São Paulo Masters – Aronian draws first blood; Anand and Carlsen draw

9/26/2011 – The Grand Slam officially started its first leg in São Paulo, with the world's elite playing. Anand-Carlsen was the foremost game on the card, but was sadly the least exciting, ending in a lackluster draw. Nakamura and Ivanchuk immediately shirked theory, but also drew, while Aronian struck first and beat Vallejo in an offbeat Slav. Round one report with analysis by GM Elshan Moradiabadi.

World Problem Solving Championship 2011 – Solutions

9/26/2011 – In his report on the competition, which was won by 19-year-old Kacper Piorun, the second-placed solver, GM Dr John Nunn, presented a selection of problems which the competitors had to face. Today he presents the solutions, in the unique explanatory style that has made his many chess books so popular. Studying his notes allows you to delve into the magical world of chess problems.

Montreal Open: a labor of love

9/25/2011 – Very few tournaments can boast a tradition going back 90 years, yet the Montreal Open, is now in its 91st edition no less. Th reason is not an exceptionally deep-rooted chess history as seen in Russia, but a community whose passion for the game seems to know no bounds. The organizers share in this love and put on an exceptionally beautiful event. Here is the colorful pictorial by Alina L'Ami.

CBM Blog: Counterplay counts + Banusz' Breakthrough

9/24/2011 – In rook endings a pawn up, the draw is often secured by counterplay. But how to initiate it? Our resident GM Karsten Müller gives us instruction, using a recent game Bacrot-Robson from the World Cup in Khanty-Mansiysk. And Dr Müller uses another game from two weeks ago to instruct us on the theme of counterplay. Take time to study his examples and improve your tournament results.

Akiba Rubinstein is back in town in Polanica-Zdroj

9/24/2011 – IM Aleksander Hnydiuk won the 47th Rubinstein Memorial held in Polanica-Zdroj, Poland, scoring his first GM norm with a 2608 performance. The Memorial is likely to regain its level from the past when it used to be a significant event for both top grandmasters and aspiring masters. This would be a good news given the beauty of Polanica and its surroundings. Pictorial report by Piotr Kaim.

Marginal

9/23/2011 – Following the queen check on f7 Black had taken the bull by the horn with 23...Kh6 (diagram), putting the threats ...cxb2 and ...c4+ into the balance after the possible loss of the knight e7. How is the position to be assessed now? White ...
A)... wins;
B)... achieves perpetual check; 
C)... is at a disadvantage.
The solution is here, but first ponder over it with a larger version of the diagram.

Kavalek in Huffington: Peter Svidler All the Way

9/23/2011 – It was the most amazing move of the 2011 Chess World Cup in Khanty Mansiysk, Russia, a wonderful coup de grâce you don't see every day. And it could have been enough to play it, go home and enjoy it for years to come.In his Huffington Post chess column GM Lubomir Kavalek peculates that his astonishing move didn't belong to 21st century, where such a brilliant move is not usually allowed.

Six-Star DVDs with a Wealth of Information

9/23/2011 – This month in the Chess Cafe Steven B. Dowd looks at three recently released ChessBase DVDs, one each for the opening, middlegame, and ending. "Each one is very well-done, and contain a wealth of information for the learner," he writes. "It will probably be the only time you see me giving six stars – the maximum – to each DVD." Reviews and links.

Edward Winter's Chess Explorations (69)

9/23/2011 – Many forgotten interviews with Alekhine have been reproduced over the years by the Editor of Chess Notes. We witness the great champion discussing his chess rivals and predecessors, plans, training routines, blindfold exploits, family background, education, personal lifestyle, pastimes, travel, politics and writings, including the notorious anti-Semitic articles published in the Nazi press in 1941.

ChessBase Magazine 143 – A Cornucopia of Chess

9/22/2011 – "Serious chess players will relish spending countless hours studying the information in ChessBase Magazine issues," writes Steve Goldberg. "Some players may find just the opening analysis they've been looking for, others will appreciate the impressive depth and breadth of the annotated games, too many to count, annotated by world class players." Goldberg gives it five stars in his Chess Cafe review.

Kasparov in Clichy - video analysis by IM Andrew Martin

9/22/2011 – It was a wake up call and reminder that Kasparov is not so far gone into retirement that he is no longer competitive at the top. By soundly beating Vachier-Lagrave in two highly publicized blitz games, a top talent rated over 2700, Kasparov showed he wasn't just there for the cameras, he was out for blood. IM Andrew Martin dissected the games and gave insightful commentary in his video analysis.

Grand Slam Masters Final to start in São Paulo, Brazil

9/22/2011 – The Grand Slam Masters final is set to take place, and continuing the new trend of sharing the event with a partner city, the organizers in Bilbao, Spain have chosen São Paulo this year to host the first half. The participants are World Champion Viswanathan Anand, world number one Magnus Carlsen, Levon Aronian, Hikaru Nakamura, Vasily Ivanchuk, and Francisco Vallejo Pons. Don't miss it!

