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.

Aronian wins Amber for a second time in a row

3/26/2009 – Looks like he is pretty good at the blindfold/rapid thing. Armenian GM Levon Aronian won the 18th Amber Tournament, after winning the 17th edition last year. Two draws against Veselin Topalov secured the half-point overall victory. Equal second were Vishy Anand and Vladimir Kramnik, with Magnus Carlsen half a point behind. Pictures by John Nunn in our final report.

Enter the Scotch Game with four knights

3/26/2009 – Thanks to Garry Kasparov the Scotch Game nowadays comes with a huge amount of theory. Nonetheless, it still is an attractive choice for 1.e4 players, and it can be adopted also without swotting. On his new DVD British GM Nigel Davies presents the Four Knights Scotch which is especially suited for club players and can be built into a world class Scotch repertoire. Buy it now or read more.

Amber 2009: Aronian and Carlsen catch Anand

3/25/2009 – After their free day on Monday it was back to work in the Amber Blindfold and Rapid Tournament. The ‘prologue’ to the next World Championship between Anand and Topalov ended in a tie, while Aronian and Carlsen won their matches to to draw level with Anand. Report with recreational pictures by John Nunn, video impressions by Europe Echecs and a video interview with Vishy Anand

A time when few GMs walked the earth

3/25/2009 – The name is well-known in the US: Larry Evans, chess columnist and associate of Bobby Fischer, was in his prime an exceptionally strong player, winning five US championships. Our Playchess lecturer Dennis Monokroussos shows us a particularly instructive game played in 1947. Be there at 9 p.m. ET.

Tomashevsky: It is all a question of motivation and mood

3/25/2009 – A week ago 21-year-old Evgeny Tomashevsky won the European Championship, and at 2664 Elo points he is clearly on his way to the super-tournament circuit. In a frank indepth conversation this young Russian GM, whom his friends call "the professor," talks about his chess career in general and the European Championship in particular. Interview by GM Dejan Bojkov.

Amber 2009: Aronian breaks away as Carlsen and Anand falter

3/25/2009 – In a dramatic penultimate round all (!) the blindfold games were decided – though many by simple blunders that occur when you do not have the pieces in front of you. Anand dropped a queen in one, and Magnus Carlsen played as if in a stupor. Only Lev Aronian won his match to go into the clear lead by a full point. Big pictorial report with an Europe Echecs video interview with Veselin Topalov.

Fourth FIDE Grand Prix in Nalchik

3/25/2009 – The fourth FIDE Grand Prix Series Tournament will be held from April 14th to 29th, 2009, in the Intour Hotel Sindica in Nalchik, Kabardino-Balkaria, Russia. The fourteen participants include Ivanchuk, Aronian, Mamedyarov, Leko, Kamsky, Svidler, Karjakin and Grischuk. Average rating: around 2725 points. The total prize fund is 162,000 Euros. Full details in this FIDE press release.

A Mathematical Chessboard Paradox

3/24/2009 – In Germany 2008 was the “Year of Mathematics”, and at the same time there was a Chess World Championship and a Chess Olympiade in the country. Reason enough to take a look at an interesting problem at the interface of these two intellectual activities. It is a fascinating paradox which seems to prove that 64 is equal to 65 simply by cutting up a chessboard. Prof. Christian Hesse explains.

Playchess in Holland , and both hands in blitz

3/23/2009 – Last Saturday there was a press meeting of the Dutch Chess Federation to launch a new Internet chess project, in partnership with Playchess. We used the opportunity to visit the Hypercube Blitz tournament, which is held in Utrecht every year. As chance would have it we barged into a controversy on how many hands you can legally use in speed chess. Here are the graphic details.

Amber 2009: Anand in the lead after eight rounds

3/23/2009 – In round seven of the Blindfold and Rapid Tournament World Champion Vishy Anand and Vladimir Kramnik overtook Levon Aronian to take the shared lead. Magnus Carlsen had no mercy with out-of-form Wang Yue, winning 2-0 and moved up to third place. In the key encounter of round eight Anand defeated Kramnik to take the sole lead, ahead of Aronian and Carlsen. New pictures by John Nunn.

ChessBase 10 folder shortcuts

3/23/2009 – Do you have too many icons in your ChessBase 10's database window? Is there so much clutter that it's becoming hard to see the woods for the trees? ChessBase Workshop columnist Steve Lopez just might have the answer for you with an often-overlooked and certainly underused ChessBase 10 feature. You can learn more about it in the latest Workshop.

Istanbul Women's Grand Prix – the closing ceremony

3/21/2009 – It took place on the 41st floor of Is Bank Towers, which is the highest spot in Istanbul – the highest incidentally in Southern Europe. Koneru Humpy, Elina Danielian and 15-year-old Hou Yifan picked up their trophies and checks for 6,500, 4375 and 4375 Euros for the first and joint second places. The Turkish Sports Minister and the bank chiefs were present. Pictorial report.