Andrew Martin: Pure propaganda

3/26/2007 – This week's Playchess radio show targets the subject matter for three Chessbase DVDs, two which are just out and the other about to be made. The first game focuses on the Modern Slav with 4...a6, the second on the Alekhine with 5...c6, and the third on a perfectly played Czech Benoni by Lev Aronian. The show starts on Wednesday at 16:00 GMT / 17:00 CEST.

Chatalbashev wins Bulgarian Championship in Pernik

3/24/2007 – The women's section, played for the 56th time, was a cliff hanger, with four players battling and tying for first. Exciting chess. In the men's section there was no tension predicting the outcome. Elo favorite Boris Chatalbashev took the lead after the third round and never left any doubts as to his intentions after that. He won with 1.5 points more than the competition. Report and games.

Kramnik, Aronian, Ivanchuk still lead in Monaco

3/23/2007 – In Round 6 Vladimir Kramnik regained the overall lead, thanks to a 1½-½ win over one of the co-leaders, Levon Aronian. The other, Vasily Ivanchuk, was lucky to draw his mini-match against Peter Svidler and is now in second place, half a point behind Kramnik. Peter Leko and Teimour Radjabov both chalked up a win to improve their positions in the overall table. Round six report.

Anatoly Karpov Tournament in Poikovsky

3/23/2007 – The 8th Anatoly Karpov Tournament in Poikovsky is under way, but already it is as good as won by Dmitry Jakovenko, who keeps showing great chess skill combined with enormous playing capacity, collecting one good result after another. Games, results and a big pictorial report by Misha Savinov.

The King's Indian reloaded – part 2

3/23/2007 – Thanks to Radjabov, Kasimdhzanov and others the King's Indian is part of a lively discussion in the top level chess again. Another KID expert, Alexei Shirov, recently made an over five hour DVD, in his famous and highly praised "best games" series. Buy his King's India DVD now or read this review with sampler.

ChessBase and Correspondence chess – part 1

3/23/2007 – ChessBase Workshop readers have requested a series of columns on the use of ChessBase in correspondence chess; Steve Lopez has been only too happy to comply. In the first installment of this series, he discusses the benefits to playing chess at coorespondence time controls as well as some legal and illegal uses of computers in correspondence play. Workshop...

The Kasparov Diary – tour in Germany

3/22/2007 – For just over a week Garry Kasparov, former world chess champion, book author and now de facto leader of the Russian opposition, is touring Germany and Switzerland. After his blitz in Hamburg he proceeded to Cologne where he took part in a debate with one of Germany's top investigative journalists, on a "Literature Ship" sailing the Rhine. Big pictorial report.

ACP Survey: what the players think about draw offers

3/22/2007 – In February the Association of Chess Professionals asked its members what should be done to combat short, unfought draws, which are often perceived to be the bane of chess. The ACP published a questionnaire, 171 members replied.

Fifth Freestyle Tournament Final this weekend

3/22/2007 – The 5th PAL/CSS Freestyle Main Tournament, staged on the Playchess server, ended in a dead heat of 17 players. None of the 131 participants from 32 countries, including 20 titled players, managed to achieve six points in eight games, which is the magic barrier for qualification. The final, with ten players, will be held as a round robin tournament this weekend. Come and watch.

Kramnik, Aronian, Ivanchuk lead in Monaco

3/22/2007 – Tournament leader Vladimir Kramnik got an easy point in the blindfold game against Anand when the latter hung multiple pieces in round four. But after the rest and outing day Kramnik lost 1½:½ to Vasily Ivanchuk, allowing him and Levon Aronian to join him in the lead. Anand and Svidler are a point behind. Report.

Paying respect to the losers

3/21/2007 – What do you think of when you hear the names Kieseritzky, Dufresne or Donald Byrne? Chances are their famous losses to Anderssen and Bobby Fischer. But the trio were all fine players in their own right. This week our Playchess trainer Dennis Monokroussos shows us some of their triumphs to give them their due.

Washington Post: cut the chess guy?

3/21/2007 – What can newspapers do to gain space in their printed editions? "Cut the chess guy" was the humorous advice from a television serial. After the axing of Nigel Short's widely-read column in the Guardian, now the Washington Post has cut the highly-respected weekly section on chess by GM Lubomir Kavalek by a third. Want to do something about it?

