12/1/2002 – See what happens when you work hard and become really good at chess. A Swiss watch manufacturer comes along and sponsors your chess career, gives you some really cool watches and nominates you Ambassadrice to promote their products around the world. Well, it happened to Alexandra Kosteniuk, who has has just signed a sponsoring contract with the Swiss watch manufacturers Balmain. More

11/30/2002 – You have a tournament with the current world champion and a legendary ex world champion. And other world-class players like Shirov, Polgar and Psachis. And who, pray, would be leading after eight rounds? A 12-year-old boy, that's who. Some day Sergey Karjakin intends to become world champion himself. In four years from now, when he his sixteen. You will find an interview with young Sergey plus results and games from the Benidorm tournament here.

11/29/2002 – Remember our report on the Austrian lady who missed a chance to become a millionaire by not knowing the name of the program that played against Vladimir Kramnik in Bahrain? Well, a couple of weeks later the story repeated itself on German television, with a candidate once again facing the same incredibly difficult (and strangly sleasy) question. This is how she fared...

11/29/2002 – You may not have heard, but there is an interesting new tournament taking place in Benidorm, Spain. It is based on the principle of the New York Open. The idea is to get amateurs and top stars playing together, in the same venue, with very high prizes. More

11/28/2002 – Ten days ago we published thhe details of a new world championship format, as has been decided by FIDE for the current and next two cycles. Now Alexei Shirov has criticized the proposal in an open letter to his GM colleagues. "I think the last time when so many players got direct seeds from one cycle to another was in 1985 which is nearly the same as medieval ages." You will find Shirov's letter here.

11/24/2002 – It is hard to contain our delight. Germany's Elisabeth Pähtz, who had shown great form at at the Chess Olympiad in Bled and then played a exhibition match against Garry Kasparov at the Munich Electronica trade fair, has just won the girls' under 18 section of the World Youth Chess Championships in Heraklio, Crete. you will find a lot of pictures of our 17-year-old star here.

11/23/2002 – The small Caribbean island of Curaçao hosted the 1962 Candidates, a quadruple round robin with eight of the world's best players. Four have sadly passed on, three have retired from competitive play. But one, Viktor Kortschnoj, is still one of the world's top players, and certainly one of the most active! He is playing in this year's commemorative event in Curaçao. Here is an illustrated report by John Fernandez.

11/18/2002 – The Prague unity agreement has been signed and approved by all parties. Now comes the tough part – working out the details. American GM Yasser Seirawan, who has become the shuttle diplomat of chess, has worked out the new format for a united World Championship, including the next two cycles. Garry Kasparov helped us to understand it. Here are all the details of the new world championship format.

11/17/2002 – How often have you been a piece up against Garry Kasparov? How often in two separate games? Well, 17-year-old Elisabeth Pähtz did, and had the world's strongest player fighting for survival in two games. in the end, however, Germany's rising chess star succumbed to the five hundred point Elo difference. You will find our illustrated report here.

11/15/2002 – It was scheduled for December 1st, now the FIDE Man vs Machine event, featuring Garry Kasparov vs Deep Junior, has been moved to January 5th 2003. One of the reasons: a giant media company is expected to take over the coverage. The second: the main sponsor, Kirsan Ilyumzhinov has other pressing duties. On the 1st of December he has to accompany Russian president Vladimir Putin on a trip to China. More

11/15/2002 – Who was the hero of the 35th Chess Olympiad in Bled, Slovenia? One hot candidate is 16-year-old Tatjana Kosintseva, who scored a fantastic 11 out of 12 for the Russian women's team. Our correspondent Anna Dergatscheva predicts that this could be a future world champion. Anna has provided us a set of final pictures of chess players at work and at play.

11/13/2002 – From 11th November until 15th December 2003, the Fritz Server will be celebrating the "Iceland Weeks" together with one of Iceland’s chess clubs, SK Gardabaer. During this period the server will offer many attractive tournaments which are open to everyone, but especially to players from Iceland and to youngsters. Look here for a detailed schedule of all events. More...