Huffington: Nakamura Conquers London Classic

12/20/2013 – On the day the Washington Redskins fumbled six times and threw one interception, Hikaru Nakamura's performance in England seemed almost flawless. Last Sunday, the top American GM won the London Chess Classic, a rapid chess competition, leaving many world class players behind, including two former world champions. Huffington Post columnist GM Lubomir Kavalek comments.

World Youth Championship 2013 started in Al Ain

12/20/2013 – This very important FIDE event is being staged between December 17th and 29th in the UAE »Garden city« of Al Ain. More than 1800 participants from 120 national chess federations have come to take part in six girls and six open sections, U8 to U18. "Chess is a global sport – it is a message for the world of unity and friendship," said Organizing Committee Chairman Sheikh Sultan Bin Khalifa.

Russian Cup gold for Jakovenko and Bodnaruk

12/20/2013 – The Russian Cup Final has finally concluded with two winners after twelve months of competition and a final phase to determine the grand prize winners. Anastasia Bodnaruk overcame Margarite Schepetkova for the Women's gold, while Dmitri Jakovenko and Vladimir Fedoseev made the final. Fedoseev, who had arrived with 100%, was finally stopped by Jakovenko who took gold. A large photo report.

Playchess for Web: usernames and rated games

12/20/2013 – The launch of Playchess’s web client brought an incredibly convenient way to watch games through the browser, but was missing that one key feature: the ability to login using one’s subscriber username. Until now you could only login as a guest, but now that has been fixed and you play rated games, and of course watch any master or grandmaster game of your choice.

Hou? Yifan? What's in a name...

12/19/2013 – "Your discussion of 'Kosteniuk, Kosintseva, and Yifan' in recent articles sounds as dissonant to a Chinese reader as 'Clinton, Bush, and Barack'", writes Fabien Simonis from Dongguan, China – and goes on to give us a primer on the correct use of Chinese names. To his very useful instructions we add a reprint of a 2004 article explaining Indian, Russian and other names.

BBC Radio 4 to broadcast chess chats

12/19/2013 – Believe it or not, but on Monday, December 30, BBC Radio 4 will start a week-long series of 15-minute chat shows on… chess! The program Across the Board will feature Dominic Lawson, the Sunday Times and Daily Mail columnist, who will play against and interview a different guest each episode on five consecutive days. This is the first time in 50 years since the 1960s radio show with Bobby Fischer.

Mind Games Final: Karjakin, Zhao Xue top Basque

12/18/2013 – The SportsAccord World Mind Games has come to an end in Beijing, China. The last chess event was the unique Basque rapids. Karjakin crushed the men's section with an amazing 8.5/10 including 2-0 wins against Leko and Le Quang Liem. In the women's China took places one two and three, but Gunina almost cut in by taking out Hou Yifan. However, like in the blitz, a blunder spoiled her chances...

Kasparov on the campaign trail – Indonesia

12/18/2013 – So far, to the best of our knowledge, only one candidate has registered for the 2014 FIDE presidential election: Garry Kasparov. The former World Chess Champion has been extremely active in key regions of the world: east of India, south of Sahara, north of Greece. After an extensive tour of southern Africa Kasparov undertook a trip to the Far East, with a start in Jakarta.

Battle of Moscow defense celebrated

12/18/2013 – A small tribute to the defense of the famous Battle of Moscow was held with chess at its center. A small tournament with a rather prestigious clique of players was organized at the Prechistenke Peace Foundation regarding a historic battle with millions of soldiers on both sides. The opening was attended by two world champions, Boris Spassky and Anatoly Karpov. A pictorial and small history lesson.

London Closing Ceremony

12/17/2013 – The London Chess Classic has come to an end. Nakamura ended victorious in the Super Sixteen rapid, but that was not all there was to the festival. A women's invitational took place while in the FIDE Open, from which Istatescu and Sutovsky qualified to the rapids, was ultimately won by Jon Ludvig Hammer. Impressions of a traditional and fun closing ceremony...

Kolkata wraps up Indian circuit

12/17/2013 – The tournaments that comprised the small circuit to celebrate the World Chess Championship in India have come to an end. The last leg, held in Kolkata, finished with a triumph by Armenian GM Ter Sahakyan. IM Mozharov was able to score a GM norm in every tournament in the circuit! Many norms were earned by locals. Tournament report by Professor Anantharam.

Mind Games Day 6: Basque System starts

12/17/2013 – This unique style of chess has begun in China! The players face each other twice simultaneously, once with black and once with white. In the men's Karjakin has again taken an early lead with a devastating 5.0/6. In the women's it is the Chinese that are dominating as they hold the top three spots at the moment, with Hou Yifan and Ju Wenjun at the very top. Analysis of the basque!

