Priyanka Bhakta, the 8-year-old who loved chess

8/27/2003 – It's a heartwrenching picture. An eight-year-old battling leukemia, determinedly playing chess when her stamina and doctors allow. In April Priyanka Bhakta won five of seven games at the Minnesota State Chess Tournament, collecting computer hardware for her skill as well as her courage. On Monday Priyanka succumbed to her illness. More...

Sam Sloan, world-class chess gadfly

8/26/2003 – USCF candidate, taxi-driver, polygamist, gadfly – all these epitaphs fit one of the most colorful personalities in world chess. Sam Sloan has been jailed in Afthanistan, fought Pakistani kidnappers, had lunch with terrorist mastermind bin Laden, fled US courts who want access to his father's alleged $50 million fortune. And you thought that chess players led dull lives?

FIDE give Ponomariov 48-hour deadline

8/26/2003 – The world chess federation has given its world champion Ruslan Ponomariov 48 hours to sign and fax an agreement to the conditions for his title match against Garry Kasparov, scheduled for September 18th in the Ukrainian city of Yalta. New: We have the FIDE release plus many links and translations of interviews with Ponomariov and Ilyumzhinov. Here..

A special class of chess in Baden

8/26/2003 – The German city of Baden-Baden is famous for its spas, its theraputic waters and its casino. It has also played host to some great chess tournaments, starting in 1925 (Alekhine won). This year there was a number of classy opens and a 92-board open-air simultaneous exhibition with world-class players. GM Suat Atalik reports.

CORRECTIONS!

8/26/2003 – In this week's ChessBase Workshop, Steve Lopez eats a very large and bony crow, correcting the unfortunate mathematical errors he made in last week's column with the kind help of some of our readers. Let's not waste any more time and we'll get right to the public humiliation portion of our programme! Pass the ketchup?

Does Kasparov play 2800 Elo against a computer?

8/26/2003 – On August 24 the well-known statistician Jeff Sonas presented an article entitled "How strong are the top chess programs?" In it he looked at the performance of top programs against humans, and attempted to estimate an Elo rating on the basis of these games. One of the programs, Brutus, is the work of another statistician, Dr Chrilly Donninger, who replies to Jeff Sonas.

ESPN Embraces Chess and Kasparov-X3D Fritz

8/25/2003 – If repeat business is the sincerest form of flattery, the sports cable giant ESPN has very good things to say about chess. In January they showed hours of live coverage of the final game between Kasparov and Junior. The ratings and reaction were so good that ESPN will cover all four of the X3D Kasparov-Fritz games in November. More..

Computers vs computers and humans

8/24/2003 – The SSDF list ranks chess playing programs on the basis of 90,000 games. But these are games the computers played against each other. How does that correlate to playing strength against human beings? Statistician Jeff Sonas uses a number of recent tournaments to evaluate the true strength of the programs.

Time is precious for the Ambassador of Blancpain

8/23/2003 – We spotted it on the back of Newsweek. Vladimir Kramnik has printed out in Russian the profundity "Time is precious when you don't have enough of it." He joins the club, which includes Garry Kasparov and Alexandra Kosteniuk, of chess champions promoting Swiss watches.

Records to shatter in sunny Singapore

8/22/2003 – The world domino topple record (303,621 men) was set this week in Singapore, and currently some 2800 students are busy clicking on their computer mouses after school hours, preparing for the biggest Internet Chess Tournament of all time! You too can be part of the record attempt and maybe even become Singapore Internet Champion!

The perfect cuppa – secrets of a triumph

8/22/2003 – Was it all a matter of judiciously ingested beverages? A cup of tea at the right moment? Probably not, but it is fascinating to learn how Viorel Bologan, the underdog Moldavian GM, managed to win the category XVIII super-GM in Dortmund. In case you are still in a daze over this unexpected victory you may want find out from this Europe Echecs article.

Visual wordplay with Anand and Fritz

8/22/2003 – "Ambigrams" are words which can be read in more than one way. They remain the same after rotation or reflection. This form of wordplay is the speciality of Punya Mishra, Assistant Professor at the Michigan State University. Prof. Mishra has done some interesting work on Anand and Fritz.

