4/27/2020 – As the world goes through a global health crisis, chess stands out as a unique sport that has successfully resurfaced online to bring together professionals, amateurs, and fans around the world. Besides, chess can serve as an excellent platform for charity and collaboration. At the initiative of the tournament participants, the Chess Federation of Russia and the Ministry of Sports of the Russian Federation will co-support the first charity online tournament that will feature the country's strongest grandmasters. The event is scheduled to take place in mid-May. | Photo: Photo: Lennart Ootes

4/27/2020 – All games start with the opening but learning an opening can be difficult. After all, there's a reason why top grandmasters spend hours to develop and to refine their opening repertoire and why opening books are so popular. But on her new DVD the Canadian WGM Qiyu Zhou makes things easier and shows how you can master the basic principles of the opening without studying and memorizing endless variations.

4/27/2020 – Day one of the fifth round at the Magnus Carlsen Invitational saw the underdogs getting unlikely match victories. Anish Giri, who had won one game in seventeen attempts in the online event, took down sole leader Carlsen 2½:1½, while Alireza Firouzja scored his first three points by beating Maxime Vachier-Lagrave. IM Lawrence Trent recapped the action of the day. | Photo: Official site

4/26/2020 – After long seventeen rounds, the second edition of the "Tournament of Peace" in Zagreb finished with a clear winner, American grandmaster Bobby Fischer. The standings table sees Fischer no fewer than two full points ahead of a four-player chasing pack, formed by Vlastimil Hort, Svetozar Gligoric, Vasily Smyslov and Viktor Korchnoi.

4/26/2020 – Today, the 2. Tournament of Peace comes to an end. Before the 17th and last round tournament winner Bobby Fischer leads with 12.5/16 (+10, =5, -1) and is two points ahead of Vassily Smyslov and Vlastimil Hort who share second and third place with 10.5/16 each. In the final round Fischer will play against Tigran Petrosian who might want to end the tournament with a win against Fischer. Transmission of round 17 starts at 17:00 CEST (15.00 UTC, 11:00 EDT).

4/26/2020 – A popular way for White to avoid the Marshall Attack in the Ruy Lopez is the Anti-Marshall (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.0-0 Be7 6.Re1 b5 7.Bb3 0-0 and now 8.a4!?). However, at the European Team Championship 2019 Daniil Dubov shocked his opponent Jonas Bjerre by playing 8...d5!? anyway. Dubov won convincingly and the "Anti-Anti-Marshall" was born. But how strong is 8...d5 really? In the ChessBase Magazine #194 Krisztian Szabo takes a close look and draws first conclusions.

4/26/2020 – Hikaru Nakamura and Ding Liren obtained key victories in round four of the Magnus Carlsen Invitational. Nakamura took down Ian Nepomniachtchi 2½:1½, while Ding had black and drew Anish Giri in the Armageddon decider of their match-up. Nakamura is now in sole second place a point behind Carlsen and is very likely to reach the semi-finals. Round-up show by GM Yannick Pelletier. | Photo: Official site

4/25/2020 – The proposal to have the 4th of January named as International Day for Chess Composition was made by Valentin Rudenko, who would have turned 82 a couple of months ago. One of Rudenko's problems reached outer space, as cosmonaut Andrian Nikolaev brought one of his compositions — from the publication Suomen Shakki, 1957 — to a mission. Study of the Month columnist Siegfried Hornecker shares this story and a series of assorted compositions.

4/25/2020 – After 15 of 17 rounds Bobby Fischer was certain to win the 2. Tournament of Peace but he still had to fight in round 16 when Viktor Kortschnoi put pressure on him. But after a long and tenacious defense the game ended in a draw. But some of the players seemed to be tired after the long tournament and committed uncharacteristic blunders.

4/25/2020 – Going to the movies is fun! In this article we therefore take a look at four more or less famous films ("Casablanca", "The Killing", "The Seventh Seal" and "Brainwashed") in which chess plays a major or minor role. But we would also like to invite you to a little film quiz and ask you to "Guess the movie"!

4/25/2020 – World numbers one and two, Magnus Carlsen and Fabiano Caruana, won their round-four matches without needing tiebreaks, thus collecting three points each. Carlsen has won all his confrontations so far and is the clear leader with eleven points. He defeated Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, while Caruana inflicted Alireza Firouzja's fourth straight loss. | Photo: Official site

4/24/2020 – In today's Power Play Show Grandmaster Daniel King takes a look at the games of Tony Miles, England's first grandmaster and a very original player. | Power Play is on air most Fridays at 17:00 UK (18:00 CEST, Noon EST) on playchess.com. All the usual puzzles, games and instruction will be on offer. Puzzle and the live video...