Magnus Carlsen – 'I don't quite fit into the usual schemes'

12/22/2011 – He is by his own admission a chess genius, weaned on computers, a supreme expert on openings, and the hardest worker amongst the top players. Actually, when you have gone through this remarkable ChessPro interview with Magnus Carlsen – which you must – you will recognize that all of the fairly plausible claims in our initial statement are false – in fact the opposite is true.

Kavalek in Huffington: The Great London Chess Debate

12/21/2011 – The London Chess Classic brought the English capital close to its former glory – in the mid-19th century, when the first two world tournaments were held in the capital. Did the Classic eclipse the events played roughly 150 years ago? In his extensive Huffington Post column GM Lubomir Kavalek looks back at the action, the players, and specific moves that caught his eye.

SportAccord World Mind Games – Hou Yifan wins gold twice

12/21/2011 – The SportAccord World Mind Games ended in a great success for all the games and participants, drawing top players in all disciplines. After the Rapid competition in chess, there were blitz competitions, won by Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and Hou Yifan respectively, followed by blindfold competitions in which Zoltan Almasi snatched the gold, while Yifan took her second. Pictures and videos.

ChessBase Online for Android - A review

12/21/2011 – In ChessBase's first foray into the world of Android, the new ChessBase Online app has been released. It is an invaluable tool for opponent preparation, searching by player, year, and event, as well as giving detailed opening statistics from over five million games. It is also ideal to replay games commented with text and color markers on your phone and tablet. Buy it now or first read the review.

The joys of chess – and the value of the pieces

12/21/2011 – Christian Hesse is a PhD from Harvard and Professor of Mathematics at the University of Stuttgart. He is also an avid chess fan and has written a number of articles for our news page. As a book author he has been successful with instructive and entertaining works on chess. Now one of his best is available in English. We bring you an interesting chapter to study and enjoy.

Arab Games 2011 in Doha (Qatar)

12/20/2011 – The games, which are taking place from December 9th to 23, include a chess event with blitz, rapid individual and classical team championships for women and men. After six rounds six rounds of the men's team championship Egypt is in the lead by three points. A number of medals have already been awarded. WGM Anastasiya Karlovich sent us this big pictorial report with many new faces.

Gustafsson's Marshall Gambit: review in the British Chess Magazine

12/20/2011 – The idea of playing the Marshall Gambit has always appealed – giving up a pawn but immediately gaining a lasting initiative as Black seems like a fair deal. And what better way to have the opening explained than by the German grandmaster Jan Gustafsson (current FIDE 2634), who by all accounts is one of the leading authorities on this particular opening. Review in the BCM.

Bogotá 2011 – Frigid and uncaring

12/19/2011 – When you look at photo reports sent from all over the world, you might think how nice it is to be a chess player: You see the world, visit exotic countries and win tournaments. Unfortunately, sometimes it is neither nice nor easy, and the playing conditions can make the experience a nightmare. Bogotá 2011 was an example, despite the beautiful city. An illustrated report by Sergey Tiviakov.

2011 European Rapid and Blitz – An event for everyone

12/19/2011 – When one thinks of events such as the European Rapid and Blitz championships, the names that come to mind are invariably part of the 2700 club. However, this event is one that also breaks the barriers of rating, age, and gender, ranging from 84-year-old Stanislaw Szczepaniec all the way down to five-year-old Helena Kucharska, who played in both tournaments. A pictorial overview.

A history of cheating in chess (3)

12/18/2011 – In January 1999 the main topic of conversation amongst top players like Kasparov, Anand and others: who was the mysterious German chess amateur, rated below 2000, who had won a strong Open ahead of GMs and IMs, with wonderfully courageous attacking chess and a 2630 performance? How had he done it? Turns out it was with unconventional methods, as subsequent investigation uncovered.

Chess Classic Retrospect: Pictures and people at Olympia

12/18/2011 – Ten days at the London Chess Classic, every one filled with action and activities, with meetings and encounters with interesting people closely or less closely associated with chess. We produced two reports per round, but didn't come close to using all the material we collected. Here is the first of what is bound to be two or three retrospects, introducing you to well and lesser known personalities.

CBM training: Bodycheck, pawn breaktroughs, patience

12/17/2011 – Chess endgame training – get your weekend Elo boost. Our endgame expert Dr Karsten Müller, who provides us with extensive instructions in his popular ChessBase Magazine section, gives us a taste of his teaching skills on our newspage, where he shows us examples of practical endings in recent international tournament games. Learn and improve.

