Tashkent R5: Kamsky, Ponomariov, Kasimdzhanov win

11/27/2012 – Boris Gelfand played a risky attack against Gata Kamsky's Leningrad System, and lost the game in a tactical melee. Ruslan Ponomariov faced a French Tarrasch by Alexander Morozevich and outplayed the erstwhile leader. Rustam Kasimdzhanov refuted Wang Hao's Scotch to win his first game in this tournament – and join four other players in the lead. Full report with GM commentary.

2nd Malta Open: an open-air museum

11/27/2012 – Malta, an island with a rich history, architecture, and beautiful beaches, is not known as a typical destination for chess, yet with its second international open in a breathtaking setting in Valletta, it may be becoming one. The guide books describe the Maltese Islands as being one big open-air museum, which might seem like a marketing ploy. Or is it? A beautiful pictorial by Alina L'Ami.

2nd UNAM won by Magnus Carlsen

11/26/2012 – In the second semifinal, Judit Polgar faced Manuel Leon Hoyos, and defeated him, which led to the expected and eagerly anticipated final between Carlsen and her. To the audience's delight, Judit struck the first blow and won the opening game, but Carlsen then won game two and the tiebreaks. In the open, Bartlomiej Macieja took first with 8.5/9. Here is the final illustrated report.

Women’s World Championship – Ushenina vs Stefanova in the finals

11/26/2012 – In the semifinals the Bulgarian GM and former women's world champion Antoaneta Stefanova knocked out the Indian GM Harika Dronavalli in their regular games. The Ukrainian IM Anna Ushenina and Chinese WGM Ju Wenjun drew their two games, so that the decision, in favour of Ushenina, came in the rapid tiebreaks. Monday is a free day, and the four-game final starts on Tuesday. Round five report.

From the Spanish to the King's Gambit

11/26/2012 – Learn From the Open Games is a ChessBase DVD by IM Sam Collins from Ireland. Collins makes it clear that this DVD is not intended as an opening repertoire for either White or Black. Instead, it is meant as a showcase for recurring motifs in a number of instructive Open games. The Chess Cafe reviewer Steve Goldberg thinks this DVD provides an instructive and entertaining experience.

Tashkent R4: Caruana, Svidler, Wang Hao win

11/25/2012 – An exciting round with exciting games. The top seed Fabiano Caruana won his second game in a row, Peter Svidler defeated the former FIDE world champion Ruslan Ponomariov, and Wang Hao wrestled the full point from the out-of-form US GM Gata Kamsky. Morozevich still leads with 3.0/4, followed by four players with half a point less. Full illustrated report with GM commentary.

CBM training: Krushing attack, Hou Yifan's Knightmare

11/24/2012 – For this weekend edition our linguistically creative ChessBase Magazine columnist GM Karsten Müller has selected two games from the current Women's World Championship in Khanty Mansiysk, and a bonus game, Anand vs Caruana, where the reigning open world champion shows us how to handle rook and knight against rook and knight. Learn and enjoy.

Second Gran Fiesta UNAM with Carlsen and Polgar

11/24/2012 – The UNAM chess festival in Mexico City is one of the largest in the world, with thousands of chess fans, many tournaments and activities. The main attraction is a rapid and blindfold knockout tournament with Magnus Carlsen, Lazaro Bruzon, Judit Polgar and Manuel Leon Hoyos. In the first round on Friday Carlsen knocked out Bruzon, and today Polgar is playing Leon Hoyos. Illustrated report.

Tashkent R3: Caruana bounces back, Mamedyarov also wins

11/24/2012 – A bad day for the Grünfeld, as the two who played it lost. Mamedyarov was the quickest to win as Svidler found himself in a terrible bind very early on and eventually lost the exchange and then the game. Caruana bounced back from yesterday’s loss, and beat Kamsky after the queenside locked up, and the Italian unleashed an unstoppable kingside attack. Full report with GM commentary.

Queens versus knight pair

11/23/2012 – The passed a-pawn is about to promote, but on the other hand the first player threatens to hunt down the enemy king with her central knights. The sequence 38...a1Q 39.Ne8 wins for whom?
A) White
B) Black
C) neither; the game ends in perpetual check

ChessBase Magazine, larger diagram and solution.

Tashkent R2: Morozevich strikes again, takes sole lead

11/23/2012 – Although the second round had more than its fair share of draws, they weren't without a struggle. Perhaps the closest of the non-winners was Svidler against Gelfand when he penetrated to the 7th with his rook, only to withdraw it and the pressure. Morozevich delighted his fans by outplaying Caruana in a non-mainline Berlin endgame to take sole lead. Report with analysis by GM Romain Edouard.

A talk with 19-year-old GM Sanan Sjugirov

11/22/2012 – He was born in Elista 19 years ago and has been World Champion U10 and U14, Russian Junior champion, World Junior vice–champion and also European Rapid vice–champion, amongst others. Now Sanan Sjugirov has added a brand–new title to his extensive curriculum: he won the famous Magistral Casino Round Robin tournament, recently held in Barcelona. Here is an interview by Ana Matnadze.

