Cricket's fine, but no chess for Iraq

2/9/2005 – The votes are still being counted, but it looks like the Shia leader Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani will emerge as the big winner in Iraq. With the distinct possibility of an Islamic theocracy emerging, the Ayatollah's teachings on chess, cricket, music, earrings and a variety of other topics are being carefully studied by the Western press.

Will the world end on Kasparov's 66th birthday?

2/8/2005 – The answer is no, almost certainly not. That is the conclusion drawn by NASA last week, after conducting radar measurements with the Arecibo radio telescope in Puerto Rico. The chances of a birthday armageddon have sunk from 2.7% to virtually zero. Warning: the following article has very little chess content. And it is not for the faint-hearted...

John Shaw in the interrogation room

2/8/2005 – Having just returned from Gibraltar, IM John Shaw will be asked, live on Playchess.com by IM Jacob Aagaard, why oh why he sacrificed that rook against GM Sasikiran. Do not miss this edition of Glasgow 3rd floor Chess Radio directly from Scotland at 20.30 CET Wednesday evening.

Fundamentals of the Benoni structures

2/7/2005 – In last week's Monday night Playchess.com lecture Dennis Monokroussos showed us an exciting game from the early 1800s. This week he fast-forwards 83 years to an all-or-nothing world championship game between Alekhine and Bogoljubow. Instructive stuff...

Invitation to New York from Accoona

2/7/2005 – The final of the Accoona Women's Championship will be held on March 1st at the ABC Times Square Studios, NYC. You can watch the action on Playchess.com, but if you live in the area you invited to attend personally. Accoona has made 200 free tickets available to our newspage readers. Come and get them...

Miscellaneous options

2/6/2005 – Tweak, tweak, tweak -- doesn't this guy ever do anything else? In his never-ending quest to unearth and reveal underdocumented features, columnist Steve Lopez shows you how to add voice support (among other things) to ChessBase 9 in the latest installment of ChessBase Workshop.

Accoona Women's Championship in New York

2/5/2005 – The final of the Accoona Women's World Chess Championship will be held on March 1st at the ABC Times Square Studios in the heart of New York City. It is sponsored by a new and very ambitious search engine company, and will be introduced by Steve Forbes. Ladies, start your engines...

Five winners at the Gibraltar Masters

2/5/2005 – There were 120 participants in the top group of the Bibtele.com chess festival in the British enclave on the southern tip of Spain. The winners at 7.5/10 were Aronian, Efimenko, Kiril Georgiev, Shirov and Sutovsky, who each won £2300. Report...

The Story of a Chess Player

2/4/2005 – If you know the very modest perennial 2600+ GM Jaan Ehlvest, you might expect him to say something like "I used to be a good player." Certainly players on the American tournament circuit would have to say "he still is!" Now the Estonian GM has written a new book.

Ephraim Kishon, 1924 – 2005

2/4/2005 – He was one of the most popular satirists of all time, with over 50 books selling 43 million copies in 37 different languages. He was also a chess enthusiast who survived the Holocaust by playing games against a guard. He even designed his own chess computer. Ephraim Kishon died on January 29, 2005, aged 80. In memoriam...

Following the footsteps of Judit Polgar

2/3/2005 – At the Asian Junior Girls chess Championship at Bikaner, a 14-year-old Indian girl walked away with the silver medal. Harika Dronavalli, India's new mega-talent, has won more titles than anyone else in her age group. Chess arbiter and reporter Manmohan Harsh has interviewed her and describes her young chess career.

Kramnik's choice: the DGT ChessLab

2/3/2005 – The Dutch company DGT is known for its digital chess equipment – chess clocks and sensor boards, used in tournaments all over the world. On Tuesday Vladimir Kramnik visited the company to endorse a chessboard, clock – and to do a first trial session with the new DGT teaching system. We have a video clip.

