Second International Alpine Tournament – Livigno Open 2011

10/16/2011 – This tournament is staged at an altitude of 1,816 meters, making it the highest chess tournament in Europe. The little pretty Alpine town of Livigno was swarming with 22 GMs and 14 IMs, in all 90 players who competed in two Opens. 24 nations were represented from all over the world: Europe, Asia (India), Northern and Southern America. Big pictorial report by Diana Mihajlova.

Edward Winter's Chess Explorations (71)

10/16/2011 – Which is the most difficult form of chess writing? Of course, each kind presents its own problems and pitfalls, but the Editor of Chess Notes focuses here on a genre which hardly anyone ventures upon nowadays although it used to be highly popular: an attempt to capture the essence of a chess master’s appearance and demeanour with some well-crafted words, in a pen-portrait.

Nalchik GP: The Zhao Xue express steams on

10/16/2011 – Someone should call Guinness – the Chinese GM Zaho Xue is on the rampage and has now won her sixth game in a row, maintaining a nominal 3300 performance. This time she profited from a prime blunder by former women's world champion Zhu Chen. Alexandra Kosteniuk ended her losing streak with a well-played game which, however, her opponent was able to defend. Round six report.

CBM Blog: Drawing zones, dominance duel and changing the leader

10/15/2011 – Our endgame expert GM Karsten Müller keeps a watchful eye for interesting lessons that can be derived from recent games. Today he explains how in the fight bishop and wrong rook's pawn vs pawns there are two drawing zones for the defending king which must be interpreted with some care. For the weekend we bring you, instead of the usual two, this time three full training units.

Nalchik GP: Zhao Xue now with 5.0/5 and 3300+ performance

10/15/2011 – What can we say? GM Kateryna Lahno played a vicious attacking game against the 26-year-old Chinese GM, who defended coolly and in the end chalked up yet another victory, her fifth in a row. Zhao Xue's performance statistics are, of course, stratospheric. There were three more decisive games, all in favour of White, with the Kosintseva sisters scoring 2-0. Big illustrated round five report.

Mighty Morozevich dominating Governor's Cup

10/14/2011 – The Governor's Cup is currently underway in Saratov, Russia, and with the list of participants playing, such as Ponomariov, Shirov, and Morozevich, one had all the reason in the world to expect an exciting event. Sadly, 75% of the games have ended in draws. The exception is Morozevich who is running away with the tournament with 5.0/6 and a near 3000 performance. And what games too!

L'île de la Réunion – chess at the base of the Niagara Falls

10/14/2011 – The International Open at Réunion took a glamorous turn in its second leg with the players alternately enjoying mountain vistas and sailing alongside dolphins, with a surprise visit from a local beauty queen. Some final pictures from what turned out to be a very memorable event and a few thoughts on the future of chess on this little island, are provided by WGM Kruttika Nadig.

Kavalek in Huffington: Magnus Carlsen blitzed Vassily Ivanchuk

10/13/2011 – The Chess Masters Final in Sao Paulo and Bilbao ended in a tie-breaker blitz for first place, in which the youngest player, world's top-rated GM Magnus Carlsen, 20, was facing the oldest, Ukraine's Vassily Ivanchuk, aged 42. The first game was drawn, but Carlsen won the second with black and became the champion. In this week's column GM Lubomir Kavalek analyses this remarkable game.

Fritz 13 is now available – let's check who needs it!

10/13/2011 – “Success very often is the enemy of future success," Garry Kasparov warned us some months ago. Changing the world once is not enough, he said, we needed to do it again. Well, we are trying. Today we launch Fritz 13, which incorporates a tantalizing new feature: "Let's Check", which provides communal analysis in the cloud. You can order it now or download it for instant access.

Magnus Carlsen back in the World Championship cycle?

10/13/2011 – The shock came early in November 2010. The world's number one player, Norwegian GM Magnus Carlsen, decided to drop out of the World Championship cycle, in which he had reached the Candidate stage of the last eight. Now FIDE has met some of his demands – e.g. that the final stage should be a tournament and not matches – and Carlsen has decided to participate in the next cycle.

Bilbao Masters – Carlsen takes first after blitz tiebreak

10/12/2011 – The signs were there, but nothing is written until it is over. The games were fairly sedate among the crosstable leaders with uneventful draws, though Anand came out swinging and avoided a last place finish by beating Vallejo. Top prize was decided by two blitz games, in which Carlsen concluded with a mating attack in the last game. Final report with pictures, video, and GM commentary.

Garry Kasparov beats Nigel Short 4.5-3.5 in Belgium Blitz

10/12/2011 – It was like in the good old days – back in London in 1993. On Sunday Garry Kasparov and Nigel Short played an eight-game blitz match. First Garry dominated, then Nigel fired back, and the decision came in the final game. It was an enthralling experience for the audience in Leuven, well organised by the Belgian charity "Your Next Move". Take some time for our big pictorial report.

