12/26/2001 – Good news: just a few more days and the baffling "deutschmark", liras and draculas will disappear. The whole of Europe is uniformly introducing the dollar as the common currency – but in order to preserve our self-dignity we call it the "Euro". This means that the Americans can at last buy our products without mathematical jugglings. You find out all about it here...

12/23/2001 – The world's number 16 player was the attraction of the Online World Chess Event 2002. Unfortunately the event was cancalled after it had been dutifully announced in the world press. In an insightful discussion Judit Polgar talks about cheating in Internet tournaments. "It’s actually the mediocre grandmaster that has the biggest chance to get away with some cheating since it would not look that funny if he qualifies for the live event." more

12/19/2001 – Originally Vladimir Kramnik had signed up to play in the traditional Wijk aan Zee tournament in January. But now he has cancelled, specifying his need to prepare for his match against Fritz in Bahrain, scheduled for early February. His place is taken by his second Evgeny Bareev. The other big disappointment for Wijk: Vassily Ivanchuk and Ruslan Ponomariov have cancelled too, due to another match scheduled in Moscow. You will find a list of participants who have not cancelled more

12/19/2001 – Steve Lopez, writer, Blues singer, self-confessed chess freak, is one of our longest-standing contributors. He is a leading expert on ChessBase software, having run the USA hotline for our company for many years. If you do not regularly click his "T-Notes" link on the left of this page you will discover that you have been missing some extremely useful tutorial material. Read more about Steve here...

12/16/2001 – Well not exactly. But when you install our new high-resolution map data files a visit to the Fritz 7 Playchess server becomes a breath-taking experience. With rivers, lakes and populated areas you get a much better idea of where you opponent is. We have some typical pictures and information on how you can get the world map upgrade here

12/10/2001 – Well just read the labels! Everyone on the ChessBase staff must wear a uniform with his or her job clearly noted on the back. This makes it easier to allocate tasks and call for assistance. For instance someone might yell "Hardware!" or "Chess Engineer!" and the appropriate person will come running. More details can be found here...

12/9/2001 – When Fritz7 was released everyone was impressed – including our most competent beta tester, Vladimir Kramnik (as reported on October 17 below). But some thought maybe Fritz7 was not so good at blitz. Well, a young Canadian lady named Sarah Bird, who is a dedicated computer chess fan, decided to find out. She played literally thousands of games with top-class programs. You will find her results more

12/7/2001 – Can you win with a queen vs a rook? Don't be so sure – even the best players on the planet can run into problems when confronted with this endgame. Especially in rapid chess playoff games, during a world championship, with tens of thousands of dollars at stake. We hope he will forgive us for using this painful experience to demonstrate the cold perfection computers in such endgames. At least he did manage to win the playoff in the end. Take a look at the game here...

12/6/2001 – Kilkenny may be Ireland's smallest city, but it has a lot going for it apart from the free-flowing craic – not to mention the equally free-flowing Guinness! Last weekend over 200 players made the pilgrimage to the latest edition of the tournament, which was held in the magnificent surroundings of Kilkenny Castle. John Henderson was there to watch Rogers and McShane win it. You can read his illustrated report for the Scotsman more

12/3/2001 – He has just turned 18, hails from the Ukraine and became a grandmaster at the age of 14 years, 0 months, 17 days. Today Ruslan Ponomariov is equipped with 2684 Elo points and has won all of his last five games in the FIDE world championship. No glamour gallery, though. In the other games Ivanchuk and Bareev won, all other men drew. In the women's section Peng Zhaoqin beat Maia Chiburdanidze. There will be no games tomorrow. You can replay or download all today's games here...

12/2/2001 – She was born in the Russian city of Perm on April 23, 1984, became a WGM in 1998 and an men's IM in 2000. Alexandra Kosteniuk also writes poems and likes all kinds of sports. She's also into glamour photography. At the FIDE world championship she has gone through the women's section like a knife through butter, conceding only a single draw so far. You will find a report on this remarkable young lady here...

11/20/2001 – Well obviously Anand. But what are the precise chances of Vishy pulling it off in Moscow? The Kasparov Chess statistics guru Jeff Sonas has worked it all out: Vishy's winning chances are more than twice those of any other single player. But: with so many rounds of two-game matches, the chances are only 23%. That's more than twice as high as for any other player in the field. But: there is a 24% chance that a player seeded #13 or worse will take the title instead. Check out the details in Jeff's article...