Chess Down Under

10/15/2014 – There are many reasons to visit Australia: sunny weather, rich wildlife, incredible beaches, vibrant cities to name just a few. In January there is one more: Chess. From 2-11 January 2015 the Australian Open Chess Championships take place in Sydney. In short: a strong tournament with an impressive prize pool in a fascinating city in an attractive country. Give it a go!

Wesley So Wins the Millionaire Chess Open

10/15/2014 – The event in Las Vegas, the brainchild of GM Maurice Ashley, promised $1 million in prize money, spread over six different sections. The starting fee was $1,000 and nearly 600 players signed up. Philippine GM Wesley So, 21, took the first prize of $100,000, the largest in the history of open tournaments. GM Lubomir Kavalek annotates a wonderful game by the second-placed Ray Robson.

Playing chess with GZA

10/14/2014 – The hip-hop artist GZA, who belongs to the Wu-Tang Clan, one of the greatest rap groups ever, breaks many of the prejudices often associated with the genre. He is passionate about science, and is a sponsor of the school program Science Genius, and loves to play chess. VICE published an article in which the artist was challenged to a game with Zach Schwarz.

World Junior Rd6 and Rd7: Cori leads in Pune

10/14/2014 – It has been quite brutal, for many of the top players. But after seven rounds of intense battles the leader was Jorge Cori (2612) of Peru with a score of 6.0/7. In the girls section, no one really is able to run away from the field. As a result we have five leaders with 5.5/7. We show you some highlights from these two round in another big pictorial report by Sagar Shah.

Gelfand and Caruana share first in Baku

10/14/2014 – The final round of the Baku Grand Prix was quite appropriate all things considered. Five of the six games drew, and this was closer to par for the event than the nervy couple of rounds towards the end, while Fabiano Caruana and Boris Gelfand, both of whom headlined the event throughout shared first. The only win was Grischuk's victory over a luckless Dominguez. Last round report.

Hammer's Hammerblow

10/14/2014 – What is better, bishop or knight? Some people prefer bishops, but that is no consolation if they run into a knight fork. Maybe it's best not to have favorites but to use both pieces to your advantage. Endgame expert and enthusiast Karsten Müller has a nice example. Today, 16:00 server-time, playchess.com offers more of Müller's Endgame Magic.

Millionaire Chess: The fortunate four

10/13/2014 – The Millionaire Chess Tournament entered the decisive phase in round seven, determining who the lucky four to play for the biggest bucks would be. The tournament does more than offer record prizes and a revival of the rich section rewards of yesteryear's mega opens, it also innovates in the structure in order to maximize the excitement for spectators around the world.

Baku 10: Caruana and Gelfand retake lead

10/13/2014 – Once more four out of six games ended in decisive results, but the highlights were the wins scored by Fabiano Caruana and Boris Gelfand respectively, after both had suffered losses in the previous round. It is a credit to their fighting spirit and resilience that they bounced back when it matters the most and it all comes down to the wire for the last round. Report and analysis.

Isenegger Memorial Study Tourney (2)

10/13/2014 – The Swiss study composer Samuel Isenegger specialized in the David vs. Goliath theme, in which pawns fight pieces. To commemorate his anniversary the Dutch-Flamish endgame study society ARVES staged a tourney with this motif. In the first part of his report composition judge Yochanan Afek showed us the winning entires, today we get to enjoy further award-winning studies.

Baku 09: Leaders fall; six lead

10/12/2014 – For those hoping for tale of a crushing tournament victory, that dream was effectively erased when the leaders lost today, culminating in a massive six-way tie for first at 5.0/9. Fabiano Caruana lost his second game, this time to Grischuk, while Nakamura, Mamedyarov and Andreikin all racked up wins of their own. The final two rounds promise tension and drama. Round nine summary.

Things heat up in Vegas

10/12/2014 – After six rounds six players lead the Millionaire Chess Open with 5.0/6, nine more follow half a point behind, the four best after seven rounds will qualify for the knock-out, one will win 100.000 USD. The seventh round begins Sunday, 11 am Vegas time. Play-offs will follow right after the round, either rapid or blitz. Sounds like fun and excitement.

Judit Polgar sets Guinness record

10/12/2014 – "The longest time a female player has been consecutively ranked chess world number one is 25 years and 1 month and was achieved by Judit Polgar". That's what the official certificate of the Guinness organisation reads. Thousands of chess lovers filled the Budapest Palace of Arts completely, to honor their queen at the Aquaprofit Polgar Chess Festival 2014. Big pictorial report + video.