First Youth Chess Tournament for Peace

9/21/2011 – This event, organised and sponsored by the Canadian Centre for Ecumenism, a St. Laurent-based company which sells an electronic score keeping device to record, store, view and webcast chess games. Twenty-one young chess players participated during the Global Conference on World’s Religions in Montréal, Canada. On this occasion the players had the pleasure to meet His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama.

Turkey vs Iran with an instructive endgame

9/21/2011 – This eight round double Scheveningen event with top GMs took place from September 8 to 16. Iran won it by ten points, the final score being 21:11. One of the lesser games contained an interesting ending which international trainer Efstratios Grivas, who is also the Turkish coach, has analysed for our readers – another opportunity for you to hone your endgame skills.

World Cup in Khanty-Mansiysk: Players in the background

9/21/2011 – The organisers of the FIDE World Cup in Khanty-Mansiysk did an extraordinary job, providing the world with live video feed in HD quality, running commentary in Russian and English, live broadcast of the games on the official site and on Playchess, professional pictures in the highest quality we have received from any chess event. Here are some of the people who made it possible.

CBM Blog: Knight dance and a mating attack out of the blue

9/20/2011 – "The rook's pawn is the worst enemy of the knight," says our resident GM Karsten Müller. He goes on to show us how with queens on the board one side can often conduct a direct attack that culminates in mate. Dr. Müller's analyses, taken from recent games, are an excellent way to increase your understanding of the game and hone your endgame skills.

Shenzhen GP: Hou Yifan wins FIDE Grand Prix by a full point

9/19/2011 – She drew her final game comfortably with the black pieces and finished with 8.0/11 points on the scoresheet. Seventeen-year-old women's world champion Hou Yifan did not lose a single game in this event and performed at a 2644 level. Second was Anna Muzychuk of Slovenia – the only non-Chinese among the first six players. Final report.

World Cup Finals: Svidler wins, Ivanchuk takes bronze

9/19/2011 – Peter Svidler drew his final game against Alexander Grischuk, securing it with a nice knight sacrifice. This gave him a 2.5-1.5 win over Alexander Grischuk and the title of World Cup winner. In the match for third place Vassily Ivanchuk drew for a similar final score against Ruslan Ponomariov. Svidler, Grischuk and Ivanchuk have qualified for the next stage of the World Championship. Full illustrated report.

Kasparov defeats Vachier-Lagrave in Clichy exhibition

9/19/2011 – In his continued promotion for chess instruction in schools, and the Kasparov Chess Foundation, this weekend Garry Kasparov gave an exhibition blitz match in Clichy against the 2011 French champion, GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave. The match, covered by the French mass media, was won by Kasparov with a flourish. Here is the report with videos and annotations by GM Karsten Müller.

Shenzhen: Hou Yifan leads by a full point

9/18/2011 – With one round to go the young women's world champion from China has 7.5/9 points, with IM Anna Muzychuk of Slovenia at 6.5. In rounds nine and ten 50% of the games were decisive, and the total draw rate is a respectable 55% (21.7% white and 23.3% black wins). The organisers are providing excellent coverage – Internet broadcast, reports and high-class pictures. Penultimate report.

World Cup Finals: both games drawn, players under pressure

9/18/2011 – Alexander Grischuk played his final white game against Peter Svidler aggressively, and came close to losing it in time trouble. But after 29 moves a draw was agreed. In the match for third place Vassily Ivanchuk, playing white, had serious losing chances against Ruslan Ponomariov, but saved the minor piece ending. In the last game Ponomariov and Grischuk are under tremendous pressure.

CBM Blog: Rook ending always drawn + pawn races

9/17/2011 – Basically yes, but over the board matters are much more difficult than with the help of the computer of course, as our endgame expert GM Dr. Karsten Müller shows, using a game from the current World Cup tournament in Khanty Mansiysk. In a second very instructive example he takes us to the races, where White loses a drawn game with a greedy pawn capture.

World Cup Finals: Ivanchuk wins game two with black

9/17/2011 – Peter Svidler played fourteen moves of theory against his good friend Alexander Grischuk, then they played two more moves and agreed to a pragmatic draw. In the game for place three Vassily Ivanchuk came with a clear advantage out of the opening, and just when his opponent Ruslan Ponomariov appeared to be holding, he cracked under the pressure and gave Ivanchuk an important point.

London Chess Classic – presenting the participants

9/16/2011 – This popular tournament runs from 3-12 December 2011 and falls on two weekends, which means that spectators and amateur players in the side events only have to take one week off work to attend. It also means there will be two sets of weekend tournaments and blitz every evening. The classic itself has been increased to nine players to include the World number three Levon Aronian. Don't miss it.