times as they like, without concern for the opponent's moves. Even spectators can intervene. Ethiopian Empress Taytu Betul was one of the stars of this cheerful African game.

ChessBase 10's explorer view

3/29/2009 – The Explorer view in ChessBase 10's database window is sometimes overlooked or misunderstood, especially by new users. Even an "old hand" like our ChessBase Workshop columnist found a feature of which he was previously unaware. The secrets of the Explorer pane are revealed in the new edition of ChessBase Workshop.

Bowling in Kalmykia: players unwind in Elista

3/28/2009 – Remember our recent report on a free-day bowling spree in Linares? At the time we promised to dig out some older unpublished pictures taken at the end of the 2007 FIDE Candidates Matches in Elista, where some of the best chess players in the world got together for a relaxed evening of bowling. Judge for yourself who has the best style (a no-brainer) and who should best stick to chess. Retrospect.

Chess on the Nile – a Tournament of Hope

3/27/2009 – Egypt is a country of about 80 million inhabitants, but the country has just three grandmasters. The "hope" in the name given to the Egyptian Youth Chess Championship 2009 expresses the desire to produce more GMs, and to get more boys and girls come in to play the royal game. To this end a potent sponsor has set up a Chess Academy. Big illustrated report by its director Medhat Moheb.