Mar del Plata 2012 : The banana ate the monkey

10/23/2012 – In the last couple of rounds, fraught with swings and upheavals, Peruvian GM Julio Granda Zuniga came out the great winner, followed by Alexander Shabalov, Diego Flores, Gregory Kaidanov, and Canadian IM Eric Hansen. The five fought for four spots in the round-robin tiebreak and it all came down to the last game. Read what happened and the meaning of the title in the final illustrated report.

Unive Hoogeveen: Nakamura wins again, beats Hou Yifan

10/23/2012 – Top US grandmaster Hikaru Nakamura won the second of three games in the Univé Crown group, beating women's world champion Hou Yifan after she had blundered on move 19. This translates to a 2936 performance so far, with a five-point rating gain. Sergey Tiviakov drew against Dutch prodigy Anish Giri. Wednesday is a free day, the return round begins on Thursday. Commentary by GM Eltaj Safarli.

Endgame Magic with GM Karsten Müller

10/22/2012 – 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.

Chess Train Tournament a great success

10/21/2012 – From October 12-16 a special train transported 46 chess players from ten different countries across the Czech Republic, Germany, Poland, Slovakia and Austria. On board they played a 13-round rapid chess tournament. The oldest participant was 77, the youngest a seven-year-old prodigy from China. There was also time for a charity simul. Don't miss this big pictorial report.

Mar del Plata 2012 : A midnight football mob

10/21/2012 – It started with a classic game of football being organized by the players. Usually, this sort of informal affair is lightly attended, but it bears remembering this is South America where football is as much religion as it is sport. As a result, two fields were required to fit the 30-40 players who turned up and played from ten at night until two in the morning.

Unive Crown Group Hoogeveen: Nakamura beats Giri in round one

10/21/2012 – The 16th Univé Chess Festival is taking place from the 19th to 27th of October 2012, in Hoogeveen, Holland. The main event is a four-player Crown Group double round robin with Hikaru Nakamura, USA, Anish Giri and Sergey Tiviakov, Holland, and women's world champion Hou Yifan, China. The average rating is 2695, making this a category 18 tournament. Report with GM commentary.

Final online qualifier for World Mind Games

10/20/2012 – Tonight, Saturday, October 20th, at 16:00h = 4:00 p.m. CEST (click for world-wide timings), the final round of the World Mind Games qualifier will be held on the Playchess server. It is your last chance to win an all-paid trip to Bejing to attend the 2012 Games. Today the 15 places in the candidates tournament will be fixed – GMs with a 2550+ rating can come in at this phase. Don't miss this opportunity.

Mar del Plata 2012 : A leader at last; Hungaski scores two norms

10/20/2012 – With warming weather, excellent seafood, and great wines, it is hard to only consider the tournament, no matter how important it may be in the calendar of events in the Americas. Still, one player managed to grab the podium all to himself: 23-year-old Venezuelan GM Eduardo Iturrizaga. Also, taking advantage of a last-pick chance, IM Hungaski has scored two norms. Report and GM commentary.

Award winning documentary 'Brooklyn Castle' opens today

10/20/2012 – Brooklyn Castle is a documentary about I.S. 318 – an inner-city school where more than 65 percent of students are from homes with incomes below the federal poverty level – that also happens to have the best, most winning junior high school chess team in the country. There have been rave reviews in Time and the New York Times, and a section today on MSNBC Today. Report and trailer.

Your judgement, please

10/19/2012 – In this position with mutual rook batteries and knight forks, three continuations are to be considered - one wins for White, one for Black and one leads to a roughly equal situation. Make your pick!
A) 47...Qa7 48.Qxd6
B) 47...Qa7 48.Ng5+
C) 47...Ne5 48.Rxe5

ChessBase Magazine, larger diagram and solution.

ECCC Eilat: Socar overtakes Saint-Petersburg, wins Gold

10/18/2012 – It was a dramatic final round: the rating favorite Socar Azerbaijan was trailing Saint-Petersburg Chess Federation significantly in tiebreak points, but they were able to overcome this by trouncing the very strong Tomsk-400 team to win the gold medal in the 28th European Club Cup 2012. Women's gold had been decided by Monte-Carlo one round before the end. Final report.

Indonesia Open 2012: Resounding win for Yu Yangyi

10/18/2012 – The Indonesian Open took place from October 10-17 in Jakarta, Indonesia, and was a success by all counts. It was an immensely strong open inasmuch as of the 106 participants, no fewer than 79 were FIDE titled. The tournament was a resounding success for Yu Yangyi, who scored 7.5/9, with an impressive 2825 performance. Report with interview of Yu Yangyi.

