Scholastic chess making headlines

3/24/2014 – In the middle of the last century a group of teachers in Hamburg, Germany, started a tournament with 160 students. Today, 66 years later, the annual event has over 2500 participants, and includes play against remote opponents via Playchess.com. The event was supported on the English side by Barclaycard, which is also spearheading another scholastic chess initiative, Yes2Chess.

The most dangerous chess piece

3/23/2014 – In a historical context chess pieces have not been used only to play the game. Made of stone, rock crystal and walrus ivory, they were precious artifacts and as such attracted the attention of jewelry designers and architects. Throughout the ages chess pieces had adorned church pulpits, women's necklaces – one even ended up as the handle of a fifteenth century knife.

Candidates Rd9: Decisive Round?!

3/23/2014 – It could all be decided in Khanty-Mansiysk. Anand holds an effective 1.5 point lead over the field as he beat Topalov while Mamedyarov bested Aronian in a crazy game and Kramnik self-destructed easily against Karjakin. With Aronian being down one point with the worse tiebreak, it seems very unlikely that someone can catch the Indian player. A rematch seems in the works.

Candidates Rd8: A solid round

3/22/2014 – After the multiple exciting games we have had over the board in Khanty-Mansiysk, the players have finally played a slightly dull round. Aronian-Anand was the key match of the day but it was drawn in less than 20 moves. Kramnik couldn't break through Andreikin's position and Topalov-Mamedyarov fizzled to equality. Karjakin did bring down Svidler and now five people have 3.5/8.

Mountaintop celebrations in Tblisi

3/22/2014 – Grandmaster Zurab Azmaiparashvili is something of a rock star in his native Georgia. His birthday celebrations are usually quite lavish. This year they were held in a restaurant atop Mount Mtatsminda, overlooking the city. And there were a number of prominent guests, including the former Georgian Prime Minister (and chess lover) Bidzina Ivanishvili, who played a friendly game against Judit Polgar.

Huffington: The Adventures of Mikhail Botvinnik (2)

3/22/2014 – The columnist of the Huffington Post, GM Lubomir Kavalek, has played against eight World Champions. He drew all his games against Botvinnik (as well as Petrosian and Fischer). To his surprise the see-saw battle against the Soviet patriarch was included in his collection "Botvinnik's Best Games 1947-1970." Kavalek found out why – when he discussed it with Botvinnik in 1972.

Candidates Rd7: Pandora's Box

3/21/2014 – The players today took immense risks. Kramnik turned a solid position with a slight plus into complete mayhem, he was losing at some point but Mamedyarov tricked himself and lost. Topalov self-destructed after going for Andreikin's throat. Aronian's game was more stable; he outplayed Karjakin to tie with Anand for first place. At the halfway mark, it's anyone's tournament.

Magnus Carlsen answers fans' questions online

3/21/2014 – Following up on Nakamura's much appreciated online Q&A session with fans, Magnus Carlsen followed up with his own, leading to a fun mixture of usual questions with odd ones and unexpected replies. See what the world champion has to say about training and evolving, playing online anonymously ("You'd be amazed at the people I've lost to"), and even the candidates tournament. Don't miss it.

Seth Kadish: Visualizing chess

3/20/2014 – As a statistician and geo-scientist he felt a need to share his results with the general public. Sheets of equations are not the best way to go about this, so Seth Kadish developed a data visualization system to make his results more accessible to a lay audience. As a chess player he realized that the same methods could be applied to the game. This resulted in some really cool graphs.

Four Corners – South African film of the year

3/20/2014 – The film tells the story of a young chess prodigy who must defy the odds and stay one move ahead of the gangs – in a game where winning or losing can mean the difference between life and death. Four Corners plays out aspects of the war fought on the streets of the Cape Flats, home to the Number Gang factions of the Western Cape, South Africa. Pictures and video clips.

Candidates Rd6: Spoilt opportunities

3/19/2014 – Aronian "went mad" and wasted a decisive advantage against Andreikin. Svidler obtained a clear edge against Mamedyarov using the Dutch (!) but he blundered and lost the game. Meanwhile, Topalov cheekily used a dubious variation against Kramnik who did not respond in the best way. The Russian confused himself and lost his way. Anand smiles, he retains his lead.

Huffington: The Adventures of Mikhail Botvinnik (1)

3/19/2014 – He was a man who could seem cold and unapproachable, a devoted communist with ties to highest Soviet officials, including Stalin. He was the world champion for a span of 15 years. In a new book Andrew Soltis describes the Life and Games of World Champion Mikhail Botvinnik – a brilliant, extensive researched account that is reviewed by Huffington Post columnist Lubomir Kavalek.

