Chess events: e2e4 – best by test!

2/25/2012 – Think back: was your last tournament staged in a dingy old club? In a sports hall or a school canteen? Gone, it seems, were chess congresses in elegant surroundings – until Sean Hewitt came along with a very bright idea: why not hold them in elegant hotels on weekends where special offers are easy to come by. His circuit has rapidly gained popularity, as Steve Giddins reports.

Kavalek in Huffington: the Mozarts of Chess

2/24/2012 – The adage was invented in 2004 by Washington Post columnist Lubomir Kavalek and applied to a 13-year-old prodigy who had just played a marvelous game in Wijk aan Zee. The name stuck, and just last Sunday it was used as a segment title by 60 Minutes on American TV. In his Huffington Post column GM Kavalek tells us about Magnus Carlsen and two other Mozarts before him.

Elo oddities: the tortoise and the hare

2/24/2012 – There has been ample debate on whether Magnus Carlsen would break Garry Kasparov's record 2851 rating. Though it might seem like quite a mountain to climb, an oddity in the FIDE rating system means he could do it without breaking a sweat. The good news is that if you are rated at least 1400 Elo, FIDE declares you have an 8% chance against the world number one. Expert discussion.

Tbilisi: Dzagnidze beats Cramling in tiebreak, wins ACP Cup

2/23/2012 – It was an exciting finish: Swedish GM Pia Cramling was in the lead before the final round, in which she drew her game. Nana Dzagnidze won her final game to force a tiebreak. Both blitz games were drawn, and in the Armageddon the Georgian GM was able to win and take the title – together with the cool US $10,000 first prize. We bring you the big final report by WGM Anastasiya Karlovich.

Chess history: Nineteen Hours with Bobby Fischer – Part 1

2/23/2012 – In 1981 the National Film Board of Canada agreed to finance a feature-length documentary on the game of chess – one of the most ambitious projects of its kind ever undertaken. For the "Great Chess Movie" the producers decided to approach the reclusive world champion Bobby Fischer. Camille Coudari describes the harrowing encounter in this remarkable historical document.

FIDE to receive 10-12 million Euros for upcoming cycles

2/22/2012 – On Monday the President of the World Chess Federation signed a contract with the Tretyakov Art Gallery, making it the venue of the Anand-Gelfand World Championship match. FIDE has also signed an agreement granting the company Agon the rights to hold the World Championship matches, Candidates Tournaments and World Cups for the coming years. News, views and plans.

Bojkov: Playing the Main Lines with Bologan

2/22/2012 – Out of the dozens and dozens of openings played nowadays the Sicilian Defence remains the most fascinating, entertaining and complex opening. But how to lean and understand this complex system? Viktor Bologan has solved the problem efficiently by dividing the series into three parts, concentrated on the openings after 2…Nc6, 2…d6 and 2…e6. Review by GM Dejan Bojkov.

Tbilisi: Muzychuk falters, Cramling and Lahno take the lead

2/21/2012 – Why do we keep doing it? Every time we celebrate a player for extraordinary results, in the middle of an event, that player will immediately come crashing down to earth. This time the victim of our jinxed reporting was Anna Muzychuk. Meanwhile Pia Cramling and Kateryna Lahno forged ahead with 2.0/3 points. Decision time is Tuesday – you can watch the final games on Playchess.

Problem chess: The Self-block

2/21/2012 – It is one of the building blocks of the chess problem: Black (the defending side) is forced to block flight squares in the king's field and thus enable mate. Our problem expert David Friedgood demonstrates this with a remarkable problem with a record of eight self-blocks – arguably the most perfect two-mover ever composed. There are also two self-block problems for you to solve.

Tbilisi: Anna Muzychuk leads with 4.5/5 and a 2861 performance

2/20/2012 – There were three rounds on the second day of the ACP Womens Cup Rapid taking place in Tbilisi, Georgia. Top seed Anna Muzychuk, who had won both her games in the first two rounds, continued with two more wins and a draw. She is being chased by Kateryna Lahno and Pia Cramling. We bring you an illustrated report which features four women's world champions.

Aeroflot Blitz won by Sergey Karjakin

2/20/2012 – After the prestigious open, there was a first rate blitz tournament, a nine-round swiss with eighteen games of three minutes plus two seconds increment. The tournament attracted a number of top players such as Sergey Karjakin, Alexander Grischuk, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, Peter Svidler and Alexander Morozevich with its 25 thousand Euro prize fund. Game videos by Sergey Sorokhtin.

Mozart of Chess – Magnus Carlsen on CBS 60 Minutes

2/20/2012 – When has chess last received this kind of world-wide exposure? CBS's famous 60 Minutes program last night aired some extraordinary HD footage, shot during the London Chess Festival, on the world's strongest grandmaster. Magnus comes across as likeable, focused and disarmingly honest. Watch the full 13-minute segment and some interesting bonus material CBS has placed at our disposal.

