Tal Memorial Rd5 – Morozevich takes sole lead with 4.0/5

6/13/2012 – The fifth round finally saw one player pull ahead for the clear lead: Alexander Morozevich. Aronian played a risky strategy when he sacrificed a piece for a number of pawns. With very little time, he could not find the best moves, and was lost by the time control. Radjabov allowed Carlsen to equalize, and in a slightly unpleasant endgame, overreacted and lost. Report, video, and GM commentary.

Kazan GP Rd.4: Hou Yifan loses again, Danielian in the sole lead

6/13/2012 – The women's world champion is definitely out of sorts. After losing in the second round to the bottom seed she lost today, again with the white pieces, against Lituanian GM Viktorija Cmilyte. Four games were decisive, and the win by Elina Danielian against Tatiana Kosintseva brought the Armenian GM 3.0/4 and sole first place, with a 2703 performance. Round four report.

Chess Problems: Solutions to the Obstruction problems

6/12/2012 – In his last column David Friedgood explained the concept of "obstruction" – which occurs when a piece moves to a square so that another piece is prevented from occupying it. He gave us examples that showed the basic idea and two three-movers to solve. Noam Elkies, a Harvard maths professor and himself a composer and solving GM, commented succinctly on the second example: 'Hilarious!'

Match of the Century chessboard up for sale on Thursday

6/12/2012 – We reported on some very special items that were up for sale by the auction house Bruun Rasmussen in Copenhagen: the board, chess pieces, table and clock used in parts of the 1972 Reyjkavik match between Spassky and Fischer. Even the Shah of Iran was originally interested. Bidding starts on Thursday, June 14th, at 5:00 p.m. Einar Einarsson fills us in on the background of the auction.

Tal Memorial Rd4 – Radjabov and Morozevich lead

6/12/2012 – It was a highly entertaining round once again, but this time Magnus Carlsen was at the center of it. The number one took incredible risks throughout his game to try and beat Grischuk, but eventually they drew as the time control arrived. Morozevich and Radjabov played a lukewarm game and drew. Caruana was the only win, beating Tomashevsky. Full report with notes by GM Alejandro Ramirez.

Kazan GP Rd.3: four decisive games, Muzychuk and Danielian lead

6/12/2012 – Nadezhda Kosintseva and Viktorija Cmilyte won their white games, the former in a 78-move grind against Alexandra Kosteniuk, the latter in a super-sharp middlegame attack. Hou Yifan recovered after the previous round loss and outplayed Tatiana Kosintseva with black, Elina Danielian defeated Betul Yildiz from Turkey. Anna Muzychuk drew with Humpy Koneru but still leads. Round three report.

Vallejo win the jubilee Ciudad de Leon Masters 3½-2½

6/11/2012 – In spite of Nadal-Djokovic in Paris and Spain-Italy in Gdansk more than 200 people showed up to watch the third day of Topalov-Vallejo Leon. Actually, in the lobby of the theatre fans could watch all three encounters, including some exciting rapid chess. On day two Vallejo scored 1.5/2 and on the final day each player chalked up a win. Once again the games were marked by multiple inaccuracies.

Nigel Davies: The Nimzowitsch-Larsen Attack

6/11/2012 – Openings are king again this month's Chess Cafe reviews, with two trainers on openings, and one middlegame strategy trainer on diagonals and files. The first is Nigel Davies' Nimzowitsch-Larsen Attack which, according to reviewer Steven Dowd is "for any player who wants to try an opening where plans and ideas trump memorized lines." He calls it 'a phenomenal trainer'.

Clash of the Kings: Karpov vs Seirawan

6/11/2012 – Anatoly Karpov is of course the legendary World Champion – 1975-1985, and FIDE Champion 1993-1999. Yasser Seirawan, a former world junior champion and four-time US champion, is today a respected author and commentator. Both are theoretically in retirement, but have come out for a match against each other from June 9 to 13 in the Saint Louis Chess Club. You can watch it live.

Kazan GP: Turkey's Yildiz shocks world champion Hou Yifan

6/11/2012 – It was the top against the bottom seed, the highest rated against the lowest rated player in the event. But Turkish law student WGM Betul Cemre Yildiz, playing with the black pieces, profited from a time trouble blunder by her opponent, Chinese GM Hou Yifan and finished the reigning women's world champion off in 34 moves. We bring you an illustrated report after round two.

The Personal Island of Anastasia Golubenko (Part one)

6/10/2012 – Like a bright comet in the cool Estonian sky she appeared, a quarter-century ago, from her far-off Volgograd island, to mass-produce a youthful army of chess champions of Estonia, Russia, Europe and the world. Then she made her final journey back to her home and her parents, full of vitality, which slowly ebbed from her. After a long illness Anastasia Golubenko, 46, died. She will not be forgotten.

