EURO 2007: Tatiana Kosintseva scores 6/6 in the womens

4/8/2007 – After leading with 4.5 in the first five rounds young Ukrainian grandmaster Andrei Volokitin drew his round six games and was promptly caught by four colleagues. In the women's section IM Tatiana Kosintseva, who will turn 21 next Wednesday, has won all six games to lead the field by a full point. We bring you the standings and games.

Production of Lasker trainer cancelled

4/7/2007 – On April 1st we reported that ChessBase was planning a new Fritz Trainer DVD, using 1924 film footage shot with Emanuel Lasker. It turns out that this was a cruel hoax by members of our staff who were following a pagan tradition known as "April Fool". At the same time some serious news regarding the FIDE ratings was misidentified by our readers as the intended prank. Retractions.

Bulgarian Chess Federation supports Topalov

4/6/2007 – Today Stefan Sergiev, the director of the Bulgarian Chess Federation, sent a message to FIDE president Kirsan Ilyumzhinov decrying the decisions of the World Chess Federation to turn down a $2 million match offer, to change the cycle of the world championship, and to move the candidate matches to an earlier date, and to change the April rating list in reaction to external pressure. Open letter.

Robert Byrne and the English Attack

4/5/2007 – He has chalked up wins over Bronstein, Reshevsky, Smyslov and Fischer. But NYT chess columnist Robert Byrne is probably best known for his contributions to openings theory. Like the English Attack, which he introduced into tournament play long before Nunn, Short, and Chandler were hammering people to bits with it. Tonight our Playchess trainer Dennis Monokroussos tells the story.

EURO 2007: Pictures, games, impressions from Dresden

4/5/2007 – The first two rounds of the 8th Individual European Chess Championships brought a few upsets and some technical glitches – not surprising when you are trying to handle over 600 participants. We bring you results and as many games as have become available. Together with a impressions of Dresden, the venue and the tournament itself in a big pictorial report.

9 of 10 for King on Pawns

4/5/2007 – F or h-pawn – this is often the question when you start an attack against your opponent's king. A simple decision? Believe it or not, Daniel King spent a whole DVD answering it. In his review Michael Jeffreys confesses that he underestimated the "loads of subtle but important ideas that you MUST be aware of" before you take your decision. Buy Danial King's Pawn storm DVD or read the full review.

Andrew Martin: Bundesliga Special

4/4/2007 – How do they do it? This is the question we ask in England as we look in envy at the powerful Bundesliga weekends. Plenty of sponsors, excellent conditions, great players, great games.... one cannot really ask for more. So, this week's Playchess radio show pays homage to the strongest league in the world with three games from the latest bonanza.

Susheela Viswanathan: 'I am a very proud mother'

4/4/2007 – After Vishy Anand had bagged Morelia/Linares it became obvious that he would soon appear as the world's strongest player on the FIDE ratings list. In India his parent bore the brunt of the media frenzy that ensued. Both mother Shusheela and father Viswanathan were persuaded to write short pieces about their famous and well beloved son. Very interesting insights.

European Championship in Dresden starts today

4/3/2007 – The 8th Individual European Chess Championships takes place from April 2nd to 16th, 2007 in Dresden, Germany. It is an 11 round Swiss and has over 600 participants from 43 nations. The games will be covered live on the official site and on Playchess.com. On Monday night was the opening ceremony, attended by FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, chess dignitaries, participants – and a tiger!

ChessBase and Correspondence chess -- part 4

4/3/2007 – In the fourth part of our ongoing ChessBase Workshop series on correspondence chess, we'll learn about your "electronic research assistant" who will take care of the drudgery of finding and tabulating the results of past games in your master database. Find out more about the Opening Report in this week's ChessBase Workshop.

FIDE April rankings: Vishy Anand is numero uno

4/2/2007 – FIDE came under worldwide pressure and – relented. Over the last two days the April rating list was corrected to include the important Morelia/Linares tournament. In the new and now official list India's Viswanathan Anand is in first place, with 2786 rating points, ahead of Veselin Topalov and Vladimir Kramnik, both 14 points lower. Congratulations Vishy! Lists, statistics and commentary.

Breaking news: FIDE's April rating list will include Morelia/Linares

4/1/2007 – On March 31 the World Chess Federation published its April rating list which, to everybody's surprise, did not have India's Vishy Anand in the number one slot, but Veselin Topalov, 13 points ahead of Anand. For the first time in many years the Linares tournament, which Anand won by a full point, was not rated. The Indian Chess Federation protested and FIDE has now agreed to correct the list.

