Zero Tolerance, Sofia Rules and Dress Code

3/31/2012 – The events that have clouded the European Chess Championship in Plovdiv – after Shakhriyar Mamedyarov another Azeri GM, Eltaj Safarli, has abandoned the event after defaulting in round nine – have generated a great deal of discussion: is "zero tolerance" really necessary, how should one regulate draw offers, and should arbiters be measuring skirt lengths? Reader feedback.

CBM training: More endgames from Plovdiv

3/31/2012 – 350 participants, a number rated over 2700 – that is a guarantee for interesting endgames cropping up in every round. Our ChessBase Magazin expert Dr Karsten Müller continues to scour the games of the European Individual Championship for interesting and instructive endings, and brings you four examples to peruse over the weekend. Learn and enjoy.

Chinese Championship 2012 – Ding Liren takes off

3/31/2012 – The Chinese championship recently started and once more Hou Yifan is playing in the men's group. This time she is actually fourth in the starting ranks, currently ahead of Ni Hua. Her opening round was a mini-disaster as she lost to 19-year-old IM Wang Chen, but top-seed Wang Yue also fell to reigning champion, 19-year-old Ding Liren, who caught fire and is leading with 3.5/4. Report.

Kramnik on Chess, Anand, Topalov and his future – Part 1

3/31/2012 – "This is an interview I’ve long dreamt about," writes GM Vlad Tkachiev. However: "it’s not easy to wear someone down with tricky, controversial questions when they’re so pleasant – so impeccably polite, even aristocratic..." This long interview, conducted for the Russian news portal WhyChess, last year, starts with Vladimir Kramnik's take on chess and one of his main rivals in the game.

European Championship: Mamedyarov defaulted again, quits tournament

3/30/2012 – The second seed Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, who lost a game owing to the "zero tolerance" rule yesterday, today defaulted by breaking the "Sofia Rule", which does not allow draw offers to be made before move 40, and always through the arbiter. A second game, Baron-Safarli, was similarly defaulted. Mamedyarov quit the tournament and will not be playing in the remaining rounds. What a mess.

Mate threats

3/30/2012 – White has just thrown his strongest piece into the attack with 18.Qh5 (diagram), whereupon 18...hxg5? now would obviously be suicidal. Instead, what is the best defence for Black?
A) 18...Bf6
B) 18...dxe3
C) 18...Bxg5 19.hxg5 dxe3

ChessBase Magazine, larger diagram and solution.

European Championship: Mamedyarov defaulted 'for ten second delay'

3/29/2012 – The "Zero Tolerance" rule strikes again. This time it was second seed Shakhriyar Mamedyarov who ran afoul of a rule that punishes any player who is not seated at the board when the starting gong for a round sounds with immediate forfeit. As the Azeri wrote in his Twitter, he arrived about ten seconds late for a game that was supposed to cement his second half comeback. Round eight report.

Alina's Tunisian Chess Adventure

3/29/2012 – Chess tournaments are not just about moves and norms, trophies and prize sums. When a very dedicated sponsor and organiser like Kamel Meddeb takes it into his mind to stage a big event in Tunisia, and concentrates on making all participants feel good about it, you get something culturally enjoyable as well, as our roving reporter Alina L'Ami shows us in this big pictorial report.

Breaking news: FIDE announced new dates for Candidates

3/28/2012 – After numerous protests about the scheduling of the next Candidates Tournament – in October, in the middle of the high season of chess – FIDE and its new organiser Andrew Paulson have relented and moved the Candidates to March 2013, where it will clash with nothing. For a second time Magnus Carlsen, who is intimately affected by the decision, was surprised – this time pleasantly so.

The Lewis Chessmen: Lilleøren's final remark

3/27/2012 – The Icelandic-Norwegian battle over the origin of the famous (infamous?) Lewis Chessmen – a collection of chess pieces, handcrafted in the 12th century – has been waging for almost two years now. The Norwegian critic of the Icelandic theory, Morten Lilleøren, has sent us final remarks. With it we close our discussion of the subject, which may be continued in archeological and historical journals.

Chess Problems: The Self-block Put to Bed

3/27/2012 – This popular theme in problem chess – a piece on the defending side blocks a flight square of the king, thus enabling the attacker to mate – is also seen in normal games. In its pure form, or as a weakening with a delayed effect, examples on a par with composed problems are rare. Our problem expert David Friedgood asked our readers to look for OTB self-blocks. Here are some results.

Martin: First Steps in Positional Play

3/27/2012 – "IM Andrew Martin is a well-organised presenter. He is clearly in command of his material, appears practiced, addresses the audience direct to the camera, and explains lucidly at an appropriate learner level. Rather than just talking chess, chugging dourly click-click-click through games, I found Martin to be engaging, good-humoured and easy viewing." BCM Review by Simon Bibby.

