Miss Mitropa Muzychuk scores 8/9

5/31/2005 – The Mitropa Cup, a yearly championship for European teams, was won in a breath-taking finish by Slovenia this year. They did it both in the men's section with a last-minute victory over Hungary. In the women's section it was mainly due to an 8/9 score by 15-year-old Anna Muzychuk. Illustrated report.

Sergey Karjakin, the Wizard of Kirishi

5/31/2005 – The exciting Young Stars tournament in Kirishi ended in a most predictable way – top seed Sergey Karjakin, 15, secured victory with a round to spare. After an understandably shaky start (he had been in a car crash in Greece) Serge picked up speed, winning six of the last eight games to take the title with a round to spare. Beautiful illustrated report by Misha Savinov.

Searching multiple databases in ChessBase 9

5/31/2005 – In what may be the shortest ChessBase Workshop column ever, Steve Lopez takes a fast and dirty look at how to perform a search across multiple databases using ChessBase 9. Yes, it's that easy...

He beat Lasker, Capablanca, Alekhine – and old age

5/30/2005 – GM Andor Lilienthal has played against ten world champions, beating a number of them in the process. At 94 he is in good health, active and cheerful, writing articles for chess magazines and zipping around Budapest in his Toyota Yaris. Slobodan Adzic attended the birthday celebrations of this amazing man.

ChessBase Expedition to the Bismarck Springs

5/30/2005 – Once a year our company stages an outing for all its employees. Somehow we are able to make these trips exciting and adventurous, even if we restrict ourselves to northern Germany. This year we went on a search for the legendary Bismarck Springs, the source of the nation's favourite bottled water. Illustrated report.

FIDE and ACP start talking

5/30/2005 – Official bearers of the world chess federation have met with those of the professional chess association to discuss differences of opinion and search for common ground. The meeting touched on anti-doping, anti-computer, official hotels, time controls, but not, apparently, on reunification. We bring you a summary.

Monokroussos on Shirov vs Grischuk, Delhi 2000

5/29/2005 – It is the FIDE world championship in Delhi. Two of the most exciting players in the world are battling in the semi-finals. Each wins a game; the final decision comes in the third encounter, a spectacular attack and counterstrike affair. Dennis Monokroussos discusses it in his Monday night lecture.

Peter Leko vs Michael Adams rapid chess match

5/29/2005 – Keep the second half of next week free for an interesting match featuring the world's number three and six players (excluding Kasparov). From June 2nd to 5th Peter Leko and Michael Adams will play eight rapid games in Miskolc, eastern Hungary. Here are details and links.

Kramnik on Sofia, blunders, world championships

5/29/2005 – After his disastrous result (and multiple blunders) at the Mtel Super GM in Sofia Vladimir Kramnik was suprisingly relaxed and cheerful, at least when he spoke to the chess journalist of the Russian news magazine Sport Express. In a long interview he answers a number of questions that chess fans all over the world were asking. Here are excerpts.

Breaking news: Fischer comeback?

5/27/2005 – Bobby Fischer is considering returning to the arena of competitive chess. Yesterday he met with his former adversary Boris Spassky, who travelled to Iceland with the expressed purpose of "drawing Fischer back to the chessboard". Fischer is agreeable to the notion, but insists on a worthy opponent and Fischer Random rules. Video report.

Come watch the Accoona match in New York

5/26/2005 – On June 21st the reigning FIDE world champion Rustam Kasimdzhanov is scheduled to play a chess match against the "AI Accoona ToolBar". The venue is Times Square in New York, and the organisers, Accoona Corp., is making 225 free tickets available to our ChessBase new readers. Come and get them...

Mtel wrap-up: looking back at Sofia

5/26/2005 – The Mtel Masters in Sofia, one of the most interesting Super GM tournaments of the year, ended last Sunday with a resounding victory for local hero Veselin Topalov. Our photo reporter Valery Zahov provides his impressions of the closing ceremony and of the Bulgarian capital in a spectacular pictorial report.

