6/1/2003 – Ivan Sokolov picked up the biggest check at the 2003 Bosnia tornament, leaving big names like Shirov and Bareev in the dust. Sokolov long ago left his native Bosnia for the Netherlands, although he continued to play for the Bosnian team until last year. In 2002 he played for the Dutch squad in the Olympiad but in 2003 he came back to Sarajevo to win clear first in the annual supertournament. Crosstable, games to replay online, and key positions with diagrams and notes here.

6/1/2003 – The 4th European Championship has started in Istanbul and lasts from May 30 until June 14. The men's section has 164 GMs, 31 IMs – and one 13-year-old girl (guess who!). The prize sum is $192,000, in the women's section $44,000. We bring you information, links and lots of pictures of the participants at work and at play.

5/31/2003 – Rev. Earl Smith, the chaplain at San Quentin State Prison, is ready to make his move with chess pieces crafted from matchbooks. He looks into the dark, fiery eyes of his opponent and tries to read his mind. Which is impossible because it is demented. Here's some possibly vital information for you on chess, psychology and serial killers.

5/31/2003 – The town is full of dignitaries, from politics and chess. On the day of the 300th anniversary of St Petersburg the famous Russian city played an Internet match against a team of the NAO Chess Club in Paris. Viktor Korchnoi played the only decive game to clinch the match for St Petersburg. More...

5/29/2003 – Grandmaster Ratmir Kholmov has chalked up victories against such players as Keres, Tal, Petrosian, Spassky or even Fischer and Kasparov. For polictical reasons he could only participate in a few tournaments abroad, so he is practically unknown in the West. In this week's lecture (Thursday, 21:00h on the Playchess.com server) GM Dorian Rogozenko seeks to change that. More...

5/29/2003 – One of the greatest talents in current-day women's chess is 13-year-old Kateryna Lahno from Kramatorsk (Ukraine). She completed her WGM norms at the tender age of 12 years, four months and two days, breaking Judit Polgar's celebrated record. Today she is 13 and sports an Elo rating of 2417. We bring you a portrait and pictures of this remarkable young lady.

5/28/2003 – Vikram Jayanti has completed an extraordinary feature-length documentary film on – yes, computer chess! Jayanti won an Oscar for his work on the 1996 film "When We Were Kings", covering a vaguely similar slugfest: the boxing bout in Zaire between Muhammad Ali and George Foreman. More...

5/28/2003 – This must be a bit alarming for Fritz. For the second time in a row Shredder has topped the SSDF (Chess Computer Association) ranking list, based on over 90,000 games played by 253 computers. Interestingly, the first program that is not published by ChessBase is ranked number 14. Blush.

5/27/2003 – Feel a little lost going over Grandmaster games? You might learn more from the mistakes of players near your level, and at least you can indulge your feelings of superiority. This annotated game looks at psychological mistakes in beginner games instead of lots of variations, even if Bobby Fischer famously said, "I don't believe in psychology, I believe in good moves." The game

5/26/2003 – The infamous Taliban had stricly forbidden the game, possibly simply to prevent intellectuals from getting together. Now members of Holland's oldest chess club have got together with the Dutch Embassy to revive chess activity in the capital. With great success. 300 players, male and female (!) have registered for the first tournament. Here are some remarkable pictures from Kabul.

5/26/2003 – The "Prague Unity Plan" for world chess requires that classical chess world champion Vladimir Kramnik play a match against challenger Peter Leko. The winner must play for the unified title against the winner of FIDE's Ponomariov-Kasparov match. The former now looks in danger of collapse, whereas the latter has just received firm confirmation. John Henderson reports.

5/26/2003 – The announcement this morning by the Einstein Group in London that it had been unable to secure sponsorship for the Kramnik-Leko match has sent tremours through the chess world. How does this affect the Prague Unity Plan, what alternatives are the organisers and players considering? We discussed the matter with a man who, as the manager of both Kramnik and Leko, is deeply affected. Here is our interview with Carsten Hensel.