Steve Lopez on the future of Internet chess

2/3/2005 – History is indeed cyclical, and our Workshop columnist thinks he's spotted another pendulum swing. Read these certain-to-be controversial comments by Steve Lopez on the (possible) future of Internet chess in the latest edition of ChessBase Workshop.

Chess queens 2005 – on Time Warner TV

2/3/2005 – Today, not only are more women entering the boardroom, many are mastering the art of the board game. And not just any games, but highly complicated ones like chess. News 10 Now recently introduced its audience to a rising chess champ who is making her unique mark on the game of knights, kings and queens. Meet SuperJen.

Schizophrenic Pawn: Techno music inspired by chess

2/2/2005 – Here's an unusual product for chess fans and collectionners. It's a musical CD completely inspired by the game of chess, which offers some music with an urban techno ambient mood. Sample lyrics: "Win or Loose / I will make you move / It’s the name of the game / You can’t run away". More...

Fischer's lawyer Masako Suzuki speaks out

2/2/2005 – Is Japan buckling under pressure by the US? Bobby Fischer, 61, former World Champion of Chess who has been jailed in Japan for six months now, is applying for Icelandic citizenship. But Tokyo seems to be balking at a constructive solution entailing his release to Iceland. Fischer's lawyer Masako Suzuki has given us an exclusive interview.

Kavalek to Short: I am not dead!

2/1/2005 – In a recent Sunday Telegraph column Nigel Short wrote critically of his collaboration with former Czechoslovakian and US Champion, Lubomir Kavalek, who worked with the British GM during his bid for the World Championship title. Now Kavalek has sent us a reply, to which Short has reacted.

Indian Chess Federation in turmoil

2/1/2005 – There seems to be a spot of trouble abrewing in the All India Chess Federation. General Secretary Ummer Koya, who is also a FIDE Vice President, has been restrained by the Madras High Court from acting as Secretary of the AICF. The Indian news services are full of it.

Corus 13: Peter Leko wins Wijk aan Zee 2005

1/31/2005 – The most exciting tournament in recent memory ended with a victory for Peter Leko, who added a last "Grand Slam" title to his list. The classical chess vice champion drew his final game, as did his only rival Vishy Anand. Leko finished half a point ahead of the field. Ukraine prodigy Sergey Karjakin won the B Group. Full illustrated report.

Anniversary with fireworks

1/30/2005 – In his Playchess.com lecture Monday night Dennis Monokroussos shows us a wildly entertaining antique game to mark his one year anniversary at Radio ChessBase. Tune in tonight to enjoy the show. This week's game celebrates with fireworks!

Corus 12: Anand wins to narrow gap

1/30/2005 – The world's number two player, Vishy Anand, beat Britian's Michael Adams to come within striking distance of Peter Leko, who is leading in Wijk. Judit Polgar beat Ivan Sokolov and Ruslan Ponomariov Alexander Morozevich. Cricket fans Peter Svidler and Nigel Short (picture) drew their games. Full report..

Corus 11: Leko favourite to win Wijk

1/28/2005 – Peter Leko beat Lazaro Bruzon to take a commanding lead and has become the clear favourite to win the Corus tournament. Peter Svidler and Alexander Morozevich got into an insane battle which ended in a draw. Kramnik pressed very hard against Grischuk, but the latter found a miracle save. Full report.

Corus 10: Topalov blunders, Lucky Loek holds

1/27/2005 – He was winning, the Bulgarian GM Veselin Topalov, when he blundered and gave the full point to his opponent Judit Polgar. Anand was three pawns up against Loek van Wely but was unable to convert this to a full point. Peter Leko held Alexander Morozevich to take the sole lead in Wijk. Here's our full illustrated report.

ChessBase 9 tips

1/26/2005 – What has two eyes, four typing fingers, and a head that's pounding like a jackhammer? ChessBase Workshop columnist Steve Lopez somehow managed to squeeze writing a new article into a hectic holiday week. Included are some ChessBase 9 tips, a few reader comments on previous columns, and another of his boring linguistics lessons. Check it all out in the latest Workshop.