10/14/2019 – For 25 years Hans-Walter Schmitt has been organising prestigious and attractive chess events with the world's best players. Now he has retired, HARTMUT METZ reports, following two exciting simultaneous exhibitions by former World Champion Vishy Anand and the 14-year old German talent Vincent Keymer. | Photos: Hartmut Metz

10/5/2019 – The Chess Classic tournaments in Frankfurt and Mainz are legendary. Organiser and driving force behind these tournaments was Hans-Walter Schmitt (pictured in 2004 with supermodel Carmen Kass), a tireless chess promoter. But after 25 years of organising chess events he now invites to a last spectacular event: a double simul with Vishy Anand and Vincent Keymer who both play on 40 boards. | Photos: Hartmut Metz

12/24/2018 – On December 24th, 1868 Emanuel Lasker, World Champion from 1894 to 1921, was born. To celebrate this 150-year jubilee the first volume of a monumental trilogy about Lasker recently appeared. In an interview with HARTMUT METZ, Dr Michael Negele, one of the editors and driving forces behind this trilogy, talked about Lasker, the trilogy, and the motivation to carry out such a monumental project. | Pictured: Dr Michael Negele and Dr Richard Forster signing the first volume | Photo: Archive Michael Negele

4/3/2018 – On Easter Monday, the GRENKE Chess Open ended with a sensation. Vincent Keymer won Europe's largest open chess tournament with 8.0 points from nine rounds. He started as number 99 in the ranking list, yet left behind 49 grandmasters, including such well-known names as Etienne Bacrot (France), Richard Rapport (Hungary), Alexei Shirov (Latvia) and Anton Korobov (Ukraine). What makes the victory all the sweeter is that it comes with a GM norm and a cash prize of 15,000 euros. | Photo: Georgios Souleidis

12/6/2017 – Peter Heine Nielsen is a considered to be one of the world's best seconds. He worked for former World Champion Vishy Anand and now works for current World Champion Magnus Carlsen. Naturally, Nielsen knows his openings, and one of his favourites is the Semi-Slav. On a ChessBase DVD he shared his knowledge and expertise. Hartmut Metz, German chess journalist and strong amateur, had a look. | Photo: Hartmut Metz