Rikets Røst vs Magnus Carlsen on Norwegian TV 2

3/20/2007 – Fresh from his amazing second place in the Morelia/Linares Super-GM tournament grandmaster Magnus Carlsen was invited to a comedy talk show in his native Norway, where he faced a provocative host, Rikets Røst. The 16-year-old faced tough questions about his performance, expectations, colleagues, money, girls and raisins. Raisins? Watch the video.

Andrew Martin: Blind leading the blind

3/20/2007 – The Melody Amber tournament gives us great players humbled by the format, making all manners of mistakes, often reduced to the level of club amateurs, as our Playchess.com trainer will show in his Wednesday night lecture. Nevertheless it is all conducted in a spirit of friendship and entertainment, and the players themselves seem to be having lots of fun.

Kramnik leads 16th Amber Blindfold and Rapid Tournament

3/20/2007 – After three rounds Vladimir Kramnik has won all of his blindfold games, while scoring 2/3 in the rapid section. He now leads the field, half a point ahead of Levon Aronian, who has scored 3/3 in his rapid games. Last year's winners Anand and Morozevich are still feeling their way around. Report, games and results.

Amber Blindfold and Rapid Tournament

3/18/2007 – It carries a prize fund of US $288,000 and is staged in the posh Fairmont Monte Carlo Hotel in Monaco. Twelve top GMs play two rounds per day, one blindfold and one rapid. The participants include Anand, Kramnik, Ivanchuk, Leko, Aronian, Morozevich and Svidler. The first round was played on Saturday. We bring you results and games.

How Life Imitates Chess – Kasparov on tour

3/18/2007 – On Friday Hurricane Garry made landfall in Germany. The thirteenth world champion is here to promote his new book, "How Life Imitates Chess", but also to record at least one new ChessBase DVD (Najdorf 3!). There are book signings, lectures, interviews and TV appearances in different German cities. If you are in the vicinity you might want to catch one of them.

Bessel's Birthday – a Party in Prague

3/16/2007 – Last December Bessel Kok, Dutch businessman and chess organiser, turned 65, and also married his partner Martina. All of this happened in strict privacy. Now, three months later, Bessel, who will soon be running the commercial branch of FIDE, celebrated the milestones in a party spectacular held in Prague, with former president Václav Havel acting as patron. A chess treat was included.

2007 Asian Cities Chess Championship in Tehran

3/15/2007 – The brainchild of the Hong Kong Chess Federation, and dominated by the Chinese for over a decade, the Asian Cities Championship has migrated to the Middle East and is now dominated by Kazakhstan. This year's event, held from March 1–9 in Tehran, was won by Pavlodar, ahead of Tagaytay (Philippines) and Saipa (Iran). Arash Akbarinia reports.

Wang Yue from China wins Cappelle la Grande

3/15/2007 – The Cappelle la Grande tournament was held from March 3rd-10th, 2007, with the participation of more than 600 players, including 87 GMs, 81 IMs and 465 FIDE rated players, coming from 56 different countries. It was won by Chinese GM Wang Yue on tiebreak, ahead of five other players with 7/9 points. Report, games.

Playing chess by the 'Corsica Rules'

3/14/2007 – In Calvi, a small town on the northwest coast of the island of Corsica, the Fourth International Chess Tournament was staged, with a special rule in force: players cannot offer a draw unless it is a dead drawn ending. The result: a sensationally low draw rate of just 12%! This year the event turned into a battle between Ukrainian and Chinese players. Illustrated report with videos.

Faik Gasanov – the Father of Chess in Azerbaijan

3/14/2007 – He is the man who in the last 40 years built up chess in Azerbaijan, almost single-handedly. For 37 years he has been hosting a national TV show dedicated to chess. After negotiating with two presidents of the country he has finally procured worthy premises for the Chess Federation. In an interview Faik Gasamov speaks about the past and present of Azeri chess.

Come for Alekhine's masterpiece – or for a virtual pizza

3/14/2007 – The game is just 17 moves long, nine of which are theory. Still the fourth world champion Alexander Alekhine managed to conjure up enough tactical complications to occupy a generation. Our Playchess trainer Dennis Monokroussos gives us five good reasons to attend his lecture.

Andrew Martin: a well-contested endgame

3/13/2007 – With the fast, scrappy pace of modern chess we seldom get to see grand, well-played endgames as in the games of yesteryear. What a delight, then, that arch rivals Alexander Morozevich and Veselin Topalov showed us a monumental struggle in Linares. Hear all about it and more from our Playchess.com trainer in his Wednesday night lecture.