3/5/2009 – Today the players arrive, Friday are the technical meetings and opening ceremony, on Saturday the first event for a new FIDE Women Grand Prix series 2009/2010 starts, in the Is Bankasi Art Gallery in Istanbul, Turkey. Twelve of the strongest in the world will play a round robin event for a total prize fund of 40,000 Euros. Press release and pictures of the ladies.

3/5/2009 – ChessBase 10 contains a large variety of fields into which you can input player and tournament information when saving a game. Some of these can be confusing for new users. In our closeup look at ChessBase game header fields you'll discover some little-known tricks regarding annotators and publishing sources as we wrap up our three part series. ChessBase Workshop.

3/4/2009 – Two games, Ivanchuk-Carlsen and Wang Yue-Anand, were relatively unspectacular draws, but the other two, Alexander Grischuk vs Teimour Radjabov and Leinier Dominguez vs Levon Aronian, had the spectators on the edge of their seats. Both games have been annotated by our team of GM Mihail Marin and GM-elect Anish Giri. We also bring you new pictorial impressions from Linares.

3/3/2009 – The game Carlsen - Anand, Linares 2009, – see the analysis by Dorian Rogozenco – was worthy of attention for several reasons. One aspect was the question as to whether the opening moves chosen by the World Champion in the Shabalov-Shirov Gambit led directly to a somewhat inferior endgame. One of the greatest specialists in this gambit move (7.g4) is the Polish GM Michal Krasenkow. In CBM 127 and 128 (with a concluding part to follow in CBM 129) he examined his favourite move against the Semi Slav. Have a look here, in a shortened reprise of his contribution to CBM 127, at the section which deals with 7…Nxg4.
ChessBase Magazine 127
Krasenkow: 7.g4 Nxg4.

3/2/2009 – First the other three games: they were all more or less uneventful draws, with one listless 17-mover. But we were compensated by a wonderful Dragon by Magnus Carlsen, who tied up his opponent into an amazing zugzwang position at move 42. Alexander Grischuk still leads by a full point. But tonight you must study Carlsen's Dragon, lovingly annotated by GM Mihail Marin.

3/2/2009 – A week ago we reported on the sensational incident at the Aeroflot Open, when world-class grandmaster Shakriyar Mamedyarov publicly accused Russian GM Igor Kurnosov of using computer assistance, in their sixth-round game. Now the accused player has responded in a formal statement on what transpired. We bring you a translation and selection of readers' letters.

3/2/2009 – There was high drama today in Linares: Teimour Radjabov wrested a full point from Levon Aronian, and Chinese GM Wang Yue, who is developing into an angstgegner, defeated Magnus Carlsen with the black pieces. Grischuk drew and still has a comfortable lead. The two decided games today are extensively annotated by GM Mihail Marin and by a special new guest commentator.

3/2/2009 – The new Mega Database 2009 with more than four million games covers not only the games of chess history up to end of last year. For ChessBase 10 users it comes with the Online Upgrade Service for the whole year 2009. That means 5,000 new games every week! Edited in top ChessBase quality and ready for a one-click upgrade to your Mega Database. Buy it now or read more.

3/1/2009 – All four games were very hard-fought, but three ended in a draw, with black pressing on all three boards. In the fourth game is was black again, with Levon Aronian gaining an advantage against Magnus Carlsen in a well-prepared Semi-Slav. It took the Armenian GM 6½ hours and 93 moves to overcome the resistance of his young Norwegian opponent. Grischuk still leads by a full point. Round eight report.

3/1/2009 – In the last week we brought you two spectacular puzzles taken from the Corus Studies Day in Wijk aan Zee, and we also reported on the 2009 British Problem Solving Championship, presenting three problems from that event. Naturally all of this without revealing the solutions, which we do today. Prepare for some unbelievable lines and unique positional ideas in these celestial solutions.

2/28/2009 – The Editor of Chess Notes presents a compilation of photographs, engravings and sketches of Howard Staunton (1810-1874). They include art-work by Sam Loyd and a group photograph taken at Redcar, 1866 which has come to light only recently. Much of Staunton’s life is shrouded in mystery, and the origin of some of the pictures is unknown. Enjoy a rich compendium of historic illustrations.

2/28/2009 – 200 players in 19 different tournaments took part in the 7th International Chess Festival in Nancy from 16 to 22 of February 2009. This town is located in the east of France, between Paris and Strasbourg. The tournament system is unusual: the players are divided into groups of ten and play round robins. You will get to know a lot of new players in this giant pictorial report by IM Christophe Philippe.