Dresden, Miskolc, Yerevan, Sofia, Elista, Dortmund

3/29/2007 – With the Amber tournament over some chess fans are getting a tad nervous. When are the next major events? You can calm down: in April we have the European Championships and a rapid chess match between Kramnik and Leko, in May one between Kramnik and Aronian, then M-Tel Masters, then the FIDE Candidates, then the Dortmund Super-GM. Chess calendar April-June 2007.

Maxime Vachier-Lagrave outperforms French students

3/28/2007 – It is hard to believe: the best chess players, some rated up to 2400, from universities all over France gather together to play a qualification tournament. Eight winning teams of four players each then face the country's youngest grandmaster, a 16-year-old lad, in a clock simultaneous exhibition. The lad concedes just one draw. We predict a bright future for Maxime.

Edward Winter presents: Unsolved Chess Mysteries (3)

3/27/2007 – Recently-discovered photographs from one of Alekhine’s last tournaments, in Spain in 1945, are proving baffling. Do they show that a 15-move brilliancy commonly attributed to Alekhine is spurious? And do they disprove claims that another of his opponents was an 11-year-old boy? Chess Notes investigates, and once again our readers are invited to join in the hunt for clues.

ChessBase and Correspondence chess – part 2

3/27/2007 – In the latest of an ongoing series of ChessBase Workshop columns on correspondence chess, we describe how to set up your correspondence "recorder" databases. That's no typo -- you'll need more than one database. Find out why in the new ChessBase Workshop.

Amber: Kramnik leads, Anand in pursuit

3/26/2007 – Vladimir Kramnik is the blindfold king. The world champion has scored an incredible 7.5/8 (one draw in eight games), with a theoretical rating performance of over 3200. Anand scored a 2-0 victory over Paco Vallejo to narrow the gap in both sections to Kramnik to 1.5 points. Their overall performances are 2929 and 2833. Monday is a free day. Full illustrated report.

Andrew Martin: Pure propaganda

3/26/2007 – This week's Playchess radio show targets the subject matter for three Chessbase DVDs, two which are just out and the other about to be made. The first game focuses on the Modern Slav with 4...a6, the second on the Alekhine with 5...c6, and the third on a perfectly played Czech Benoni by Lev Aronian. The show starts on Wednesday at 16:00 GMT / 17:00 CEST.

Chatalbashev wins Bulgarian Championship in Pernik

3/24/2007 – The women's section, played for the 56th time, was a cliff hanger, with four players battling and tying for first. Exciting chess. In the men's section there was no tension predicting the outcome. Elo favorite Boris Chatalbashev took the lead after the third round and never left any doubts as to his intentions after that. He won with 1.5 points more than the competition. Report and games.

Kramnik, Aronian, Ivanchuk still lead in Monaco

3/23/2007 – In Round 6 Vladimir Kramnik regained the overall lead, thanks to a 1½-½ win over one of the co-leaders, Levon Aronian. The other, Vasily Ivanchuk, was lucky to draw his mini-match against Peter Svidler and is now in second place, half a point behind Kramnik. Peter Leko and Teimour Radjabov both chalked up a win to improve their positions in the overall table. Round six report.

Anatoly Karpov Tournament in Poikovsky

3/23/2007 – The 8th Anatoly Karpov Tournament in Poikovsky is under way, but already it is as good as won by Dmitry Jakovenko, who keeps showing great chess skill combined with enormous playing capacity, collecting one good result after another. Games, results and a big pictorial report by Misha Savinov.

The King's Indian reloaded – part 2

3/23/2007 – Thanks to Radjabov, Kasimdhzanov and others the King's Indian is part of a lively discussion in the top level chess again. Another KID expert, Alexei Shirov, recently made an over five hour DVD, in his famous and highly praised "best games" series. Buy his King's India DVD now or read this review with sampler.

ChessBase and Correspondence chess – part 1

3/23/2007 – ChessBase Workshop readers have requested a series of columns on the use of ChessBase in correspondence chess; Steve Lopez has been only too happy to comply. In the first installment of this series, he discusses the benefits to playing chess at coorespondence time controls as well as some legal and illegal uses of computers in correspondence play. Workshop...

The Kasparov Diary – tour in Germany

3/22/2007 – For just over a week Garry Kasparov, former world chess champion, book author and now de facto leader of the Russian opposition, is touring Germany and Switzerland. After his blitz in Hamburg he proceeded to Cologne where he took part in a debate with one of Germany's top investigative journalists, on a "Literature Ship" sailing the Rhine. Big pictorial report.

