Contractgate 2 – Ilyumzhinov-Paulson memorandum

1/31/2014 – About ten days ago a draft contract between Garry Kasparov and Ignatius Leong was leaked. It suggested that large sums of money were passing to Leong in return for votes in the FIDE presidential election. Kasparov replied to the accusations by publishing the full text of the final contract. Now a contract between FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov has surfaced and is causing similar furor.

Abhijit Kunte and Chess in Mumbai

1/30/2014 – A couple of weeks ago the Indian GM broke the national record in a sumultaneous exhibition. Especially noteworthy was that of the 155 opponents at least 30 were proper players with international ratings. Our reporter Sagar Shah described the event in the first part of his report, interviewed the grandmaster for the second. He reveals at least one secret of his preparation: Surya Namaskara.

Zurich 01: Carlsen, Aronian start strong

1/30/2014 – With impressive victories both Carlsen and Aronian have started showing strength and continuing their recent good form in Zurich 2014. Carlsen played a fantastic game against Gelfand who simply could not keep up with all the problems the Norwegian kept posing him. Aronian on pressured Anand until the Indian cracked and needlessly sacrificed a piece. Two games fully annotated!

Zurich: Blitz and Opening Ceremony

1/30/2014 – The players have already thrown around fireworks with an enthralling blitz tournament to open the festivities in Zurich. No one was safe as fighting chess prevailed with the unusual time control of 4 minutes with 2 seconds increment. Caruana and Gelfand beat Carlsen and Nakamura, but these two players recovered quickly and went on a rampage. Blitz analysis!

Gibraltar: Most GMs unscathed

1/29/2014 – The Masters section has been inaugurated in Gibraltar and in spectacular fashion. A lovely gala was held in the famous Saint Michael's cave. Round one went with almost no upsets, but things started to change in round two. A few of the grand masters were held to draws, though most won their games. Eljanov had a close call, however almost losing to Elizabeth Paehtz.

Zurich 2014 a few hours away

1/29/2014 – The strongest tournament in chess history - at a massive 2801 rating average - will begin in just a few hours. The festival will include a blitz, classical and rapid tournament. The first will be used to determine the colors and pairings, the two others to determine the winner of the event. Can this edition of Zurich top what some consider the best tournament ever held, the legendary Zurich 1953?

Denis Khismatullin wins Dvorkovich Memorial

1/28/2014 – On the seashore of Rostov Oblast in Russia, the industrial port-city of Taganrog located on the Sea of Azov held the “Vladimir Dvorkovich Memorial”, the first strong event of the year in Russia. This second edition included a rapid tournament alongside the nine-round swiss and attracted top GMs such as Morozevich and Korobov. Khismatullin won and is up 43 Elo. Illustrated report.

Remembering Vugar Gashimov

1/28/2014 – Azeri GM Vugar Gashimov was one of the leading chess players of his country, having played in four Chess Olympiads, winning gold for Azerbaijani European Team Chess Championship in 2009. On the night of January 10-11, at the age of just 27, he died of a recurrent, malignant brain tumor. His girlfriend, Elisabeth W, was with him to the end. She tells us what Vugar was like.

Deep Fritz 14 – Elo 3150 on your computer

1/28/2014 – Deep Fritz 14 has improved on its great predecessor by adding 100 Elo points to its playing strength. It also comes as a powerful multi-processor version. right from the word go. "It’s very easy to get up and running; it took ten minutes on my laptop and most of the features are easy to get to grips with," writes Sean Marsh in CHESS Magazine. Review.

Gibraltar Chess Congress 2014 starts!

1/28/2014 – The Association of Chess Professionals voted the 2013 Gibraltar Chess Congress as the best Open tournament of the year. The time has come for the 2014 edition to dazzle us! The festivities have begun with simultaneous exhibitions by Sachdev and Agdestein as well as the start of the Amateur section. However the Masters start tomorrow. Preview of a fantastic event.

Chess in TV commercials

1/27/2014 – Chess is commonly used in print advertising, most often linking its image of intelligence and class with the advertiser's product or service. However, it also has been used many times in TV commercials either directly or indirectly to promote anything from luxury cars, to cell phones, the military, soft drinks, or sports. Here is a list of TV commercials with chess.

Tata 11: Giri and Timman take silver

1/26/2014 – With the first place decided, the real question was who would take silver and bronze. It was a tense final round, and it showed. In the Masters group, Giri drew taking silver, while Karjakin survived a lost position against Dominguez for bronze. Aronian lost a won game against Van Wely in time trouble. In the Challengers, veteran Timman took silver ahead of Jobava. Final report.

