Doesn't Anyone Want to Win Linares?

3/7/2003 – With three days to go the standings have remained unchanged for three consecutive rounds. The draw percentage in the tournament has now gone over two-thirds after three more piece treaties were signed today. Kramnik-Anand was the liveliest of the trio. Kramnik and Leko still lead with +2, Kasparov and Anand are right behind at +1. Who has a finishing kick? More..

Peace Now! At Least in Linares

3/6/2003 – We're out of draw jokes, but for the second round in a row all games finished without a winner. The organizers were checking their watches. Over so soon?! Leko was in a mess against Kasparov but solved the puzzle to draw. Radjabov abandoned the French and it almost paid off against Ponomariov. Vallejo-Kramnik gets the round's pollo award for lasting just 13 moves. More..

India's Sasikiran Wins Asian Championship in Doha

3/5/2003 – Fine, you say, but where is Doha? We're glad you asked. The capital city of Qatar hosted the Asian Championship from Feb.22 to Mar.2. India's Krishnan Sasikiran, by far the top seed at 2664, won clear first place and $12,000 with 7/9. Clear second went to Iranian GM Ghaem Maghami. The top ten finishers qualified for the next world championship cycle and both Vietnam and Yemen will be represented. All the games and results here.

Three Draws Before the Final Rest Day

3/3/2003 – After eight rounds of brutal brain to brain combat, all three games were drawn for only the second time. None of the draws were of the Grandmaster variety; they were all played out to simplification. With five rounds to play after Tuesday's rest day, Kramnik and Leko remain in the lead at +2 and Anand and Kasparov trail at +1. More...

The grudge round

3/2/2003 – Round eight of the 20th Linares tournament was the start of the second half of this very strong round robin. It was a grudge round with the two ex world champions playing against the reigning world champions who had taken away their titles. Both Garry Kasparov and Vishy Anand were eager to teach Vladimir Kramnik and Ruslan Ponomariov a lesson. More...

Leko Rejoins the Lead with Sweep of Radjabov

3/2/2003 – It was a deja vu round in Linares. Leko beat Radjabov again. Kasparov and Kramnik drew again. Anand lost a half-point in an endgame again! Radjabov's lines the French are looking very Maginot so far in Linares and he took another beating today. Vishy was in mop-up mode against Ponomariov when the mop slipped from his hand at the final moment. Full report and analysis here.

Pork chops at half price

3/2/2003 – The grand tournament in Linares began on the 21st of February, and we have been reporting faithfully on each round of this "Wimbledon tournament" of chess. Only one thing was really missing: pictures from the provincial capital of Andalusia. There was only a trickle coming out of Linares, so we decided to pack our cameras and embark on the journey to the south of Spain. We bring you our first Linares picture gallery here.

The Giants Awaken, Kramnik and Anand Take the Lead

3/1/2003 – After six rounds the heavyweights have taken their rightful places at the head of the crosstable. Vishy Anand defeated Peter Leko and Vlady Kramnik demolished Radjabov to claim his share of first place. Vallejo-Kasparov was a draw with a few twists. The stage is set for two big clashes tomorrow: Kasparov-Anand and Leko-Kramnik. Come watch live at Playchess.com! More..

Kasparov beats Anand, Kramnik Leads Alone

3/1/2003 – After yet another Linares endgame course, Garry Kasparov defeated Viswanathan Anand in round seven. The current verdict? Anand should have drawn the ending. Kramnik is in clear first at +2 after drawing in 25 moves against Leko in, finally, a Sveshnikov Sicilian. Ponomariov got his first win by beating Vallejo in yet another endgame. Kasparov-Kramnik in round eight! More..

'My next goal is to defeat everyone else'

2/27/2003 – He is one of the brightest young stars on the chess horizon. Teimour Radjabov hails from Baku (just like you-know-who) and at fifteen has scaled the very highest pinnacles of chess. In fact just a few days ago he scored an incredible black victory against Garry Kasparov. David Llada spoke to the chess prodigy in this exclusive interview.

Leko Takes the Lead, Kasparov Strikes Back

2/27/2003 – Hungary's Peter Leko broke his streak of epic draws with a positional crush of Vallejo. Kasparov got his first win with a kingside attack against Ponomariov, who gave up a pawn to get the queens off the board. The endgame offered no relief and Kasparov quickly pushed his king up the board to collect the full point in person. Radjabov-Anand was a 25-move draw. More..

Age difference between the players: 92 years!

2/26/2003 – 2,000 hot dogs and over 3,000 cans of soft drink. Those are the numbers served and consumed at the Chess Festival held at the Reykjavik Art Museum, which was as crowded as a shopping mall on Christmas Eve. There Julia Ros Hafsteinsdottir, 10, played a match agains Gudmundur Dadason, still pushing pawns at the age of 102! In the main tournament Alexei Shirov, 30, is in the lead.

