Yet another huge chess event started yesterday: the 2009 Aeroflot Open. Top seeded player is Shakhryiar Mamedyarov (2724), who had to be satisfied with a draw against Mateusz Bartel (2594) in the first round.The 8th International Chess Festival "A...
The annual Caloocan Chess Festival held every third Sunday of February at Barangay 4 Sangandaan ,Caloocan City ended in a two way tie for first at 4.5- 0.5 among National Master Jovert Valenzuela and 16 years old Sheider Nebato of General Santos C...
In a great fighting game, Veselin Topalov and Gata Kamsky have started their Challenger's Match with a draw. In a Grünfeld-Indian, Topalov sacrificed a pawn for some attacking chances but Kamsky comfortably held his own and even took over the init...
Veselin Topalov (pictured) had the white pieces in the first game of his 8 game match with Gata Kamsky, and after a fascinating and exciting game the spoils were shared. Kamsky bravely stuck to his dynamic Grunfeld defence and Topalov proved to b...
We have jus received from our printers the new edition of Fischer World Champion!This book is a modern classic of chess, written by the two Dutch giants of 20th century chess: former world champion Max Euwe and 'our own' Jan Timman.This new editio...
In his fourth column about beauty in chess, Michael Schwerteck was inspired by the recent German championship, as well as by ski jumping.It has always bugged me that the scoring system in chess is so primitive. As everybody knows, there are only t...
We have just received, from our friends at Quality Chess, a brand new title: Playing the Queen's Gambit.Danish GM Lars Schandorff recognizes that the QG allows some serious defences, and has based his repertoire entirely on critical and reliable m...
In 1997, IBM's Deep Blue computer won a 6-game match against the legendary Garry Kasparov and made headlines around the world. The match was billed in some quarters as humanity's last stand against the machines. Was this proof that computers woul...
Unless you've been living in a cave for the last few months, you will know by now that on Tuesday an 8-game match will take place between the Bulgarian Veselin Topalov and the American Gata Kamsky (pictured) for the right to challenge the World Ch...
One of the strangest news items concerning the upcoming World Chess Challenge match Topalov-Kamsky was published not on some obscure chess blog, but on the main page of the FIDE.com site. Its headline runs 'The chances of Topalov and Kamsky are fi...
Sometimes the best books get the worst treatment. It took more than 25 years before an edition of Mikhail Bulgakov's great novel The Master and Margarita was first published. But this is nothing compared to the 52(!) years it took before Questions...
ChessVibes Openings #6 is out! Our latest issue of ChessVibes Openings brings you the most important opening developments from last week, focusing on the Moscow Open and covering the Marshall Gambit of the Semi-Slav, the Accelarated Dragon, the Sv...
Mental preparation and the ability to perform at optimum levels whilst under stress are critically important for sportsmen and women of any discipline. For competitors in mind games like chess, as opposed to physical sports, this mental dimensio...
For two long months, Vassily Ivanchuk's future in chess was in some doubt. After failing to respond to a request for a drug test following his last round loss at the Dresden Olympiad, he faced a potential two year suspension. Macauley Peterson pro...
Why do we play chess at all? Why bother? Today is an exceptionally good day to ask yourself that question. You'll probably answer: ' Because I like it!' Well, yes, but that was not the kind of 'why' I meant. Why do people have sex? Because they li...
A brief note that had been on the FIDE website for a few days was followed by an official press release by UEP today: Universal Event Promotion, who were responsible for the Anand-Kramnik World Championship match in October last year, have made an...
UEP are Universal Event Promotions, the organisation behind last year's highly successful World Chess Championship match between Vishy Anand and Vladimir Kramnik. Following FIDE's opening up of the new WCC cycle to bidders, they are the first, an...
25, 26 and 27 February in Turin (Torino - Italy) there will be an international conference on Chess in School. The opening ceremony will be attended by FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov and among the speakers there will be many GMs and representat...
After a brief lull following the Corus tournament in Wijk Aan Zee in the Netherlands, chess fans face an embarrassment of riches next week as not one, not two, but THREE major events start at pretty much the same time. One of the biggest and stro...
Many chess exercises focus on improving your tactical awareness by recognizing patterns.There is, however, a book on the market which does something entirely different. The title of this book gives little clue to what's it about: Chess Mazes.I can...
In one week from now the first game of the Challenger's Match between Gata Kamsky (USA) and Veselin Topalov (BUL) is scheduled. The match, officially called "World Chess Challenge Sofia 2009", has a prize find of US $250,000 which will be shared e...
Julio Becerra is the #6 ranked active player in the U.S. and hungry to become #5.Julio grew up in Cuba, where he did not learn chess until the ripe age of 13. He fell in love with the game immediately and, playing constantly, made up for the lost ...
Time flies. It's been a week already since this year's Corus Chess Tournament has finished, with a clear victory for youngsters in all three Grandmaster Groups: Sergei Karjakin, Fabiano Caruana and Wesley So. We'll be looking back once more to thi...
With a ten-move draw against Sergei Tiviakov, American grandmaster Alexander Onischuk won the Moscow Open today. He finished at 7.5/9, ahead of Tiviakov, Inarkiev, Nepomniachtchi, Korotylev and Iordachescu who all collected 7 points. Natalia Pogon...