Chess in the birthplace of Modern Persian

3/27/2012 – Mashhad is known as the city of Ferdowsi (940–1020), the Iranian poet and author of Shahnameh (“Book of Kings”), which is considered to be the most important work in Persian literature. Ferdowsi also loved chess, and wrote poetry about its emergence. In his honor, the 2nd Ferdowsi International Chess Open was recently held. 16-year-old FM Nima Javanbakht has the report. | Pictured: Courtiers of Bayasanghori playing chess in the Shahnameh | Public domain

Official web site of the World Championship match

3/27/2012 – In one month and 13 days the opening ceremony of the World Chess Championship match between Viswanathan Anand and his challenger Boris Gelfand will be opened, in the world famous Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow. The event now has its official web site, where you can find out all about the players, the venue, sponsors, rules and the schedule. Take a look.

Kavalek in Huffington: The Road to Chess Mastery

3/26/2012 – How much do you have to know to become a strong chess player? According to Russian folklore you have to know 300 chess positions to become a grandmaster, but nobody knows what exactly these positions are. Clearly there is is something in the number 300 that attracts chess writers, as GM Lubomir Kavalek explains in his latest Huffington Post column, which is all about books.

Edward Winter's Chess Explorations (81)

3/26/2012 – We have more on the fascinating topic of the Fischer v Gligorić training match played in 1992. The previous Chess Explorations article gave a reader's inspired reconstruction of one of the games from Fischer's almost illegible score-sheet. Now the Editor of Chess Notes shows further archive material and also quotes some disclosures which he has received from Gligorić about the secret match.

European Championship: six players default on DST

3/26/2012 – Daylight saving time is the practice of advancing clocks so that evenings have more daylight and mornings less. Clocks are adjusted forward one hour near the start of spring and backward in autumn. The date for the spring adjustment was Saturday night. Unfortunately the Georgian squad, with two players set to break performance records, did a Darwinian screw-up of the time switch.

Kasparov – picking games for the Chess Informant

3/26/2012 – The Chess Informant is a periodical publication with a survey of topical games, annotated by experts. Now, as the publishers proudly inform us, they have a special section in which former World Champion Garry Kasparov annotates the game he considers most important. It starts in the next issue, and the Director of the Informant tells us we will never guess which game Kasparov chose.

5th World Conference Women and Sport

3/25/2012 – The International Olympic Committee organizes a World Conference on Women and Sport every four years to analyze the progress made within the Olympic Movement and identify ways to improve and increase the participation of women in the world of sport. Participants from more than 130 countries were present, including the Commission for Women’s Chess (WOM) this year. Martha Fierro reports.

Shevah Mofet vs Robert Bosch Comprehensive School online

3/25/2012 – These days, as the Internet has opened its borders and the entire globe has become so close, it is not a surprise that organizing Internet chess events is one of the most exciting ways to promote connections, not only among countries, but also among schools. Last Thursday two elite schools, one in Germany and one in Israel, played a match on five boards on Playchess. GM Boris Alterman reports.

CBM training: Endgames from Plovdiv

3/24/2012 – The European Individual Championship is under way, with almost 350 participants, fifteen of whom are rated over 2700. It is clear there there are some interesting endgame battles, and our ChessBase Magazin expert Dr Karsten Müller has selected four intructive examples for you. Use them to hone your endgame skills and give yourself a weekend Elo boost.

Gawain Jones leads with 4.0/4 in Plovdiv

3/24/2012 – On the top twelve boards there were eleven draws in round four of the European Championship in Bulgaria. The one decisive game was the black piece win by Gawain Jones against Russian GM Boris Savchenko,. The English GM is now the only player left with a perfect score. GM Alejandro Ramirez has selected a game that wasn't one of the top top boards, but which he found to be highly entertaining.

Plovdiv European Championship: Revolt of the underrated

3/23/2012 – There were plenty of upsets in the first three rounds in Bulgaria. Typically an IM or even FM rated 250 points below his opponent would take the full point, often with the black pieces. There are now eleven players with 3.0/3 and 41 with 2½ points. The hero of round two was 15-year-old Illya Nyzhnyk, who defeated Dutch Champion Anish Giri, 132 points his senior. Report with GM commentary.

YouTube chess archives

3/23/2012 – YouTube needs no introduction, and just grows and grows and grows. This year it was announced that the daily views of videos already number the billions. It is no surprise that rare footage of all kinds of events and people is appearing, and chess is no exception. While perusing it, we found video of Rubinstein, Capablanca, Botvinnik, and even Karpov's analysis of Fischer-Spassky 1972.