WCh Sochi: personalities, players and seconds

11/8/2014 – Yesterday we reported on the official FIDE press conference and the opening ceremony for the 2014 World Chess Championship. In a second installment we introduce some of the personalities that were present and, as a special treat, tell you about the seconds of both teams, something that was revealed for the first time on Friday. Also once again our team of expert commentators on Playchess.

World Championship Sochi: who will win?

11/8/2014 – It's not just the bookmakers, it's top players, chess journalists and even high-calibre statisticians who have been trying to predict the outcome of the match starting today. Most predict a closer fight than in Chennai, but see Magnus Carlsen in the lead, with a renowned sports prediction site putting his chances at 80-95%. As so often it is Kasparov who delivers the punch line. Look for it.

Sochi Opening: Anand draws white for game one

11/8/2014 – The press conference and opening ceremony took place, officially opening the match. It started with a press conference with some fun and some tough questions for organizers and players, while Karpov presented two special chess sets as a personal prize to the winner. The opening ceremony set the stage for the drawing of colors as the players pulled balloons from a magician's box.

A remarkable event: the London Chess Classic

11/7/2014 – The World Championship match between Anand and Carlsen lasts from 7 to 28 November. Right after that chess fans are in for another treat: the 6th London Chess Classic, a "ten-round Super Rapidplay Open", and the Super Six tournament, in which six of the world's best player will meet in classical chess. And maybe the World Champion will take part.

Sometimes sweet: revenge matches

11/7/2014 – Twelve revenge matches were played in the history of the World Championships, the challengers winning no less than five times. The master of this format was Mikhail Botvinnik. Sagar Shah looks back on Tal vs Botvinnik, 1960 and 1961 to switch to Carlsen vs Anand, 2013 and 2014. The Indian IM also offers predictions by masters on the coming match.

A machine that composes chess problems

11/7/2014 – Chess problems are an art – positions and solutions, pleasing to the mind and satisfying high aesthetic standards. Only humans can compose real chess problems; computers will never understand true beauty. Really? Dr Azlan Iqbal, an expert on automatic aesthetic evaluation, imbued his software with enough creativity to generate problems indefinitely. The results are quite startling.

Blockade runner

11/7/2014 – Tactics can seem deceptively simple, particularly when seeing an engine analysing grandmaster games. Strange, however, how difficult it is to find the right move and to calculate variations properly when playing yourself. It is easier if you solve tactical puzzles regularly. In the ChessBase Magazine and his tactics column Oliver Reeh helps you to do so.

Anand: I approach Sochi with positive feelings

11/6/2014 – "I am in general happy with my chess performance this year," says former World Champion Vishy Anand, who has gone through a couple of subpar years. But his convincing victory in the Candidates in Khanty Mansiysk and Bilbao earlier this year has given him an optimistic outlook on the upcoming World Championship, that starts in a few days. Interview.

Tashir 03: Grischuk does it again!

11/6/2014 – The man is simply on a roll! He is now being compared with Caruana; the Italian's legendary seven victories in a row in one tournament cannot be overcome in Tashir (after all, the tournament is only seven rounds long) but Grischuk is on his sixth victory in a row if one includes his last three games in Baku. We bring you annotations of Grischuk's hattrick.

Anand vs. Carlsen: After the first match - Part II

11/6/2014 – Do you know how Vishy Anand and Magnus Carlsen scored in the five games they played against each other after their first match for the World Championship in 2013? In the second part of his review of the year between the two World title matches Sagar Shah answers this and other questions, providing a good prelude to the second duel between Anand and Carlsen.

Tashir 02: Grischuk over 2800, Kramnik brilliant

11/5/2014 – Two decisive results in the Tashir tournament: Kramnik destroyed Inarkiev, as the lowest rated player of the event had to repeat Black and again had problems from the get-go. A brilliant rook sacrifice destroyed Black's position. Grischuk played a fantastic game against Gelfand. An important result as Grischuk now leads with 2.0/2, becoming the eighth player in history to cross 2800.

The New York Times and Chess

11/5/2014 – In 1972 America went chess crazy. Bobby Fischer played the Match of the Century against Boris Spassky and chess was everywhere. The New York Times hired grandmaster Robert Byrne to run the chess column. In his first submission Byrne wrote about a "brilliant win" of Huffington Post columnist Lubomir Kavalek at the Skopje Olympiad, which Kavalek has deeply analysed.

