4/7/2017 – Vassily Ivanchuk took the lead by winning game two in the “MEWE Cup” 2017 World Champion Summit Chess Match, which is ongoing in Shenzhen, China. Hou Yifan had white, and proceeded to try to put pressure, but instead she was the one who felt the heat, and in a game full of swings, committed the crucial blunder on move 37.

4/6/2017 – Yesterday, we reported on the cheating scandal that took place at the Dubai Open 2017 where and Indian chessplayer Jeel Shah was caught cheating red-handed by the arbiters. Today, we have a detailed report narrating the entire story from Dubai, along with comments by various victims of the cheater, including titled players. Also, you will be shocked to know Jeel Shah's profession. Report.

4/6/2017 – The seventh round was chock full of surprises, starting with Yaroslav Zherebukh's powerful win over Fabiano Caruana, who failed to give him the respect he deserved and paid the price. Alexander Shabalov came prepared to the ears, and his young opponent, Jeffery Xiong, kindly obliged and also paid the price for his temerity. Finally, Kamsky completely overpowered Dan Naroditsky. Report and analysis by Alex Yermolinsky.

4/6/2017 – One of the nice things about a program such as ChessBase or Fritz is the ability to be able to customize it the way you like. It is no secret you can move the pane (windows) around so the engine window is on top, on the bottom, on the side, but this is not always obvious. In this quick tutorial, you will learn how to move them around and how to save your favorite setup.

4/5/2017 – A four-game chess battle of genders, the “MEWE Cup” 2017 World Champion Summit Chess Match, kicked off at 2:30 PM on April 5 in Shenzhen, China. The four-time Women Chess Champion GM Hou Yifan will play four classical games against the reigning world rapid chess champion GM Vassily Ivanchuk at the rate of one per day.

4/5/2017 – Round 6 of US championship saw another topsy-turvy turn of events especially in the women’s section, when Irina Krush declined a draw against Nazi Paikidze, and ended up losing instead. In the men’s, Wesley So came close to losing against Varuzhan Akobian, but held, while Kamsky blundered a pawn early and lost to Caruana. Illustrated report and analyses by Elshan Moradiabadi.

4/5/2017 – In an unfortunate event that occurred a few minutes back at the Dubai Open 2017, Surat-based Indian player Jeel Shah, rated 1764, was suspended from the tournament for cheating during the game. Find out what happened.

4/5/2017 – You know about the power struggle for control of the International Chess Federation FIDE, on which we have reported extensively. On the eve of his 55th birthday the embattled President made an clear attacking move: Kirsan Ilyumzhinov announced that he has registered a charitable foundation, the "Kirsan Fund", in the United States, and plans to invest 30 million dollars in its activities: Chess in Schools, Chess in villages, Chess in families and Chess for people with disabilities. "We set an ambitious task to bring the number of chess players to one billion."

4/5/2017 – In honor of the unforgettable chess legend Viktor Kortchnoi, who passed on June 6th, 2015, the Zurich Chess Club is organizing an Easter tournament, from April 13th to 17th 2017, at the Kongresshaus in Zurich, Switzerland a Grandmaster Tournament with the two world champions, Vladimir Kramnik and Viswanathan Anand, and the world class players Hikaru Nakamura, Ian Nepomniachtchi, Peter Svidler. Come and watch – everyone is welcome, entry is free.

4/4/2017 – The new issue contains lots of chess highlights: Wesley So, Levon Aronian and Adhiban Baskaran annotate their best games from Wijk aan Zee. Analyses of the Grand Prix in Sharjah. A wealth of training material. And highly topical: Daniel King shows a video in which he discusses the pros and cons of the Italian.

4/4/2017 – "Chess is like boxing. You have to know when to duck and when to punch", is an often quoted statement by Bobby Fischer. Today's endgame shows how right Fischer was. Have a look and find out if you know when to duck and when to punch! Black to move. Today on the playchess server, 4 pm: Endgame Magic with Karsten Müller and Nihal Sarin.

4/3/2017 – The final round of the Sharjah Masters kept fans glued to their seats as they watched the final deciding games that would decide the podium. After the dust had settled, six players shared the score of 7.0/9, with Wang Hao from China taking first on tiebreak, followed by Baskaran Adhiban in second and Martyn Kravtsiv in third. Here is the final illustrated report with GM analysis from the players. | Photo: Maria Emelianova