Better is...

7/31/2004 – Hot-tempered people are said to have "a short fuse". In this week's ChessBase Workshop you'll see why Steve Lopez is slamming his chess book collection off the walls as he rants about standard chess clichés. Better skip this column if you're easily offended or are humor-challenged

Modern ways of playing the Sicilian

7/30/2004 – Why do chess players choose certain lines for their openings repertoire? Logic, pragmatism and brute statistics have a minor role in their choice. We usually opt for a line because it reflects our personality. Aryan Argandewal shows us how a ChessBase Openings CD could reach him...

Dortmund Semis 2: Anand and Kramnik reach final

7/30/2004 – It hasn't exactly followed an exciting script, but in true Hollywood fashion we get a happy ending anyway. Both semifinal games were drawn. Anand-Leko and Kramnik-Svidler both drew the rapid games and went to blitz tiebreaks. The world's #2 and #3 will face off in the final starting Saturday. Report and photos.

Girls and boys at the European championship

7/30/2004 – The European Youth Chess Championship is under way in Ürgüp, Turkey. The town is filled with 670 players and 600 parents, from a total of 39 countries. There are groups for under 10, 12, 14, 16 and 18, with separate sections for boys and girls. Games, results, pictures and videos are provided by the official web site...

Dortmund Semis 1: Semifinals begin with draws

7/30/2004 – The preliminaries are over and the mini-match phase has begun. Anand played a short draw against Leko. Svidler drew against Kramnik after suffering for a long time in the Grunfeld. In the consolation tourney for 5th-8th Naiditsch won his second straight game by doing what Kramnik and Leko could not. He beat Karjakin. Games and report.

North Urals Cup – Ladies super-tournament

7/29/2004 – One of the strongest women's tournaments of all time is being held in the central Russian city of Krasnoturinsk, with the current and former world champions, and chess legend Boris Spassky speaking at the openings ceremony. We bring you games, results and a spectacular picture report.

Dazzling Morozevich dominates Biel again

7/29/2004 – If Dortmund has been making you drowsy it's time to take a caffeinated drink of the Biel supertournament. Just like last year, Alexander Morozevich won first place with a round to play. Krishnan Sasikiran has locked up second. Few draws, many spectacular games, what more could you want? Photos, report, and analysis.

Fischer's appeal rejected

7/28/2004 – Bobby Fischer's appeal against his deportation was rejected today by Japanese authorities. Meanwhile the Icelandic Chess Federation has appealed to US president Bush to pardon Fischer and set up a petition web site to collect signatures. In Tokyo a "Free Fischer Press Conference" is scheduled for Thursday. More...

Kasim and Playchess in Uzbekistan

7/28/2004 – Where is Rustam Kasimdzhanov? Normally he lives in Germany, but we could not reach him there. So we contacted our friends in Uzbekistan, who confirmed: Kasim is paying the country of his birth a visit. And receiving a hero's welcome. Jamshid Begmatov tells us about this and about his Playchess adventure on Uzbek TV...

Nigel Short takes Tai Yuan

7/27/2004 – After a bad spell the English Super-GM with a sometimes rating of 2700 has struck again, winning the GM tournament in Tai Yuan a full point ahead of the field. We called Nigel to ask him about this splendid victory, and also discuss some of the other events that are enthralling chess fans at the current time. Here's a transcript of the conversation.

Dortmund R6: Anand, Svidler, Kramnik, Leko

7/27/2004 – Anand was already through, Svidler clinched it with a sixth-round draw against Anand. In Group two once again all games were drawn, leaving all players tied at 3.0/6 points. In the rapid chess (10 min + 5 sec) tiebreak Kramnik and Leko were successful and progress to the semifinals. For now we bring you results, games and pictures.

When Bush was V.P. and Ljubo was king

7/26/2004 – From the mid-70s through the early 90s there was a non-Russian player who was incredibly dynamic and creative, thriving in imbalanced, tactical positions with a strength very few of his peers could match. Our online trainer Dennis Monokroussos looks at a 1985 gem of a game by Ljubomir Ljubojevic.

