4/9/2021 – It was an Easter puzzle. We asked you to take a try to solve this truly remarkable study by a truly remarkable composer, Mario Matouš. You were asked to win the position against a rampaging queen which wants to sacrifice itself to stalemate the black monarch. Were you able to solve it? Many readers found the problem quite difficult, and extremely clever. Today we give you the full solution, on a replay board with full engine support.

4/3/2021 – Take a look at this position. Can White (to play) win? It is a truly remarkable study by a truly remarkable composer. Mario Matouš gives us a wonderful position to solve. The theme is a rampaging queen which wants to sacrifice itself to stalemate the black monarch. Can you solve it? The composer was born in Czechoslovakia in 1947, and died 2013. Here's a memorial by Emil Vlasák.

3/28/2021 – Vasily Smyslov became the seventh World Chess Champion in 1957 after his victory over Mikhail Botvinnik — he would later lose the return match. Symslov had a deep understanding of chess and was part of the absolute chess elite for many years. As late as 1984, he contested a Candidates match against Garry Kasparov. This past week we celebrated the 100th anniversary of Smyslov’s birth. | Pictured: Smyslov with his cat Belka. | Photos: Dagobert Kohlmeyer

3/25/2021 – The match between the USSR and the Rest of the World in 1970 featured no fewer than five world champions. Fifty years after the celebrated event took place, the Chess Informant has released a revised edition, extended and compiled by Douglas Griffin, chess historian and connoisseur, and Igor Zveglic, Chess Informant commissioning editor. Diana Mihajlova sent us a review.

3/24/2021 – In a world under the shadow of Covid, Hybrid chess is becoming increasingly popular. It is arbiter-supervised Internet tournaments in which players gather at a venue to play against opponents similarly gathered elsewhere. That’s a whole lot cheaper than schlepping from one end of the country to another, and it certainly reduces the carbon footprint of chess events. Perhaps it will reinvigorate competitions that have generally declined over the years.

3/18/2021 – Round seven of the Magnus Carlsen Invitational. In the game between Jorden van Foreest and Taimour Radjabov the latter had outplayed his opponent and was clearly on his way to victory. But the Dutch GM used a well-known trick to conjure up a problem for his opponent, one he was unable to resolve. Watch the exciting live commentary during the game. It's entertaining and instructive.

3/16/2021 – Capablanca was twelve when he played his first famous game, Fischer, Kasparov, and Carlsen were teenagers. Of course, they stand out with the benefit of hindsight. It is impossible to predict the future, but in his article, study composer Gady Costeff presents some of the first notable work of six promising teenagers, taking their first steps in chess composition.

3/9/2021 – One of Argentina’s and the world’s greatest chess players, a man shaken by life, a victim of war and its inevitable pain, a passionate man who never lost faith. Najdorf reminisces on his life story. | Part 2 of an interview from 1988 by José Luis Barrio for “El Gráfico”.

3/6/2021 – The International Russian Cup, also known as the Moscow Open, took place from February 19 until March 1 partly at the Russian State Social University and partly online. The two main events, which serve as stages of the Russian Cup, were won by GM Ivan Rozum (open section) and IM Marina Guseva (women’s section). Diana Mihajlova tells us all about the traditional festival. | Pictured: Marina Guseva | Photo: Anna Shtourman

3/2/2021 – The main problem that blind players face when preparing for chess games is the lack of tools and technical resources. They struggle with technology because they cannot access all the available content. For big organizations who produce chess tools, tweaking the features for visually-impaired players is often financially unviable. This is the reason why Soundarya Pradhan, who is 100% visually impaired, decided to take things in his own hands. He has built up his own website, which solves a very specific problem for blind chess players. | Photo: Amruta Mokal

2/27/2021 – Although many other endgame study composers created pawn endgames, two were outstanding — Nikolay Grigoriev and Mikhail Zinar. Columnist Siegfred Hornecker shares the story of the latter, an aviation technician turned teacher who was deeply passionate about chess. | Photo: arves.org

2/27/2021 – What is the best continuation? Which rook should you to move to the half-open b-file? You look at the 30 games in Mega, but cannot find a convincing answer. So you consult the latest chess engines, the NN variety with the most profound understanding. But even there you find clear differences of opinion. ICCF GM Stephen Ham, who represents Team USA on Board #1, uses this practical example to explain why he prefers one engine to assist with his deep preparation. His conclusion: Fat Fritz 2 is the best overall chess analysis tool available.

