Basel Chess Festival launches 2014

1/4/2014 – Right after the Zurich Open that concluded the year 2013 comes the Basel Chess Festival, also in Switzerland, launching the new year in fine style. The event has grown each year and in the 230 players, are no fewer than seventeen grandmasters, many who came directly from Zurich. The top seed is Radoslaw Wojtaszek once more, but sharing the lead are Robin van Kampen and Ivan Popov.

Daniel King's Interactive Coaching Session

1/4/2014 – "Test Your Attacking Chess was the first time I experienced the new interactive training with video feedback feature of the Fritz Training DVDs," writes Chess Cafe reviewer Chris Wainscott. "I had no idea what a treat was in store for me." He found it a very dynamic tool that "comes as close to emulating a lesson from a GM as anything I have seen," – and gives it five out of six possible stars.

Wojtaszek is first at Zurich Open

1/3/2014 – The 37th Zurich Christmas Open took place on 26-30th December at the Crowne Plaza Zürich in Zurich, Switzerland. The seven-round Master Tournament, for players rated over 2000, drew 118 participants of which 50 were titled, including 23 grandmasters from around the world. Top seed Polish grandmaster Radoslaw Wojtaszek took clear first with 6.0/7 after a powerful last-round win.

January 2014 ratings – Nakamura now third

1/3/2014 – The sensational change at the top of the New Year's rating list is (ta-dum!) Hikaru Nakamura's climb to number three in the world. He is not only the highest rated American of all time, he is the second American to reach the top three since the FIDE ratings were installed. Incidentally did you know that only 0.0024% of the world population has a FIDE rating? Here's the latest list.

VG Interview with Magnus Carlsen

1/3/2014 – He comes across as intelligent, level headed, humorous. And quite candid. This latest half-hour interview with the new world chess champion, by VG-TV, is in Norwegian, but it is meticulously captioned in English, and even has one-click jumps to the different sections. So it is well worth while watching – we have prepared a full transcript with strategic screengrabs for you. Enjoy.

BBC Radio program “Across the Board” has started

1/3/2014 – As previously announced mid-December, the BBC Radio program “Across the Board” has started, featuring Dominic Lawson, the Sunday Times and Daily Mail columnist, and also club player, who interviews five personalities whom chess has touched in its own way. The first three episodes are up with interviews of John Healy, Rachel Reeves, and Lennox Lewis. Well worth listening too.

Chinese Chess League concludes

1/2/2014 – The Chinese Chess League has come to an end and the team from Nankai University of Tianjin province has come out ahead. The event is played, like the Bundesliga, throughout the year and it was an amazing 22 rounds of chess! Most of the top players from China participated and some strong foreigners, including Motylev, Ponomariov, Malakhov and others boosted the teams. Report from Tianjin.

Super Sasi wins in India

1/2/2014 – Krishan Sasikirian has ended victorious in the 14 player round robing that was the National Premier Championship. He was closely followed by a young and talented players, including Adhiban and Lalith. Sasikirian's play was simply too strong, however, and he clinched his spot in the Olympic team and in the 2015 World Cup. Extensive on-site coverage by Sagar Shah

Rafael Leitao wins sixth Brazilian title

1/2/2014 – In the last weeks of 2013, the 80th Brazilian Championship was held in the beautiful city of Joao Pessoa. The top-seed was GM Rafael Leitao, who was able to win his sixth title, ahead of Krikor Mekhitarian, and surprise third, FM Cesar 'Samurai' Umetsubo. Commenting the event, with personal impressions and select moments, is the champion himself. Here is Rafael Leitao's personal account.

A Happy New Year for all our readers

1/1/2014 – Yet another year has started, and as usual it was brought in with fireworks, some more spectacular than any in the past. There were general retrospects – at least one that had us proverbially ROTFL. And a lovely video look back at the year 2013 by Anna Burtasova. And finally you are able to send in solutions to our Christmas Chess Puzzles, with some interesting prizes to win.

Al Ain Open won by Abhijeet Gupta

12/31/2013 – In parallel to the World Youth Championship in Al Ain, U.A.E, two swiss opens were held. One for players rated 2000 FIDE or less, and one open to all. The top Open attracted dozens of grandmasters, the strongest being Georgian GM Baadur Jobava who was the only 2700 player. Jobava led until the end, when he fell ill and defaulted the last round. Abhijeet Gupta took first. Report and games.

ChessBase Chrismas Puzzles 2013

12/31/2013 – It's been a great year, with more chess than ever before – and more visitors than ever before flocking to our news site. We thank them for the wonderfully positive feedback we routinely receive, which makes our whole endeavour eminently worthwhile. As always we end the year with our traditional Christmas puzzles, and once again we have entrusted multiple world champion solver John Nunn with their selection. Now with all seven puzzles.