Dortmund R5: Anand and Svidler make their moves

7/26/2004 – Would somebody in Group 1 go wake up the guys in Group 2? Anand and Svidler beat Rublevsky and Naiditsch while Group 2 was again all draws. Where do you go for analysis when the #2 and #3 players in the world are in action? To #1, of course! We also bring you a behind-the-scenes pictorial report by Olena Boytsun

Alterman on the Marshall Attack

7/25/2004 – One of the world’s first Grandmasters of chess, America’s Frank J. Marshall (1877-1944), left behind a lasting legacy to the chess world with his revered gambit against the Ruy Lopez – the Marshall Attack. Boris Alterman looks at Marshall's revolutionary idea in his Sunday night online lecture.

Freestyle Blitz Tournament August 7

7/25/2004 – Winning Internet chess games with the assistance of computers is quite despicable. People who are caught get stripped of rights and privileges. Not so in the August 7th "Freestyle Tournament" on Playchess.com. There you can use anything you want to win your games. Details...

Fischer a sacrificial pawn?

7/25/2004 – Bobby Fischer is still in detention at Narita Airport in Tokyo, traumatised but stubborn, "behaving like a Samurai". At the same time news outlets all over the world are covering the story, with Fischer's brother-in-law Russell Targ assailing the Bush administration for playing election year politics with the former chess champion's freedom. There's a lot to be read...

Dortmund R4: Kramnik almost Karjaked

7/25/2004 – Today the tournament's young guns took their turn with white against legends Vishy Anand and Vlady Kramnik. Arkady Naiditsch played to win versus Anand, while 14-year-old Sergey Karjakin came oh-so-close to beating the world champion in a wild game that lasted 86 moves. We bring you some remarkable annotations of this remarkable game.

Dortmund R2: Anand wins heavyweight bout

7/24/2004 – The gloves came off today in Dortmund, but the only fighter to land a knock-out blow was Vishy Anand. He beat Peter Svidler in a fantastic display of tightrope calculation to take the lead in Group 1. Kramnik-Leko was an interesting draw, as were the other two games. 14-year-old Karjakin again showed his toughness. Full report with games, results and pictures.

Dortmund R3: Svidler strikes back

7/24/2004 – If there's anything scarier than a super-GM it's a motivated super-GM wanting to come back after a loss. That's what Germany's Arkady Naiditsch had to face today when he sat down across from Peter Svidler. The four-time Russian champ would not be denied. Group 2 kept its 100% draw quotient. Report, analysis, and photos.

McShane beats Ponomariov in Biel

7/23/2004 – 20-year-old Luke McShane is one of England's great talents. However, at the GM tournament in Biel he started with a dismal 0:4 score. On Friday, however, he struck out against FIDE ex world champion Ruslan Ponomariov in a very exciting game. We bring you games, results and pictures.

Short and Dreev lead in Tai Yuan

7/22/2004 – This is something Dortmund didn't have: a food master show as the highlight of the opening ceremony. The average Elo at the GM tournaments is 2634 (category 16), thanks to the presences of guest players like Dreev, Short, Lautier and Lputian. We bring you games, results and pictures.

Dortmund R1: All four games drawn

7/22/2004 – The strongest tournament in Germany, the yearly Chess-Meeting in Dortmund, started with draws on all four boards. But these were neither boring nor quick. Sensationally the two youngsters Naiditsch and Karjakin, were able to hold the top seeds Anand and Kramnik with the black pieces. We have games, photos, and a full report.

A double victory for Shredder 8 in Argentina

7/21/2004 – Shredder again won two tournaments at the same time during the Republica Argentina Chess Festival, but it wasn't easy. The program did dominate the weaker event but was equaled by IM Salvador Alonso in the GM tournament. The programs are getting faster but the humans are getting smarter! Games, round reports, and many photos.

Jubilee DVD with four Gigabytes of memories

7/21/2004 – The new issue of ChessBase magazine is a landmark in the publication's history: our 100th issue. In celebration of the event, we've included a bonus -- the Jubilee DVD, chock full of videos. In this week's ChessBase Workshop, Steve Lopez offers a (sometimes very personal) preview of this retrospective DVD. Workshop...