Tashir 01: Grischuk cleans up

11/5/2014 – Making it look very easy, Grischuk was able to dispatch Inarkiev by obtaining a strong position from the opening and nursing his advantage into a winning endgame. The other three games were draws where neither side had any particularly good winning chance, except perhaps Leko who obtained a slight edge against Morozevich's 2...a6 Sicilian. Annotated games and report of round one.

BBC's Across the Board: Demis Hassabis

11/4/2014 – Wikipedia describes Demis Hassabis as "a British artificial intelligence researcher, neuroscientist, computer game designer, and world-class games player." While accurate, this doesn't begin to do him justice. At 13 he was second in chess only to Judit Polgar, at age 17 he designed a hit video game. He now sold his company DeepMind to Google to work on Artificial Intelligence.

Anand vs. Carlsen: After the first match

11/4/2014 – In the first match between Vishy Anand and Magnus Carlsen for the World title Carlsen clearly won 6.5:3.5. But does that also make him the favorite in their second match that will begin 7. November? To find out more about the mindset of Anand and Carlsen before their second match Sagar Shah took a look at the year between the two matches.

Knight surprise

11/4/2014 – Endgames often appear simple and somewhat dull. After all, there are only a few pieces left and sacrifices and mating attacks seem only to occur in studies. However, that's no reason to go on autopilot. Endgames often are more difficult than one might believe on first sight. And endgame expert GM Karsten Müller knows that one should expect the unexpected.

Tashir Super-Tournament starts in hours

11/4/2014 – There is no rest in the chess world! Only a couple of days after the Tahskent Grand Prix finished there already is a super-tournament starting. The Category 21 TASHIR Tigran Petrosian memorial will start in Moscow and with only seven rounds it is a perfect segway for chess aficionados before the World Chess Championship. Preview and report on a lovely opening gala.

Remembering Adriaan de Groot

11/4/2014 – Adriaan de Groot never became a grandmaster but his influence on chess is enormous. In 1965 his book "Thought and Choice in Chess" appeared in English and showed how chessplayers think. It changed our views on chess, talent, learning and knowledge. On the occasion of de Groot's 100th birthday the Dutch institute Cito now paid a fitting tribute.

Tashkent Closing

11/4/2014 – Andreikin started off the Grand Prix series on the wrong foot, but his impressive result in Tashkent puts him now on the leaderboard. However, even this victory is not enough to place the Russian player in the sweet top two qualifying spots - those are currently being held by Caruana and Nakamura. We bring you the closing ceremony report and the new Grand Prix Standings.

Reliving the World Championship 2013 – Part two

11/3/2014 – Just four more days to the World Championship in Sochi, the second match between Magnus Carlsen and Viswanathan Anand. In our review of the previous encounter we got to round five, where Anand faltered badly after a promising start. Once again Sagar Shah provides us with a wealth of analysis in his report on how last November Magnus Carlsen became the 16th world champion.

Magnus Carlsen: World Champion, Model, Actor?

11/3/2014 – Magnus Carlsen made a very successful career as a chessplayer, created headlines as a model, and now there are rumors that he might appear in Christopher Nolan's new movie "Interstellar", alongside Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway and Michael Caine. For Enzo Catalano it is the "most awaited movie of the year" and he speculates about Carlsen's role in it.

Reliving the World Championship 2013 – Part one

11/2/2014 – Just five more days and then it's here: the World Championship "return" match between Magnus Carlsen and Viswanathan Anand, in Sochi, Russia. To get you into the mood for what's coming Sagar Shah looks back at the 2013 encounter and analyses what went wrong in Chennai for Anand. His two-part review includes some incredibly deep analysis of the games.

Tashkent 11: Andreikin Wins

11/2/2014 – All the Russian grandmaster needed was a quick draw with Anish Giri in the final round to seal the deal. None of his suitors managed to win their games and Andreikin crowns hi mself the champion of the second leg of the 2014-15 FIDE Grand Prix. Nakamura and Mamedyarov tied for second, while in today's games Karjakin and Caruana won against Kasimdzhanov and Jakovenko. Report, games, analyses.

Tashkent 10: More peace

11/1/2014 – For the second time in the Tashkent Grand Prix, all six games have been drawn. This means that going into the last round of the tournament Andreikin keeps his lead of half a point over Nakamura and Mamedyarov, while MVL and Jobava are only another half a point away. Caruana and Jobava seem like the survivors today, as both Karjakin and Giri had good winning chances.