The ACP Women Cup Rapid in Tbilisi

2/19/2012 – It is a typically fighting event, with only one of the first twelve games ending in a (hard-fought, 103-move) draw. This very strong rapid, which lasts from February 17th to 21st February, 2012, has a prize fund of US $40,000 and is organised by the Association of Chess Professionals and the Georgian Chess Federation. After two rounds four players lead with perfect scores.

CBM training: Bodycheck, seventh heaven rooks and racing pawns

2/19/2012 – If you are an ice hockey fan you know exactly what we are talking about. In chess the bodycheck is an important endgame technique which can easily make the difference between a win and a loss. Our ChessBase Magazin columnist Dr Karsten Müller explains this and other very useful strategic concepts in his latest installment of endgames from the Aeroflot Open.

Romanian Championship covered in snow

2/18/2012 – It is not something we have seen before: chess players travelling to the round of their national championship on a horse-pulled sleigh. But an Arctic winter with deep sub-zero temperatures, and a field of hardened, undaunted players, make it possible. "Why go to the North Pole if it will come here to us," writes WGM Alina L'Ami, who has sent us this big pictorial report.

Kavalek in Huffington: Chess in Clouds of Smoke

2/17/2012 – During a game in Wijk aan Zee, played in a cloud of cigarette smoke in 1969, Dutch GM Jan Hein Donner made a major discovery in the Najdorf Sicilian. It lay dormant for over forty years, but then emerged in a slightly altered form in the games of the young Chinese woman grandmaster, Ju Wenjun, 21. GM Lubos Kavalek reports, and provides us with interesting links to chess novelties.

ICGA/Rybka controversy: Feedback

2/17/2012 – The recent interview with David Levy, President of the International Computer Games Association, has generated a lot of feedback from our readers – and continues to do so. We will publish a selection of this feedback next week. For now we bring you three messages from directly involved parties, including Levy himself, who has initiated an investigation against a second program.

Chess champs Bobby Fischer and Magnus Carlsen on 60 Minutes

2/17/2012 – This Sunday the very influential CBS TV news magazine 60 Minutes will be turning its eyes – or rather: lenses – on chess, with a segment concentrating on the exploits and personality of Magnus Carlsen. To get people in the mood they are streaming a "60 Minutes Rewind" of a report produced in 1972 on the upcoming match between Boris Spassky and challenger Bobby Fischer. Don't miss it!

Long Moscow Variation

2/17/2012 – White is threatening a little something on h7. Now the sequence 23...Ne2++ 24.Kh2 Bg1+ 25.Kh1 Ng3+ ultimately yields Black ...
A)... a material advantage;
B)... a material disadvantage;
C)... neither nor (equality).
Extra question: Why does 23...Nf5+ 24.Kh2 Kg7 or 23...Nf3+ 24.Kh1 Kg7 fail?

ChessBase Magazine, larger diagram and solution.

Bojkov: Try the Sicilian Kalashnikov

2/17/2012 – Openings DVDs come in a wide variety of types and range from those that try to give only the broadest ideas with a minimum of theory, while others seem like the recitation of a section of an openings encyclopedia. Albert Silver explains why he feels that GM Dejan Bojkov has managed to strike just the right balance between the two, without sacrificing quality. A personal review by Albert Silver.

Aeroflot Open – Mateusz Bartel comes out on top

2/16/2012 – It was a remarkably tight finish with Polish GM Mateusz Bartel, Anton Korobov, and Pavel Eljanov all tied with 6.5/9. The Polish GM took first on tiebreak, and earned an entry into Dortmund. Turkish GM Emre Can won B with a full point lead, but the story was a young 12-year-old Chinese boy, FM Wei Yi, who nearly scored a GM norm with a 2551 performance. Final report.

Xtreme Chess Championships – Reality TV show

2/16/2012 – Reality TV is more alive than ever, with competitions ranging from the best designer to toughest trucker. One would think that our beloved game might be a tough sell, since it is not necessarily the most visually compelling, right? Not if you ask Jennifer Shahade, Greg Shahade, and Daniel Meirmon who strive to break the austere nerdy image with their brainchild Xtreme Chess Championships.

2011/12 4NCL or Four Nations Chess League

2/15/2012 – The 4NCL is the foremost team competition in the United Kingdom, and is open to all teams from England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland. From modest beginnings in 1993 with the participation of only six teams, the league now boasts three divisions with no fewer than 75 teams plus a recently inaugurated junior 4NCL league which already consists of eighteen teams. A bit of history and report.

CBM training: Endgames from Aeroflot Moscow

2/15/2012 – The Aeroflot Open is in its final stages, with over one hundred full-blown GMs participating, half a dozen rated over 2700. It is clear that the tournament would produce exciting games, and especially rich pickings for our endgame expert GM Karsten Müller, whom you know from ChessBase Magazin. Karsten has picked three instructive endings for you to study. Learn and enjoy.