Tata 10: Aronian and Saric win a round in advance

1/25/2014 – Demonstrating a fantastic return to form, Aronian gave Dominguez no chance as he beat him in an impressive game to win the Masters a round in advance. With 8.0/10, and a two point lead, he is untouchable, but he can still make history if he wins tomorrow. Second place is all but decided. Saric also won the Challengers a round in advance by beating Yu Yangyi. Report with GM commentary.

Contractgate? The Kasparov-Leong agreement

1/25/2014 – The story began last weekend, when a draft contract between Garry Kasparov, who is running for FIDE President, and his running mate Ignatius Leong were leaked. It was suggested that large sums of money were passing to Leong in return for votes in the presidential election. Now Kasparov has replied to the accusations in an unprecedented way: by publishing the full text of the final contract.

Carlsen mates Bill Gates in 79 – seconds!

1/25/2014 – Reuters reports that the world's best chess player took just nine moves to beat the world's second richest man. World Champion Magnus Carlsen got 30 seconds to Bill Gates's two minutes on the clock. Magnus baited the hook in a fashion one might expect at these time controls when taking the disparity in strength into account. Here is video and the moves of the game.

Tata 11 (Group B): Timman forgives!

1/24/2014 – Timman has been showing that his flame for chess is far from extinguished and he has been playing excellent chess in Tata Steel, Challenger's group. Today he had an opportunity to crown his performance by beating Jobava, but a blunder late in the game - move 74 - cost him a crucial half a point. Saric remains half a point ahead of the Georgian with only two rounds to spare.

Daniel King: New ideas in the Najdorf

1/24/2014 – According to Glenn Mitchell "Daniel King’s presentation doesn’t involve too much theory but instead remains focused like a laser beam on understanding the strategies involved for Black." He had watched Power Play 18 back in 2012 when it was released, and New Ideas in the Najdorf was a welcome refresher for many of the strategic themes covered in the earlier DVD. Review.

Tata 09: Aronian takes 1.5 point lead

1/23/2014 – What do you do when your nearest rivals close in on you? You beat them off with.... a b-pawn. That is what Levon Aronian did to Sergey Karjakin, and with no other managing to keep pace, he has opened a 1.5 point lead with two rounds to go. Other results were Harikrishna's win over Naiditsch, and So beating Van Wely in a King's Indian. Four players are tied with 5.5/9. Illustrated report.

Gupta wins Parsvnath GM Open in Delhi

1/23/2014 – The 12th edition of this giant event, with a total prize fund of Rs. 2.3 million ($37,000 or €27,000) plus laptop prizes, attracted 1396 players from 15 countries, including 22 GMs and 24 IMs, setting an Indian record for highest number of participants. The tournament was won by Indian GM Abhijeet Gupta, who had just returned from winning the Al Ain Classic the week before. Big illustrated report.

Carlsen @ Google

1/23/2014 – On January 16, while visiting California, Magnus Carlsen stopped over at the Google headquarters, where he gave a simul to ten lucky participants, and a chat with Art Levinson, CEO of Calico, a new Google company. Freeman Ng, one of the players, provided a report, with the generous contributions of other players and attendees, who sent their commented games and pictures.

Tata 10 (Group B): Close Race

1/22/2014 – The close race in the Challenger's group of Tata Steel intensifies as Jobava has regained the lead position, tied with Saric. Only half a point behind is the veteran Timman, and only half a point behind him is the rising star Muzychuk. Will Jobava keep playing his reckless chess, as he did today against Bok, to try to snatch the qualification spot to the Master's?

Baseline Chess, Hedgehog and Magnus Carlsen (2)

1/22/2014 – In tennis some players do their damage mostly from the baseline – as Carlsen did on the chessboard against Anand in Game 9 of their match. In several chess defenses the attack from the baseline also applies, for example in the Hedgehog, an opening developed by Ljubomir Ljubojevic in the 1970s but was first played by Fritz Sämisch in 1922. Huffington Post columnist GM Lubomir Kavalek explains.

Christmas Puzzles 2013 – solutions (1)

1/22/2014 – The prize contest is now closed, we have received your entries and will announce the winners after the Zürich Chess Challenge (where the prizes will be signed) at the beginning of February. The seven chess puzzles were selected by GM John Nunn, who now gives us the solutions to the first four, with extensive explanations that make them interesting even to readers who are not problem fans.

Tata 08: A special guest

1/21/2014 – Nick Schilder from Nick and Simon was today's guest of honor in Tata Steel. His inspiration to the players was clear as the Master's group saw an impressive five decisive games, including two crushing checkmate attacks while the Challenger's group also saw many wins and a change in the leaderboard. We bring you both attacks with full GM analysis and annotations.