Good choice?

9/21/2012 – The second player has parried the attack on her rook e8 with 15...Be6-d7 (diagram), leaving the pawn d5 momentarily without sufficient protection.
Now the capture 16.Nxd5 earns White ...
A) ... the loss of a piece;
B) ... the win of a pawn;
C) ... an endgame advantage with material equality.

ChessBase Magazine, larger diagram and solution.

Hurricane Kasparov makes landfall in Germany

9/21/2012 – On Thursday Garry Kasparov flew in to Hamburg, en route to a big chess event on Saturday in Lüneburg, about fifty km to the south. Not one to waste any time, Garry is currently (Friday afternoon) recording a DVD in the ChessBase office studio, one that retraces his life and chess career from the start to 1985, just before he became World Champion. Here are pictures and a puzzle he brought for us.

Ankara R04: Humpy joins Ruan Lufei in the lead

9/20/2012 – Indian GM Humpy Koneru defeated GM Tatiana Kosintseva, Russia, with the black pieces, while Chinese WGM Ruan Lufei conceded her first draw to compatriot Zhao Xue. This put the two winners in the joint lead with 3.5/4 points each – and performances of 2817 and 2749. Only one (hard-fought) game in this round was drawn, with for a 33.3% draw ration so far. Round four report.

Adrian Mikhalchishin: An Active Repertoire for Black

9/20/2012 – "This trainer was a pleasant surprise for me, because it offered a very informative discussion by a grandmaster on the 'neglected' open games," writes Chess Cafe reviewer Steven Dowd. It does not, he admits, provide a full repertoire for black – "the universe of the open games is very broad and not easily covered in a few hours." But it is definitely a good starter. Review.

Black Sea Countries Final won by Cheparinov

9/19/2012 – The Black Sea Countries final tournament took place in Burgas, Bulgaria from September 12-19, 2012. It brought representatives from the nations surrounding the Black Sea namely Bulgaria, Romania, Ukraine, Russia, Georgia, and Turkey. Held in his native Bulgaria, Ivan Cheparinov, only fourth rated among the six participants, scored one of the best victories of his career. Illustrated report.

Analyzing Playchess for Android games

9/18/2012 – With the arrival of Playchess for Android, where one can play online, and follow live broadcasts, the question most asked is how this ties in with ChessBase Online, the ideal tool for looking up theory, and reviewing and annotating one’s own games. To show how to play (or watch) a game on Playchess, and then open it in ChessBase Online for easy review and annotation, here is a step-by-step guide.

Mar Del Plata 2012 – Two norms for the price of one

9/18/2012 – From October 12-21, the 7th Continental Chess Tournament will take place in beautiful Mar Del Plata, Argentina. It is classified as a world championship qualifier, thus all IM and GM norms scored over the course of the event are upgraded to count as two. With prizes for all, including by category, not to mention the seaside beaches, it is an event that should not be missed.

Ankara R02: Betul Yildiz wins, Ruan Luifei leads

9/18/2012 – There was an "incident" at the start of round two: Askin Keles, making the first symbolic move on the board Kosintseva-Stefanova, moved the wrong pawn. Fortunately the FIDE rules allow this to be corrected, and so no harm was done. Turkish WGM Betul Yildiz shocked GM Viktorija Cmilyte with a black piece win. Chinese WGM Ruan Lufei leads after a second straight win. Big illustrated report.

Endgame Magic with GM Karsten Müller

9/18/2012 – Endgame knowledge is not easy to acquire and for this reason it is a valuable weapon in practical tournament play. In his Endgame Magic Show on Playchess, the well-known endgame expert GM Karsten Müller will assist you with a bunch of practical endgames. He shows how to handle the positions, which will help improve your results. An example and more information.

Ankara R03: Ruan Lufei leads with a perfect score

9/18/2012 – The third round of the FIDE Women’s Grand Prix once again brought four decisive games, three with the black pieces. But even the drawn games were interesting, especially the one in which GM Monika Socko produced a miracle save in a totally lost position. Chinese WGM Ruan Lufei won her third game and leads with a perfect score. Round three review by GM Evgenij Miroshnichenko.

Ankara GP R01: Fighting chess, four decisive games

9/17/2012 – The winner of the Grand Prix series is already known (Hou Yifan), but the winner of the sixth led in Ankara has a chance to qualify for the 2013 women's world championship, as we explained yesterday. That meant there were tense struggles from the start, with four wins and two fought-out draws. We have live commentary by IM Elisabeth Pähtz (in English, free for all visitors) on Playchess.

Online qualifier for World Mind Games starts today

9/17/2012 – Starting Monday, 17th September 2012, we again offer you the chance to win a trip to the World Mind Games 2012. You can take part in eight preliminary tournaments on the Playchess server, and if you qualify play in the Candidates the Final. The top prize is the all-paid trip to Bejing. The online tournaments are played in the Emanuel Lasker Arena of Playchess.