Young Kateryna wins GM tournament

8/21/2003 – It could be the picture of the year: a bunch of hefty GMs and IMs, posing at the end of a tournament, together with a diminutive 13-year-old girl. But wait, she is holding the trophy! That is because Kateryna Lahno actually won the tournament, a full point ahead of the rest. She also made a GM norm in the process and advanced to number nine in the world women's rankings. We bring you pictures and annotated games.

Sensational computer victory at GM tournament

8/19/2003 – Our experimental hardware chess program "Brutus" scored a remarkable (some would say depressing) first place in the Lippstadt GM tournament, two full points ahead of its nearest rivals. In the process the computer easily fulfilled a GM norm. The performance was 2765. We bring you a round-by-round report with pictures and all games.

Anand pulls off hat-trick win at Mainz Chess Classic

8/18/2003 – After two previous wins in the Mainz Chess Classic Anand today clinched a third title with two straight victories over Judit Polgar. The Indian rapid chess champ started the day with a break of tradition: unlike on the first three days he won the first game. After that he took the final game without giving his plucky opponent much of a chance. Meanwhile Peter Svidler defeated Peter Leko to become the first "WNCA" champion. Report, pictures and games...

Still no draws in Mainz

8/16/2003 – Are we onto something when we suggest the following theory: in rapid chess, if you come out of the opening with a healthy position, a nice little advantage even, you are doomed. Equally fatal is a clear advantage in the middlegame – boom, you lose. Take a look at what happened on day two of the Mainz Chess Classic.

Yet another fighting day in Mainz

8/16/2003 – With hundreds of spectators watching in the hall, and even more on the Playchess.com server, Vishy Anand and Judit Polgar delivered another two nerve-racking games at the Chess Classic in Frankfurt. You will not want to miss the final tomorrow evening. Meanwhile here is today's action.

Slugfest with Anand and Polgar in Mainz

8/15/2003 – The Chess Classic in Mainz, German, started off with two exciting rapid chess games between Vishy Anand and Judit Polgar. The first was a super-sharp Sicilian with Judit dealing the final blows. But the Indian rapid chess expert struck back in the very next game to tie the match 1:1. More...

Love, Metal and Jägermeister Chess

8/14/2003 – What do rock musicians do between concerts? Like in the evening, in strange cities, when they are looking for some lively entertainment. Wrong! They play chess. At least if they are Finnish Love and Metal rock stars with a taste for German herbal liquors. Confused? You will be after you read this somewhat raunchy report.

Chess Today turns 1000

8/14/2003 – The net-based news daily Chess Today is published by GM Alexander Baburin. This month the landmark 1000th edition was sent to subscribers. To commemorate the milestone Baburin took part in a chat on Playchess.com. Here's a transcript of this interesting discussion.

Terachess in Budapest

8/14/2003 – What is "Terachess". It's an experiment pitting two teams of top GMs, who can consult with each other and use any technical tools they like during the game. The first Terachess event is planned for early 2004 and will be covered on a major TV station. The players are of the highest calibre and the venue historically interesting. Here are further details...

Susan Polgar wins 2003 Open Blitz Championship

8/13/2003 – The 2003 US Open Blitz Championship fielded a lot of seasoned GMs, like Ehlvest, Wojtkiewicz, Browne, Sharavdorj, Blatny, plus lots of IMs, Senior Masters and Masters. This tournament, one of the strongest in recent history, was won by a woman! GM Susan Polgar, four-time women's world champion, took the title with a sensational 11:1 points. You'll be surprised to learn the circumstances under which she won.

Anand vs Judit – a sweet dilemma

8/13/2003 – It is not easy being a chess fan these days. The battle for the unofficial title of the "best rapid player in the world" will be fought in Mainz, starting August 14th. GM Vishy Anand will be playing GM Judit Polgar in a match of eight rapid games. Those of us who like to take sides in these matches are faced with a very sweet dilemma – who do we root for this time around? You decide.

ChessBase statistics -- part three

8/13/2003 – A few decades ago a mathematician named Arpad Elo devised a pretty slick ranking system based on statistical probability. FIDE (the World Chess Federation) adopted it as an official standard in 1971 and chessplayers the world over have greeted each other with "What's your rating?" ever since. More in this week's ChessBase Workshop