Fritz trainer: Emanuel Lasker, New York 1924

4/1/2007 – After winning the 1924 New York tournament Dr Emanuel Lasker, who was passionately interested in new technologies, recorded his comments on the games using the fledgling new technology of talking movies. The film material was recently recovered and digitally remastered. We have turned it into a Fritz Trainer DVD with twelve video lessons. You can order it now.

Kasparov in England – catch him if you can

4/1/2007 – After taking Germany (and Switzerland) Garry Kasparov now continues his book promotional tour in the UK. There is a book signing on Tuesday, plenty of print reports, photo shoots, radio interviews and TV appearances, on Sky, BBC and, would you believe it, Al Jazeera. Here's a schedule of Kasparov's activities.

Blindfold king Kramnik wins 16th Amber Tournament

3/30/2007 – World champion Vladimir Kramnik won the 16th Amber Blindfold and Rapid Tournament, with a two-point lead over runner-up Vishy Anand. It was Kramnik's sixth victory in Monaco. The key for his success was a very powerful performance in the blindfold competition, where he scored 9 out of 11, which amounts to an almost 3000-level performance. Final report.

Powerful: King's 'Attacking the king'

3/30/2007 – Launching a successful attack is a skillful business that often demands great creativity. And like most themes in chess, this is a skill that can be honed and polished. In this second DVD in the Power Play series, Grandmaster Daniel King looks at attacking play and asks, what makes for a successful attack? Buy 'Attacking the king' now or read this review with sampler.

ChessBase and Correspondence chess – part 3

3/30/2007 – In Part Three of a series on ChessBase and correspondence chess, we look at bookkeeping -- how easily you can keep track of your moves and your opponents', the time you've used, and the other routine chores involved in postal/e-mail chess. Workshop...

Donald Byrne: encouragement for Dragon fans

3/29/2007 – The name is most often associated with the dramatic "Game of the Century" loss to the 13-year-old Fischer. But Donald Byrne was an impressive player in his own right, as our Playchess trainer Dennis Monokroussos shows in this 1955 Dragon against Efim Geller. A nice win by a good guy.

Amber: Kramnik leads by two points, set to win

3/29/2007 – With a round to go World Champion Vladimir Kramnik has clinched the blindfold section, while the world's top rated player Vishy Anand has already taken the rapid tournament. On the overall table Kramnik is two points ahead of the field, with Anand and Ivanchuk theoretically able to catch him in this Monte Carlo extravaganza. Round nine and ten reports.

Dresden, Miskolc, Yerevan, Sofia, Elista, Dortmund

3/29/2007 – With the Amber tournament over some chess fans are getting a tad nervous. When are the next major events? You can calm down: in April we have the European Championships and a rapid chess match between Kramnik and Leko, in May one between Kramnik and Aronian, then M-Tel Masters, then the FIDE Candidates, then the Dortmund Super-GM. Chess calendar April-June 2007.

Maxime Vachier-Lagrave outperforms French students

3/28/2007 – It is hard to believe: the best chess players, some rated up to 2400, from universities all over France gather together to play a qualification tournament. Eight winning teams of four players each then face the country's youngest grandmaster, a 16-year-old lad, in a clock simultaneous exhibition. The lad concedes just one draw. We predict a bright future for Maxime.

Edward Winter presents: Unsolved Chess Mysteries (3)

3/27/2007 – Recently-discovered photographs from one of Alekhine’s last tournaments, in Spain in 1945, are proving baffling. Do they show that a 15-move brilliancy commonly attributed to Alekhine is spurious? And do they disprove claims that another of his opponents was an 11-year-old boy? Chess Notes investigates, and once again our readers are invited to join in the hunt for clues.

ChessBase and Correspondence chess – part 2

3/27/2007 – In the latest of an ongoing series of ChessBase Workshop columns on correspondence chess, we describe how to set up your correspondence "recorder" databases. That's no typo -- you'll need more than one database. Find out why in the new ChessBase Workshop.

Amber: Kramnik leads, Anand in pursuit

3/26/2007 – Vladimir Kramnik is the blindfold king. The world champion has scored an incredible 7.5/8 (one draw in eight games), with a theoretical rating performance of over 3200. Anand scored a 2-0 victory over Paco Vallejo to narrow the gap in both sections to Kramnik to 1.5 points. Their overall performances are 2929 and 2833. Monday is a free day. Full illustrated report.