We have just received from ChessBase: Mega Database 2011. This exclusive database contains more than 4.8 million games, of which 65,000 are annotated by top players. Mega 2011 also features a new edition of the playerbase containing 270,000 nam...
Some computer chess tournaments aim to determine the best chess program by running all the engines on the same hardware to create a level playing field. The Open Dutch Computer Championships in Leiden, now in its 30th year, dispenses with such li...
While translating Sergey Shipov’s commentary on the recent tournament in Bilbao, Colin McGourty came up against a minor problem – how best to convey Magnus Carlsen’s Russian nickname, “Malysh”? He went with “the Kid”, but his uncertainty was picke...
Should chess journalists be committed to supporting chess bodies like FIDE, their national federations or the European Chess Union? Of course not! Should these bodies support chess players and journalists when they're in serious trouble? You b...
The Pearl Spring tournament saw a big upset in the fourth round as Etienne Bacrot defeated World Champion Viswanathan Anand for the first time in his career. Wang Yue easily held Veselin Topalov to a draw and Magnus Carlsen almost lost to Vugar Ga...
There are lots of new features in ChessBase 11.- Repertoire database completely revised - On playchess.com the last 40 games of a player can be downloaded as a database - 'Try out' moves - Improved functions 'Opening report' and 'Dossier' - Gener...
After Ilyumzhinov's victory in the FIDE Presidential elections in Khanty-Mansiysk twelve days ago, it's become awfully silent on both fronts. Those seeking change in the World Chess Federation have been struck dumb at the prospect of another four ...
Perhaps the most significant story in the run-up to this year’s Olympiad was the Azerbaijan team’s decision to leave out Vugar Gashimov. They paid the price at the chess board (finishing 12th), but there were also more problems between the te...
Ukraine won the gold medals at the Olympiad in Khanty-Mansiysk after four draws with Israel in the last round. Russia took silver after a 2-2 against Israel, who edged out Hungary on tiebreak to win bronze. Final report that includes the news that...
Winning their tenth match 4-0 against Bulgaria, the Russian women team have secured their first Olympic gold medal with a round to spare. In the open section Ukraine still leads by a point before the last round, which will be played on Sunday. Ge...
The winners of the 2010 Women's Olympiad are Russia, who have claimed the gold medal with a round to spare. The clinched the title in style with a 4-0 thrashing of Bulgaria. The Russian team consisted of sisters Tatiana and Nadezdha Kosintseva, ...
Despite Vassily Ivanchuk's first loss in Khanty-Mansiysk, against Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, Ukraine beat Azerbaijan to remain the sole leader at the Olympiad. Russia and France follow with a point less and two rounds to go. After another win the Russ...
Ukraine remains the sole leader at the Olympiad in Khanty-Mansiysk after drawing the top match with Russia 2-2. Sergey Karjakin won against his former compatriot Pavel Eljanov, while Zahar Efimenko scored a point for Ukraine, against Vladimir Mala...
Ukraine is the sole leader at the Olympiad in Khanty-Mansiysk after seven rounds. The team is on 13 match points, followed by Azerbaijan, Hungary and Russia with one point less. Ukraine's top board Vassily Ivanchuk won all his games so far.General...
Armenia, Georgia and Ukraine are sharing the lead at the Olympiad in Khanty-Mansiysk. After six rounds these teams are on 11 match points. In the women section Russia 1 is the only team left with a hundred percent score.General info The 39th Chess...
Saturday was a bad day for Russia at the Olympiad in Khanty-Mansiysk. The top team played without Vladimir Kramnik and lost 2.5-1.5 to Hungary - Peter Leko beat Alexander Grischuk on board one. With the same score Russia 2 went down against Armeni...
The world's best female player has been playing an important role thus far for her team in the Open section of the Olympiad. Today Judit Polgar's win against Bu Xiangzhi was decisive in the Hungary-China match. The Netherlands beat Spain with a wi...
In the third round of the Olympiad in Khanty-Mansiysk Ukraine dropped its first match point. Playing without Ivanchuk they were held 2-2 by Croatia. Albania also drew 2-2 with Kazachstan and in the women section, Germany managed to tie 2-2 with Ru...
The second round of the Olympiad in Khanty-Mansiysk saw a number of upsets. Azerbaijan lost 1½-2½ to Vietnam and with the same score (and Topalov on board one) Bulgaria went down against Croatia. The Armenian ladies lost to the Czech Republic, als...
Elo vs the Rest of the World is a competition that aims to discover whether other approaches can predict the outcome of chess games more accurately than the workhorse Elo rating system. Scheduled to end on November 14th, the competition and has re...
Like in any big Swiss, the top half of the Olympiad plays the second half in the first round. With 148 teams in the Open section and 114 teams in the Women section it was clear that there would be many 4-0 and 3.5-0.5 scores, but there was a small...
Today the first round of the 39th Chess Olympiad starts at 15:00 local time (11:00 CET, right now in fact). The colourful pictures from the opening ceremony might have given a different impression, but not everything went according to plan so far....
Last Wednesday Anatoly Karpov's campaign for the FIDE presidency arrived in London with a press conference at the famous chess venue Simpsons in the Strand. There the 12th World Champion spread his message together with Garry Kasparov and Nigel Sh...
The Azerbaijan team will be playing the Olympiad in Khanty-Mansiysk without Vugar Gashimov. Since January there have been problems between him and the Azerbaijan Chess Federation, but the reason he was thrown out of the team is remarkable: because...