Adams vs Hydra in London

5/26/2005 – Hydra, a machine with the processing power of more than 200 standard PCs, is arguably the world’s most powerful chess computer. From June 21-27 the 64-way cluster computer, housed in Abu Dhabi, will play a $150,000 match against top British GM Michael Adams. Hydra has never been beaten by a human.

Alexandra Kosteniuk, Russian Champion

5/26/2005 – She is a disconcertingly beautiful creature, the perfect subject for glamour shoots. When dealing with Alexandra Kosteniuk one sometimes tends to forget that she is also intelligent, analytical and extremely determined – winning the Russian Women's Championship with 9/11 and a performance rating of 2691 speaks for itself.

The Greatest Chess Player of All Time – Part IV

5/25/2005 – So tell us already, who was the greatest chess performance of all time? After analysing and dissecting many different aspects of this question, Jeff Sonas wraps it up in the final installment of this series, awarding his all-time chess "Oscar" nomination to the overall greatest of all time.

The $20,000 free-for-all chess tournament

5/24/2005 – Like to play in a grandmaster tournament? From your home and for a substantial prize fund? With a guarantee that you will not disgrace yourself? Then think about joining the first PAL/CSS Freestyle Chess Tournament, where anything goes. Where computer assistance is not forbidden, it is positively encouraged. Here are all the details.

The fake Heroes of Chernobyl revisited

5/23/2005 – A few weeks ago we reported on a tournament that had supposedly been held in Óity a Slavutich, Ukraine. Nigel Short commented on this fake event in his Telegraph column. Now the Ukraine Chess Federation tells us it has investigated and found that the event was indeed an 'open and shameless falsification'

Young Stars of the World

5/23/2005 – Is Russia still the greatest chess power in the world? It doubtlessly was, but recent events have raised doubts on whether it will last for long. Now all eyes are on the younger boys, and the chess federation is gathering the most talented juniors for training and tournaments. The latest is a Young Stars tournament in Kirishi.

Topping off Mtel – the early Topalov

5/22/2005 – He has just won Linares and Sofia, but Veselin Topalov showed the same kind of brilliance – not to mention the savage attacking style – ten years ago. In his Monday night Radio ChessBase lecture on Playchess.com Dennis Monokroussos discusses a razor-sharp game from 1996.

Mtel R10: Topalov wins Mtel by a full point

5/22/2005 – Local hero Veselin Topalov won the Mtel Super GM after Vladimir Kramnik blundered incredibly in their last-round game. Since Vishy Anand drew against Judit Polgar, Topalov is a full point ahead of the field. The Bulgarian GM will probably top the next FIDE rating list. Full illustrated report.

Finding variations on training disks - part 2

5/22/2005 – In the second and final installment of a short ChessBase Workshop series, we take a look at two additional ways to isolate specific variations from a ChessBase opening CD using ChessBase 9. Workshop...

Spassky and living chess in Frascati

5/21/2005 – A beautiful historical town south-east of Rome is hosting a Chess Week, which includes a GM tournament beginning on Sunday. To kick things off ex world champion Boris Spassky attended the inaugural ceremony and reconstructed a game he had played against Italian GM Sergio Mariotti in 1976 on a live chess board.

Mtel R9: Topalov on the top of the world

5/21/2005 – With a third win in four games (this time over Ruslan Ponomariov) Bulgarian star Veselin Topalov quite appropriately took the sole lead in the Super GM tournament in Sofia. Vishy Anand won his black game against Michael Adams to take second place, with one round to go. Here's our updated Illustrated report.

Mtel R8: All games drawn in Sofia

5/20/2005 – After two very exciting rounds, with only one drawn game, today the players in Sofia had a more peaceful day. But of course bare results can be deceptive: Topalov vs Judit Polgar was a bitter 68-move struggle. We bring you an (updated) full report with lots of beautiful pictures by Valery Zahov.