Short on blunders – part two already

8/11/2004 – Some time ago we spoke to Nigel Short about the FIDE world championship in Tripoli, which he disparagingly called a "blunderfest". Well, guess who committed the biggest flub-up of them all? We probe the mechanisms of Nigel's incredible blunder in Libya, all the way to the bone, in part two of our interview.

Spassky to Bush: Arrest me!

8/10/2004 – Boris Spassky, who played the contentious return match against Bobby Fischer in Yugoslavia 1992, for which the latter is currently facing deportation and incarceration in the US, has appealed to President Bush to show mercy and charity for his tormented successor. If for some reason that should be impossible, Spassky suggests a very imaginative alternative...

Anand wins Mainz rapid over Shirov

8/8/2004 – India's Viswanathan Anand continued his hot German summer and added to his wardrobe for the fourth consecutive year in Mainz. He was awarded the winner's black jacket by organizer Hans Walter-Schmitt for his 5-3 Rapid Duel victory over Spaniard Alexei Shirov. Alexander Grischuk and Peter Svidler also defended their 2003 Mainz titles. Photos and report.

Ilyumzhinov and the Chess City in Dubai

8/8/2004 – Who can say he doesn't think big? FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov has just unveiled a plan to build a new "chess city" in the Emirate of Dubai. It's a US $2.6 billion project that is expected to play host to (hold on to your hats) 60 million amateur and professional chess followers annually. You don't believe he can do it?

Alterman on the Dragon

8/8/2004 – The Dragon Variation of the Open Sicilian is one of the most-feared openings in chess, with generations of players and experts creating a monumental body of theory. The double-edged play makes it an opening nobody can ignore. In Sunday's Playchess lecture GM Boris Alterman tells us why.

Free points from Pal Benko

8/8/2004 – He twice made it to the Candidates' Tournament – Hungarian-born Pal Benko, today a respected chess columnist, is someone from whom you can learn a trick or two. In his Monday night Playchess.com lecture Dennis Monokroussos illustrates the point with a remarkable 45-year-old game.

Chess Classic 2004: Anand leads Shirov 4:2

8/8/2004 – With one day and two games to go India's Vishy Anand leads Alexei Shirov by two points in their Rapid Chess match. In the Chess960 (Fischer Random) between Peter Svidler and Levon Aronian all six games were decided for a 3:3 score. The FiNet Chess960 Open was won by Zoltan Almasi. Details in our illustrated report.

Almira wins Ural Supertournament

8/8/2004 – One of the strongest women's tournaments of all time ended with a resounding victory by Moldavian-French WGM Almira Skripchenko. After returning to Paris Almira spoke to us on the phone, telling us about the tournament and her colleagues. She even annotated her best game for us. Here is an extensive illustrated report.

IM Bryon Nickoloff (1956 – 2004)

8/7/2004 – In 1999 doctors told Bryon Nickoloff that he had cancer and less than six months to live. But the well-known Canadian IM survived for five years, playing strong chess tournaments to the very end. His last game was at the Canadian Open in July, where he defeated his opponent with the black pieces. Bryon passed away on August 3rd. Frank Dixon remembers one of Canada's best.

Mate search in Fritz

8/7/2004 – Fritz' Mate engine is a useful tool for solving the "mate in x" problems that we find in chess books and magazines. Today we take a closer look at the Mate engine and answer a nagging question that some users occasionally ask: "Why does Mate analyze so slowly?" ChessBase Workshop...

Chess Classic 2004: Carmen in Mainz

8/6/2004 – She is one of the top ten earning super-models in the world, and a "kick-ass" chess player. And the President of the Estonian Chess Federation. Carmen Kass is the star guest at the Chess Classic, where she took on the chess champs in blitz games. (Oh, yes, Anand scored in his Rapid Chess match against Shirov). Here's the Carmen Kass story...

Dortmund 2004: A pictorial farewell

8/6/2004 – The Dortmund Super-GM is over, most of the players have migrated to Mainz to play in the Chess Classic., and there still remains a lot to show and tell. Like many unpublished pictures, or the press conference held by ACP president Joel Lautier, outlining the plan of the professional chess organisation. Here's our final Dortmund report.

Chess Classic 2004: A change of pace

8/5/2004 – Unlike Dortmund, the Mainz Chess Classic, which begins today, propagates faster and unusual forms of chess. There are Rapid and Fischer Random matches between world-class GMs, and Opens for Rapid and Random games. And lots more, as you can find out in our Chess Classic Guide...

Fritz middlegame trainer: attacking chess

8/3/2004 – Nearly everyone loves attacking chess, but few of us are good at it. Mainly because we don't know how to establish the prerequisites for an attack. IM Jacob Aagaard shows us how to create winning attacks in his new CD series Fritz Middlegame Trainer: Attacking Chess. Tear off the shrink-wrap and take a sneak peek at this two CD set in this week's ChessBase Workshop.

Maria Manakova in Speed

8/2/2004 – She is a full-fledged women's chess grandmaster, who recently scored 5/7 for her club at the European Club Cup in Crete. Maria has also become something of a sex symbol in the chess world. In a recent interview she spoke frankly about sex and chess, and also posed for the cover of a Russian rag magazine. We bring you the interview and pictures...

Morozevich clinches Biel with a 2863 performance

8/2/2004 – Alexander Morozevich won the Biel Chess Festival with some dazzling chess and a 2863 performance. India's Sasikiran also played with imagination and enterprise. We bring you games and results from the men's and women's groups in this pictorial report by Thomas Pähtz.

Dortmund Final 1: Battle Royal!

8/1/2004 – Vishy Anand was closing in for the kill but Vlady Kramnik had been saving his best for last. The first game of the final was drawn after a sensational defense by Kramnik. The only win of the day was scored by Naiditsch, his fourth in a row. The event concludes Sunday. Report, photos, and analysis

Capablanca vs Marshall reassessed

8/1/2004 – In the second part of his lecture on the Marshall Gambit (or the Ruy Lopez) our Playchess trainer GM Boris Alterman looks at a historical game between Capablanca and Marshall. It has been debated for 50 years, with changing assessments. Boris will present some remarkable discoveries he made during his work on tonight's lecture on Playchess.com.

Dortmund concludes: Vishy Anand Victorious

8/1/2004 – Anand picked up his first Dortmund trophy by crushing Vladimir Kramnik's Sicilian in their second rapid tiebreak game. It was a draw-filled tournament but in the end it found a deserving winner and the four top seeds on top. Svidler downed Leko in rapids to take third place. Naiditsch and Bologan won their consolation matches. Games and report.

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.