Online chess community where you can play chess, learn strategies and tactics, read chess news, see book reviews, find rules & tips, get free downloads, and more! http://www.chess.com/ 2007 Chess.com After another day of tense struggles in Bilbao, all games in round 5 were drawn to leave Veselin Topalov top of the standings at the halfway point of this ultra-powerful tournament. The pick of the day's games again featured young Magnus Carlsen... http://www.chess.com/news/topalov-leads-at-halfway-point-in-bilbao Sat, 06 Sep 2008 14:51:10 -0700 http://www.chess.com/news/topalov-leads-at-halfway-point-in-bilbao A thrilling round at the Grand Slam Final in Bilbao saw white win on all boards on an amazing day. First to finish was Veselin Topalov (pictured) who brushed aside World Champion Vishy Anand in a mere 25 moves.  Not the sort of experience t... http://www.chess.com/news/whitewash-in-round-4-of-grand-slam Fri, 05 Sep 2008 14:09:41 -0700 http://www.chess.com/news/whitewash-in-round-4-of-grand-slam US Champion Yuri Shulman (pictured) won the recently held Montreal International Chess Tournament by a clear point from a strong field that included his compatriots Hikaru Nakamura and Varuzhan Akobian. All three players together with Gata Kamsk... http://www.chess.com/news/us-champion-yuri-shulman-wins-in-montreal Fri, 05 Sep 2008 08:35:22 -0700 http://www.chess.com/news/us-champion-yuri-shulman-wins-in-montreal Veselin Topalov (pictured) humbled Magnus Carlsen in the only decisive game in round 3 of the Grand Slam Final to replace him at the top of the leaderboard.  Carlsen responded to Topalov's novelty 14...a6 with the pawn sac 15.b4. The sacrif... http://www.chess.com/news/topalov-topples-carlsen-in-grand-slam-final Thu, 04 Sep 2008 13:16:54 -0700 http://www.chess.com/news/topalov-topples-carlsen-in-grand-slam-final The knock-out format of the Women's World Chess Championship in Nalchik claimed the reigning champion as it's highest profile victim in the second round. Xu Yuhua (pictured) lost the first game of her match to Svetlana Matveeva of Russia and fai... http://www.chess.com/news/reigning-champion-eliminated-in-womens-world-championship Thu, 04 Sep 2008 12:08:21 -0700 http://www.chess.com/news/reigning-champion-eliminated-in-womens-world-championship As usual week 2 of the US Chess League was full of great chess action. So without further delay let's get right into it and see what happened this week in the US Chess League. The first match of the week was the New Jersey Knockouts against th... http://www.chess.com/news/us-chess-league-week-2 Wed, 03 Sep 2008 23:19:31 -0700 http://www.chess.com/news/us-chess-league-week-2 The game of the round once again featured the Norwegian wunderkind Magnus Carlsen who took the fight to Vassily Ivanchuk (pictured) by playing the Dragon, which seems to be finding a regular place in his repertoire.  Kudos to Carlsen! The D... http://www.chess.com/news/grand-slam-final---round-2 Wed, 03 Sep 2008 13:01:08 -0700 http://www.chess.com/news/grand-slam-final---round-2 The Grand Slam Final - a.k.a. the strongest chess tournament of all-time (average rating a staggering 2775) just got started in Bilbao and Magnus Carlsen (pictured) won his first round game with the Black pieces against Lev Aronian to take 3 point... http://www.chess.com/news/carlsen-jumps-into-the-lead-in-bilbao Tue, 02 Sep 2008 13:22:10 -0700 http://www.chess.com/news/carlsen-jumps-into-the-lead-in-bilbao The First Grand Slam Final Chess Masters will be taking place between 1-13 September 2008 in Bilbao, Spain.  Just to refresh all our memories, this event, as previously reported, has been conceived as a 'final' tournament pitting the winners ... http://www.chess.com/news/grand-slam-final-starts-monday Sun, 31 Aug 2008 14:02:23 -0700 http://www.chess.com/news/grand-slam-final-starts-monday There have been a large number of withdrawals from the Women's World Championship.  