FIDE Grand Prix Tashkent R1: Morozevich, Karjakin win

11/22/2012 – After the very entertaining London GP, the lineup for the second Grand Prix series is a finely balanced roster with players of all styles, ensuring the widest variety of battles on the board. The average rating of event is 2747. The first round featured two wins: Morozevich beat Kamsky after the American blundered; Karjakin outplayed Dominguez in impressive fashion. Report with GM commentary.

Women’s World Championship – Stefanova, Harika, Ju Wenjun

11/22/2012 – After winning a rough-and-tumble first game the former women's world champion Antoaneta Stefanova defeated the French GM Marie Sebag in the second game as well. The Indian GM Harika Dronavalli won her first game and drew the second against the high-ranked Chinese GM Zhao Xue. WGM Ju Wenjun went into the ten-minute games to defeat Huang Qian. Round four tiebreak report.

2012 WYCC: Twelve new world champions are crowned

11/21/2012 – 1584 players came from 92 countries for 11 rounds of non-stop action, and at the end no fewer than 12 new world champions were crowned. It was fitting that for their first title as world champion, none other than Garry Kasparov, full of praise for the event, came to give the prizes. Many special winners were crowned from a 14-year-old winning the U18, to the one player to score a perfect 100%.

Women’s World Championship – Ushenina in the semis

11/21/2012 – IM Anna Ushenina from Ukraine faced a formidable opponent in round four of this knock-out event: Russian GM Nadezhda Kosintseva, rated close to 90 points above her. In the first game Anna was on the verge of defeat but managed to draw. In the second she won nicely with a pawn sacrifice. Stefanova beat Sebag to equalise their match. There will be three tiebreak encounters on Thursday.

Women’s World Championship – and then there were eight

11/20/2012 – The weather outside is frightful – 17°C, or 1.4°F – but the games and fighting spirit in the playing hall were quite delightful. At the end of the tiebreak round, which did not go beyond the rapid games, eight players had proceeded, and eight take their leave of Khanty-Mansiysk in what was certainly the most thrilling round of the tournament. Big illustrated report on round three.

Bucharest Kings: children first

11/19/2012 – During the Bucharest Kings tournament, with Caruana, Topalov, Ivanchuk and the local hero Nisipeanu, the Bucharest Individual School championship was also held. For the children, it meant not only being able to play in a fun chess tournament but also being inspired by the presence of the world's best. The top performers earned a spot in a simul against all four. Here is a lovely pictorial.

Rustam Kasimdzhanov: Endgames for Experts

11/19/2012 – The Cuban Grandmaster and 3rd World Champion José Raúl Capablanca said: “In order to improve your game, you must study the endgame before everything else, for whereas the the endings can be studied and mastered by themselves, the middle game and the opening must be studied in relation to the endgame.” Review of an interesting DVD by a former FIDE World Champion.

Magic atmosphere, 27 nations at the EU Polgar Chess Festival

11/18/2012 – They are the most famous sisters in chess: Susan, former women's world champion, Judit, the strongest female player that has ever lived, and Sofi, who has scored record performances in her chess career. They live in the US, Hungary and Israel, but got together in Budapest for a big chess festival. Over four thousand visitors attended, and were well entertained. Big illustrated report with video impressions.

Houdini 3: Analyzing in the cloud (part two)

11/17/2012 – For most users a major query is: what can the program do for me, whether just for fun or to help me become a better player? This usually starts with analyzing one's own games, and of course the functions are numerous, from blunder-checking to full analysis. However, the new Fritz interface offers new options for analyzing in the Cloud and even analyzing with your desktop remotely.

Silent chess and snow leopards (part 2)

11/17/2012 – In part two of this account of the 2012 Championships of the ICSC (International Committee of Silent Chess), Christopher Kreuzer reports on the excellent result against a grandmaster achieved by the English deaf chess player Lewis Martin. The snow leopard connection is revealed, along with annotated games, a list of winners, and photos of Almaty, Kazakhstan.

Dark-squared invasion

11/16/2012 – White's queen on a3 is controlling the vital diagonal to f8.
Which continuation gives him the win?

A) 29.Qc5 Nd6 30.Rxb5 (Nd7)
B) 29.Bb6 Qxb6 30.Bxc4+ Kh7 31.Qxf8
C) both
D) neither
ChessBase Magazine, larger diagram and solution.

Favourites fall at the Women’s World Championship round two

11/16/2012 – The three top seeds, Humpy Koneru, Hou Yifan and Anna Muzychuk were eliminated, by players well over 150 rating points below them. The fourth seed Zhao Xue squeaked through, but the fifth seed Kateryna Lahno was knocked out. The sixth seed Nadezhda Kosintseva required four rapid tiebreak games to proceed to round three. Tough going for the top stars. Big illustrated report.