Ankara R08: all games drawn, but with plenty of fight

9/25/2012 – Round eighth of the FIDE Women's Grand Prix was deceptively peaceful – all games ended in draws, but they were anything but boring! In fact, if as many of our readers have discovered that the commentary by GM Evgenij Miroshnichenko is virtually a free high-powered lesson in chess strategy and tactics. And no-one should miss IM Elisabeth Paehtz's live cappuccino commentary on Playchess.

Ankara R07: Humpy wins and leads the Grand Prix

9/24/2012 – Humpy Koneru tricked Ju Wenjun with a clever move order to win her round seven game. The India GM is now in the lead with a superb plus five score and a 2800+ performance. Anna Muzychuk is the only serious challenger, half a point behind. Just 38% of the games have so far been drawn, with White and Black each winning 31%. Round seven report with analysis by GM Evgenij Miroshnichenko.

Ankara R06: Muzychuk, Humpy win, lead the Grand Prix

9/23/2012 – All the games – every single one of them – produced a decisive result in this round. Humpy Koneru defeated co-leader Ruan Lufei with the black pieces, and top seed Anna Muzychuk scored a win against Turkish WGM Betul Yildiz. The two GMs are now in the sole lead and with 5.0/6 a full point ahead of three Chinese players, all at 4.0/5. Full analysis by GM Evgenij Miroshnichenko

São Paulo Opening Ceremony and simul

9/23/2012 – The opening ceremony to inaugurate the São Paulo stage of the Grand Slam Masters took place today, also to be held in Bilbao for the second half. It also settled the drawing of lots and the player pairings. On the day before, the players went to the CEU in Jaguaré where they played part of a simul, but also met fans who were excited to meet the great champions. Pictorial by Albert Silver.

London Rd3: Mamyedyarov beats Giri in spectacular miniature

9/23/2012 – The round was one more marked by near misses than big wins. Topalov neutralized a spectacular opening sacrifice uncorked by Kasimdzhanov, while Grischuk built a winning position against Wang Hao, only to miss the money shot. Nakamura also narrowly missed Leko, but the game of the day was Mamedyarov's impressive miniature against Giri. Full video reports plus GM analysis.

FIDE Grand Prix London R1: Gelfand beats Nakamura with black

9/22/2012 – All of the black players can leave satisfied today. Some of them held easy draws, while most of them were pushing for a win! Only through cleverness and resourcefulness were the white players able to hold to most of those half points. Nakamura, however, was not so lucky against Gelfand. Illustrated report with summary and game of the day analysis by GM Alejandro Ramirez.

London Rd2: Leko beats Ivanchuk, Nakamura bounces right back

9/22/2012 – The games for the most part continue to be very exciting. Leko shows Hungarian precision and positional mastery, while Nakamura punishes his opponent with sheer willpower and tenacity. Gelfand and Giri were easily neutralized by Topalov and Wang Hao respectively, and although Dominguez also drew against Grischuk it was not exactly easy. Annotated report by GM Alejandro Ramirez.

Ankara R05: Muzychuk wins, joins Humpy and Ruan Lufei

9/21/2012 – Top seed Anna Muzychuk of Slovenia defeated the luckless Polish GM Monika Socko – just one draw so far in this event – to move to the top slot, where India's Humpy Koneru and Chinese WGM Ruan Lufei were holding residence. All three are on a plus three score. Tomorrow Ruan Lufei faces Humpy and Muzychuk plays tenth seed Betul Yildiz. Round five report with GM analysis.

Ankara: Round four analysis by GM Evgenij Miroshnichenko

9/21/2012 – The games played at the Women's Grand Prix in Ankara are not at the stratospheric level of some recent Super-GM tournaments. But they are spirited, hard-fought and entertaining. They are also quite instructive for tournament players, and indeed amateurs. Especially when they are nicely annotated by a strong GM. On this free day we bring you all round four games with commentary.

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.