Edward Winter's Chess Explorations (89)

9/16/2012 – Chess boards and pieces are so photogenic that they are frequently used to advertise and promote a wide range of products, services and events. From the many specimens known to exist, the Editor of Chess Notes has picked out a few of the less common ones, showing how the Royal Game has been employed in the past to produce advertising for alcohol, tobacco and razor blades.

Sixth FIDE Women's Grand Prix to start in Ankara

9/15/2012 – Only five days passed since the Chess Olympiad in Istanbul and Turkey is hosting another big international chess event: the sixth and final stage of FIDE Women Grand Prix Series 2011-2012. The first round is on Sunday, on the evening before there was a gala dinner in the Goksu Lokantasi restaurant, and during it the drawing of lots. We bring you pictures, information, schedule and pairings.

Chess Problems: Solutions to the half-pin problems

9/14/2012 – Were you able to solve the two problems with the half-pin theme? It should have been possible after our problem expert David Friedgood explained the idea – two chess pieces are half-pinned against the king and one of them moves, then the other becomes fully pinned – with two introductory problems. Today he carefully explains the solutions to the diagrams he left our readers to solve.

Ivanchuk in Istanbul

9/14/2012 – The first player has sacrificed a piece to invade with his rook on the 7th rank, but the calm 24.Raf1 in the diagram position would allow the excuse 24...Qxg2+. The alternative 24.gxh7+ Kxf7 leads to ...
A) ... a white victory by force
B) ... perpetual check
C) ... a winning position for Black

ChessBase Magazine, larger diagram and solution.

Hou Yifan: 'A Humble World Champion'

9/14/2012 – At 14 she became the youngest female (full) grandmaster in history, at sixteen the youngest Women's World Chess Champion, and remains today, behind the perennial Judit Polgar, the second highest ranked female player in the world (and chess history). At the Istanbul Olympiad her performance on board one was 2645, her highest rating ever was 2635. WhyChess interview with lovely pictures.

Chess Masters Final in Sao Paulo and Bilbao

9/14/2012 – Five of the world's best players will be there: World Champion Vishy Anand, world number one Magnus Carlsen, number two Levon Aronian, number seven Sergey Karjakin and eight Fabiano Caruana. Joining them will be the ever creative Paco Vallejo. The double round robin is split between São Paulo, Brazil, and Bilbao, Spain. It starts on September 23 and is played in a glass cube.

Kavalek in Huffington: Looking back at Istanbul

9/13/2012 – All the chess news sites reported on it extensively, but it is good to see a massive article on the 40th Chess Olympiad in a non-chess portal, with five pivotal games from the event, all beautifully annotated by GM Lubomir Kavalek. The most attention is given to the US team and its heros, for instance Hikaru Nakamura, who surpassed Bobby Fischer's rating record of 2785 in Istanbul. Nice long read.

Garry Kasparov on FIDE and Istanbul Olympiad

9/13/2012 – The 13th world champion was not in Istanbul just to cheer on the Russian team and its new coach, his old trainer Yuri Dokhoian. Kasparov took part in complex negotiations to reform FIDE's rules on elections, stemming from lawsuits against FIDE during the 2010 Karpov campaign. In this exclusive interview we also get his thoughts on the Russian and Armenian teams, and even some chess.

2012 Chess Olympiad: a hero's welcome for the Armenian team

9/12/2012 – When you see the pictures in our report, and especially when you watch the video, you have to think for yourself: if my country had won Gold at a chess Olympiad, would the reception in Moscow, New York, Frankfurt, Paris, Beijing, wherever, have been similarly effusive? The Armenian government and chess fans provided a wonderful reception for their warriors returning from Istanbul.

Lilov DVD: Attacking a king which has castled short

9/12/2012 – "This is another solid effort from FM Lilov, writes Chess Cafe reviewer Steven Dowd. "Where the DVD is truly valuable is in its coverage of pawn attacks and pawn storms, which constitute five of the lessons. It has something of value for all players, especially those who have not explored the topic of attacking the castled king in depth." Steven gives the product five stars: 'Highly recommended'.

For sale: rare Fischer handwritten chess notes

9/12/2012 – The 1970 blitz tournament in Herceg Novi was one of the strongest of all time, with four World Champions competing. It was won by Robert Fischer, with 19/22 points, 4½ ahead of the field. Interestingly Fischer annotated his games, and his notes are now up for sale in an auction (36 pages, current bid £220). We have reconstructed the first game from images of the pages. Will you help do the rest?

CBM training: Learning from the Chess Olympiad

9/11/2012 – The biggest chess event of the year is over – but not for us. GM Karsten Müller, our ChessBase Magazine columnist, has been busy looking at the endings in literally hundreds of games played in Istanbul and come up with a lot of instructive positions. In this installment he shows us Volokitin's breakthrough, a race of passed pawns, and of rook pawns, and finally Oswaldo Zambrana's Octopus.