World Champion Dr GM GM John Nunn

9/22/2004 – That is the appropriate form of address, after the British GM won the World Chess Solving Championship in Halkidiki, Greece, and also made his final GM norm in problem solving (he became a regular chess grandmaster back in 1978). John is the third person ever to gain both over-the-board and solving GM titles. Here's an illustrated report...

Polgar vs Karpov: chess fever in Little Sweden

9/21/2004 – The Clash of the Titans this weekend in Lindsborg, Kansas, began with a magnificent chess parade and ended with a 3:3 score between the two former world champions. The town was gripped by chess fever, and nationwide about ten million people were exposed to the event. Here's a magificently illustrated report by Paul Truong...

Database basics - part 4

9/20/2004 – The latest installment of "Database Basics" examines position searches. You'll learn how the "board" radio buttons and the use of piece "wildcards" can help you refine your position searches in this week's ChessBase Workshop.

Playchess lectures with Alterman and Monokroussos

9/19/2004 – Weekend is lecture time on Playchess.com. On Sunday GM Boris Alterman talks about the immensely dangerous Alekhine-Chattard Attack in the French Defence. Monday night Dennis Monokroussos takes a look at two sharp games between Kramnik and Leko. Don't miss them...

Aiming for 2800: Vishy in India

9/19/2004 – Where is Vishy Anand? Many chess fans have been waiting for news from the world's number two player. After a meticulous search we located him, on a peripatetic good-will tour of his native India, giving interviews and simuls. He says he is aiming for a reunification match and a new rating record. Here are some interesting articles to read...

Guess who came to the party

9/19/2004 – This week Playchess.com celebrated it third birthday. It is the fastest-growing chess server in the world, with over 100,000 registered accounts and 120,000 games played per day. One of its most prominent proponents happened to be in Hamburg on its birthday. Between recording sessions Garry Kasparov took time off to play some internet chess...

The richest open tournament in chess history

9/18/2004 – Welcome to the HB Global Chess Challenge, to be held in Minneapolis from May 18–22, 2005. It is the brain-child of GM Maurice Ashley, who revealed yesterday that the prize fund would be an unprecedented US $500,000 ($50,000 in cash for the winner). You can register today. We bring you all the details...

Krush takes the Accoona trophy

9/18/2004 – After two hard-fought rapid games, American Irina Krush used the home-field advantage to beat Almira Skripchenko for the Accoona French-American championship. It was quite an event with the Russian Samovar restaurant filled with chess VIPs and fans. We have an onsite report, game analysis, and plenty of entertaining photos.

It's a matter of seconds

9/17/2004 – Actually around 700,000, before the Dannemann world chess championship between Vladimir Kramnik and Peter Leko starts on September 25th. But we are talking about the seconds who look after the players and whose identities have now been revealed. Kramnik and Leko have given short interviews to get us in the mood.

Tiger Lady at the Moscow Blitz

9/16/2004 – Last week we reported on the 2004 Moscow Blitz. Now our roving reporter WIM Anna Dergatschova has returned from her trip to the city of her birth, bringing with her a bunch of new pictures and stories. Her report includes a shot of a world famous chess star and stunning images of a new friend she met in the park. Enjoy...

The winners of the Pune Super-GM

9/16/2004 – The western Indian town, know as "Poona" in the British Raj days, was still struggling with the pronunciation, when Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu and Rustam Kasimdzhanov (why don't they simply invite Short?) clinched top slots with 6/9 points. Nisi beat Kasim on tiebreaks. Here's our final illustrated report.

Irina Krush wins Accoona Women's Match in New York

9/16/2004 – Live from New York, it's the Krush-Skripchenko match, on Playchess.com! After updating the results and posting games and photos, we can now report that the American champion won the match against her French counterpart. A full report will follow, for now we bring you the games and some pictures.