World Youth Championship: The champions

12/31/2013 – It was a grueling tournament, and hard fought by all, from chess’s youngest competitors, to those coming of age. A couple of players had secured their places on the topmost step of their pantheon, but for most it was all down to the last round, when the players decided their fates. Garry Kasparov showed up to inspire the children, and FIDE issued a statement on the Israeli flag issue.

Groningen Chess Festival

12/31/2013 – The Groningen Chess Festival has concluded. Attractions included several amateur tournaments, many scholastic events, simultaneous exhibitions and book signings. However the two obvious main events were the Open section and the rematch between Karpov and Timman, replaying the FIDE World Championship of 1993 in which the Russian convincingly won. See Karpov's repeat.

How about a Nixie chess set?

12/30/2013 – Cold-cathode or "Nixie" tubes, introduced in the 1950s, were among the first digital displays ever built. There are still small stockpiles left, and the tubes are experiencing a comeback in nostalgia driven displays, clocks and even watches. And now you can get a chess set as a DIY kit, or fully assembled, with pieces that glow on the squares. But hurry: the world is running out of Nixie tubes.

Carlsen – the nettlesome World Champion

12/29/2013 – "Carlsen won because he is the better athlete and not the better chess player," wrote a commentator after the Chennai match. In drawn positions the Norwegian plays on and on, sitting his opponent out, waiting for errors. That is profoundly misleading: Magnus Carlsen's success lies in his ability to play "consistently accurate moves that also maximise the chances of inaccuracies from the opponent," writes GM Jonathan Rowson.

Web publishing with ChessBase 12 (part 3/3)

12/29/2013 – In this final part on web publishing with ChessBase 12, you will learn how to publish several games for the javascript replayer with a drop-down menu, which can be published in your pages, or linked to, even from Facebook or any other social network. You will also be shown some tips on how to present just parts of games, combinations, studies, and more.

"Boringly Safe" in Kurdistani Iraq! Part 2

12/28/2013 – In part one of her report to Kurdistani Iraq, Alina l'Ami gave us a beautiful impression of the city of Erbil, a thriving zone full of kind people. In this second and final half she focuses on the events surrounding the tournament itself, which was eventually won by Dutch GM Sergey Tiviakov, while of course bringing us a big pictorial report of a high publicized event.

CBM #156 – the resurgence of Vlad Kramnik

12/28/2013 – We have already reached ChessBase Magazine 157, but Nagesh Havanur, who was busy writing on the World Championship match in Chennai, has sent us his impressions of CBM 156, which celebrates Vladimir Kramnik's victory at the Tromsø World Cup. He has taken a special look at one particular opening survey: 9…Ne8!? against the King’s Indian Bayonet Attack. Review.

World Youth Championship: heroes and heartbreak

12/28/2013 – The 2013 World Youth Chess Championship is nearing the end, and interestingly only two gold medals have been decided: Indian Praggnanandhaa in the Open under-8 and FM Awonder Liang in the Open under-10. Several sections have four or more tied for first, with more a half point behind, and the last round promises to be extremely bloodthirsty. Heroes will be praised and hearts will be broken.

Chess Movies

12/27/2013 – In the recent article Chess in Movies, many readers clamored about the terrible omission of films actually about chess. This was deliberate, as it had been designed solely to be on films in which chess made a distinct appearance, but was not the star of the show. In this follow-up, the subject is precisely films where chess is central to the plot. Added to the list are reader recommendations.

Anand: will he, won't he join the dance?

12/27/2013 – "Viswanathan Anand shows cold feet for Candidates", said the Times of India headline on December 21. "Most likely I won't play," the newspaper quoted the deposed World Champion saying. Then, two days later, the tone changed to ""I haven't decided yet". And now one billion fans can take heart: "Most probably I will play," said Anand a few days ago. Press reports.

Jakovenko double gold in Khanty-Mansiysk

12/27/2013 – The Russian Cup finished with its rapid play in Khanty-Mansiysk. The knock-out was certainly hard fought, but at the end of the day it was Jakovenko that was able to take the win yet again. His win was far from easy as he barely survived his first game in the finals against Kovalenko and had to win in Armageddon in the quarter finals. Pictorial report of the event.

Web publishing with ChessBase 12 (part 2/3)

12/26/2013 – In this second part on publishing on the web, you learn how to make use of the powerful new javascript replayer, exactly as in the ChessBase News pages, with fancy pieces, figuring notation, highlighted squares and arrows, and more. You can also easily embed these into a personal blog or professional resources, and even publish a replayable game on Facebook in seconds.