Indian National Premier starts today

12/17/2013 – It starts on Tuesday, with a one million Rupee prize fund (that US $16,000) and some of India's finest (e.g. Negi, Sasikiran, Adhiban). The event is being held in the Jain Hills resort of Jalgaon province, which is one of the hottest places in India in the summer, but wonderfully temperate in winter. It was not quite easy to reach but the venue itself makes up for that, as Saga Shah reports.

Pal Benko: Secrets of Study Composition (1)

12/17/2013 – There is more to chess than tournament games. The area of chess studies and problems is equally creative and breathtakingly imaginative. One of its greatest composers is grandmaster (and world championship candidate 1959 + 1962) Pal Benko. The 85-year-old author of some of the most famous studies of all time has sent us an essay on the remarkable process of chess composition.

Russian Cup takes off

12/17/2013 – The Russian Cup final is underway in Khanty-Mansiysk and is the culmination of the Russia Cup circuit of tournaments held throughout the year. Over a period of twelve months in different cities of Russia, stages of the Russian Cup are held for both men and women. The players that qualified from these tournaments are invited to the final. Beautiful pictorial impressions of the tournament.

Mind Games Day 5: Yifan, Karjakin gold

12/17/2013 – In two close blitz tournaments the final results came to the very last round. In the men's section Aronian and Karjakin tied at the top, but the Russian edged his opponent out on tiebreaks as he had bested the Armenian in the individual encounter. In the Women's section Gunina could have won if she defeated Hou Yifan in the last round, but she blundered and lost. Analysis of a blitz game!

2013 European Rapid and Blitz championships

12/16/2013 – It has been a massive amount of top-notch international rapid chess with the London Chess Classic, the Beijing Mind Games, and not to be outdone: the European Bitz and Rapid championships, held in Warsaw, Poland. What the European lacked in top-ten players, they made up for in sheer numbers with no fewer than 437 players in the blitz championship and 747 in the rapid. Even Santa played.

Nakamura wins London!

12/16/2013 – After a lucky escape in the semi-finals against Kramnik, Nakamura proceeded to play resourceful and precise chess against Gelfand in the finals to emerge victorious. Despite his dubious opening choices in both games, Nakamura was clearly the better rapid player this time around as Gelfand was unable to keep up with all the resources that the American kept finding. Analysis of the victory.

Mind Games Day 4: Yifan big winner

12/15/2013 – In the Men's section a very close situation has occurred. Mamedyarov's excellent day two catapulted him to first place with 14.0/20, but there are many players in hot pursuit. Le Quang Liem is only half a point behind, Aronian one point, Karjakin and Vachier a point and a half. In the Women's a fantastic 9.5/10 score for Yifan in day two puts her ahead with a two point lead. Pictorial report.

Looking back at Chennai: WCh solving contest

12/15/2013 – One of the daily attractions of the World Championship in Chennai last November was the problem and study contests that were held in the hotel lobby during every round. Scores of competent, enthusiastic and highly motivated solvers participated. The organiser of the solving contest, C.G.S. Narayanan, kindly sent us a set for our readers to solve. You have 90 minutes to do so.

London Super Sixteen: Semis ready!

12/15/2013 – The four players that will play the semi-finals have been defined. Kramnik crushed Anand with black in the second game to move on. Nakamura was a far superior player than Short and will face the Russian. Adams took advantage of Svidler being far from "his finest moment" and won the tiebreaks. Caruana blundered against Gelfand also in the tiebreaks. Take a look at the action packed games!

Mind Games Day 3: Gunina, Aronian lead blitz

12/14/2013 – Day one of the brutal blitz tournament has started. The event has a total of 30 rounds and today the first set of ten was played. In the Men's section Armenian Levon Aronian has destroyed the competition and emerged the strong leader with 8.5/10. In the Women's Gunina started with two losses, rebounded with an amazing eight wins and leads over Muzychuk and Yifan. Day 3 impressions.

Favorites qualify to quarters in London

12/14/2013 – Every first and second seed of the group stages was able to make it to the knock out system. Howell came close to giving a big surprise had he taken out Caruana, but a huge blunder left his chances in the dust. Kramnik got a little lucky that Sadler didn't capitalize against Svidler, which would have overtaken the World Cup winner. See the interesting quarterfinal pairings.

Alekhine-Euwe 1935: powerful images

12/13/2013 – In the last couple of years, several videos have surfaced concerning the famous 1935 World Championship match between Alexander Alekhine and Max Euwe. The footage stands out, as it shows scenes of the opening ceremony, not to mention the day the title was won, with a dazed and shocked Alekhine, still trying to grasp what had happened. Here are the dramatic images and videos.