ACP Survey: what the players think about draw offers

3/22/2007 – In February the Association of Chess Professionals asked its members what should be done to combat short, unfought draws, which are often perceived to be the bane of chess. The ACP published a questionnaire, 171 members replied.

Fifth Freestyle Tournament Final this weekend

3/22/2007 – The 5th PAL/CSS Freestyle Main Tournament, staged on the Playchess server, ended in a dead heat of 17 players. None of the 131 participants from 32 countries, including 20 titled players, managed to achieve six points in eight games, which is the magic barrier for qualification. The final, with ten players, will be held as a round robin tournament this weekend. Come and watch.

Kramnik, Aronian, Ivanchuk lead in Monaco

3/22/2007 – Tournament leader Vladimir Kramnik got an easy point in the blindfold game against Anand when the latter hung multiple pieces in round four. But after the rest and outing day Kramnik lost 1½:½ to Vasily Ivanchuk, allowing him and Levon Aronian to join him in the lead. Anand and Svidler are a point behind. Report.

Paying respect to the losers

3/21/2007 – What do you think of when you hear the names Kieseritzky, Dufresne or Donald Byrne? Chances are their famous losses to Anderssen and Bobby Fischer. But the trio were all fine players in their own right. This week our Playchess trainer Dennis Monokroussos shows us some of their triumphs to give them their due.

Washington Post: cut the chess guy?

3/21/2007 – What can newspapers do to gain space in their printed editions? "Cut the chess guy" was the humorous advice from a television serial. After the axing of Nigel Short's widely-read column in the Guardian, now the Washington Post has cut the highly-respected weekly section on chess by GM Lubomir Kavalek by a third. Want to do something about it?

Rikets Røst vs Magnus Carlsen on Norwegian TV 2

3/20/2007 – Fresh from his amazing second place in the Morelia/Linares Super-GM tournament grandmaster Magnus Carlsen was invited to a comedy talk show in his native Norway, where he faced a provocative host, Rikets Røst. The 16-year-old faced tough questions about his performance, expectations, colleagues, money, girls and raisins. Raisins? Watch the video.

Andrew Martin: Blind leading the blind

3/20/2007 – The Melody Amber tournament gives us great players humbled by the format, making all manners of mistakes, often reduced to the level of club amateurs, as our Playchess.com trainer will show in his Wednesday night lecture. Nevertheless it is all conducted in a spirit of friendship and entertainment, and the players themselves seem to be having lots of fun.

Kramnik leads 16th Amber Blindfold and Rapid Tournament

3/20/2007 – After three rounds Vladimir Kramnik has won all of his blindfold games, while scoring 2/3 in the rapid section. He now leads the field, half a point ahead of Levon Aronian, who has scored 3/3 in his rapid games. Last year's winners Anand and Morozevich are still feeling their way around. Report, games and results.

Amber Blindfold and Rapid Tournament

3/18/2007 – It carries a prize fund of US $288,000 and is staged in the posh Fairmont Monte Carlo Hotel in Monaco. Twelve top GMs play two rounds per day, one blindfold and one rapid. The participants include Anand, Kramnik, Ivanchuk, Leko, Aronian, Morozevich and Svidler. The first round was played on Saturday. We bring you results and games.

How Life Imitates Chess – Kasparov on tour

3/18/2007 – On Friday Hurricane Garry made landfall in Germany. The thirteenth world champion is here to promote his new book, "How Life Imitates Chess", but also to record at least one new ChessBase DVD (Najdorf 3!). There are book signings, lectures, interviews and TV appearances in different German cities. If you are in the vicinity you might want to catch one of them.

Bessel's Birthday – a Party in Prague

3/16/2007 – Last December Bessel Kok, Dutch businessman and chess organiser, turned 65, and also married his partner Martina. All of this happened in strict privacy. Now, three months later, Bessel, who will soon be running the commercial branch of FIDE, celebrated the milestones in a party spectacular held in Prague, with former president Václav Havel acting as patron. A chess treat was included.

2007 Asian Cities Chess Championship in Tehran

3/15/2007 – The brainchild of the Hong Kong Chess Federation, and dominated by the Chinese for over a decade, the Asian Cities Championship has migrated to the Middle East and is now dominated by Kazakhstan. This year's event, held from March 1–9 in Tehran, was won by Pavlodar, ahead of Tagaytay (Philippines) and Saipa (Iran). Arash Akbarinia reports.