Beijing Grand Prix begins tomorrow

7/3/2013 – The fifth stage of the FIDE Grand Prix Series will be held in Beijing between the 3rd and 17th of July 2013. The playing venue will be at the premises of the Chinese Chess Association. The players were treated to a fabulous opening ceremony and the games are ready to start. Pictorial report on the opening ceremony.

ChessBase for Android: Start your engines!

7/3/2013 – Little by little and step by step the ChessBase Online for Android app has evolved from only online database lookups, to a full-fledged analytical tool, and once more a big step forward has been made. In the latest free update, you can now consult top engines, that you can turn on and off with incredible ease, and that even take full advantage of quad-core phones.

Irina Lymar: FIDE must develop anti-cheating rules

7/3/2013 – She is a Ukrainian WGM who since 2000 has been working as a lawyer in Russia: the perfect person to consult when considering what the chess world must do to prevent computer cheating from ruining the game. And who better to discuss the subject with her than Russian GM Oleg Korneev, an Opens specialist, who has recently encountered the problem first-hand. Translated from Chess-News.

Inarkiev wins and Shomoev shines

7/3/2013 – The Higher League of the Russian Championship was held from June 19-30 in Yekaterinburg, Russia. It qualified the top five finishers into the Russian Championship, and also seeded the winner into the 2014 Tal Memorial. It was an exciting event through and through with revelations and masterpieces. Read all, see all, in the report with analysis by Shomoev and Nepomniachtchi.

BBC: The Master Game revived on DVD

7/2/2013 – This very popular BBC TV show ran for seven series between 1975 and 1982. It consisted of a chess competition specially staged for TV, with top national (and later international) players, usually on a knock-out basis, with the games being shown with the players’ own commentary being used as a voice-over. Two series of The Master Game are now being released on DVD. John Saunders reports.

Mamedyarov wins first Geneva Masters

7/2/2013 – The final of the Geneva Chess Masters was almost anticlimactic after so much action over the previous days. This was not from a lack of fighting spirit from the finalists Kramnik and Mamedyarov, but merely how quickly it ended after three days of thrilling chess. Mamedyarov beat Kramnik in game one, and this decided the title. Illustrated report with video.

Kavalek in Huffington: Boris Gelfand in Moscow

7/2/2013 – At the age of 41, Jaromir Jagr should not have been playing in the Stanley Cup final and keeping up with the fast skating hockey players. At the age of 45, the Israeli grandmaster Boris Gelfand should not be winning major chess tournaments ahead of young talented players and world champions. But sometimes age doesn't matter, as Huffington Post columnist GM Lubomir Kavalek explains.

July 2013 ratings – big changes at the top

7/1/2013 – With the world rankings being published on a monthly basis the action at the top – big gains and losses – are usually fairly restricted. Not so in the latest list: Fabiano Caruana gained 22 points and climbed from ninth to third place in the world. Vladimir Kramnik lost nineteen points and dropped a rank, from third to fourth. July 2013 rating of FIDE.

Opening Encyclopedia 2013: a review

7/1/2013 – Meet the ultimate openings encyclopedia: ChessBase’s Opening Encyclopedia 2013. It quite literally comes with more material than you could view in a lifetime, or several lifetimes, but don’t let that put you off, since what that means is that it has material to answer your questions in every chess opening there is. Think we are exaggerating? Read the review.

Geneva Masters SF: Kramnik and Mamedyarov win

6/30/2013 – It promised to be a great semifinal if the topsy-turvy games from the preliminaries were any indication, and the day’s action lived up to them. Kramnik faced Nakamura in a tough match and it was all decide in a King's Indian in the blitz. Mamedyarov traded blows with Bacrot, and they too had to decide it in the blitz tiebreaks. Report and videos.

Carlsen edges Predojevic in rapid match

6/30/2013 – As an opening event for the Norwegian Chess Championship, Carlsen and Predojevic played a four game rapid chess match. The number one took the victory in the end, but was unable to win more than one game in a long and technical endgame. The ski town of Lillehammer now hosts the top players from Norway who are playing for the national title. Pictures and analysis.

Geneva Masters Rd3: A day of miniatures

6/29/2013 – With three of the fours spots into the final accounted for, one might have thought day three would be a sedate affair, but instead it was some of the most spectacular. Kramnik was pushed into the tiebreaks by Pelletier as they fought for the last qualifier, but the Russian came through in the end. Of note were the two miniatures including an epaulette mate by Kosteniuk.

