As of today, July 1st, 2009 our beloved game of chess has a new edition of its official rules: the Laws of Chess. The best known, and most-feared change is the so-called "zero-tolerance" rule: a player who arrives just a few seconds late at his bo...
Veselin Topalov tops the July FIDE rating list with a rating of 2813. The Bulgarian is 25 points ahead of World Champion Viswanathan Anand. After dropping 33 rating points on the previous list, Vassily Ivanchuk lost 43 more points, to dive to 30th...
Veselin Topalov (pictured) is still ranked the world's number 1 player on the latest quarterly official FIDE ratings list, gaining a single point to stand at 2813 Elo. World Champion Viswanathan Anand is second on 2788 Elo and Magnus Carlsen is t...
Peter told me last week he had been to a concert called The Beatles vs. The Stones. Tastes differ, but still ... as a Beatles fan I can't help feeling tempted to start a discussion with Stones fans sometimes, just for fun. Do they really think Sti...
Last week he was awarded the GM title by FIDE and after three rounds he's the sole leader at the strong Intomart GfK Open in Hilversum, The Netherlands: Wouter Spoelman. A total of 5 IMs and 10 GMs play, including the youngest GM in the world, Ani...
Igor Khenkin Sunday won the NOVA College Weekender in Haarlem on tiebreak, sharing first place and prize money with GMs Aleksandar Berelovich and Erik van den Doel. Berelovich caught the leaders Khenkin and Van den Doel who had drawn their last-ro...
Top seed Alexander Grischuk of Russia was in majestic form on Sunday as he easily won the Mainz Chess Classic Chess960 online title hosted on ICC. Besides 750 Euros and accommodation and breakfast at the Hilton Mainz Hotel, Grischuk won an automat...
One of the side events at last month's Leon rapid tournament was an interesting "lecture" by Vassily Ivanchuk. It was more like a pleasant converstation between the Ukrainian and Miguel Illescas & Leontxo Garcia, about Ivanchuk's life and career. ...
A French team took on the Olympiad Champions Armenia, led by Lev Aronian (pictured) in a rapid match in Paris from 24-25 June. Each team had 4 players, who met in 8 rounds at a time control of 15 minutes plus a 10 second increment. Armenia were...
Victor Bologan has revealed the true spirit of the King's Indian Defence.This brand new book presents a complete Black repertoire, uncovers its secrets and shows its typical resources. Bologan says: "Black should direct the fight in the spirit of ...
Despite it's proud chess history, the United Kingdom has seen very few strong tournaments in recent years - or decades come to that. It is therefore with no small sense of excitement and anticipation that the London Chess Centre has announced the...
On the day that Michael Jackson passed away, the rapid match in Paris between Armenia and France ended in a 19.5-12.5 victory for the Olympic gold medal winners. Tigran Petrossian had the highest score: 6 out of 8. Big pictorial report. Michae...
Vassily Ivanchuk won the Kings Tournament in Bazna after drawing quickly with Radjabov in the last round. The Ukrainian finished on 7/10, unreachable for his closest rival Boris Gelfand, who eventually finished a point behind the winner after draw...
Vassily Ivanchuk (pictured) has won the strong Bazna King's Tournament in Romania with a score of 7/10, a clear point ahead of his nearest rival, Boris Gelfand. Three consecutive wins in rounds 5,6 and 7 propelled Chucky to the top of the standin...
The complete field of the London super-tournament, to be held in December this year, was announced today. It turned out to be an interesting mixture with some of the world's best players and some young British talents: Michael Adams, Magnus Carlse...
Remember the scandal around the Gedeon Barcza Memorial earlier this year? That tournament which was cancelled after the first round, and all players lost their money? Today the organizer received a 3-year ban from the Hungarian Chess Federation, b...
For the fourth time in the Kings Tournament all games ended in a draw today and so Vassily Ivanchuk secured at least shared tournament victory in Bazna with one more round to go. The 3rd Kings Tournament, a six-player round-robin with Radjabov...
Today and tomorrow France plays Armenia in a rapid match in Paris. The home team consists of Vachier-Lagrave, Fressinet, Lautier and Bauer, who will meet the twice Olympic gold winning Armenian team: Aronian, Akopian, Sargissan and Petrosian.The m...
Following on from his win in the US Chess Championships in St. Louis, Hikaru Nakamura (pictured) has landed an invite to one of the world's most prestigious tournaments. Nakamura will be playing with the world's elite in the 'A' Group at the Coru...
The Internet Chess Club, in conjunction with Chess Tigers, organizers of the ever-popular annual Mainz Chess Classic in Germany, are again offering ICC members a unique chance to play in a free online qualifier to win 700 Euro, accommodation and ...
Stalled by a round 5 draw 11-year old Melwyn Kenneth Baltazar (Master Kenneth here at chess.com) eked wins in his last two games against Philippine Science High School sophomore Kevin Sicat and Metropolitan Chess Club's Malcolm Kwok to log 6.5 poi...
All games in round 8 of the Kings Tournament in Bazna ended in a draw and so Vassily Ivanchuk kept his one-point lead with two rounds to go. After the round Kamsky discovered that he had missed a beautiful win in his endgame against Nisipeanu.The ...
Today FIDE published the rules & regulations for the 2010 Candidates Matches, which should decide the challenger to the winner of the Anand-Topalov world championship match. For these Candidates Matches two players will qualify based on the July 2...
Don't write him off yet! In a marathon game of 84 moves, Vassily Ivanchuk defeated Alexei Shirov today and increased his lead to a full point in Bazna, as Boris Gelfand drew with Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu. After six draws Teimour Radjabov won his fir...
