World Cup R5 tiebreaks: It's Russia vs Ukraine in the semifinals

9/11/2011 – Alexander Grischuk won his first rapid chess game against David Navara and survived the second to proceed to the next round. Vassily Ivanchuk managed to hold a difficult ending against Teimour Radjabov and then went on to outplay him in the second game. On Monday Grischuk plays Ivanchuk, and Peter Svidler faces Ruslan Ponomariov. Full illustrated report.

World Chess Hall of Fame opens in St. Louis

9/11/2011 – The World Chess Hall of Fame, a cultural non-profit institution relocated from Miami and chose St. Louis as its new home due to the city’s growing reputation as a center of chess. To celebrate its new space, a live chess event was organized to launch the first-ever Chess Merit Badge for the Boy Scouts of America. GM Nakamura participated and stood in as the black king. Laura High reports.

World Cup R5.1: Ivanchuk leads against Radjabov

9/10/2011 – Three games were decided quickly – in 14, 16 and 28 moves. But even short games can be of considerable theoretical interest, as the annotation of Svidler-Polgar by GM Efstratios Grivas clearly show. There was one decisive game: Taimour Radjabov overlooked a tactical shot by Vassily Ivanchuk and, playing a queen for rook and bishop down, lost in 41 moves. Illustrated report.

Queens, checks and passed pawns

9/9/2011 – Here White had just checked on c4 in order to capture the enemy Bc3 and after ...Qe4 followed by the advance of the e-pawn to set his own c-pawn in motion. Which continuation leads to victory for Black now?
A) 38...Kh8 39.Qxc3 Qe4
B) 38...Kh7 39.Qd3+ f5
C) 38...Kh7 39.Qd3+ g6

The solution is here, but first ponder over it with a larger version of the diagram.

FIDE Women's Grand Prix in Shenzhen, China

9/9/2011 – The second stage of FIDE Women's Grand Prix cycle 2011-2012 is being staged from 5th to 20th of September in the Wuzhou Hotel in Shenzhen, China. It includes the a current and a former women's world champion, the reigning European champion and a bevvy of top female players. After three rounds Hou Yifan and Zhao Xue lead. Big illustrated report.

World Cup R4.2: Judit evens the score

9/8/2011 – In the second game of round four in the World Cup the amazing Judit Polgar, a loss down against Cuban GM Lenier Dominguez, actually pulled back with a black-piece win. Navara, Svidler and Radjabov went through, the former two with 2-0 wins, with Peter Svidler eliminating Gata Kamsky. Five of the eight games were decisive, five pairings go to the tiebreaks on Thursday. Illustrated report.

Unforgettable Venezuelan chess party

9/8/2011 – The magic of chess seized Barquisimeto, Venezuela, and lived up to its expectations for the First International Chess Festival held there in a tribute to IM Wiston Boada, to celebrate 25 years of chess and selflessness in promoting it. AjedrezVinoTinto put together a beautiful festival with 80 players and even invited renowned Spanish journalist Leontxo García to lecture. Large illustrated report.

Garry Kasparov chats with Brazilian icon Jô Soares

9/8/2011 – While visiting Brazil, Garry Kasparov was interviewed by the Brazilian talk show host and icon, Jô Soares. Soares, a well-known polyglot, conducted the entire interview in English, and had come very well-prepared as he started the discussion with the champion's retirement in 2005, talking about the inauguration of the Kasparov Chess Foundation in São Paulo, and more. An excellent interview.

World Cup R4 Tiebreaks: Polgar and Ponomariov win on last blitz

9/8/2011 – Anyone looking at the scoreboard would conclude that the results of the fourth round were eminently logical as the Elo favorites, all went forward. However, the matches could easily have gone otherwise. For the Cubans, it was an especially bad day, as both Leinier Dominguez and Lazaro Bruzon lost in the last blitz game to Judit Polgar and Ruslan Ponomariov respectively. Report, pictures, and games.

World Cup R4.1: no draw death in Khanty-Mansiysk

9/7/2011 – Round four in the World Cup was another uncompromising day – six games out of eight were decisive! White won four times, Black scored two wins, and of the two draws one was well fought out. Dominguez, Navara, Gashimov, Potkin, Radjabov and Svidler go into the second game on Wednesday with a win under their belts, the first two with the advantage of the white pieces. Illustrated report.

Kavalek in Huffington: The Hand of God in Chess?

9/7/2011 – The drama surrounding the game David Navara vs Alexander Moiseenko continues to occupy the chess world, and has made it into the mainstream media. In his Huffington Post chess column GM Lubomir Kavalek felt a deja vu: a game he had played in 1965 wound down to a similar Q vs R+P ending which he proceeded to win. Kavalek also philosophises about offering a draw in a winning position.

The last day of the “Botvinnik Memorial”

9/7/2011 – On the last day of the three-day Botvinnik Memorial in Moscow there were no more battles among the grandmasters. This day was dedicated to remembering the 6th World Champion Mikhail Botvinnik. On the program was the inauguration of a plaque dedicated to Botvinnik, and a simul by the participants against 80 juniors from around the country. A pictorial report by Anna Burtasova.

