4/1/2018 – A Two Knights and a Pirc from a Belgian. Sam Azzoug has a pawn sac gone wrong providing the 'agony' and then makes up for it with a nice a central pin breakthrough bit of 'ecstasy'. Fancy Jon taking a look at your games? Send them in! If you appear in the Agony column, not only will you get free detailed commentary of your games by one of chess’s great authors and instructors, and former world no. 4 player, but you also win a free three-month ChessBase Premium Account!

4/1/2018 – The 5th Grenke Classic could not have come any sooner, as it features a preview of the upcoming World Championship match. By luck of the draw the two rivals Magnus Carlsen and Fabiano Caruana got to play each other in the opening round. While the engine jockeys screamed Carlsen had missed an 'easy win' as they drew, author and annotator GM Alex Yermolinsky shows that this was anything but true. | Photo: Georgios Souleidis

4/1/2018 – How would you react if your opponent just moved all their pawns to the third rank of the board in the opening and still managed to hold ground? Wesley Falcao, a National Master living in New York, did exactly this in some of his blitz games. The result: this seemingly drunken manner of opening the game actually caught some strong players off guard, provoked errors and produced some really entertaining games. In this article, Wesley Falcao shares some of his games (a whopping 17 of them!) and discusses some key ideas behind his opening, urging readers to kick back and have a drink with the Drunken Master!

3/31/2018 – There were plenty of interesting results this last month, and the Candidates was but one of the contributing factors. There can be no discussion about calling Fabiano Caruana 'Man of the Month', but fascinating moves abound, from the rise of Iranian youth (watch out Batumi!), to Anand's ascension to world no.3 in Rapid. See all, read all, in this month's ratings report! | Photo: World Chess

3/31/2018 – CBM 183 is just out. However, our columnist Nagesh Havanur did not want readers to miss out our recent issue. Among other things, it includes games from London Chess Classic, FIDE Grand Prix Palma de Mallorca and European Team Championship Tournaments. In all, 1768 games (several annotated) with 12 opening surveys from the Sicilian to the Catalan. A detailed review.

3/31/2018 – Nowadays, people tend to prefer working on their chess by studying opening variations with engines, neglecting the practical side of our game. This DVD emphasizes the importance of training your calculation skills. Dutch IM Robert Ris made a selection of training material which he uses in lessons with students ranging from 1400 to 2400. But Ris believes that this material is suitable for players of various strengths because anyone can benefit from practicing calculation in a structured way.

3/31/2018 – Fabiano Caruana’s victory in the Candidates series in Berlin has sparked rumours that November’s world title contest may switch from London to the United States and offer a larger financial prize to the winner. Billionaire Rex Sinquefield, who has made St Louis a renowned global chess centre, and who has supported Caruana's chess career, might bid to host the match against Magnus Carlsen in the US. Leonard Barden, chess correspondent of The Guardian, shares his view.

3/30/2018 – World Champion Magnus Carlsen has a busy Spring planned. He leads the field of the Grenke Chess Classic again this year from March 31st to April 9th. The tournament runs parallel to the Grenke Open in Karlsruhe and then moves to Baden-Baden. Later in April, from the 18th to the 29th, Carlsen will play in Shamkir, Azerbaijan for the Vugar Gashimov Memorial, followed by the Altibox Norway Chess tournament, May 27th to June 8th. The summer kicks off for Carlsen with the 51st Biel Chess Festival, July 22nd to August 1st. | Photo: Georgios Souleidis GrenkeChessClassic.de

3/30/2018 – A solid tactical understanding is sure to help any chess player in critical situations. Whether it is a simple exchange or a mating attack, tactics are ubiquitous. Take advantage of the opportunity to develop your tactical understanding in this series with IM Oliver Reeh and Pascal Simon! Friday at 15:30 CET (9:00 AM EDT) it's all about calculation training!

3/30/2018 – Larsen, the fighter! This time my inspiration was the great article "Vlastimil Hort: Bent Larsen". More to come, I hope! Your eyes do not deceive you, there is a black king on h3. Find out why.

3/30/2018 – Fabiano Caruana’s victory at the Candidates not only promises an exciting match, but will also be the first title match by a player born in the USA in 46 years, since Bobby Fischer’s famous bout against Boris Spassky in 1972. However, theirs were hardly the only ones by US players. The very first was by Frank Marshall in 1907 against none other than Emanuel Lasker. Here is a look at that chess legend and his title match with annotations by Garry Kasparov! | Photo: Chicago History Museum

3/30/2018 – Right from a very early age, everyone knew that Vishy Anand would make it big in the world of chess. His talent and work ethic combined with the love for the game took him to the top. But what is it that kept him at the top for so many years? If you had to ask us, we would say: a very important role was played by his wife Aruna Anand. She gave Anand the emotional support that helped him keep going for years and years. Even at the age of 48 he is going strong. In Part II of our interview with the Tigress of Madras - Aruna Anand, we ask her about her role as a manager, the biggest challenge, how she deals with Vishy's losses and how Akhil's presence has brought new colours into their lives!