Documentary: Magnus Carlsen's Last Big Title

11/4/2013 – The Norwegian television network, VG TV, just posted a lovely documentary called Magnus Carlsen's Last Big Title. It is a very nice work, with many fascinating images, footage, and testimonies by Magnus Carlsen and those close to him, as he closes in on the World Championship title. We bring you choice excerpts and moments.

Anand vs Carlsen: what their colleagues are saying

11/4/2013 – "It is hard to recall any other match in recent decades where the defending champion has begun with his back so firmly pressed to the wall," says Nigel Short, the 1993 World Championship Challenger. Fourteenth World Champion Vladimir Kramnik thinks Anand may be scared of Carlsen, while Indian GMs Krishnan Sasikiran and Koneru Humpy are more optimistic. Press reports on the match.

Joys of Chess – Mitrofanov's deflection follow-up

11/4/2013 – In a previous article earlier this week Christian Hesse showed us one of the most beautiful, profound, quiet moves in all of chess composition history. In conclusion he asked: "Has anything as fantastic as Mitrofanov’s deflection ever been successfully employed in over-the-board chess, at least in rudimentary fashion?" It has, as Prof. Hesse shows, in two tournament games. Enjoy.

Second Planetskool Soul Event – with dinosaurs

11/3/2013 – As we recently reported, Indian entrepreneur and chess player Suneet Mausil ran an event that brought kids with different backgrounds and privileges to cooperate in a simultaneous match against him. In a second follow-up event, staged amongst roaring dinosaurs in a theme park, Suneet introduced a new element: teach kid on the spot to play chess, and then let them cooperate in three-player groups. Again: inspirational and certainly worth emulating.

World Chess: New maps and statistics

11/3/2013 – Michael Paterek, a computer scientist and FIDE master from Poland, has sent as a few wonderful maps and graphs that certainly catch the eye. The information presented is based on our recent article of the World's biggest nation, but Michael takes it to a whole new level adding new information and even the possibility of exploring different country's highest rated player and their player at position 100 with interactive maps.

Etienne Bacrot victorious at Cap d'Agde

11/3/2013 – In many ways, the matchup in the finals was everything the audience wanted: a French player, Etienne Bacrot, fighting the legend and man in form, Anatoly Karpov. The players were greeted by whistles and cries of encouragement for the local hero, knowing that despite his Elo edge, he was facing one of the greatest players of all time. Read all about it in the illustrated report.

Blindfold against ten detainees

11/2/2013 – On Friday, Timur Gareev's quest to break a world record by playing 50 simultaneous games of chess took a detour into Cook County Jail's Division Six. The 25-year-old grandmaster faced the top ten finishers from the medium-security division's first-ever chess tournament. Chapeau! The No. 3-ranked chess player in America is doing a lot for chess in the media. Chicago Tribune report and video.

Karpov and Bacrot into Cap d'Agde finals

11/2/2013 – The semifinals of Cap d'Agde were as exciting as hoped for, and provided hours of entertainment. Ivanchuk may regret fighting so hard to avoid Karpov in the semifinals as he was beaten 2-0 by Etienne Bacrot, ending in an exciting KID. Muzychuk held Karpov to a draw in game one, but was beaten in a fascinating endgame in game two, ending her Cinderalla run. Illustrated report with games.

Csaba wins Casino Barcelona

11/1/2013 – Balog Csaba crowned himself as the winner of the 18th edition of Casino Barcelona as he finished the tournament with 2.5/3, allowing him a +2 score and enough to be half a point ahead of any competitor. A series of people followed at 4.0/7, Hansen, Edouard and Narciso. The short tournament was full of exciting and lively chess. Impressions and games.

Karpov, Bacrot, Ivanchuk and Muzychuk through

11/1/2013 – The Cap d'Agde qualifier finished with the expected win by Karpov, followed by Bacrot two points behind, but with only two spots left to be fought over by Ivanchuk, Pelletier, and Muzychuk, a tiebreaker was played. On paper, the two grandmasters were the overwhelming favorites, but the last female standing had other plans, and it literally went to a tiebreaker of tiebreakers.

Master class vol.1: Bobby Fischer

11/1/2013 – Master Class: Bobby Fischer is the first in an ambitious new DVD series designed to examine every facet of the play of chess giants. Each aspect such as the openings, the strategic style, and the endgame play, is analyzed in depth by a grandmaster, plus there are tons of interactive training videos and quizzes. See what the fuss is about in this review by Albert Silver.

November 2013 ratings – Nakamura in place four

11/1/2013 – Naturally Magnus Carlsen is firmly entrenched in place one, 69 points above anyone else. Hikaru Nakamura switched places with Alexander Grischuk and is now number four in the world. Boris Gelfand gained 12 points to rise to number seven – ahead of World Champion Viswanathan Anand, who is eighth. November 2013 FIDE ratings.

