Six long years after his premature retirement from active chess competition, Garry Kasparov is finally returning to the game! The former world champion, and still the highest rated chess player of all time has struggled to launch a political ca...
Not many chessplayers can be described as living legends, but Viktor Korchnoi undoubtedly qualifies for that honour. Born on 23 March 1931 in Leningrad, Korchnoi survived the siege of that city to become one of the greatest chess players of the 2...
Source: "Views & News from Norway" Magnus Carlsen, the young Norwegian who’s recently ranked as the top chess player in the world, can now add another prize to his growing list of accomplishments. The Norwegian Parliament will bestow upon him...
Since Bobby Fischer's death in January 2008, there has been an unpleasant and increasingly unseemly battle to gain control of his estate, estimated at $2 million. An Icelandic Court ruled today that Miyoko Watai was legally Fischer's widow and sh...
Maia Chiburdanidze is one of the most successful female chess players in history, holding the women's world championship title between 1978 and 1991. Maia represented the USSR and now Georgia with distinction in many chess Olympiads, and in 1984 ...
Another two months have flown by, and FIDE have released the latest official rating list. The January 2011 rating list confirms Magnus Carlsen (pictured) as the world's #1 rated player, but he is very closely followed by world champion Vishy Anan...
The world's #1 ranked player* turns 20 years old today. Magnus "The Kid" Carlsen is no longer a teenager, let alone a kid. To find out how he got the nickname "The Kid", look here. Carlsen became a Grandmaster at age 13, broke the 2800 Elo bar...
Chess Grandmaster, 5-time US Champion, journalist and popular chess columnist Larry Evans has died of post-operative complications following gall-bladder surgery in Reno, Nevada. He was 78 years old. Evans was born in New York in 1932 and develo...
When FIDE recently moved from quarterly rating lists to an increased frequency of every two months it presumably hoped that this would help the ratings stay more current. Unfortunately for them, the calendar of elite chess events, such as it exis...
Russian news sources are reporting that the former world champion, Boris Vasilievich Spassky is seriously ill, having been hospitalized after suffering a stroke. Spassky, now 73 years old, fully recovered from a previous stroke in 2006, but the t...
Danish Chess legend Bent Larsen has passed away aged 75 after a short illness. Larsen was a hugely successful tournament player with a uniquely creative and combative style. He championed unfashionable opening variations such as 1.f4 (Bird's Ope...
Magnus Carlsen still stands comfortably above his rivals on the latest official FIDE rating list. In fact, due to inactivity during the last two months, the ratings of the top three are unchanged. World #1, and part time fashion model (!) Carlse...
It's a distasteful story, but too significant to ignore. Controversial former world chess champion Bobby Fischer died on 17 January 2008, and was buried in Iceland. Now, competing claims to his estate have led the Icelandic authorities to author...
The world's oldest grandmaster, the legendary Hungarian GM Andor Lilienthal has died aged 99. Lilienthal had a long and illustrious career, beating many world champions. Lasker, Capablanca, Alekhine, Euwe, Botvinnik and Smyslov all fell victim to...
PRESS RELEASE: SAINT LOUIS, April 27, 2010--Grandmaster Hikaru Nakamura, the reigning U.S. Champion and the highest-rated American player, announced today he will be moving to Saint Louis following the U.S. Championship, which is scheduled f...
Very sad news from Moscow, where the seventh world chess champion, Vasily Vasilievich Smyslov has died. He had celebrated his 89th birthday just a few days ago. Vasily Smyslov was born in Moscow on March 24, 1921 and learned to play chess at the...
The young American chess player, Ray Robson (pictured), has just achieved his third and final GM-norm result, and therefore qualifies as a Grandmaster at just 14 years, 11 months and 16 days! It's a close run thing, but it looks like Robson might...
Do not adjust your set...it's not three months since the last list was published, but today marks the start of FIDE's new bi-monthly rating lists. Since the advent of the unofficial live rating list for players over 2700 Elo, there has been pres...
US Chess prodigy IM Ray Robson earned his second GM norm at the recent 23rd North American FIDE Invitational. The 14 year-old Robson from Florida won the event with a score of 7/9. His exciting round 7 game against Benjamin Finegold is shown be...
Shocking and sad news from a recent tournament in Greece, where local amateur player Nikolaos Karapanos played a brilliant game against Israeli IM Dan Zoler in the first round, but collapsed and died following a time scramble at the end. By remar...
Ukrainian chess has great strength in depth at the top levels of chess, with four players rated over 2700 Elo (Ponomariov, Karjakin, Eljanov and Ivanchuk), and another 12 over 2600 Elo. However, 19 year-old Sergey Karjakin will henceforth be play...
No, it's not a badly timed April fool's joke. Reliable reports state that retired former World Chess Champion Garry Kasparov (pictured) is to play a 12-game match against his great rival Anatoly Karpov. Before we get over-excited, it should be n...
No, this has nothing to do with the Academy Of Motion Picture Arts And Sciences. Anand's acting skills are not going to make Tom Hanks worry (see advert below), but his chess skill is worthy of recognition. The Chess Oscar is an award given by Ru...
An interesting interview with Vishy Anand is available at the Chess Classic Mainz website. In August, Anand wil be defending his 'Rapid World Championship' title that he won in the German city last year. A snippet: Q. Next year, 2010, you will...
