Christmas puzzles prize contest: closing date is Sunday!
12.01.2012 – Our yearly puzzle week brought us, as usual, a sack-load of emails. From January 1st to 15th they will be counted as entries to our prize contest, where you can win a signed and dedicated book and programs autographed by world champions.You increase your chances by solving the brain teaser. In addition we show you a truly unbelievable optical illusion.
 

CBM training: Knight dance, light initiative, hiding place
12.01.2012 – Did you watch his Endgame Magic Show? If you missed it you can still profit from the instructions provided by endgame expert Dr Karsten M�ller in his popular ChessBase Magazine section. Today he provides two instructive endings from the Hastings Congress that ended last week � and a ladies' encounter in the Romanian league. Learn and enjoy.
 

Chess in the US in the eyes of the English
11.01.2012 – The 21st North American Open, 26-29 December 2011, was held in Las Vegas and won by Spanish GM Francisco Vallejo Pons with an undefeated 6/7 score. GMs Varuzhan Akobian, Ivan Sokolov and untitled Roman Yankovsky finished 2nd-4th with 5�/7. British chess teacher Sabrina Chevannes was in the city of lights and sent us her impressions in this pictorial report.
 

ChessBase DVDs � The Art of the Exchange Sacrifice
11.01.2012 – This month in Chess Cafe Steven B. Dowd is reviewing ChessBase DVDs that "show the power of original ideas in chess, their categorization, and learning how strong players formulate and classify these ideas will make you a better player." In the current review he looks at Ari Ziegler's DVD, which gets only four stars ("good") because of certain shortcomings, but actually deserves six.
 

Gashimov wins Donostia Blitz tournament!
10.01.2012 – Why the exclam? Because it was not Vugar Gashimov, the super-GM rated 2761 and ranked number nien in the world, who went through the high-class field of 13 GMs, three rated over 2700. It was rather his older brother and manager Sakhan, who does not have a FIDE title and is rated 2351 (= 3834th in the world). Final report by WGM Anastasiya Karlovich.
 

Endgame Magic with GM Karsten M�ller
10.01.2012 – Endgame knowledge is not easy to acquire and thus a valuable weapon to have. In his Endgame Magic Show on Playchess.com, renowned endgame expert GM Karsten M�ller helps you to hone your endgame skills with a bunch of practical endgames. He shows how to handle these positions, which will help to improve your practical results. Example and more information!
 

Gott Nytt Ar!!! Shimanov wins 41st Rilton Cup in Stockholm
10.01.2012 – This beautiful event was won by Russian GM Aleksandr Shimanov, who is also a singing talent. Our reporter Alina l'Ami started with a 1-0-1-0-1-0-1 tic-tac-toe score, but then drew a game and won her last one to pocket her third IM norm. Amazing, since the Romanian WGM spent a lot of time exploring the delights of the Swedish capital. Here's her big illustrated report.
 

Wijk Aan Zee: Tata Steel Super-GM tournament starts soon!
10.01.2012 – The Wijk Aan Zee Super-GM tournament starts January 13, and brings a record 2754.5 Elo average, with Carlsen, Aronian, Topalov, Nakamura, as well as juniors Giri and Caruana. The B and C events include eight female players as well as Timman and Nyzhnyk in the B group, and comeback kid Sadler in the C group. Playchess will have live commentators with King, Seirawan, Pelletier and Trent.
 

Master Moves #21 - Hastings special
09.01.2012 – All the deepest plans or endgame technique are useless if you fall victim to a shot that leaves you in a lost position. Likewise, sometimes that superior play will only offer a single window of opportunity to deliver that final blow, so it is vital to be ready for it when it does. All the shots were played at the Hastings Chess Congress. Try your hand at harrying the Hastings hostiles!
 

Gender differences in chess
09.01.2012 – A new and very commendable women's live rating list of top players is being maintained by the Russian chess news portal ChessPro. Fired by this list we did a little additional research to find out how many female players there are in the top 100 and top 1000. What would you estimate? And what are the possible reasons for the superiority of males in certain intellectual activities? Latest research.
 

Hastings Congress 2011/12 won by GM Wang Yue
08.01.2012 – Aside from national championships, the Hastings Congress is the longest running chess tournament in history, with a tradition going back to 1919, won by Capablanca. Over the years, the grand event has seen almost every world champion (except Fischer and Kasparov), and the ultimate who's who of greats. This year Chinese GM Wang Yue added his name to the illustrious list of winners.
 

ChessBase DVDs � The Battleground of Ideas
07.01.2012 – This month in Chess Cafe Steven B. Dowd is reviewing opening, middlegame, and endgame DVDs by ChessBase, starting with Sergei Tiviakov's Scandinavian. "This is one of those rare trainers that actually gives insight into the grandmaster's lab" he writes, adding that for counter-punchers who like activity as Black the opening is perfect and the six-star DVD too good to pass up.