Isn't life wonderful, Sanya?

2/26/2003 – It's almost a week sind the Aeroflott Open finished in Moscow – time to look back and take stock. The organisers were delighted and have decided to keep the "GM Super-Swiss" going, indefinitely. "Let's make it 300 GMs next year," they said (instead of the 150 this time). Read all about it in Eugeny Atarov's final report from Moscow, which is full of personal pictures of the players.

800 Wins at 32 Years Old!?

2/25/2003 – It's chess all right, but Japanese chess, or shogi. The popular sport has its own icon, Yoshiharu Habu, whose games are regularly on TV in Japan. On Sunday Habu became, at 32, the youngest player ever to reach 800 career victories, breaking the record by six months. Kasparov has yet to reach that number in competitive play. More..

Drawing Sickness Strikes Linares

2/25/2003 – The question of the day among the Playchess.com spectators: "Does Peter Leko get paid by the move?" Poor Peter! Having just escaped his reputation for too many short draws, now he is suffering because of long ones! His game again went the distance and he and Ponomariov were on stage long after Anand-Kramnik and Vallejo-Radjabov were also drawn. More..

Leko-Kasparov a Battle for the Ages, but a Draw

2/24/2003 – The kids took the day off and Kramnik couldn't make progress against Vallejo. It was left to Peter Leko and Garry Kasparov to provide the show, and they did that and more. Leko had a fine position until Kasparov pounced with a rook sacrifice. An incredibly difficult Queen and pawn endgame arose and it seems that Kasparov missed several winning attempts in the seven hour marathon. More..

Kasparov will win Linares!

2/24/2003 – A week ago we introduced you to the participants at the Linares supertournament and asked you to predict who would win. We got many hundreds of messages from almost every corner of the world. Most visitors believed that Garry Kasparov would completely dominate the opposition. We have put together extensive excerpts from the letters we received. More...

Anand and Leko Start Strong in Linares

2/23/2003 – Vishy Anand continued where he left off in Wijk aan Zee by beating Ruslan Ponomariov in the first round of the Linares supertournament. Peter Leko kept pace by outplaying youngster Teimour Radjabov in the endgame. Kramnik-Kasparov failed to live up to expectations and fizzled to an 18-move draw. Paco Vallejo had the bye. Report, results, online game replay, and more...

Klaus Bischoff, Germany's first Internet Champion

2/23/2003 – The first German Internet Championship was successfully completed on Saturday. It was not, as we stated, the first national Internet championship in the world – this was staged in Iceland seven years ago, as we were informed by Hannes Sigurgeirsson and Dadi Jonsson (wonder where they are from). In spite of this the event in Hamburg was a great success. Here are the games, results and an illustrated report.

Fritz wins Paderborn computer chess tournament

2/23/2003 – After suffering a setback in round five, when it lost to its sibling Shredder, Fritz cruised home to victory with five points from seven rounds. It was helped by Shredder's shock loss in its final game to the amateur program Yace. You will find the final results and all the games of the tournament here.

A Black Day in Linares! Radjabov Defeats Kasparov

2/23/2003 – Ah, they grow up so fast, so very fast. Teimour Radjabov became the youngest player ever to defeat the world's number one player in tournament play. He beat Kasparov with the black pieces in a wild tactical affair out of the French Defense. Kramnik joined Anand at the top of the standings by adding to Ponomariov's woes. Vallejo entered the action and held Anand to a draw. Full report.

Schredder beats Fritz at the IPCCC

2/22/2003 – Fritz was cruising along at the computer chess tournament in Paderborn. But then sibling Shredder produced a stumbling-block victory, the result of brilliant openings book preparation, with Fritz having essentially lost the game before Shredder had started to think. Now there are four programs in the lead. You will find an illustrated report and all the games here.

Chess – a matter of life and death

2/21/2003 – It wasn't Karpov, Kasparov or Deep Blue, but murderers, arsonists and other felons, all facing off against two inky-haired students, the top-rated players in Princeton University's chess club. The felons were all inmates at New Jersey State Prison, a maximum-security facility that houses the state's death row – and a thriving chess club of its own. Read about it in this NYT article.

Volcanic chess festival

2/21/2003 – It began as a joke by a bunch of chess loving friends in downtown Reykjavik, where Fischer faced Spassky thirty years ago. But it has blossomed into Iceland’s most successful chess event, a chess festival (18th – 27th February) that features Adams and Shirov – and the spectacularly beautiful landscape of this island in the Northern Atlantic.