Candidates Rd5: Svidler pounces

3/18/2014 – With fantastic preparation and deep understanding Topalov sacrificed a pawn against Svidler and obtained a very impressive initiative. However as soon as he was away from his home prep he started erring, to the point where Svidler's pair of bishops dominated. Kramnik-Aronian was a wild draw in which the Russian missed a crucial chance, definitely the game of the day.

2014 Euro-Ch: Motylev wins with record result

3/18/2014 – It was one for the record books, as Alexander Motylev finished his peerless tournament with a fantastic 9.0/11 and 2872 performance, for the most dominant win ever of the championship. No less incredible was the second-place finish by 19-year-old David Anton Guijarro, ranked 99th, and the bronze by teeenager Vladimir Fedoseev. Artemiev qualified at the last minute after an epic battle.

Yu Yangyi leads in China's Championship

3/18/2014 – The Chinese National Championship returns to Xinghua. Despite the absence of some key names, mainly Wang Yue and Wang Hao, the tournament is still a very strong round robin. Yu Yangyi has taken an early lead with 4.5/6 but is closely followed by Wei Yi and Ding Liren. The Women's section is being dominated by a 16-year-old who has a performance of over 2700...

Candidates Rd4: Aronian, Mamedyarov win

3/17/2014 – With three out of four games being exciting and unusual battles, the Candidates tournament is certainly living up to expectation. Armenia's number one Aronian tricked Svidler, who was better prepared in the opening. After a series of mistakes in an endgame Aronian won. Mamedyarov took advantage of a time trouble blunder for his first victory. Report and analysis.

Chess film project: Destruction of Time

3/17/2014 – A Berlin based group of professional filmmakers is planning a chess documentary as a crowdfunding film project. It is intended to "show how much the crazy chess world has to do with life itself," and the producers will travel to Iceland and to "City Chess" in Kalmykia. To complete the project they need €23,000 (of which 1,210 has been pledged). You can help with financing and ideas.

Candidates 2014: Battle of minds

3/17/2014 – A top-level chess game is like a beautiful sculpture, chiseled from rock and polished to perfection. But: the unique thing about this creation is that there were two sculptors working on the same product! The two have two different processes of chiseling and two different conceptual ways of thinking. It makes the final product more complicated and conflicting – as the Rd.3 game Svidler-Kramnik shows.

CBM 158: The Match and the Berlin Defence

3/16/2014 – In this issue of ChessBase Magazine GM Mihail Marin draws an interesting parallel between the Anand-Carlsen match in Chennai and Kasparov-Kramnik, London 2000. It was Kramnik who first used the Berlin Defence that had not been seen at this level since the days of Lasker and Capablanca. Prof Nagesh Havanur tells us what we can learn about it in ChessBase Magazine 158. Review.

Candidates Rd3: Anand grabs early lead with 2.5/3

3/15/2014 – Any pundits and fans still with questions on Anand's chances in the event, saw them answered with his round three win as he beat Mamedyarov handily to take sole lead with 2.5/3. Though other games drew, they were all thrilling battles, with a very special note to Kramnik's incredible defense against Svidler as he produced a timeless masterpiece. Analysis of today's round.

Candidates 2014: Spotlight on round two

3/15/2014 – The Candidates tournament in Khanty-Mansiysk seems to be charged with drama (just 50% draws so far). We have been providing full reports and GM analysis on the evening of the game. We would also like to add some didactic comments by chess trainers and writers, whose views are often helpful for chess fans who are still struggling to understand basic concepts.

2014 Euro-Ch Rd10: Motylev and the teen wonders

3/14/2014 – It has been a fantastic event, and after a a bit of elbowing and shoving at the top, a single leader emerged. Alexander Motylev has not only kept the lead, but brought down every one of his would-be challengers, opening a full point lead once more with 8.5/10 and one round to go. Leading the group behind, is 19-year-old Vladimir Fedoseev followed by Turkish Dragan Solak. Illustrated report.

Candidates Rd2: Three wins and the race is on

3/14/2014 – After a somewhat hesitant opening round, the second round clearly set the race in motion. The only draw of the day was Anand-Topalov, ending in bare kings, while Aronian was winning after 14 moves when Mamedyarov missed a tactic winning his queen. Andreikin lost to Svidler after a miscalculation, but the game of the day was Kramnik's impressive win over Karjakin. Report with GM commentary.

Providing Anand for Anand fans

3/14/2014 – Anand is forename and a surname of Indian origin, derived from the Sanskrit abstract noun (आनन्द) meaning happiness or bliss. That is pretty much what Indian chess fans felt when, after a long dry spell, the former World Champion won a spectacular game against the favourite of the Candidates. Here is some interesting didactic analysis of the game by two ardent Anand fans. Learn and enjoy.