Ruslan Ponomariov's Open Letter to the ACP

4/7/2004 – "I am not trying to hold on to my title whatever it takes," writes the still-reigning FIDE champion, "but I can’t put up with the absolute dictatorship of FIDE. I am ready to defend my title on the conditions that were clearly set at the time I won it." He also attacks Garry Kasparov for the "exclusive privileges" he has received. Here's the letter and relevant links...

The dawn of a new era

4/6/2004 – Sunday Telegraph columnist Nigel Short was enchanted. "For the first time people could watch the European Women's Championship on TV, with the charming participants themselves presenting their strategic masterpieces – often in delightfully Russian-accented English." Nigel calls this development 'a new era in chess.'

FIDE ratings – Anand in place two

4/5/2004 – It's been a while, but Indian superstar Vishy Anand has regained place two in the world rankings. Anand gained eight points and Kramnik lost 13 to switch places. Perennial Garry Kasparov lost 14 points but still remains at the top, 43 points ahead of Anand. Here's a list of the top 100.

CheckMating – the chess dating game

4/5/2004 – The subject of the little (6 min 33 sec) movie is tantalising: a woman tests her dates over games of chess, with each contest taking on the mood of the relationship. She's in full control, knowing exactly what she wants in a man – until she finds it. More...

The 2004 European Women's Chess Champion

4/4/2004 – She narrowly missed the Women's World Championship in December 2001. Then she embarked on a career in beauty, glamour and movie making, appearing in countless magazines and TV shows as an "ambassadrice" for chess. Just when people were counting her out Alexandra Kosteniuk returns with a thumping victory in Dresden. We bring you games, results and pictures.

Kimo unmasked – a misleading approach to chess

4/4/2004 – It turns out that our April 1st review of a knowledge-based chess program from Russia, while not directly false, seems to have been written in a way that could create false impressions. Apparently some prankster had once again engaged in the pagan ritual of deceiving our readers on a certain day of the year. Here is the truth, which we hope you can handle.

The Minister and the chess champion

4/3/2004 – During his five-day stay in Dresden Garry Kasparov had an important meeting. It was with a number of FIDE vice-presidents, the Lord Major of Dresden and the German Minister of the Interior. The reason for this illustrious get-together: Dresden is bidding for the 2008 Chess Olympiad. Here's a pictorial report.

Peng and Kosteniuk in the lead

4/2/2004 – One round before the end of the European Women's Chess Championship in Dresden Russian vice champion of the world Alexandra Kosteniuk has caught up with leader Peng Zhaoqin, with a bunch of other girls in hot pursuit. We bring you games, results, standings and a spectacular picture gallery.

Kramnik and Morozevich win Amber

4/2/2004 – The 13th Amber Blindfold and Rapid tournament in Monaco ended yesterday with an overall victory for the two Russian players. Anand, who won the Rapid section, trailed by a point. We bring you all the games and plenty of pictures in our wrap-up report.

Kimo – an 'intelligent' approach to chess

4/1/2004 – Traditional chess programs blindly search millions of positions to find good moves. A new chess program due for release this month breaks with the tradition. It works with chess knowledge derived from 20,000 master games. Tests with a beta version show that in spite of some glaring defects Kimo is able to hold its own against the world's strongest programs. Details...

Creating user Keyes in ChessBase 8.0

4/1/2004 – Do you do a lot of the same searches repeatedly on the same database and wish you didn't have to manually enter the same search criteria over and over? If so, there's an easy way to save yourself a lot of work: create your own user keys to index your database. We show you how to do it in this week's ChessBase Workshop.

The blind leading the tournament

3/31/2004 – There are two rounds left in the Monaco Amber blindfold and rapid tournament and Alexander Morozevich is playing like a man possessed. He has won six games in a row and is tied for the overall lead with Vladimir Kramnik. Will it be a Russian sweep or can Peter Leko and Vasily Ivanchuk make a move? Results, games, and some great photos.

