Sergei Karjakin and Vladimir Malakhov have excellent chances to reach the semi-finals of the World Cup. On the first day of round 5, Karjakin beat Mamedyarov with White in an Open Ruy Lopez while Malakhov beat Svidler with Black in a Chebanenko Sl...
Chess rocks. Well, that's what we usually agree upon over here, but what do the rock musicians think?Perhaps you remember our article of early February 2008 in which we made a list of pop music videos in which chess play a role. Thanks to Len Ganl...
After Karjakin, Mamedyarov and Svidler, today five more players qualified for the World Cup's quarter-finals: Gashimov, Gelfand, Jakovenko, Malakhov and Ponomariov. Pairings for tomorrow's 6th round: Karjakin-Mamedyarov, Gelfand-Jakovenko, Ponomar...
"In Switzerland, they had brotherly love, they had five hundred years of democracy and peace—and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock," said Harry Lime in Orson Welles' The Third Man. In FIDE, for twenty years they lacked democracy and love for...
In the 2009 World Cup, the fourth round tie-breaks sorted the men from the boys - in some cases quite literally. Both remaining juniors, Wesley So (16, pictured) and Fabiano Caurana (17) were eliminated by their more experienced opposition (Malak...
Sergey Karjakin, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov and Peter Svidler are the first three players who have reached the quarter-finals of the 2009 World Cup. On day 2 of round 4, Karjakin defeated Vitiugov with Black while Mamedyarov drew very quickly with Lazn...
We have just received from Hamburg a new and instructive training DVD: The Magic of Chess Tactics.Originally published as book by Russell Enterprises back in 2002, Claus Dieter Meyer and Karsten Müller have considerably improved and expanded The M...
Three rounds so far have been played in this year's edition of the Czech Coal Match, and the team of "Snow Drops" (Humpy Koneru, Anna Muzychuk, Kateryna Lahno and Jana Jackova) are in the lead: 7 points versus 5 for the "Old Hands" (Jan Timman, Vl...
The 2009 World Cup is getting to the business end of the competition, and the wins are much thinner on the ground. Only one of the eight games played today had a decisive result, although it was not through lack of effort on behalf of the players...
In his tiebreak match against Arkadij Naiditsch, Peter Svidler was almost dead and burnt yesterday. But like a phoenix he immediately struck on the first day of round 4, beating Alexei Shirov with Black. Like in his first three matches (!), Shakhr...
Chess is interesting, and chess openings are interesting too. There is nothing scary about opening theory, but there is nothing sacred about it either. This is the message Paul van der Sterren wants to give his readers in his 468-page book Fundame...
Favourites Gelfand, Gashimov, Svidler and Grischuk all reached the World Cup's 4th round yesterday, winning their minimatches in the tiebreaks. The story of the day was the forfeit of Li Chao and Wang Yue in their second rapid game. They arrived t...
The 2009 Chess World Cup reaches the fourth round today, with the 16 remaining players fighting for a place in the quarter-finals. There have been some high-profile casualties along the way but many of the big-hitters still remain, including top ...
Hikarua Nakamura defeated Magnus Carlsen 3-1 in the final of the BNbank Blitz tournament, held Saturday, November 28th in Oslo, Norway. Carlsen won the first game and had good positions in games 2 and 4, but Nakamura had the strongest nerves.The o...
Wesley So did it again. On the second day of the World Cup's 3rd round he drew with Gata Kamsky and so the 16-year-old Philippine GM reached the 4th round, and the World Cup 2007 winner is out. Polgar levelled the score against Gelfand and Karjaki...
The 2007 World Cup champion, Gata Kamsky (pictured), has been knocked out of the current competition in round three by Wesley So. Kamsky needed a win after losing the first game yesterday, but it wasn't to be. Elsewhere, Judit Polgar avoided Gel...
On the first day of the World Cup's third round, especially Gelfand and Vachier-Lagrave won very nice and instructive games with White against Polgar and Yu Yangyi respectively. Wesley So slayed another giant: Gata Kamsky. David Navara defeated Se...
Magnus Carlsen and Hikaru Nakamura are the top favourites to win tomorrow's BNbank Blitz 2009, a one-day blitz tournament in Oslo, Norway.A strong field of players will participate in the BNbank Blitz 2009 which takes place in Oslo on Saturday, No...
After a big cull of top seeds at the World Cup on the first two days of the second round, there were no major shocks in the playoffs, although Leinier Domingez lost to 17 year-old Italian-American Fabiano Caruana (pictured). Poor Ivanchuk has cle...
Jeremy Reading, a 24-year-old chess player and coach from Canberra, last night won Beauty and the Geek Australia. Both Reading and his team mate Emma Cam cashed 50,000 Australian dollars (a bit over € 30,000).A total of 7 episodes running from Oct...
Playing the Alekhine is not without risk.But those who really know this opening find that it has a real practical sting as well as quick-strike potential. Play the Alekhine by Valentin Bogdanov is a brand new title from Gambit Publishers, and de...
In the World Cup in Khanty-Mansiysk, many of the higher-rated players went through to the third round in today's tiebreaks of round 2. Leinier Dominguez however was eliminated by Fabiano Caruana. But the biggest news might be Ivanchuk's declaratio...
Cuban GM Leinier Dominguez Perez is a world-class player known for almost always going for the absolute main lines. When David Smerdon was preparing for Dominguez, his opponent in the World Cup, the Australian GM decided not to avoid theory, but t...
After so many upsets yesterday, it was almost inevitable that some of the top seeds had to leave the World Cup after round 2. And indeed: Alexander Morozevich, Vassily Ivanchuk and Teimour Radjabov are out. Morozevich was beaten by Laznicka again,...