All the Georgian players have withdrawn as expected (due to the recent conflict in the South Ossetia region): Maya Chiburdanidze, Nino Khurtsidze, Maya Lomine... http://www.chess.com/news/womens-world-championship---1st-round-results Sun, 31 Aug 2008 12:22:09 -0700 http://www.chess.com/news/womens-world-championship---1st-round-results It's an entertaining concept for a tournament, but the organisers are going to have to consider boosting the relative strength of the 'Experience' team in future years.  For the third year in a row, and this time by a devastating 33.5-16.5 ma... http://www.chess.com/news/rising-stars-vs-experience-final-result Sun, 31 Aug 2008 00:58:59 -0700 http://www.chess.com/news/rising-stars-vs-experience-final-result What do Grandmasters do to relax?  Well, at the end of the Mikhail Tal Memorial there was a big blitz tournament over two days featuring 18 of the strongest players in the world, including all of the competitors in the main event, except Alex... http://www.chess.com/news/ivanchuk-wins-tal-blitz-tournament Sun, 31 Aug 2008 00:21:54 -0700 http://www.chess.com/news/ivanchuk-wins-tal-blitz-tournament The rising stars of the ...err...'Rising Stars' team have eclipsed the 'Experience' team to ensure victory in the NH Tournament with 2 rounds still to go. All the young 'uns have played well, but Wang Yue (pictured) of China has been spectacular... http://www.chess.com/news/rising-stars-clinch-victory-against-experience Fri, 29 Aug 2008 10:59:04 -0700 http://www.chess.com/news/rising-stars-clinch-victory-against-experience Despite some much publicised off-the-board battles, and the consequent absence of some strong Georgian players from the event, the Women's World Chess Championship kicks off tomorrow (29 August) in sunny Nalchik, Russia. A total of 53 entrants a... http://www.chess.com/news/womens-world-championship-begins Thu, 28 Aug 2008 12:24:01 -0700 http://www.chess.com/news/womens-world-championship-begins The US Chess League kicked off it's first week with some exciting chess action. Now with the league having 14 teams there were 7 hard fought matches, each team hoping to start out the season in strong fashion. The feature Monday night match wa... http://www.chess.com/news/us-chess-league-week-1 Wed, 27 Aug 2008 22:05:31 -0700 http://www.chess.com/news/us-chess-league-week-1 Vassily Ivanchuk (pictured) won the Mikhail Tal Memorial in Moscow by a clear point from the rest of the field.  Going into the last round it had been an exciting tournament full of great fighting chess...but the players evidently felt that h... http://www.chess.com/news/vasilly-ivanchuk-wins-tal-memorial Wed, 27 Aug 2008 11:13:42 -0700 http://www.chess.com/news/vasilly-ivanchuk-wins-tal-memorial It's tough at the top.  After winning in round 6 at the Mikhail Tal Memorial to take the lead - and the no.1 spot on the unofficial 'live' rankings list, Alexander Morozevich then lost to Vassily Ivanchuk (pictured) in a thrilling game in rou... http://www.chess.com/news/ivanchuk-leads-tal-memorial Tue, 26 Aug 2008 11:29:53 -0700 http://www.chess.com/news/ivanchuk-leads-tal-memorial The NH Tournament in the Netherlands has been dominated by the 'Rising Stars' team but in the fifth round the margin of victory was the narrowest yet and at long last a member of the 'Experience' team won a game! Well done Viktor Korchnoi (pictu... http://www.chess.com/news/at-last-a-win-for-experience Mon, 25 Aug 2008 08:57:58 -0700 http://www.chess.com/news/at-last-a-win-for-experience The US Chess League is a national chess league, split into East and West divisions, with 14 teams in total taking part this year - 7 in each division. Eastern Division Teams: Boston Blitz Philadelphia Inventors New York Knights... http://www.chess.com/news/us-chess-league-2008-starts-today Mon, 25 Aug 2008 08:30:38 -0700 http://www.chess.com/news/us-chess-league-2008-starts-today The 83rd French National Chess Championships, held in Pau, finished on 23rd August.  Etienne Bacrot (pictured) defeated Maxime Vachier-Lagrave in a rapid playoff to take the title for the sixth time. 1 Bacrot, Etienne &... http://www.chess.com/news/bacrot-and-milliet-french-champions Mon, 25 Aug 2008 06:30:11 -0700 http://www.chess.com/news/bacrot-and-milliet-french-champions