World Junior R04+05: Many leaders, close games

10/11/2014 – A tournament like World Juniors is more about endurance than anything else. With 13 rounds in both Open and Girls event it makes perfect sense to pace yourself for this long event rather than going all out at the start and running out of steam towards the end. After five rounds there were three leaders in the Open section, ten with the Girls. Big pictorial report by Sagar Shah.

Impressions from the Millionaire Chess Open

10/11/2014 – Playing chess in style and for huge prizes - that was the idea of Maurice Ashley and Amy Lee when organizing the Millionaire Chess tournament in Las Vegas, the open with the biggest prize-fund in chess history: one million USD. Dress code, the money you can win, and the town of Las Vegas help to make this tournament unique. Sabrina Chevannes caught impressions.

Baku 08: Svidler saves the day

10/10/2014 – Let's face it: we were spoiled terribly with the recent Sinquefield Cup and its high percentage of decisive results. Perhaps the most important lesson was that chess needn't be a drawfest at the highest echelons, with the only exceptions coming at the cost of embarrassing blunders. The only player to stand out today was Peter Svidler with his win over Dominguez. Round eight report.

Viva Las Vegas!

10/10/2014 – Maurice Ashley and Amy Lee want more people to enjoy chess and benefit from it. Thus they organised an open tournament boasting of a record prize-fund of one million USD. More than 500 players paid a fee of 1.000 USD to take part. They play seven rounds Swiss, the first four qualify for a knock-out - and if you win that you will win 100.000 USD.

Baku 07: He is human!

10/10/2014 – Despite what his recent success seems to indicate, Fabiano Caruana is capable of losing a game! He had a particularly bad day and his executioner was Dmitry Andreikin. His technique was not immaculate, but by the 40th move he had netted a pawn and converted it confidently. Gelfand drew and catches the Italian, while Karjakin beat Nakamura thanks to the American's dubious opening.

Three leaders at Isle of Man tournament

10/10/2014 – 76 players from all parts of the world take part in the PokerStars Isle of Man tournament. After six rounds all of them lost some of their chips. However, with 5.0/6 French GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, GM Gabriel Sargissian from Armenia and GM Gawain Jones from England suffered the least losses and lead the field. Six players follow with 4.5/6 each.

Route planner

10/10/2014 – "Chess is easy, just put the pieces on the right squares", smart people sometimes say. Maybe too smart a remark. After all, how do you know which piece is right on which square? Not everyone is born with a chessboard route planner. But practice helps. And Oliver Reeh helps you to practice. This week he asks you to put the knight on the right square.

World Junior R02+03: the tournament builds up

10/9/2014 – In the first round there were, naturually, mostly lopsided Swiss pairings, but things started to get more interesting in the next two rounds. Currently five players are leading with perfect 3.0/3 scores in the Open section, and one in the Girls. And of course there are multi talents in Pune, India, like Erik Ronka, who sports a rating of 2183 and plays a mean Presto agitato.

Chess art at the Swiss Championship

10/8/2014 – In the recently held Swiss Championship, a wide variety of activities, events, and exhibits were held in honor of the Swiss Chess Federation's 125h anniversary, a milestone in organized chess. One of these was an art exhibit related to chess, with original chess sets of all kinds as well as numerous humorous drawings and paintings. Peruse this fun pictorial.

Rapport vs Laznicka: A thrilling match

10/8/2014 – Unorthodox chess, opening experiments, fighting spirit, a surprising comeback, and some blitz: the six game match between Richard Rapport from Hungary and Viktor Laznicka from the Czech Republic was entertaining and exciting to the last minute. After trailing 1-3 Laznicka won the last two regular games of the match but then lost the blitz tie-break.

Baku 06: Caruana 2851 live!

10/8/2014 – The Italian wrecking ball keeps accumulating victories! Today he outplayed Svidler in an immensely complicated position stemming from the Grunfeld. With this victory Caruana leads the tournament by half a point and reaches a new record in his live rating: 2851, only twelve points away from Carlsen. Kasimdzhanov and Radjabov also won, capitalizing on their opponents' mistakes.

PokerStars Isle of Man combines chess and poker

10/7/2014 – The PokerStars Isle of Man Tournament kicked off at the Villa Marina on Douglas’ seafront with players from seventeen countries participating in the myriad tournaments. By virtue of the sponsor, a number of activities involving original combinations of chess and poker are also there, with top players of both modalities. Here is a report with video, and pictures by Alina L'Ami.