The eighth round of the Bilbao Grand Slam was arguably the most spectacular so far - Topalov defeated Carlsen to take back the lead he lost a few days ago, Ivanchuk won against Radjabov despite the fact that he had to play 16 moves in just one min...
How much book do you need to know? "The bare minimum is", said GM Andrew Soltis, "you need to know the traps that come up in your openings." 222 Opening Traps after 1.d4 is the title of a new book we just received, an up-to-date and thorough p...
Cajacanarias versus Solvay and M?ɬ©rida-Patrimonio-Ajoblanco versus Linex-Magic-M?ɬ©rida, those are the line-ups for the semifinals of the Spanish Team Championship in November. These four clubs qualified this weekend for the playoffs.As we foun...
The Grand Slam Final in Bilbao is more than living up to expectations with Round 8 providing all-decisive results for the second time in the tournament. Lev Aronian and Vassily Ivanchuk (pictured) both won for the second game in a row to close i...
The Women's World Chess Championship has reached the semi-finals stage in Nalchik, Russia. The matches, like all the rounds so far, consist of 2-game matches between paired adversaries. The final will be longer, at four games. The fi...
To the question who would stop Magnus Carlsen in Bilbao, the answer could only be: Vassily Ivanchuk. In another very sharp game, the Ukrainian profited from a mistake in the opening by the tournament leader. Radjabov-Anand was a quick draw and Aro...
First you're up and then you're down. Proving that the Grand Slam Final is a closer contest than the unusual scoring system suggests, Lev Aronian (pictured) and Vassily Ivanchuk beat Veselin Topalov and Magnus Carlsen respectively in round 7...
Pia Cramling, Hou Yifan, Humpy Koneru and Aleksandra Kosteniuk all needed just two games to beat their opponents and qualify for the semis at the Women World Championship in Nalchik, Russia.Photos ?Ǭ© FIDETop seeded Humpy Koneru from India, the w...
Thanks to the 3-points system, Magnus Carlsen has taken sole lead at the Bilbao Grand Slam after he profited from a blunder by Levon Aronian. He overtook Topalov, who drew with Radjabov - the same result as in Ivanchuk-Anand.It was a very quick dr...
Another stunning victory for Magnus Carlsen (pictured) propelled him to the top of the standings in the Grand Slam Final in Bilbao after the other games were drawn. Carlsen sacrificed first one pawn and then another against Lev Aronian in a thri...
For the first time in the 2008 Women's World Championship in Nalchik, no tie-breaks were needed in the latest round. The 2004 champion Antoaneta Stefanova is out after losing to the experienced Swedish player Pia Cramling (pictured). ...
How do astronauts pass the time in between whatever it is that they do whilst they are up there in space? There's not much room to move about, so physical activities are pretty much out. You could listen to music or read, but what if y...
At the Women World Championship in Nalchik, the world's no. 2 Humpy Koneru and Swedish veteran Pia Cramling started their quarter finals with victories, beating Shen Yang and Antoaneta Stefanova respectively.We left Nalchik after the first round, ...
The Women's World Championship in Nalchik, Russia is starting to get to the business end of the tournament and the top 4 rated players have all survived intact to reach the quarter-finals. They are Humpy Koneru (2622), Hou Yifan (2557), Anto...
After all the excitement of yesterday, the players took a semi rest day and all drew relatively quickly in the fifth round of the Bilbao Grand Slam.With two rest days, you'd normally do a 4-3-3 schedule, but the organizers decided on 5-3-2, so onl...
After another day of tense struggles in Bilbao, all games in round 5 were drawn to leave Veselin Topalov (pictured) top of the standings at the halfway point of this ultra-powerful tournament. The pick of the day's games again featured young Mag...
With a smashing win against world champion Anand, Topalov added another three points to his score. So did Carlsen, who defeated Radjabov with White in a Chinese Dragon, becoming the virtual world's number one for the first time. Aronian won too - ...
While a certain tournament is taking place in Bilbao right now, many world class players have better things to do than watch the games of their colleagues online. In Palma de Mallorca, players such as Shirov, Adams, Gelfand, Ponomariov and Gashimo...
A thrilling round at the Grand Slam Final in Bilbao saw white win on all boards on an amazing day. First to finish was Veselin Topalov (pictured) who brushed aside World Champion Vishy Anand in a mere 25 moves. Not the sort of experience t...
In 97 countries all over the world the subscribers of New In Chess will shortly receive issue 2008/6 on their doormat. They will find it full of interesting stuff: -- on-the-spot reports from Biel, Mainz, Siberia, Copenhagen, ...
US Champion Yuri Shulman (pictured) won the recently held Montreal International Chess Tournament by a clear point from a strong field that included his compatriots Hikaru Nakamura and Varuzhan Akobian. All three players together with Gata Kamsk...
Veselin Topalov defeated Magnus Carlsen in the third round of the Grand Slam Final in Bilbao and in doing so, the Bulgarian took over the lead from his opponent. Aronian-Anand and Radjabov-Ivanchuk were drawn.It was only the second decisive game o...
Some chess players are devastated by losses, letting them infect their mood and their subsequent play. Losing at chess does not bother him that much, Magnus said. "I get more upset at losing at other things than chess," he said. "I always get upse...
Veselin Topalov (pictured) humbled Magnus Carlsen in the only decisive game in round 3 of the Grand Slam Final to replace him at the top of the leaderboard. Carlsen responded to Topalov's novelty 14...a6 with the pawn sac 15.b4. The sacrif...
