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.

Ivanchuk in Istanbul

9/14/2012 – The first player has sacrificed a piece to invade with his rook on the 7th rank, but the calm 24.Raf1 in the diagram position would allow the excuse 24...Qxg2+. The alternative 24.gxh7+ Kxf7 leads to ...
A) ... a white victory by force
B) ... perpetual check
C) ... a winning position for Black

ChessBase Magazine, larger diagram and solution.

Hou Yifan: 'A Humble World Champion'

9/14/2012 – At 14 she became the youngest female (full) grandmaster in history, at sixteen the youngest Women's World Chess Champion, and remains today, behind the perennial Judit Polgar, the second highest ranked female player in the world (and chess history). At the Istanbul Olympiad her performance on board one was 2645, her highest rating ever was 2635. WhyChess interview with lovely pictures.

Chess Masters Final in Sao Paulo and Bilbao

9/14/2012 – Five of the world's best players will be there: World Champion Vishy Anand, world number one Magnus Carlsen, number two Levon Aronian, number seven Sergey Karjakin and eight Fabiano Caruana. Joining them will be the ever creative Paco Vallejo. The double round robin is split between São Paulo, Brazil, and Bilbao, Spain. It starts on September 23 and is played in a glass cube.

Kavalek in Huffington: Looking back at Istanbul

9/13/2012 – All the chess news sites reported on it extensively, but it is good to see a massive article on the 40th Chess Olympiad in a non-chess portal, with five pivotal games from the event, all beautifully annotated by GM Lubomir Kavalek. The most attention is given to the US team and its heros, for instance Hikaru Nakamura, who surpassed Bobby Fischer's rating record of 2785 in Istanbul. Nice long read.

Garry Kasparov on FIDE and Istanbul Olympiad

9/13/2012 – The 13th world champion was not in Istanbul just to cheer on the Russian team and its new coach, his old trainer Yuri Dokhoian. Kasparov took part in complex negotiations to reform FIDE's rules on elections, stemming from lawsuits against FIDE during the 2010 Karpov campaign. In this exclusive interview we also get his thoughts on the Russian and Armenian teams, and even some chess.

2012 Chess Olympiad: a hero's welcome for the Armenian team

9/12/2012 – When you see the pictures in our report, and especially when you watch the video, you have to think for yourself: if my country had won Gold at a chess Olympiad, would the reception in Moscow, New York, Frankfurt, Paris, Beijing, wherever, have been similarly effusive? The Armenian government and chess fans provided a wonderful reception for their warriors returning from Istanbul.

Lilov DVD: Attacking a king which has castled short

9/12/2012 – "This is another solid effort from FM Lilov, writes Chess Cafe reviewer Steven Dowd. "Where the DVD is truly valuable is in its coverage of pawn attacks and pawn storms, which constitute five of the lessons. It has something of value for all players, especially those who have not explored the topic of attacking the castled king in depth." Steven gives the product five stars: 'Highly recommended'.

For sale: rare Fischer handwritten chess notes

9/12/2012 – The 1970 blitz tournament in Herceg Novi was one of the strongest of all time, with four World Champions competing. It was won by Robert Fischer, with 19/22 points, 4½ ahead of the field. Interestingly Fischer annotated his games, and his notes are now up for sale in an auction (36 pages, current bid £220). We have reconstructed the first game from images of the pages. Will you help do the rest?

CBM training: Learning from the Chess Olympiad

9/11/2012 – The biggest chess event of the year is over – but not for us. GM Karsten Müller, our ChessBase Magazine columnist, has been busy looking at the endings in literally hundreds of games played in Istanbul and come up with a lot of instructive positions. In this installment he shows us Volokitin's breakthrough, a race of passed pawns, and of rook pawns, and finally Oswaldo Zambrana's Octopus.

Ashley Chess Girl – fundraising for Maribor

9/10/2012 – From November 7 to 19 there is a World Youth Chess Championship in Maribor, Slovenia, with over 1500 participants. Ashley Tapp from Canada has just qualified, but unfortunately there is no state or federation sponsorship for the trip, and the family cannot provide the substantial funds involved. So this enterprising young lady is trying to raise the amount herself. Ashley is twelve years old.

2012 Chess Olympiad Istanbul: Closing ceremony

9/10/2012 – The celebrations at the close of the 40th Chess Olympiad took place after the final round, with the medals going to Armenia, Russia and Ukraine in the Open section, and to Russia, China and Ukraine in the Women's. We have some interesting statistics in the best players in the event – guess who has a 2880 performance in ten games! Well, that's it, the next Olympiad is in Tromsø in 2014.

2012 Chess Olympiad Istanbul: Armenia, Russia win Gold

9/9/2012 – After ten rounds China was leading in both groups. But in the Open section they lost 1-3 to Ukraine, while Armenia and Russia both won. On tiebrake points Armenia took Gold, with Russia and Ukraine following with Silver and Bronze. In the Women's section China won 2.5-1.5, but the Russians beat Kazakhstan 4-0. There Russia won Gold, China and Ukraine got Silver and Bronze. Full report.

2012 Chess Olympiad Istanbul: Round ten

9/8/2012 – After nine rounds four teams were in the joint lead in match points. One of them, the USA, suffered a fairly devastating loss against another from the group: China. The other two, Russia and Armenia, both won their matches, so that now they are three in the lead. In the women's section Russia crushed Armenia to join China in the lead. Illustrated report with GM commentary.

Lilov DVD: Tactics – From Basics to Brilliance

9/8/2012 – "I always wonder why opening trainers are so popular," writes Chess Cafe reviewer Steven Dowd, "until I find myself playing poorly in the opening – and then I wonder why there aren't more!" The latest DVD by Valery Lilov has sixty-two games, dealing with knight forks, weaknesses on files and diagonals, discovered attacks, overloading, and misplaced pieces. Steven gives it five out of six stars.

2012 Chess Olympiad Istanbul: Final round clashes

9/8/2012 – Sunday is the big showdown, with the chess equivalent of blood and gore to be expected. In both sections the Chinese teams lead, on tiebreak points. In the Open section they have the same match points as two others, in the Women's with one other team. We bring you the final pairings and the tiebreak rules, and show you where you can watch everything live. Games start at 11:00 a.m.