FIDE Women's Grand Prix starts in Kazan

6/10/2012 – This twelve-player round robin has a 40,000 Euro prize fund, is part of the FIDE Women's Grand Prix circuit, and has most of the world's elite female players – Hou Yifan, Muzychuk, Humpy, Lahno, the Kosintseva sisters, Stefanova – at the start. Sunday is the first round, and the organisers have promised HD video broadcasts. The opening ceremony was yesterday – here's an illustrated report.

Tal Memorial Rd3 – A round of sacrifices to win, draw, and lose

6/10/2012 – It was a round of sacrifices all round with all the results possible. The first was McShane's brilliant exchange sacrifice that stranded Aronian's king with deadly effect. Then came Kramnik's exchange sacrifice to neutralize Radjabov, and hold the balance. Finally, it was Grischuk who went for broke against Morozevich in a crazy game, but lost. Round three report with GM commentary and video.

Vallejo leads in jubilee Ciudad de León Masters

6/9/2012 – This year it is being staged for the 25th consecutive time, from June 8–10. It pits Bulgarian GM and former FIDE world champion Veselin Topalov against his former second Francisco Vallejo, top Spanish GM. In both games of the first day it was Black who had a clear advantage, with White able to defend – until the very last move of the second game, when Topalov was felled by a terrible blunder.

Chess Olympiad in Istanbul – officials from seven countries banned

6/9/2012 – At a recent FIDE meeting the Turkish Chess Federation, which is host to the 40th Chess Olympiad, was given a list of arbiters for the event. TCF President Ali Nihat Yazici rejected any officials from seven countries – England, France, Georgia, Germany, Switzerland, Ukraine and the USA – for supporting court cases against FIDE and causing financial damage. The affected federations have protested.

Tal Memorial Rd2 – Kramnik wins model game; Carlsen escapes Moro

6/9/2012 – Kramnik once said that the biggest lesson he learned from the elite was how resiliently they defended. Today Carlsen showed the same gumption as he saved a nightmare position in which Morozevich had doubled rooks on his seventh. McShane cracked at move 40 against Radjabov, while Kramnik played a model game in an impressive win over Grischuk. Illustrated report with GM analysis.

Tal Memorial blitz – A look at some brilliancies

6/8/2012 – The Tal Memorial Blitz was a very fun event for all, as remarked, but it was more than simply a source of frenetic clock slamming and flying pieces. It was the source of more than a few very spectacular shots. It is always a reminder what separates the cream of the crop from the rest of humanity. We separated a handful for your enjoyment.

Tal Memorial Rd1 – White sweeps round with four wins

6/8/2012 – After an exciting blitz tournament to open the Tal Memorial, the question was whether the players could keep the energy level that high. The answer? White registered four wins. Nakamura lost to Aronian after a fatal oversight, while Radjabov outwitted Tomashevsky. Still, Morozevich's inspired win over Caruana was the game of the day. Illustrated report with videos and GM analysis.

Deep Fritz 13 with blow-your-mind functions

6/8/2012 – "So what will Deep Fritz 13 bring," a top GM asked us recently. "More engine strength and multi-processing?" Yes, but in addition our new program lets you access it – or other chess engines – from remote locations, providing awesome power "from the cloud" on your tiny portable notebook. You can even rent other people's hardware at the click of the mouse. Get the download version today.

Central knight in action

6/7/2012 – White wants to catch Black's lonely queen. Which continuation allows him to attain this goal?

A) 47.Nxe6+;
B) 47.Qh3 Kf7;
C) 47.Kg5 Qa2

ChessBase Magazine, larger diagram and solution.

Seventh Tal Memorial in Moscow – preliminary blitz

6/7/2012 – The Tal Memorial is a ten-player round robin with eight of the top eleven players in the world taking part. It started on June 7th with a unique drawing of colours: instead of the usual staid ceremony it will be a full-blown nine-round blitz tournament with a 15,000 Euros prize fund – which we were able to watch in a full HD live video stream. Wonderfully executed – to the organisers we say: Chapeau!

Romanian Team Rapid Cup – Impressions of Bucharest

6/7/2012 – Every year around the same dates, end of May – beginning of June, the Romanian Team Rapid Cup is being held. It was a weekend of frenetic chess, and meetings with old friends, but above all, it was a chance to rediscover Bucharest, once known as 'Little Paris', and remake a distorted impression, in this beautifully illustrated report by Alina L'Ami.

Women's World Blitz – Gunina wins with a 2804 performance

6/6/2012 – It was almost Fischer-like: European champion Valentina Gunina ravaged the opposition and finished with an unprecedented 13.0/15, a full 2½ points ahead of her nearest rivals (Natalia Zhukova and Anna Muzychuk). Gunina, the only IM in the top group of five GMs, did not lose a single game. We bring you results, a video report and closing ceremony pictures in our final report.

The Power Play Show with GM Daniel King

6/6/2012 – Improvement of your own play is one of the main aims when you are engaged in chess training. GM Daniel King is an expert who can guide you in achieving this goal. In his Power Play show he will present a bunch of practical examples and show you how to handle different kinds of positions, which will help improve your practical results. An example and more information.