Playing on the Flanks: Not Just for Hypermoderns

12/17/2011 – "This one gets a near-perfect score from me," writes Steven Dowd in his Chess Cafe review of Nigel Davies' recent DVD: Tricks and Traps in the Flank Openings. "I was even able to immediately implement some of the traps and ideas in my online games, which is a test I use for every trainer I review." He warmly recommends this Fritz Trainer 'for anyone 1600 and above.'

Rogoff on chess addiction and why he had to give up the game

12/16/2011 – One of the highlights of the London Chess Classic has been the visits of a large number of important and interesting people. One of them, the Professor and world-renowned economist Ken Rogoff, is also a chess grandmaster. He was whisked away from the VIP room at Olympia for an interview with the BBC, in which he very frankly discusses the dangerous side of his former chess career.

Monster piece

12/16/2011 – Relying on his gigantic bishop on d5, Black here went for 30...Rxf2 31.Qxf2 Qb8 to pin down the white rook on the diagonal to f4. This ...

A)... wins on the spot;
B)... turns a superior position into a balanced one;
C)... hands the advantage over to White.

ChessBase Magazine, larger diagram and solution.

Now it's official: Kasparov no longer training Nakamura

12/16/2011 – In a carefully orchestrated scoop the Dutch magazine New in Chess broke the news on November 1st: Garry Kasparov, who famously trained Magnus Carlsen, was now working with US GM Hikaru Nakamura. Now, just a month and a half later, it is official: the two will not be working together any longer. This comes after Nakamura's second-biggest career win in London.

Master Moves #18

12/15/2011 – All the deepest plans or endgame technique are useless if you fall victim to a shot that leaves you in a lost position. Likewise, sometimes that superior play will only offer a single window of opportunity to deliver that final blow, so it is vital to be ready for it when it does. All the shots come from the Chinese Chess League A and the Schach Bundesliga. Take the tactics test!

Mega Database 2012 – Bigger and better

12/15/2011 – It is that time of year when... the newest Mega Database is released, and it is bigger than ever. Not only does it now have over 5.1 million games, of which 66,000 are commented, but our work at improving the core database is a non-stop process, and includes improved headers, names, as well as rare games uncovered during the year. For this limousine of databases, here is an illustrated tour.

CBM training: Vancura's Draw, a duel in the mine field

12/14/2011 – The London Chess Classic is over, so it's back to work and training for us. In his popular ChessBase Magazine section our resident endgame expert GM Karsten Müller presents us with three positions from recent games, demonstrating how important it is to know certain theoretical positions and motifs. Following his instructions is one quick way of improving your practical playing strength.

Kasparov moves for scholastic chess in Turkey

12/14/2011 – "We would like to think of chess not as a game but as a special learning tool that improves results. We focus on the word ‘education’ and not the word ‘chess’." That is the path taken in the heavily funded Fatih Project, which is aimed at realization of computer techology supported education in Turkey. Kasparov met with high-ranking officials to discuss the project and his involvement in it.

Chess Training: Kasimdzhanov's King's Indian

12/14/2011 – "If you play or are considering playing the King's Indian," writes Steven Dowd at the Chess Cafe, "this DVD will be a big boon to your understanding. And as it is idea-based, many of the ideas here apply well to openings such as the Pirc and Modern as well. Don't pass up the opportunity to learn some complicated ideas about chess from a world champion! Don't miss it.

London R9: Vlad All Over

12/13/2011 – If you ever need someone to save your life by getting a draw with the white pieces, Vladimir Kramnik would be most people’s first choice. He was solidity personified against Levon Aronian, rapidly liquidating to a level bishop ending in the final round of the London Chess Classic. That gave him the point he needed to take the trophy. Final annotated report by John Saunders.

Ilya Levitov: A million ideas to market chess

12/13/2011 – Ilya Levitov is the Head of the Management Board of the Russian Chess Federation, and more recently a vice-president of FIDE. Recently, chess in Russia has been developing at a frantic rate, and among the Federation's sponsors we now see companies dealing with gas, diamonds, finance, etc. Has the new leadership created an innovative system to attract sponsors? A must-read interview.

Edward Winter's Chess Explorations (74)

12/12/2011 – Chess can be an exceptionally fast or slow game. Here, the Editor of Chess Notes examines some cases where an inordinate amount of time was consumed over a single move, sometimes even in the opening. Not that the evidence is always clear. As so often in chess lore, the published accounts may contain contradictions, misunderstandings and errors. More investigative work ...