Mar del Plata 2012 : A bloodthirsty round at the top

10/18/2012 – If round six saw the leaders caught by others, it was merely a prelude to the cutthroat round to follow. On the top ten boards, there were only two draws and many a head was lopped off. It started top-seed Lazaro Bruzon beating his compatriot in just 22 moves, followed by wins by Leitão, Iturrizaga, and Ortiz. Report, pictures and an annotated game by GM Sergio Slipak.

ECCC Eilat: three teams catch Saint-Petersburg

10/17/2012 – In a dramatic sixth round defending champions Saint-Petersburg Chess Federation lost for the first time, 2.5:3.5 to Socar Azerbaijan. With that they were caught by the Azeris, as well as by Ashdod, who beat Economist Saratov 3.5:2.5 and Tomsk who crushed Ugra 4.5:1.5. The women's section has already been decided, with Monte-Carlo winning the Cup deservedly. Big illustrated report.

Mar del Plata 2012 : The going gets tough

10/17/2012 – After round six a group of players merged with the leaders from round five, and eleven heavy guns lead. Though over one third of the players are titled, the ability of the rest has been a source of intense headache for one master after another. The players here are not coming to for a chess holiday, there are here for blood, and it shows. Round six report with GM commentary by Sergio Slipak.

World Chess Solving Championship 2012 in Kobe

10/17/2012 – For the first time in its history, the annual congress of the World Federation for Chess Composition took place in Japan. It included two official solving events: an Open tourney and the World Solving Championship. David Friedgood reports on the event and explains some of the tasks that were set. There were also two problems for you to solve. Here now are the solutions.

CBM training: Endgames training with game from recent events

10/16/2012 – Carlsen's king, Leko's initiative, Matlakov's mighty knight,Nakamura's knock out blow – those are subjects our ChessBase Magazine columnist GM Karsten Müller has pulled up from games from topical games played at the highest level. There is a lot to learn and many a rating point to pick up if you go through Dr Müller's clear and precise instructions. And it's free of charge.

ECCC Eilat: Saint-Petersburg takes the sole lead

10/16/2012 – The club from the north west of Russia did this thanks to wins by Peter Svidler and Nikita Vitiugov (against Ruslan Ponomariov and Viktor Bologan) in the top board, which left their main rivals and previous leaders Tomsk in joint second place – together with five other teams, including rating favourites Economist Saratov. There are two rounds to go. Illustrated round five report.

Mar del Plata 2012 : A cooling down

10/16/2012 – The fifth round at the 7th Continental marked a cooling down on all levels. On the one hand, the thermometer took a dive and everyone was greeted by heavy mists, and wet air. In the tournament, seventeen leaders were whittled down to only four at 4.5/5: Granda Zuniga, Iturrizaga, Bruzon Batista, and Valerga. Round five report with pictures and game commentary by GM Sergio Slipak.

Reminder: special offer of weekly ChessBase games download

10/15/2012 – After 14 years of service "The Week in Chess", which chess players have grown so used to, no longer provides a free weekly download of games. With that the "Get TWIC" button in ChessBase is also history. But don't panic, there's good news: ChessBase's own download service, with a total of well over 200,000 games a year, delivered on a weekly basis. And we have a very special offer.

ECCC Eilat: Saint-Petersburg and Tomsk lead with 8/8

10/15/2012 – Low flying planes are a common sight in the Israeli port city, where Tomsk-400 defeated Tammer-Shakki 6-0, while Saint-Petersburg CF, facing a much tougher opponent, Economist-SGSEU Saratov, won 3½-2½. Both teams still have a perfect match score, with Socar Azerbaijan (6:0 against Zurich) working hard to catch up. In the women's section Monte Carlo leads with 8/8. Round four report.

Mar del Plata 2012: A day of records

10/15/2012 – For anyone hoping to see the lineup of leaders by the end of four rounds, they have been served. Despite a tough playing schedule with no easy games, and a double-rounder on Sunday, none of the players were able to muster the strength for a perfect 4.0/4 and 100% score, and seventeen are tied at 3.5/4. Nevertheless it was a day for records. Illustrated report with analysis by GM Sergio Slipak

Bilbao Rd10: Carlsen takes title in blitz tiebreak

10/14/2012 – It wasn't for lack of playing in the final round, at least not for Magnus Carlsen. He may have played simply out of principle, but he was also playing for a place in history if he beat Aronian. No records fell, but he made no mistakes in his blitz tiebreak against the co-leader Fabiano Caruana, and took it 2-0 for yet another feather in his cap. Illustrated report with GM commentary.

ECCC Eilat: ...and then there were three

10/14/2012 – After three rounds of the European Club Cup 2012 there are three teams sharing the lead, with 6/6 match points: Saint-Petersburg, Economist Saratov and Tomsk-400. The top seed Socar Azerbaijan, which lost in round one, is staging a determined comeback with a 6-0 third-round win. In the women's section Monte-Carlo, led by Hou Yifan, won their third straight match and are in the sole lead.