The Damsels of Dresden revisited

3/29/2004 – The European Women's Chess Championship is entering its final stage. The games, results, standings, are up on the official web site, Playchess.com is bringing you daily TV coverage. Today we bring you another picture gallery of the participants, with, we solemnly promise, a lot more to come. Here they are...

Searching for tactics

3/29/2004 – While comprehensive "fuzzy" database searches for tactics are outside the capabilities of digital computers, you certainly can use ChessBase 8 to find plenty of tactical positions -- all you need are a little imagination and some know-how. You'll find some ideas and examples in this week's installment of ChessBase Workshop.

Kasparov mobbed in Dresden

3/27/2004 – At first he couldn't understand what was going on: two thousand people crowding the posh "Altmarkt Gallerie" in Dresden. But it was true, they were all there for the book signing. With volume two of his "Great Predecessors" fresh out for the printers chess fans had snapped every copy in the eastern Germany city. Here's a pictorial report

Anand and Kramnik lead in Monaco

3/26/2004 – The top two seeds have risen to the top of a very tight field in the Amber Blindfold and Rapid tournament. Only 1.5 points separate nine players. Kramnik is the only undefeated player in the field and shares the overall lead with Anand. They also lead the rapid while Morozevich and Svidler are on top of the blindfold. Pics and games.

Kasparov revisits Pillsbury-Lasker

3/26/2004 – At the St Petersburg Tournament of 1895 world champion Emanuel Lasker beat the American Harry Nelson Pillsbury in a very complex game. This game was discussed in Garry Kasparov's very successful book "My Great Predecessors". Now the author provides additional analysis and corrections provided by readers. More...

Gold Award for Fritz & Chesster

3/25/2004 – Our children's CD-ROM title has won the 2004 Parents' Choice Gold Award. The reviewers found Learn to Play Chess with Fritz & Chesster "wonderfully unexpected, charming, simply animated, and cleverly designed." It is number 35 on Amazon's top selling software list and has received almost exclusively five-star reviews.

Watch the girls play on ChessBase TV

3/25/2004 – One day all chess tournaments will be covered this way: after the games the most successful players come to a special multimedia booth, talk to a charming anchor and show the game they have just played. All in high-resolution audio and video. Well, the future is already here, at the European Women's Championship in Dresden, live on ChessBase TV.

Analysis for the rest of us

3/24/2004 – As much as we all love to watch Grandmasters strut their stuff, the truth is their games are far over the heads of most fans. With plenty of annotations we might grasp what was going on, but it's not usually applicable to improving the play of players of amateur level. How about annotating the games of us patzers? In this article we have a little of both. GM versus amateur!

Who will be king of the blind in Monaco?

3/23/2004 – For whom will number thirteen be lucky? It's the 13th edition of the Amber Blindfold and Rapid Tournament in Monaco. Yet again the Association Max Euwe and sponsor JJ van Oosterom have brought together a majority of the world's top players for a remarkable spectacle. Bareev (photo) and Kramnik are the early leaders. Report, photos, and games.

Picture Gallery – the Damsels of Dresden

3/23/2004 – The European Women's Chess Championship in Dresden, Germany is under way. After two rounds the favourites are already having a rough time, with a 14-year-talent disposing of the number four seed. We bring you all the links to live coverage, games, results and standings. And a second extensive picture report of the girls in Dresden.

Portrait of a dog

3/23/2004 – The 13th Amber Blindfold and Rapid Tournament had an unorthodox method for the drawing of lots. All participants had to make felt pen drawings of the two black Labradors belonging to the sponsor's family. Vassily Ivanchuk's ultra-modern rendering only brought him an honorable penultimate place. We bring you a photo-realistic pictorial report from Monaco.

Kasparov triumphant in Reykjavik Rapid

3/22/2004 – Had Nigel Short converted his advantage in the first game it would have gone down as one of the more spectacular of Kasparov's few losses. Instead it turned into another bitter pill for the Englishman to swallow. Kasparov turned the tables and won, then drew the second to take the match and the title. Report and games.