American wins European Internet preliminary

10/26/2003 – The second preliminary to the First European Internet Championship saw GM Hikaru Nakamura, a US resident, take first place. The Candidates Tournament is on November 8. Details...

Advanced ChessBase & Fritz problems and tips

10/26/2003 – Even if you know how many things you can do with ChessBase software you might appreciate some tips. In his latest ChessBase Cafe column at the ChessCafe website, Mig Greengard tackles some of the toughest reader questions about Fritz & Friends, as well as ChessBase 8. Don't forget to send in your own questions and suggestions for next month's column. More..

Pictures from Plovdiv

10/25/2003 – Just a few days ago the European Team Championshipended, with 37 four-player men's teams and 31 two-player women's teams. The event took place in the historical Bulgarian city of Plovdiv, from where our correspondent Pufichek (a.k.a. Diego Garces), sent us a report and a large number of player portraits.

European Internet Championship – let the round begin!

10/23/2003 – The First European Internet Championship is taking place in the virtual realitiy of the Playchess.com server, in the time from Monday, October 20th until Sunday November 9th. It carries a prize fund of €6,000.00. All you need to take part is a PC and and an Internet connection. Details...

The lady is a champ at Essent 2003

10/22/2003 – If you have a tournament with a world champion, a junior champion, a Dutch champion, and the top female player, you can be sure of one thing: Judit Polgar will be there every year. This formula appeared in Hoogeveen in 1997 and Polgar has yet to miss a turn. This year she took clear first place for the first time since 1998, but she needed a last-round win to do it. Report and games.

A Predecessor, a successor, and The Art of Chess

10/22/2003 – What would national Chess Week be without the top player in the world? Garry Kasparov was invited to The Art of Chess exhibition in London as part of Chess Week in England. 12-year-old David Howell, who holds the record as the youngest player ever to beat a GM, was also on hand. Howell is also flying around England in a helicopter putting in appearances to promote chess! More..

Russia wins, Ponomariov talks

10/21/2003 – Round eight of the European Team Championship in Plovdiv saw an exciting power failure, in round nine the leading teams drew all their games, leaving the top unchanged – Russia first, Israel second. Meanwhile the still reigning FIDE world champion Ruslan Ponomariov was quite outspoken at an impromptu press conference on the free day. More...

Four players tie for first in Denmark

10/20/2003 – The final ninth round of the First Samba Cup in Skanderborg was not as exciting as it could have been. The four leading players – Nielsen, Sadvakasov, Short and Hansen – were risking nothing and all drew their games. Perhaps this was due to the abundance of chocolate sweets available to them? We bring you the games, results, pictures and info on the world's finest cream puffs.

First European Internet Championship

10/20/2003 – Tonight's the night: the first preliminary round for the 1st European Internet Championship starts at 20.30h (registration 20.00h) in Tournament Room Official A. The first twelve of this round robin Swiss will qualifiy for the candidates tournament on Nov. 8th. Here is full information...

Game over: Kasparov and the Machine

10/19/2003 – On October 13th the documentary ‘Game Over: Kasparov and the Machine’ had its world premiere at the Sheffield International Documentary Film Festival. The movie charts the events surrounding Garry Kasparov’s match against Deep Blue in 1997. Joanne Pittaway watched the film and spoke to its makers. Here's her review.

Yes, Virginia, there is humour in chess

10/19/2003 – GM David Norwood was confused. "On the ChessBase website there are not pages upon pages of dry annotations of the latest chess theory. The stories are fun and eminently readable." He got stuck on Plaskett's Puzzle and wrote his Telegraph column on the subject. Nigel Short and Malcolm Pein have also provided very readable articles.

Something black in Denmark

10/18/2003 – What is with the Samba Cup in Skanderborg, Danmark? With seven of nine rounds played we count nine wins for white, which is not so unusual, but ten for black, which certainly is. Not just that the players are collecting points with the black pieces, they are doing so in spectacular style. See for yourself.

Aronian catches Polgar in Holland

10/17/2003 – The 21-year-old former junior world champion Levon Aronian, originally from Armenia, now living in Germany, has caught up with Judit Polgar in the Essent Chess Tournament in Hoogeveen, Holland. With one round to go the two youngest players lead the field with 3.0/5. At the bottom of the table is ex-world champion Anatoly Karpov (1.5 points). More...

Are chess computers improving faster than grandmasters?

10/17/2003 – The battle between humans and machines over the chessbaord appears to be dead-even – in spite of giant leaps in computer technology. "Don't forget that human players are improving too," says statistician Jeff Sonas, who doesn't think it is inevitable that computers will surpass humans. Here is his statistical evidence.

Review: Hiarcs 9

10/17/2003 – In this week's ChessBase Workshop, we tear the shrinkwrap off of Mark Uniacke's brilliant new chessplaying program Hiarcs9 to show you the new features included in the package. Workshop...

Meet Kasparov in London

10/16/2003 – Garry Kasparov, the world number 1, will be at the London Chess Centre on Tuesday, 21st October 2003, to promote his highly successful book series 'Garry Kasparov on My Great Predecessors'. Volume one is actually sold out and had to be reprinted. The Chess Centre has 100's of copies in store. Don't miss the chance...

A Chess Media System for Fritz

10/16/2003 – The latest ChessBase Magazine 96, due out on Monday, contains a directory with updates of our main software programs: ChessBase, Fritz and Junior. One of these is very special this time. The Fritz 8 update introduces a whole new dimension to our activities on the Playchess.com server. Here are all the details...

Isolating a piece – part 2

10/15/2003 – Did you attend last week's lecture on isolating a piece? This Thursday our Playchess.com chess trainer Dorian Rogozenko tells you how to cut off your opponent's pieces from the main battlefield. Here are the details...

Looking back at Crete

10/15/2003 – The 2003 European Clubs Cup in Crete is over, the players have returned to their many native countries. Our correspondent Anna Dergatschova was there as a reporter and, once back in Germany, sent us a new set of pictures from this exciting tournament. We share them with you.

Analysing with Garry Kasparov – the readers reply

10/14/2003 – In our Analysis Focus #1 GM Karsten Müller led the first session on a game from Kasparov's book "My Great Predecessors": Bird-Morphy, London 1858, p.38. There have been many interesting contributions by our readers. Would you like to join the debate?

Judit strikes with the Lasker sacrifice

10/13/2003 – On the first day of the Essent Chess Tournament in Hoogeveen, the Netherlands, the most aggressive player in the "Crown Group" (with Judit Polgar, Ivan Sokolov, Anatoly Karpov and Levon Aronian) struck out against the most experienced one with a classical Lasker sacrifice on h7. Here's the story...

Mobile phone to g2, mate!

10/13/2003 – A new page in the colorful history of chess was written on Saturday when for the first time a player was disqualified at a representative event when his mobile phone rang during the game. This misfortune did not befall any ordinary player; the miscreant was none other than Ruslan Ponomariov, reigning FIDE world champion. More...

Top players and tournaments to watch

10/13/2003 – This may seem like a time of chess calm, but don't be deceived. Most of the world's top players are out there, busy battling it out in tournaments that are currently being held in Denmark, Holland and Bulgaria. We bring you games, results and links.

Deadly threats

10/12/2003 – George Renko, author of Intensive Tactics Course and Killer Moves, has done it again with a new ChessBase tactical training CD: Deadly Threats. Check out a preview in this week's ChessBase Workshop ...