4/21/2017 – Round five saw Magnus Carlsen finally score as he soundly defeated Georg Meier with black. He still remains a full point behind the leader since Levon Aronian also won, beating Arkadij Naiditsch in an inspired performance. After sacrificing an exchange to keep Naiditsch's king in the center, he entered a pawn up into an opposite-colored bishop he handled superbly. Read the report with the highly instructive analysis by Tiger Hillarp-Persson.

4/20/2017 – Grenke Chess Classic, Reykjavik Open, Karpov Poikovsky, Chinese League. You can start watching the games with a single click, here in your browser. And if you have been using our Live Broadcast service you will have noticed that it is being constantly upgraded. We have engine analysis and advanced cloud functions, and now also chat in the browser, where your attention is drawn to interesting things that are happening in the games. You can jump to games in other tournament when people point to them – and that with single click in the chat.

4/20/2017 – Without a doubt, round four brought in a number of dramatic moments for those watching the games live. The one ‘letdown’, if one may, was the uneventful draw between Carlsen and Caruana on top board. Naiditsch and Meier had a crazy game that drew in the end, while Aronian defeated Bluebaum very cleanly to take the lead after Hou Yifan lost to MVL in a tough endgame that is annotated in detail by GM Krikor Mekhitarian.

4/19/2017 – Two weeks ago one of the youngest IMs in history, all of twelve years old, and now with one GM norm under his belt, came to visit us in Hamburg. We told you how impressed everyone it the ChessBase office was, by his tactical vision and his deep understanding of positional aspects of the game. But also by his obvious love and enjoyment of the game. Nihal entertained everyone with humorous chess puzzles, of which we bring you a small selection. You can solve two and win a valuable prize.

4/19/2017 – The Agony and Ecstasy column offers readers a unique chance to have their games analysed by one of the greats, who was once world no.4, not to mention a prolific author. As if that weren’t enough, you get a free one-month Premium subscription to ChessBase Account. This month, Jonathan Speelman dissects one of his own recent painful losses, to share his Agony with you as well as what he learned.

4/18/2017 – Are you looking for a tricky opening with Black? Something that offers dynamic play based on a strong strategic foundation? Let Indian grandmaster Vidit Gujrathi, currently rated 2673, show you the lines he personally prefers and has employed successfully in practice (recently against Vachier Lagrave, Radjabov, Jobava and Anand). Total running time 4½ + 3¾ hours of invaluable instructions.

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.