Wei Yi – youngest 2600+ GM ever

10/31/2013 – On the November 1st FIDE rankings Chinese GM Wei Yi will officially appear with 2604 rating points. The amazing thing about this is that Yi achieved his 2600+ rating (on October 1st) at the tender age of 14 years 4 months and 30 days. That is seven months less than the previous record of Filipino Grandmaster Wesley So from October. James Satrapa has tracked his progress.

Chess Portraits: Breathtaking Art

10/31/2013 – The talented Italian portrait photographer Francesco Ridolfi has embarked in a new adventure. His new series, called Chess Portraits, attempts to humanize the different pieces of the chess board and the result is an absolutely spectacle photo-shoot. The artist himself brings us his impressions and we bring you the images he worked so hard for and a video of the entire process.

Joys of Chess – the mother of all moves

10/30/2013 – "6.Qg5!!! What an idea!! A move not yet seen by humanity." These are the comments of Christian Hesse, Professor of Mathematics and an avid chess fan who has written many an article for our news page. In his book The Joys of Chess he continues: "A move from another world. A beautiful, profound, quiet move, a gentle and subtle nuance." Read about Mitrofanov's immortal deflection study.

Wish4Vishy: a billion fans for Anand

10/30/2013 – If wishes, cheers and prayers decided a chess match the Norwegian kid would be a snowflake in a very hot place. It's five million facing 1.3 billion – 260 times more. They are all being mobilised by Vishy Anand's longtime sponsor NIIT, whose MindChampions’ Academy has reached 1.65 million children in over 17,000 schools. The entire population is called upon to cheer for their champion. Press release.

How to set up your private Cloud Engine

10/30/2013 – You may have already read that a growing number of players access their chess engines running on powerful desktop computers from their laptops, from anywhere around the world. This might seem to be reserved for the computer experts, but not so. Anyone can do it easily with Deep Fritz 13 (or Houdini 3 Pro) and a Playchess account. Here is an easy step-by-step guide.

Karpov crushing Cap d'Agde

10/29/2013 – The traditional Cap d'Agde rapid tournament is underway, and for the second time is being hailed as the Anatoly Karpov Trophy, bringing not only the great champion to the player roster, but Ivanchuk, Bacrot, and a variety of players for fourteen rounds of action followed by a knockout phase. After eight rounds, the name of the event is Anatoly Karpov himself, as he crushes the field.

Kavalek in Huffington: Mighty Underdogs

10/29/2013 – Sporting fans love long shots and unexpected triumphs. The first and the last European Chess Club Cups provide proof. In 1976 the German team of SG Solingen shared first place with the powerful Soviet team, Burevestnik Moscow. And last Saturday the players of the Czech G-Team Novy Bor smashed their way to the top. Huffington Post columnist GM Lubomir Kavalek reports.

Casino Barcelona kicks off

10/28/2013 – The 18th edition of the Casino Barcelona round robin tournament, organized by the Catalan Chess Federation, has started. The event brings together a mix of Spanish blood and young talents, surely a recipe to bring exciting chess to the table. The lead is currently being held by the local Narciso Dublan and the Canadian Eric Hansen. Impressions of the event so far.

Which is the world's biggest chess nation?

10/28/2013 – Russia, of course. Everybody knows that. Well, not even close. The All India Chess Federation has informed us that it is now India, which ties with France as the country with the greatest number of FIDE rated players (35,200). But India, which forty years ago had one (ONE!) rated player, is growing steeply, while France is doing so only moderately. AICF press release and our own statistics.

ECC Concludes in Rhodes

10/28/2013 – The European Club Championship has come to an end in Rhodes, Greece and the two tournaments could not have been any different. Novy Bor, ranked fifth in the tournament, surprised many people and took home the gold after a decisive victory over SOCAR in round 6. In the Women's section Monte Carlo simply crushed the opposition. Full report and analysis of the spectacular event.

Computer Chess – movie and reviews

10/27/2013 – "The most striking thing about the movie is its amazingly detailed and precise reconstruction of the styles of the day," says Richard Brody in the New Yorker. "The black and white fly-on-the-wall style may appeal to some, but it overstays its welcome over 90 dull minutes," writes Sean Marsh in Chess Magazine. We have trailers and reviews of this recently released film by Andrew Bujalski, which you can download for $12.99. Judge for yourself.

World Championship: Campaign for Anand

10/27/2013 – The banner on the side of the campaign truck says it all. It is cruising Chennai collecting signatures in support of the World Champion, a son of the city. Meanwhile newspapers have been sounding a more optimistic note on his chances against challenger Magnus Carlsen, who is 95 point higher on the rating list. The Times of India reports that GM Abhijeet Gupta forsees Anand triumphing.