The 46th Capablanca Memorial was held in Havana, Cuba from 10-21 May. The format of the main "Elite" event was a 6-player double round robin with Vassily Ivanchuk (pictured) the top seed. Ivanchuk eventually lived up to his billing by winning th...
Both round five games were drawn in St.Louis, but the games held plenty of interest for chess fans. Nakamura tried the King's Indian again and held Ponomariov to a draw without too many problems. Robson and Finegold certainly gave fans their mone...
The third game of the Candidates final in Kazan, Russia ended in a draw very quickly. Boris Gelfand, playing Black, came up with a stunning novelty at move 9 and got his opponent thinking for about 45 minutes. Already at move 14 Alexander Grischuk...
In a match between Hikaru Nakamura (USA) and Ruslan Ponomariov (Ukraine), played in Saint Louis, USA, the score is 2-2 after 4 games. Ponomariov won the first in a King's Indian but with the same opening Nakamura levelled the score in game 3. A ma...
The bare facts about game three of the Candidates final in Kazan fail to tell the whole story. A Grischuk draw with White in just 14 moves suggests that the Russian had reverted to his strategy in earlier rounds, but that was emphatically not the...
The European Women's Chess Championship 2011 ran from 7-18 May in Tbilisi, Georgia. Over 100 women competed in an 11-round Swiss competition and Viktorija Cmilyte (pictured) of Lithuania emerged in clear first place with an impressive score of 9/...
Boris Gelfand and Alexander Grischuk drew their second game of the Candidates final in Kazan, Russia. After a spectacular opening phase, the players reached and ending with bishop, knight and rook for Grischuk and two rooks for Gelfand. At move 58...
Both games ended in draws on day four of the chess match double-header at the St.Louis Chess Club. That leaves the Nakamura vs Ponomariov match all-square at 2-2 and Robson leads Finegold 2.5-1.5 thanks to his first round win. Both matches are b...
The second game of the Candidates Final in Kazan was rich with complications, sacrifices and material imbalances. Once again Alexander Grischuk came very close to winning, but excellent defence under pressure saved the day for Gelfand. Will Gris...
Everyman has published: Attacking Chess: The French.GM Simon Williams presents an ambitious opening repertoire for Black in the ever-popular French Defence. By picking the most aggressive, exciting and sound variations playable he combines his a...
Hikaru Nakamura beat Ruslan Ponomariov in the third game of their 10-game match in St.Louis. After barely hanging on for a draw in another disappointing performance from the American in the second game, he won with the King's Indian in the third ...
The first game of the Candidates final in Kazan, Russia between Alexander Grischuk and Boris Gelfand ended in a draw. Grischuk was slightly better for a long time in an ending but Gelfand defended accurately. The final consists of six classical ga...
By Ken West In both games, white played e4; in both games white refused to trade queens to remove blacks castling privilege; and both games ended in a draw. I had a pleasant position with two bishops, said Grandmaster Ruslan Ponomariov abo...
This week's CVO #124 is chuck full of hot opening theory, coming from the Candidates matches in Kazan right into your mailbox. Learn more about Kamsky's intriguing attacking concept 8.h3/9.Qf3 in the 6.Be3 Najdorf, or Gelfand's 4.Bg5 Grünfeld. Did...
The final of the Candidates matches to decide who will challenge world champion Vishy Anand for the title next year got underway today in Kazan. Alexander Grischuk from Russia and Boris Gelfand of Israel played the first game of a six-game match,...
For the ChessBase founders it is not easy to determine the exact date when their company was born, but in the end they decided that it was on May 19th, 1986. In other words: exactly 25 years ago. We congratulate the Hamburg based company with reac...
Today Viktorija Cmilyte won the European Women Championship in Tbilisi, Georgia. The grandmaster from Lithuania finished clear first with a score of 9 out of 11. Former World Champion GM Antoaneta Stefanova of Bulgaria took the silver medal with 8...
Wang Yue and Yu Yangyi had a good start at the Hainan Dangzhou Super GM tournament. Both GMs scored 3/4 in this second edition that has the full Chinese top 10 playing, including stars like Wang Hao, Hou Yifan, Ni Hua and Bu Xiangzhi.As we mention...
Ruslan Ponomariov and Ray Robson took the honours on the first day of the international chess matches at the St. Louis Chess Club. Ruslan Ponomariov beat Hikaru Nakamura, ending the game with a demonstration of technique in mating with KB+N v K. ...
At the Capablanca Memorial in Havana, Cuba three GMs are sharing the lead at half time: David Navara, Le Quang Liem and Dmitry Andreikin. They scored 3/5, half a point more than Vassily Ivanchuk. Cubans Leinier Dominuez and Lazaro Bruzon follow wi...
We have just received two new DVDs: Killer Endgames 1 & 2 .GM Nick Pert presents a series of lessons, categorized according to rating, to familiarise players with basic endgame theory. He provides real-life examples where superior endgame techni...
World's Best Battle in Saint Louis By Ken West SAINT LOUIS, May 16, 2011 -- The first-ever international match at the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis begins 3:30 p.m. CDT Tuesday. The marquis match-up features GM Ruslan Ponom...
Boris Gelfand and Alexander Grischuk have qualified for the FIDE Candidates final in Kazan, Russia. In a thrilling tie-break on Monday they defeated their opponents, Gata Kamsky and Vladimir Kramnik respectively, in the blitz session. Full report ...
FLASH REPORT The result of both Candidates semi-finals matches in Kazan were on a knife edge and it took blitz games to finally split the players. But first Grischuk and Kramnik traded 4 draws in the rapid playoff, while Kamsky took the lead in ...
