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.

Coffin Nail Polish

9/7/2012 – In order to take advantage of her pawn on h3, the second player must find a way to clear the long diagonal and/or get access to the opponent's back rank. After 30...Bxf3 31.Rxf3 from the diagramm position, which is the winning continuation?
A) 31...Rxe2
B) 31...Rd4
C) neither nor, the exchange on f3 is premature.
ChessBase Magazine, larger diagram and solution.

Istanbul: Press conference with Andrew Paulson

9/7/2012 – "The energy that we see here is just incredible, very positive," said the American born London based entrepreneur, visiting his first Chess Olympiad. Andrew Paulson is the founder and director of Agon, the company which is going to organize World Chess Championship cycle for the next years. He told spectators how he intends to tap into the natural force of 600 million chess players worldwide.

Carlsen 'impresses the heck out of everyone'

9/6/2012 – Business Insider is a US business/entertainment news website, launched in February 2009 and based in New York City. Already they have published hundreds of chess related stories. Earlier this week there was one on Magnus Carlsen's visit to a chess camp in New York City. The story includes a video and a print interview with the world's number one. Excerpts.

Magnus Carlsen Storms New York's Chess Scene

9/6/2012 – They could barely reach the other side of the chessboard, but playing against the world's top-rated grandmaster Magnus Carlsen was a thrilling experience for many New York kids. Carlsen also played with billionaire investor and philanthropist George Soros, and a blitz game against one of the world's leading economists, Kenneth Rogoff. Lubomir Kavalek reports in The Huffington Post.

2012 Chess Olympiad Istanbul: Round nine

9/6/2012 – Sic transit gloria mundi. Yesterday the Russians were leading by two points, today they lost sensationally to the USA and now share the lead with three other teams. "The Olympiad has become a whole different tournament," writes our GM analyst Alejandro Ramirez. "It will be a sick bloodfest in the last two rounds." In the women's section China still leads. Report with GM commentary.

Metropolitan Chess Camp – Anand in Los Angeles

9/6/2012 – A month ago we got a call from Vishy Anand from Los Angeles, who was breathless exhilarated about a smoked salmon omlette "with lashings of guacamole" and the stunning view from his hotel. Anand was in Los Angeles, set to take part in a chess training camp with 100 youthful players, give lectures and a simul. The organiser of the camp, Ankit Gupta, sent us this pictorial report of Anand's visit.

Playchess on Android review

9/5/2012 – Although it has been some time in the coming, and was direly missed by many smartphone and tablet owners, the wait is over and the mobile Playchess client for Android is out! Above all, the app is free for download and use, so don’t even wait to finish reading this review, by all means download and get it now. To find out more though, read the review by Albert Silver.

2012 Chess Olympiad Istanbul: Round eight

9/5/2012 – "I promise not to do another Chinese game next round," wrote our GM commentator Alejandro Ramirez, "but this one was so pretty!" He is referring to Ding Liren vs Rauf Mamedov, from the China-Azerbaijan match. Russia increased their lead with a victory over defending champions Armenia, while in the women's section India has move up to second place (behind China). Report with GM commentary.

2012 Chess Olympiad Istanbul: Round seven

9/5/2012 – A single win is often enough: Russia beat Azerbaijan through a win by Grischuk; the defending champions from Ukraine defeated Spain through a win by Ivanchuk; England defeated Georgia with a win by Nigel Short; and China sensationally beat Armenia with a win by Wang Yue. In the women's section Poland held Russia 2-2. We bring you full GM analysis of two key games.

Morozevich wins 66th Moscow Blitz tournament

9/4/2012 – He recently forced to withdraw in the middle of the Biel tournament, due to illness, and had to be replaced by Tomashevsky in the Olympic team. But on Sunday he was well enough to crush the high-class opposition in the Moscow Blitz and win it with a two-point lead. Present was FIDE President, who announced his intention to stage an event in an out-of-the-world place.

2012 Chess Olympiad Istanbul: Round six

9/4/2012 – This round was a showcase of classic monster matches, says the official bulletin. "When Godzilla and King Kong fight you don't get in the way. You step back and watch the destruction, hoping you don't become collateral damage." The match of the day was Russia vs Armenia, the game of the day Kramnik vs Aronian. In the women's section it was China vs Russia. Report and videos.