Nalchik GP: Zhao Xue still with a perfect score after four rounds

10/12/2011 – The 26-year-old Chinese GM has won all her games at the FIDE Grand Prix that is being staged in the Kabardino-Balkaria region of Russia. This translates to a nominal performance of 3289. In second place is another Chinese player, WGM Ju Wenjun. Before the free day on Thursday we bring you a big illustrated report from Nalchik on rounds three and four.

Bilbao Masters – Carlsen beats Ivanchuk and ties for first

10/11/2011 – One could hardly ask for more drama than what transpired in the ninth round. It started with Anand completely losing focus in his game against Aronian, and losing in a mere 25 moves. Carlsen built a fantastic attack against Ivanchuk, beat him and is now tied for first, but the shocker was Nakamura's loss on time against Vallejo. Report, pictures, video, and annotations by GM Romain Edouard.

CBM Blog: The overgrown pawn and the South Eastern Corner

10/11/2011 – Today we are going to learn, from our resident endgame expert, how to open up an apparently impregnable fortress in a bishop and pawn ending; and where, geographically, the rook belongs when defending a R vs R+2P ending. GM Karsten Müller, whose is well known from his ChessBase Magazine video contributions, explains it all in his didactically annotated examples.

Nalchik Women's GP – Zhao Xue and Ju Wenjun take early lead

10/10/2011 – The third stage of FIDE Women's Grand Prix cycle 2011-2012 is being staged in Nalchik, the capital of Kabardino-Balkaria. There are twelve titled players participating, including nine GMs, though neither Women's world champion Hou Yifan nor Koneru Humpy are playing as they prepare for their world title match in November. Zhao Xue and Ju Wenjun have taken the early lead.

14-year-old wins World Amateur Chess Championship 2011

10/10/2011 – The Turkish beach resort of Kemer say 67 chess players from 16 countries in an event that restricts partcipants to players who do not have a FIDE title nor have been rated over 2000 for at least two years. The tournament was won by Sumiya Bilguun from Mongolia, who is just fourteen years old. We bring you a big pictorial report with some very charming pictures by WGM Anastasiya Karlovich.

Maurice Ashley rounds up Bilbao today!

10/8/2011 – This afternoon from New York, at 4 PM EST and 10 PM Paris, the dynamic and popular commentator GM Maurice Ashley will be the guest host of the Bilbao round up show on Playchess, where he will not only summarize the action of the day, but he will also take questions from the spectators. This show is free for Premium subscribers so consider upgrading if you haven't already. Don't miss it!

Bilbao Masters – Nakamura steamrolls Aronian; Carlsen wins too

10/8/2011 – Mathematically, Ivanchuk can still be caught, though Carlsen and Nakamura are the likeliest candidates. While Ivanchuk and Anand drew after a long duel, Carlsen was staring at a draw until Vallejo blundered a piece. Meanwhile, Nakamura completely outplayed Aronian in an equal endgame for a brilliant win. Report, videos, and notes by GM Romain Edouard.

CBM Blog: Triumphs and tribulations of Vassily Ivanchuk

10/8/2011 – He dominated the first half of the Grand Slam in São Paulo, got robbed at gun-point when he was leaving, started with a brilliant victory in the first round of the second leg, and yesterday lost a probably drawn rook ending in desperate time trouble against bottom seed Francisco Vallejo. We reported on round seven, and now bring you additional endgame analysis by GM Karsten Müller.

Congestion on the third rank

10/7/2011 – White has brought up all his heavy artillery on the kingside. A move with which piece gives him a decisive attack now?
A) queen
B) rook
C) bishop


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

Comeback kid Sadler leads in Oslo International

10/7/2011 – This Norwegian tournament has two heroes: on the one hand, the successful author Hans Olav Lahlum, who has saved the Gausdal tradition by creating and sponsoring a new event after the former disappeared. The second is the British GM Matthew Sadler, who, after a protracted absence from chess, is back with a vengeance. Big report with pictures by GM Sergei Tiviakov.

Bilbao Masters – Vallejo overcomes Ivanchuk

10/7/2011 – It was a round full of tough chess, and fascinating games for all tastes. The first game to finish was Anand against Nakamura in a Ruy Lopez Berlin that went the distance. Aronian found himself suffering throughout the game against Carlsen though he survived. Vallejo beat Ivanchuk, when the latter faltered in time trouble. Illustrated report with video and annotations by GM Romain Edouard.

Bilbao Grand Slam leg starts today

10/6/2011 – After an exciting first half in São Paulo, Brazil, the players have now settled down and, hopefully, adjusted to the five hours' time difference. Today is the first round of the second half in Bilbao, Spain. Top match: Magnus Carlsen vs Vishy Anand. Playchess will broadcast it all live. To get you in the mood here are pictures from the opening ceremony and some interesting video reports.