4/15/2017 – After what seemed likely to be another hiatus of super tournaments, the Grenke Chess Classic is back after skipping 2016. This year’s edition has a great blend with massive opens, and an elite round-robin with the Magnus Carlsen no less! The first round saw many surprises such as Hou Yifan beating Fabiano Caruana! Enjoy this report flush grandmaster analysis and exciting chess.

4/15/2017 – The annual Dubai Open is a regular affair for many grandmasters and talented youngsters. This time, about 214 players were competing for USD 50,000. Surprisingly, 91 of these players were Indians. We bring you an illustrated report with grandmaster analysis. Tip: Alexander Fier of Brazil who finished eighth in the tournament has annotated his final round game in wonderful depth that you just should not miss—the analysis is a work of grandmaster art.

4/15/2017 – The match-ups on show in the second and third rounds of the 'New Classical' were all interesting and full of 'time-trouble' miracles. While Svidler's incredible ...Nf5 not only saved him from defeat but even won him the game against Hikaru. Vladimir Kramnik was a piece up against Ian Nepomniachtchi but the latter, armed with an irritating passer, fished out a draw! But that was not all—Gelfand missed a win against Kramnik as well! Report and grandmaster analysis.

4/14/2017 – Tactical strikes often pass by unnoticed, especially in blitz or rapid server games which you don't bother analysing with a computer. And yet this can be very rewarding as this example shows. In the diagram White's knight c4 is attacked. Can you see why all retreats run into something nasty?

4/14/2017 – As in the blitz, Yannick Pelletier and Peter Svidler were put under serious pressure, on the board as well as on the clock. While Peter managed to bring about a rearguard, not without some generosity from Nepomniachtchi, Hikaru Nakamura gave his opponent no such chance. Vladimir Kramnik scored a trademark victory over Viswanathan Anand. Report with grandmaster analysis.

4/13/2017 – The second edition of the American Chess Magazine is out, and for those wondering whether this new foray into the challenging print chess magazine market could continue the promise of its first edition, the answer is a resounding yes. The main focus this time is of course the World Championship, but you will also find many fascinating articles, such as the tournament report on Nakamura's win in Gibraltar by... Hou Yifan!

4/13/2017 – When annotating a game, aside from the usual elements such as verbal commentary, or chess notation symbols, but some of the most powerful tools in ChessBase are the colored arrows or squares that can show an idea at a glance. The secret to using them is only found in the Help file though… or in this simple tutorial.

4/13/2017 – The Korchnoi Zurich Chess Challenge 2017 began with legendary grandmasters and Russian talents in the fray, promising entertaining chess for the fans. The opening day saw an exhibition match between the chief sponsor Oleg Skvortsov and Viswanathan Anand. The Indian legend made it a showstopper with a queen sacrifice. A seven-round blitz tourney followed to determine the pairings for the main event, which was led by Boris Gelfand until the sixth round, but as has become traditional in Zurich now, it was Hikaru Nakamura who won the tournament on the tiebreak!

4/12/2017 – The television show 60 Minutes featured the chess program in Franklin County, Mississippi (MS). Over 15 million viewers watched that episode (original air date March 26, 2017), which featured Dr. Jeff Bulington along with his chess-playing students and their proud parents. Bulington’s chess program began in August of 2015 and is sponsored for ten years by an anonymous wealthy benefactor. Here is the report and commentary by Alexey Root.

4/12/2017 – The beautiful Shanghai Haiwan National Forest Park has been a very active and attractive spot for chess in China in recent years, with three high level tournaments held there in the past two years. At the end of last month, held from March 26-31, we saw a high-level national junior chess tournament, "Shanghai Haiwan Cup" 2017 National New Youth Chess Tournament, a round-robin with eight top Chinese junior players.

4/11/2017 – He was recognized as the “Dean of American Chess” – in honor of his promotion of and many contributions to the game. During the 2017 US Championship, a title he had himself won 63 years earlier, this giant of chess, considered one of America's "most dangerous players", died of respiratory failure. He worked for decades for the United States Chess Federation and for its magazine Chess Life. There we find a touching eulogy.

4/11/2017 – Bishop and "wrong" outside pawn cannot win if the defending king manages to occupy the square on which the pawn wants to queen. Therefore the bishop has to prevent the enemy king from reaching this corner: Black to move. Today on the playchess server, 3:30 pm: Endgame Magic with Karsten Müller and Andrew Martin.