Database Basics

9/15/2004 – Our series of articles on "Database Basics" is intended to show new users how to utilize the search features of chess databases. Part Three describes how to search for the various annotation forms that are used in ChessBase format games. Read all about it in the latest ChessBase Workshop.

Searching for the best woman chess player

9/14/2004 – This Thursday there will be an exciting two-game rapid chess match in New York between the French and American women's champions Almira Skripchenko and Irina Krush. The sponsor is the search engine company Accoona.com and will be transmitted live on the Playchess server. Here's the latest press release...

Kasparov's Keynote Address

9/14/2004 – Garry Kasparov, the world's number one chess player, is very active in world politics. As chairman of the oppositional "Committee 2008" in Russia Kasparov was invited to speak to the Baltic Development Forum in Hamburg, Germany. As usual he did not hold back with sharp criticism of the Russian government. We bring you the entire compelling address.

The latest on Bobby Fischer

9/13/2004 – It's been some time since we last reported on the fate of the former world champion, who is detained in a Tokyo prison, facing extradition to the United States. Over 1000 articles have been published world-wide, numerous letters written or editorial opinions expressed. We bring you the latest material – in original and in summary. After all it is currently the hottest story in chess.

Clash of the Brains in the Plains

9/13/2004 – That is how it is billed in a National Public Radio interview: two former world chess champions, Anatoly Karpov and Susan Polgar battle it out in the first inter-gender chess summit, to be held next weekend in Lindsborg, Kansas. Playchess.com will be covering the games live. Here are all the details...

Jayel Taylor, chess player and webmaster

9/12/2004 – He is a budding chess player, around 1400 on the Playchess.com server. He loves reading, math, computers and sports. For almost a year now he has been running his own web site, devoted to his interests – including a special section on chess. So why was Jayel Taylor interviewed by CBS, and why are we doing a report on him here. There's a simple reason...

Alterman on Albin's Counter Gambit

9/11/2004 – Adolf Albin was born in 1848 Romania, and wrote the first chess book in the Romanian language. He gained international fame with a startling counter to the Queen's Gambit: 1.d4 d5 2.c4 e5!? This aggressive counter is the theme of GM Boris Alterman's Playchess.com lecture this Sunday. Listen in...

Romanian holding on in India

9/11/2004 – In a tournament full of ups and down, Dieter Nisipeanu is staying up. (That's not him, but we needed someone smiling.) With one round to go he is clinging to a half-point lead in the Pune GM tournament. FIDE champion Kasimdzhanov is right on his tail. Local hopes for a place on the podium are good with Harikrishna and Chanda vying for third. Report and photos.

The Greatest Player Never to Become World Champion

9/11/2004 – He has been an active grandmaster for 50 years, in the world's elite for 40, and a three-time challenger for the world championship title. It is not impossible that, at 73, Viktor Korchnoi may yet win the title that has so far eluded him. In his Monday night lecture our Playchess.com trainer Dennis Monokroussos shows us a brilliant Korchnoi game from 1981.

1st Dato’ Arthur Tan Malaysia Open

9/11/2004 – After eleven grueling rounds in six days, China's Ni Hua took clear first place in the strongest chess tournament ever held in Malaysia. Players from all over the world came to this fascinating nation for a memorable event. Edwin Lam brings us a remarkable report with food, fun and photos.

Alisa at the Olympics

9/11/2004 – A chess grandmaster at the Olympic Games? Not the Olympiad, mind you, but the big one in Athens, where WGM Alisa Maric represented her country, Serbia & Montenegro. And while she was there she proved that size actually doesn't matter – by trouncing Yugoslav basketball stars, each a foot and a half taller than her. At chess. Here are impressions of Alisa in Athens...

A birthday song for Martica

9/10/2004 – Patrick Schönbach was born with a debilitating illness, but an unusually agile mind. Against all odds he grew up to be a musician, programmer and chess player. A while ago Patrick met a woman grandmaster on the Playchess.com server. A friendship developed, across 7000 km of ocean. Now it has resulted in a beautiful birthday chess song.