7/5/2020 – Looking back: in 1983 Frederic Friedel was in Budapest for the third Microcomputer World Chess Championship. There he made first acquaintance with the Polgar family, but also met the East German chess programming team. His description of this memorable encounter tells us what things were like in the fading years of Eastern European communism.

7/1/2020 – Did you miss it? The Summer Nostos Festival, an international, multidimensional festival that gives us a week bursting with art, conversation, ideas, music, dance, performances, entertainment, and sports, for visitors of all ages, last Saturday streamed a preview of next year's edition. Watch it all, or just the in-depth discussion with Garry Kasparov and Judit Polgar.

6/24/2020 – How far away are you from the World Champion, in terms of handshakes? Have you shaken hands with someone who has shaken hands with him? How far from Boris Spassky? Capablanca? Morphy? Here's this week's challenge: try to find the shortest handshake chain from you to the most famous chess players you can think of. There's a prize for the most impressive submission.

6/12/2020 – Take a look at this position. Can White (on the move) win? And if so what must he play? The position looks deceptively simple, but if you are able to solve it in your head, congratulations! Today's challenge is mainly to humans, and we bring you simple-looking positions from which there is a lot to learn. Have fun.

5/24/2020 – Back in the 1980s some program authors tried to avoid the problems of the horizon effect by following suspicious lines a few half moves deeper. It became ever more difficult to use the horizon trap on them. The authors were not always forthcoming about their progress, so Frederic Friedel devised a number of test positions to find out more and to find how individual programs worked.

5/14/2020 – Take a look at the position in our picture. How can White draw? Impossible, of course: you capture the knight, the black king moves to d4 and then the pawns win the game. However, against early computers there was a way to save this position. In our first historical article, describing the early days of chess programming, you will learn how computers could fall into the horizon trap.

5/12/2020 – Can computers handle perpetual check? Could they do so ten years ago. And more relevantly: can humans? Even those with super-GM titles? Well, a 2351 player was able to do it better than his brother, who was rated 400 points higher. We have told the story before, but since our readers spent the weekend working on the Djaja problem, it may be of interest to remember how Aronian, Navara, Gashimov, Mamedyarov and Kasparov fared.

5/11/2020 – He was one of the more interesting personalities in and around chess – but not just there. "Iepe the Joker" was a Dutch artist, entrepreneur, innovator and storyteller. For us his most relevant enterprises was chess boxing, which he initiated and popularized in a way nobody foresaw. On Sunday he was found dead in his bed – how and why we do not yet know. Frederic Friedel has written a obituary with description of his interactions with a dear friend.

5/10/2020 – Today we want to bring all our locked-in friends something unusual. This article is not going to make you stronger, it will not improve your strategic wisdom, or inform you on what is going on in the (virtual) tournament scene. It is meant to purely entertain – just cause you to smile or chuckle. It includes what we claim is the easiest chess problem ever composed (picture). Enjoy.

5/6/2020 – The Fischer-Petrosian Candidates match of 1971 in Buenos Aires was the third and final round in the eliminations to determine the challenger for the World Championship. Former World Champion Tigran Petrosian was considered undefeatable, and the match started 2½-2½. Then in game six Fischer scored a superb win that turned the match. Since then chess experts have discussed the question: could Petrosian have defended the game to a fateful draw? No conclusive answer was reached. Now endgame expert GM Karsten Müller – together with our readers – made a new attempt – has made a new attempt. And: we have a solution!

5/3/2020 – So I am being pressured to publish a book, a collection of articles that have, in the last twenty years, appeared on our news page – especially those describing encounters with famous players. And the ones that showed entertaining puzzles and games. They were very nice on a computer monitor, where you can replay and analyse everything – but transfering them onto very thin slices of tree? Nobody fetches a chessboard and pieces to replay moves anymore. Ahh, but there's a solution to this problem. Let me show you. And please help me evaluate this approach.

5/2/2020 – A “Mars opposition” occurs when planet Earth passes in between the Sun and planet Mars. It happens every 2 years and 2 months – 779.94 Earth days to be precise. Then Mars becomes a beautiful red jewel in the night sky, full of mystery. On the one hand a Martian invasion may be imminent. On the other we are able to discern human images carved on the Mars surface. In 2003 one was discovered that looked eerily familiar.

4/30/2020 – People are urging me to write a book (or books) with stories about my encounters with famous players. And with puzzles and chess pleasantries. Most of the material has appeared on our news page, but the articles have descended into the obscurities of the archives. So people want a collection in printed form, to read in the garden, in bed, on trains. But what about the chess games and moves? Who is going to set up a board to replay them? Ahh, but perhaps there is a solution, a way to make printed games easily replayable. Curious? Here's what that would (will) look like.

4/27/2020 – Last month Edward Winter announced his decision, due to other commitments, to curtail his Chess Notes column, which began in 1982. Additions are now made only occasionally, but thousands of C.N. items and hundreds of feature articles remain online. It is a body of work unlike any other, covering a vast array of topics and spawning four anthologies. Edward Winter is also the author of one of the most acclaimed books in chess history: his monograph on Capablanca.

4/18/2020 – The Fischer-Petrosian Candidates match of 1971 in Buenos Aires was the third and final round in the eliminations to determine the challenger for the World Championship 1972. After defeating two top grandmasters 6-0 each, the charismatic American faced former World Champion Tigran Petrosian who was considered to be almost undefeatable. Their match started 2½-2½, and then in game six Fischer scored a superb win that turned the match in his favor. Did Petrosian seal the wrong move, could he have defended to a draw? You can help endgame specialist Karsten Müller with his historical analysis – and win a valuable prize.

4/13/2020 – Today's his 57th, and we wish him a very happy birthday. Fifteen years ago it looked like the world might have just over two decades left to continue as we know it. An asteroid was calculated to fly by the earth – or in fact hit it – on Friday the 13th of April 2029. That would be Garry's 66th birthday. In the meantime more precise calculation by NASA revealed that the chances of a Kasparov birthday armageddon were between 2.7% to virtually zero. Warning: the following article has very little chess content. It is also not for the faint-hearted...

4/12/2020 – A total of 17 GMs and over 180 players took part in the "Let's fight Corona together" Fundraiser online blitz organized by ChessBase India on 9th of April 2020. India no.2 Vidit Gujrathi was the top seed. GM Nihal Sarin, GM Aravindh Chithambaram and GM Vidit Gujrathi ended at the top with 8.0/9, with the speed king Nihal taking the top spot on tiebreaks. The main aim of the event was to raise money for the PM CARES fund and we were successful in collecting Rs.239,742. GM Vidit Gujrathi not only played but also did live streaming of his games, and his efforts resulted in a collection of Rs. 37,028 in under two hours.

4/10/2020 – When it was first published, back in 2003, Garry Kasparov's book "My Great Predecessors" caused quite a stir in the chess world. It contained so much analysis that was a pleasure to study and devour. Kasparov himself invited us to join him in his search for ultimate chess truth on our news pages. Will you join the search?