Chess in Schools – a reality in India

9/3/2012 – A lot of people are talking about it, but in some places – and the most unlikely as such – it's a reality. In the SYNA International School of Katni, northern India, chess is a compulsory subject, same as math, geography or English. The school sends large numbers of students to national tournaments, and they bring home excellent results. Most are academic toppers too! Like to play them?

2012 Chess Olympiad Istanbul: Round five

9/2/2012 – Today saw a number of match-ups of powerhouse teams in the Open section. On the first match table, two-time Olympiad Champion Armenia defeated defending champions Ukraine 2,5-1,5, with Aronian scoring against Ivanchuk. GM Alejandro Ramirez wrote "Beautiful game by Lev, dude's a monster" – and sent us his analysis of the game Levon Aronian vs Vassily Ivanchuk. GM analysis.

FIDE September ratings – Magnus Carlsen at 2843

9/2/2012 – Just eight points left – he has gained six more points and is coming close to Garry Kasparov's legendary record. Hikaru Nakamura gained five points to climb from number 7 to 5. Wang Hao has gained 16, Anish Giri 19,Anton Korobov 22 and Romain Edouard a massive 26 points. Alexander Morozevich lost twelve and Viktor Bologan 22 points. FIDE September rankings.

Remembering Svetozar Gligoric (Part two)

9/2/2012 – One of the truly great chess players of the 20th Century, record national champion of Yugoslavia, theoretician, musician, author and gentleman, died two weeks ago at the age of 89. He is sorely missed by many, especially chess fans like Macedonian art historian Kiril Penusliski, who grew up with Gligoric as his great hero. In part two of his tribute Kiril shows us two beautifully games annotated.

German Chess Tennis Open Championship

9/1/2012 – Combined chess and boxing tournaments have already gained some popularity. In Baden Baden another combined chess event was held; chess was mixed with tennis. There were 30 participants, who played a tennis and then a chess tournament, seven rounds each. Our reporter, IM Tibor Károlyi of Hungary, took part quite successfully. Here his report.

2012 Chess Olympiad Istanbul: Round four

8/31/2012 – The top seeded Russians beat China in one of the derby matches of the Olympiad, USA vs India, Azerbaijan vs German and France vs England were drawn. There are four teams left who have won all their matches so far: Ukraine, Hungary, Armenia and Russia. Our round commentators GMs Alejandro Ramirez, Danny King and IM Andrew Martin all chose the same game of the day.

Chess Problems: The Half-pin Theme

8/31/2012 – When two chess pieces are half-pinned against the king, and one of them moves, the other becomes fully pinned – that is the "half-pin" theme in problem chess. It combines well with many other themes and motifs, providing fertile ground for composers for well over a century. Our problem expert David Friedgood explains the idea with two introductory problems, and gives us two more to solve.

Opposite coloured bishops ...

8/31/2012 – ... are known to favour the side with the initiative, here operating with queen, rook and bishop. The first player has just forced the move 32...h6 (why?), and now the sequence 33.Qc8+ Re8 34.Qd7 hitting d6 and g7 leads her to ...
A) ... victory;
B) ... a clearly better endgame;
C) ... defeat.

ChessBase Magazine, larger diagram and solution.

2012 Chess Olympiad Istanbul: Round two

8/30/2012 – "All the big teams came through unscathed today," says Daniel King in his play-of-the-day commentary, "but things were a lot closer. And there were a few individual stars who had problems. Ivanchuk looked to be in total control, but as we shall see things started happening in this game..." The super-GM lost to Qatari GM Mohamad Al-Modiahki, 227 points below him on the rating scale. A real shocker.

2012 Chess Olympiad Istanbul: Round three

8/30/2012 – In the first "clashes of the titans" we saw a number of board one wins that led to team victory. The dynamics of this are explained to us by GM Alejandro Ramirez, who has picked such a board one win for his game of the day – from the women's section. Andrew Martin shows us a loss by the veteran Alexander Beliavsky to the young Indian GM Pentala Harikrishna in his video analysis.

Aloha Vishy! The World Chess Champion visits Hawaii (Part 2)

8/30/2012 – During his recent stay in Hawaii Vishy Anand visited a scholastic tournament, thrilling the pants off the local students. There was a motivational speech, prizes, autographs. Our reporter Beau Mueller used the occasion to discuss the subject of chess in schools with someone who has recruited one and a half million students in 16,000 schools to take up the game.