Dilijan WGP R11: Humpy wins by a full point

6/29/2013 – Sing her praises! Indian GM Koneru Humpy, currently ranked number two female player in the world, won her final round game in the Women's Grand Prix to finish a full point ahead of the field. Her performance was 2666 and she gains ten rating points from this event. Joint second and third were Anna Muzychuk and Nana Dzagnidze. Final report with photos from the closing ceremony.

Tanzania: Breaking preconceptions (part 2/2)

6/29/2013 – In part two of Out of Africa... we mean Tanzania, globetrotting WGM Alina L'Ami continues her tale of a country striving to become a success story it has all the means to achieve. Efforts such as those by Vinay Choudary's Spicenet to promote the intellectual development of the nation are a key. A beautiful pictorial by Alina L'Ami.

Geneva Masters Rd2: Only one spot left

6/28/2013 – Day two of the Geneva Chess Masters was going to prove decisive or not in which players are most likely to make it to the final. In each of the four-player groups, two alone make it to the final, and while being first is not crucial, it doesn’t hurt to cover your tracks and avoid tales of last-minute disaster. Illustrated report of day two.

Dilijan WGP R10: Three wins, stiff opposition

6/28/2013 – The tournament leaders Koneru Humpy and Anna Muzychuk are facing stiff resistance from their colleagues and had to concede their third draws in a row. Women's world champion Anna Ushenina scored her first win, as did Elina Danielian, while Nana Dzagnidze kept her third place with a win over Viktorija Cmilyte. Big round ten report with photos by Arman Karakhanyan.

Kryvoruchko and Muzychuk win Ukrainian Ch

6/28/2013 – They say that to win a tournament you need a bit of luck as well as skill, and this was the case for Yuri Kryvoruchko, the unexpected winner of the 2013 Ukrainian Championship, but his resilience and fighting spirit were the real clinchers. In the women's championship, Mariya Muzychuk stormed away and left her rivals 1.5 points behind. Illustrated report with games.

The first Geneva Chess Masters

6/27/2013 – The first Geneva Chess Masters is taking place from June 26th to 30th with eight players fighting for a spot in the final at a rate of 25 minutes + 10 seconds per move. In the lineup are Kramnik, Nakamura, Mamedyarov, Polgar, Pelletier, Bacrot, Edouard and Kosteniuk. In the first matches surprises already took place including a fantastic queen-sac in the notes. Report, pictures and video.

Dilijan WGP R9: Cmilyte, Stefanova win

6/27/2013 – Viktorija Cmilyte beat reigning women's world champion Anna Ushenina, while Antoaneta Stefanova took a full point from Olga Girya. The two leaders, Koneru Humpy and Anna Muzychuk drew their games, thus remaining in first and second place. You can enjoy pictures and a video from the free day outing to Lake Saven and the celestially lit Haghartsin Monastery in our round nine report.

210-move drama in Kiev

6/26/2013 – As we all know, chess can be heart-wrenching and cruel. In "one of the most depressing episodes ever in a GM game" (Malcolm Pein in The Telegraph) White defended the endgame of rook and knight vs rook and knight, a pawn down, for 124 moves. He then defended the ending of rook v rook and knight from move 172 to move 205. And then on move 206 he blundered. As we said: heart-wrenching.

‘A GM is a GM’? – FIDE title devaluation

6/26/2013 – Although much has been made of the rising Elos, little has been said of the FIDE titles that rely on them, and their increasing devaluation. It is not just the grandmaster title, but all titles that are losing their value, and even those dropping standards are being tossed aside as FIDE hands out titles to players who are underrated by hundreds of Elo. Here is a look at this worrisome trend.

Dilijan WGP R7+8: Humpy continues to lead

6/25/2013 – In round seven Indian GM Koneru Humpy beat former women's world champion Antoaneta Stefanova with the black pieces. Her main rival, Anna Muzychuk, also won, defeating Nana Dzagnidze. In round eight both top seeds drew, leaving Humpy, whose performance is 2710, with a half-point lead. Our report contains light notes on all games plus a video of the free day outing.

Tanzania: Breaking preconceptions (part 1/2)

6/25/2013 – After an epic story of overcoming adversity, the one-time handmade soap maker, Vinay Choudary, now owner of Tanzania's top internet provider, organized the Spicenet Open Chess Championship in Tanzania, and invited chess ambassadors GM Nigel Short and WGM Alina L'Ami to honor the event and give it a touch of class. Here is part one of a large illustrated report by Alina L'Ami

Game changer at four – youngest chess player

6/24/2013 – What is the earliest age at which a child can learn chess – actually master all the rules of the game, play at club level and participate in national-level tournaments? Wrong – earlier! Sparsh Bisht learnt the moves at three years and ten months, and four months later has been playing in tournaments against opponents double his age. He teaches us: never underestimate the mind of a child!