Veselin Topalov turned on the style in the second half of the 1st Pearl Springs super-tournament in Nanjing, China to wrap up an overall victory with a round to spare. After 9 of the 10 rounds, Topalov leads by an unassailable 1.5 points from his...
Veselin Topalov defeated Vassily Ivanchuk at the Pearl Spring tournament today, and with just two more rounds to go the Bulgarian is suddenly very close to tournament victory. One point behind are Bu Xiangzhi, who lost to Peter Svidler, and Levon ...
"There are literally hundreds of novelties (including some for Black!), all deeply analysed and very well explained."This is what, a couple of days ago, IM Sam Collins wrote in ChessToday in a glowing review of GM Boris Avrukh's book: Grandmaster ...
In a crazy game Gashimov defeated Grischuk to join the lead with his compatriot Radjabov, who drew with Leko. In this 5th round in Elista, Cheparinov won his first game, with Black against Inarkiev.The 3rd Grand Prix takes place December 13-29 in ...
The Association Of Chess Professionals (ACP) is the closest thing that chess professionals have to a union. Organising professsional chess players can be a bit like trying to herd cats, so they have their work cut out! Their purpose, according t...
Bu Xiangzhi keeps on impressing in Nanjing: today he almost defeated Veselin Topalov, with whom he still shares the lead after seven rounds. It's not Ivanchuk's tournament; the Ukrainian lost with White to Aronian (and broke a chair along the way!...
The highlight of round 7 of the Pearl Spring tournament was the much anticipated clash of the joint leaders, local hero Bu Xiangzhi (pictured) and the world's top ranked player Veselin Topalov. We are used to Topalov sacrificing the exchange in h...
Peter Leko suffered his second loss in Elista today; this time it was Frenchman Etienne Bacrot who forced the Hungarian to resign with a beautiful queen sacrice. Wang Yue ground down Eljanov while Alekseev beat Kasimdzhanov with Black.The 3rd Gran...
Veselin Topalov hit again. In the 6th round of the Pearl Spring tournament the world's number one defeated Levon Aronian, to raise his "live rating" over 2800. The Bulgarian still has to share the lead in Nanjing with Bu Xiangzhi, who defeated Mov...
There are many so called 'super-tournaments' these days, but it still unfortunate that there are currently two occurring at the same time. First, in Nanjing, we have the Pearl Spring tournament. After a promising start, rounds 3 and 4 were rathe...
Rating lists will be published every two months, the k-factor will change accordingly, the rating floor has been decreased from 1400 to 1200 and it will be more difficult to score norms. These are some of the important decisions that were taken du...
Radjabov reacted well to a new idea tried by Kasimdzhanov in a razor sharp Sicilian Dragon, and won in 35 moves. Eljanov and Leko also won, but it's the Azeri grandmaster who leads the Elista Grand Prix with 2.5/3. The 3rd Grand Prix takes place D...
We have just received, from Bulgaria, a small but effective monography on the Queens Indian Defence, written by two outstanding GMs: The Petrosian System against the QID. Four-times Soviet champion Alexander Beliavsky and world-class trainer Adr...
He had to fight harder than last year but he did it again: 16-year-old Fabiano Caruana won the 68th Italian Championship, held in Martina Franca (Taranto, Southern Italy) from 3rd to 14th December. It's his second title in a row.This year he had t...
In a press release today the Association of Chess Professionals (ACP) joins the debate surrounding the World Chess Championship cycle. Pinpointing the weak (and strong) aspects of the recent changes, they recommend FIDE "to build a sustainable dia...
Fabiano Caruana, the strongest Under 16 chess player in the world, won the 68th Italian Chess Championship, held in Martina Franca (Taranto, Southern Italy) from 3rd to 14th December. This is his second title in a row. This year Fabiano had to fig...
One of the favorites for winning the overall Grand Prix suffered a loss with the white pieces today: Peter Leko. The Hungarian, second seeded in Elista, was beaten by Alexander Grischuk, who tricked his opponent with an unexpected combination. The...
Sacrificing an exchange for beautiful compensation, Topalov defeated Svidler in typical style in round 5 of the Nanjing Super Tournament. The Bulgarian joined leaders Aronian and Bu who drew against each other, just like Ivanchuk and Movsesian did...
In the first round of the Elista Grand Prix Dmitry Jakovenko defeated the "unbeatable" Wang Yue and Vugar Gashimov was too strong for Grand Prix debutant Pavel Eljanov. Full report. Update: Candidates Tournament in doubt?The 3rd Grand Prix tournam...
The grand final of the 2008 Caloocan City Open Chess Tournament was held on December 13-14,2008 at the J.Ramos Barangay 7 Hall,Caloocan City.The twenty -two topnotchers played in a knock out event in which two games matches at a time control of 2...
Sunday was another relatively quiet day in Nanjing where three more draws left Aronian and Bu still topping the standings. They're on plus one; Topalov drew all his games thus far.The 1st Pearl Spring Super GM Tournament takes place December 11- 2...
The FIDE Grand Prix Series is not the most stable event in chess world, but it's a fact that the first few moves of the first round in Elista have been made; pairings include Radjabov-Cheparinov and Leko-Akopian.The FIDE Grand Prix Series has suff...
Following on from FIDE's devaluing of the Grand Prix series of tournaments by the introduction of a new Candidates Tournament, and Magnus Carlsen's subsequent withdrawal from the series, Michael Adams (pictured) has also decided to quit. Chess se...
The third round of the Pearl Spring Super tournament was not the most exciting round ever played in a big chess event, to put it mildy. Three quick draws didn't change the standings where Aronian and Bu Xiangzhi are now leading with 2/3.The 1st Pe...