2/22/2021 – Irina Bulmaga is a chess professional from Romania but she has sometimes found it difficult to explain to non-chess players what this means. Until recently - when she had an interesting conversation about chess, women's chess, Judit Polgar, Garry Kasparov, and others topics, while waiting for an official document. | Photo: Irina Bulmaga | Photo: David Llada

2/21/2021 – In this week’s column, Jon Speelman focuses on the importance of ‘trusting your hand’, noting that “playing chess is one of the few times in our lives when we are totally self-sufficient and self-reliant. It’s the joy and horror of the game that you can take all the credit for your triumphs but have nobody else to blame for your mistakes.” Unmissable! | Photo: David Llada

2/21/2021 – To say that Fat Fritz 2 has been making waves is an understatement. In this article the author describes the process of its creation as a powerful new neural network that runs inside a slightly modified Stockfish. You will also learn the difference between the search and the neural network, what makes Fat Fritz different, and all the considerations and work that went into its development.

2/20/2021 – Grandmaster Chess is a series hosted by IM Sagar Shah on the ChessBase India YouTube channel. The idea of the series is to give you a peek into the mind of a world class grandmaster. In every episode a Grandmaster presents one of his or her best games while four famous Indian stand-up comedians comment and ask questions. In episode 14 of the show Humpy Koneru, currently number three on the FIDE Women's World Ranking list, demonstrates her attacking skills. Enjoy!

2/19/2021 – This summer Vladimir Kramnik and Viswanathan Anand will face each other in an innovative chess variant, proposed by Kramnik: No-Castling chess. There is one simple rule change – no castling allowed, everything else remains the same as in the regular chess – is meant to combat over-preparation and drawing tendencies in chess. Experience shows that it also leads to more exciting games. In parallel the online Sparkassen Playchess Open for participants from all over the world will be in the "No-Castling“ format. This is your chance to try it out.

2/7/2021 – “The 8x8 board allied with the rules of chess is an amazing canvas. Much of the time the pictures it paints are fairly mundane, but occasionally it creates something extraordinary”, writes Jon Speelman to conclude this week’s article. In it, you will find helpmates, cooks and a surprising move out of a Catalan. | Photo: Anna Barnett website

1/31/2021 – Even passionate chess players often have difficulties to appreciate the beauty of chess problems. Bizarre positions and terms such as albion, aristocrat, dual, duplex, uncapture, or Zepler doubling, to name just a few, are just not very inviting. But Sam Loyd, perhaps the most famous chess composer and puzzle author of all times, had a knack to present his chess problems in an attractive way: with humour, wit, and embedded into stories. Sam Loyd was born 180 years ago, on January 30, 1841.

1/30/2021 – In his first column of the year, Siegfried Hornecker tells a few interesting — and real — stories, a kaleidoscope of sorts. The “colourful hodgepodge”, as he describes it, includes references to Alex Trebek, fairy-chess’ grasshoppers, optical illusions and a practical chess endgame between Daniil Dubov and Vladislav Artemiev. | Pictured: A kaleidoscope drawing by Kara Wilson

1/28/2021 – The Covid-19 pandemic has been devastating for many families and has brought many changes to the way billions of people live. It has also wrought a transformation of the chess world. This is described by John Nunn, who is playing vigorously in online tournaments. He has kindly annotated a game for us – one in which for the first time in his career he mated his opponent with a double check.

1/28/2021 – Originally, the match for the World Championship between Magnus Carlsen and the winner of the Candidates Tournament 2020, was planned for November 2020. But the corona pandemic put a stop to these plans. Now, the FIDE announced a new date for the World Championship match: if everything goes according to plan, it will take place from 24 November to 16 December 2021 in Dubai, as part of the Expo. | Picture: FIDE

1/24/2021 – It was an eventful seventh round in Wijk aan Zee, as five out of seven games finished decisively, including Anish Giri beating former sole leader Nils Grandelius with the white pieces. Giri, who was sharing second place before the round, was not the only player from the chasing pack to win on Saturday though — Fabiano Caruana, Alireza Firouzja and Jorden van Foreest also scored full points to become co-leaders. | Photo: Jurriaan Hoefsmit – Tata Steel Chess Tournament 2021

1/17/2021 – With 11 articles about various openings the new ChessBase Magazine #199 offers a lot of material for ambitious chess players who want to improve their openings. IM Patrick Zelbel, for example, examines a surprise weapon against the Modern Benoni, namely 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 c5 3.d5 e6 4.Nc3 exd5 5.cxd5 d6 6.Nf3 g6 7.Bg5!?. If Black reacts with the standard move 7...Bg7, Zelbel recommends an idea by Matthias Blübaum: 8.Nd2!?, which prepares e2-e4 and a later f2-f4. Let us show you how White can achieve a "huge advantage" against an unprepared opponent. And how Black should best meet White's bishop move.