Lothar Schmid – obituaries in the NYT and Telegraph

21.5.2013 - Lothar Schmid, born on May 10th 1928 and heir to an adventure book series, became one of Germany's strongest grandmasters, and the arbiter in important matches, most notably Fischer vs Spassky in Reykjavik 1972. As reported Lothar died on Saturday, shortly after his 85th birthday. Now extensive obituaries are beginning to appear in the international press. Here are the first two.

Checkmating Alzheimer’s Disease

20.5.2013 - Every 68 seconds someone in the US develops Alzheimer’s disease. 14.5 million caregivers provided more than 17.5 billion hours of unpaid care, and the total cost of Alzheimer’s is projected to balloon from $203 billion in 2013 to $1.2 trillion by 2050. Medical science is still wrestling with cause and cure, but, as Michael Ciamarra explains, there is one treatment that seems to work: chess.

Peruvians dazzle in American Continental

19.5.2013 - The American Continental Championship has ended in Bolivia. The Peruvian contingency delivered important blows to their opponents in the final round to clinch two of the four passes to the 2013 World Cup. Diego Flores and Isan Ortiz, Argentina and Cuba respectively, took second and third while the unstoppable Julio Granda won the tournament with a full extra point. Pictures and results.

Lothar Schmid: 1928–2013

19.5.2013 - He was born on May 10th 1928, heir to the Karl Mai adventure series. Lothar Maximilian Lorenz Schmid became one of Germany's strongest grandmasters, winner of countless medals at Olympiads and team championships. Internationally he was known as the arbiter in great matches, and a one of the world's leading collectors of chess books. Lothar Schmid died on Saturday at the age of 85.

Jan-Krzysztof Duda: 15-year-old gains GM title

19.5.2013 - Jan-Krzysztof Duda was born on April 26, 1998, in Krakow, Poland. On May 16, 2013, in the last round of the European Championship he completed his final and third GM norm. He is currently rated 2506 and thus fulfils all conditions for a full GM title. This makes Jan-Krzysztof the world's second youngest GM (after Chinese GM Wei Yi, who is still 13!). We use the opportunity to update our prodigy list.

Sergey Karjakin wins Norway Chess 2013

18.5.2013 - After the massive buildup to see Sergey Karjakin challenged for first, many expected Carlsen to catch up with him. Instead Aronian held Carlsen to a draw, Anand blundered and lost to Hao, letting Nakamura snatch third, while Karjakin played a very tough game against Topalov and drew a winning position to take a brilliant sole first. Illustrated report with GM analysis.

Norway 2013 Rd8: Karjakin and Carlsen lose

17.5.2013 -The first result was a blitzkrieg by Anand who sacrificed three pawns and a knight to overwhelm Hammer, then Nakamura beat the struggling Radjabov. The first surprise was Svidler’s win over Karjakin after a back and forth game, but who would have expected Carlsen to enter a balanced endgame with Wang Hao, and then misplay it so badly he lost? Big report with GM commentary.

Ramirez: Playing Kamsky under Pressure

17.5.2013 - Last weekend Gata Kamsky and Alejandro Ramirez tied for first in the 2013 US Championship, making a playoff necessary. Here the 24-year-old "upstart" Ramirez faced one of the most exprienced GMs in the US (Kamsky was twice Soviet under-20 champion before Alej was born). Alejandro, who is now a co-editor of our newspage, tells us in vividly annotated games what the encounter was like.

The joys of chess – Refuting the refutation

16.5.2013 - Christian Hesse is a PhD from Harvard and Professor of Mathematics at the University of Stuttgart. He is also an avid chess fan and has written a number of articles for our news page. As a book author he has been successful with instructive and entertaining works on chess. Now one of his best is available in English. We bring you an interesting chapter on refutations and counter-refutations. Enjoy.