Sonas: what exactly is the problem?

9/6/2011 – In recent weeks two strong GMs have sent us their solutions to the problem of draws in chess (have rapid game deciders on the same day, they propose). This has caused quite a stir in the chess world. We asked chess statistician Jeff Sonas to scientifically analyse the problem – it's got to be good to know exactly what we are talking about. Here are his remarkable findings.

World Cup R3.2: Fair play in Khanty-Mansiysk

9/5/2011 – Game two of the third round of the World Cup produced an extraordinary display of fairness. First David Navara accidentally touched a piece, but his opponent, Alexander Moiseenko did not insist on the "touch-move" rule that would have lost him the game. Moiseenko was subsequently outplayed by the Czech GM, who with a forced mate on the board offered him a draw. Chess gentlemen.

2011 L. Rudenko Memorial won by 13-year-old Goryachkina

9/5/2011 – In its fifth edition, the Lyudmila Rudenko Memorial, dedicated to the second Women's World Champion, brought together 43 female players, vying for a spot in the Russian Women's Cup later this year. In spite of a field including no fewer than eight WGMs, the surprise winner was 13-year-old Alexandra Goryachkina, a full point ahead of the field. Report and pictures by Evgenia Doluhanova.

World Cup R3 Tiebreaks: Navara wins, and Mamedyarov falls to Zherebukh

9/5/2011 – It was an incredibly bloodthirsty round of tiebreaks with nine of the first ten games ending in a decisive result. For those wondering whether Navara's sports-manship would cost him the potential $8000 he risked losing, it did not, and he beat Moiseenko to pass forward. The biggest surprise was 18-year-old Zherebukh's victory over World Championship Candidate Mamedyarov. Report, pics, and games.

World Cup R3.1: Top players clash, Polgar, Kamsky, Sutovsky win

9/4/2011 – Round three of the World Cup saw top players finally encountering each other, with upsets still possible. The big one was the victory of the only remaining female in the event, Judit Polgar, over top seed Sergey Karjakin. Emil Sutovsky brought down the great Vassily Ivanchuk and Alexander Grischuk outwitted Alexander Morozevich with an obscure line of play. Illustrated report.

How to build your own USB Electronic Chess Board

9/4/2011 – How would you like to build your own full-sized wooden electronic board. Sound impossible or highly improbable? Not so. If you are the type of person who enjoys building models, or challenging projects, Bryan Whitby has created a website with step-by-step instructions, and plenty of pictures, showing you how to build a USB chess board that can be hooked up to Fritz. See the video and learn how.

Pawn careers

9/3/2011 – In this game from the current World Chess Cup, White's f-pawn had eaten its way to h7 early on and just remained there. What does that mean for the postion? The strike 28.Rxg7 now leads to ...
A)... victory for White
B)... perpetual check
C)... advantage for Black

The solution is here, but first ponder over it with a larger version of the diagram.

Botvinnik Memorial Rapid Day two – Anand and Cmilyte take first

9/3/2011 – At the end of the day’s scrambling, Vishy Anand’s solid showing fetched him the title in the open section and Viktorija Cmilyte’s sharp play brought her the women’s top honours. Rating favourites Carlsen and Humpy finished tail enders. The mixed blitz doubles were won by Anand-Humpy, making it a fine day for Indians. Report with lovely photographs by Anna Burtasova.

World Cup R2 tiebreaks: The 2700 clashes are coming

9/2/2011 – In the second round, nearly half the matches were pushed into the tie-break phase, and one surprise exit was Michael Adams, who has a superb record in KO events, losing to the Danish GM Heine-Nielsen. Most of the favourites avoided surprises, such as Karjakin, Grischuk, Ponomariov and Svidler. Vallejo Pons was unable to complete his comeback against Cuban Bruzón Batista. Illustrated report.

Botvinnik Memorial Rapid Day one – Comedy of errors

9/2/2011 – Carlsen dropped both Anand and Aronian from his jaws on day one of the rapid tournament while Kramnik pleased spectators with a flamboyant piece sacrifice. Aggression in the women’s section reigned high with only two draws from nine games. Check out the incredible blunders, oversights and missed opportunities of these grandmasters. Here is the report with pictures by Anna Burtasova.

Edward Winter's Chess Explorations (68)

9/2/2011 – The Editor of Chess Notes has put together an extensive selection of chess-related cartoons and comic strips from the past century or so. They include satire, science fiction, a war adventure, a depiction of Pillsbury riding an elephant, Capablanca’s life story, an account of the 1972 Spassky v Fischer match in Reykjavik and, to begin with, two old cartoons about cheating at chess.

World Cup R2.1: Live by the sword, die by the sword

9/1/2011 – In the second round of the FIDE WC knock-out event, the current European Champion Vladimir Potkin was happy enough to perform an ideal attack against the well-known and fierce attacker Alexei Shirov, a top player who is famous for setting the board on fire. But the time always comes for those who live by the sword to die by it. Here is some very instructive analysis by GM Efstratios Grivas.