4/6/2021 – The "Kader-Challenge", where ten of the best German players meet over-the-board in Magdeburg, began with a surprise. Frederik Svane (pictured), a FM with a rating of 2421, convincingly outplayed Germany's current number one Matthias Blübaum and took the lead as the four other games all ended in draw. In the women's tournament, Germany's number one women player, Elisabeth Pähtz, fared better than Blübaum and won the first round with Black against Annmarie Mütsch. | Photo: Bernd Vökler (Archive)

4/6/2021 – In 2017 IM Sagar Shah travelled to the house of R. Praggnanandhaa in Chennai and gave the youngest IM in the world a set of test positions to solve. This ritual then continued with more talents, like Nihal Sarin, Raunak Sadhwani and others. Even experienced GMs like Adhiban and Ganguly have dipped their feet into ChessBase India's talent test. Now Sagar presented a set of twelve positions to a new talent – and filmed the entire process. See if you can compete with the twelve-year-old.

4/6/2021 – In his "Weekly Show" IM Lawrence Trent will be taking a look at the victory of his "ex-flatmate and good friend GM Pepe Cuenca Jiménez" at La Nucia over the Easter weekend. | Lawrence's show is available at 17:00 UTC (18:00 CET, 12:00 ET) on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here.

4/6/2021 – The duel knight against bishop is often deep and full of surprises. In the diagram position Black's knight on d1 seems to be in danger to get caught. But can White profit from its precarious position?

4/5/2021 – Chess legends Judit Polgar and Vladimir Kramnik have joined forces with Play Magnus Group to launch a new elite online tour designed to support rising young players and advance gender equality in the sport. The first event, dubbed the Polgar Challenge, kicks off on April 8. The lineups of Team Polgar and Team Kramnik have been revealed.

4/5/2021 – Jesús Medina Molina’s initiative to promote the placement of public chess tables in open spaces has expanded in the Netherlands. Tables in The Hague, Dordrecht and Groningen were recently inaugurated. Medina invites more countries to follow this initiative, which intends to make chess more accessible, especially for kids.

4/5/2021 – José ‘Pepe’ Cuenca was the clear winner of the “Semana Santa” tournament that took place on Easter weekend in La Nucía, Alicante. The 34-year-old from Granada was the only player to score 7½ points in the 9-round Swiss tournament. No fewer than eight players finished half a point behind, with Aarón Alonso and Marc Narciso getting second and third places on tiebreak criteria. | Photos: Patricia Claros Aguilar

4/4/2021 – On April 3, Sportstar premiered the ‘Sportstar Aces Awards 2021’ on their YouTube channel. Vishy Anand was nominated for ‘Sportsman of the Decade Non-Olympic Sport’ along with Pankaj Advani (billiards) and Rajat Chauhan (compound archery). Koneru Humpy was nominated for ‘Sportswoman of the Decade Non-Olympic Sport’ along with Harika Dronavalli and Jyothi Surekha (compound archery). Arjuna Awardees Dibyendu Barua and Tania Sachdev presented the awards to Anand and Humpy respectively. | Photo: Sportstar

4/4/2021 – With ten players in the men’s section and eight participants in the women’s category, the Kader-Challenge — organized by the German Chess Federation — kicks off on Monday at Magdeburg’s Maritim Hotel. A number of measures will be in place to deal with the current sanitary crisis. Matthias Bluebaum and Alexander Donchenko are the top seeds in the men’s event, while Elisabeth Paehtz and Josefine Heinemann are the highest-rated players among the women.

4/4/2021 – Herman Grooten is an International Master, a renowned trainer and the author of several highly acclaimed books about chess training and chess strategy. In the 21st instalment of his ChessBase show "Understanding before Moving", Herman shows a classic example of a strong knight who fights against a bad bishop. | Photo: Tommy Grooten

4/4/2021 – In the mid-nineteenth century, sacrifice was king, and it was supposedly considered “ungentlemanly” to disdain the tasty bait which the opponent proffered. In today’s column, Jon Speelman looks at three examples of the decision-making process behind accepting or not a sacrifice made by the opponent. | Pictured: Vasily Smyslov | Photo: Dutch National Archive

4/3/2021 – When a chess club reaches a nice round anniversary, a proper celebration is called for. And what better way to celebrate than with a grandmaster tournament? That’s what the ‘SG Bochum 31’ club did in 1981, when it celebrated its 50th anniversary with the “International German Championship” held at Stadtpark Restaurant. Those who were already active chess fans at the time will certainly look back and remember one or two of the participants — among them was Lubomir Kavalek, who in fact won the tournament! It all happened 40 years ago to the day. | Photo: Gerhard Hund, via Wikimedia Commons