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 ...

London R8: Vlad's Anglocide

12/12/2011 – It was a dramatic round with two of the leaders, Kramnik and McShane, facing each other, while fellow leader Carlsen had to contend with Anand. Though he made a go for it, Carlsen was unable to do better than a draw, while McShane tried hard to force things in his favour, which turned out to be a mistake as Kramnik neutralized all attempts to confuse the issue.

Karthikayan Murali – World U12 champion – In his own words

12/12/2011 – It isn't every day that one receives a report by a young 12-year-old player, much less one who is already making waves as he is. Karthikayan recently compounded his youth tournament successes in India by winning the under-12 division at the World Youth Championships, and has just achieved a 2336 performance at the London FIDE Open. Here are his words and pictures.

London Classic Rd9: Kramnik wins! Nakamura is second, and Carlsen third

12/12/2011 – Although it was almost certain that Kramnik would win the title, needing only to draw with Aronian, which he did, pundits expected Carlsen to overcome Short and take second. Life had its own plans, as did Nakamura, since Carlsen could not break the Englishman, while the American shocked Adams with a King's Gambit, and won in a volatile position to take clear second. Report and postgame videos.

London R7: Chess is a Cruel Game

12/11/2011 – “For he that hath, to him shall be given: and he that hath not, from him shall be taken even that which he hath.” Chess is a cruel game. Once you’ve been identified as off-form or otherwise not up to par, you can expect no mercy as your opponents target you. The tally of decisive games soared to 15 out of 28 as the three tail-enders were put to the sword once more. John Saunders reports.

SportAccord World Mind Games – Wang Hao and Kosteniuk and more

12/11/2011 – The SportAccord World Mind Games is underway in Beijing, and is an agglomerate of popular intellectual games such as chess, go, bridge, draughts (10x10 checkers), and xiang-qi, that aims to popularize these activities, and of course teach them to all-comers, notably children. In the Rapid event, Wang Hao and Kosteniuk took the top honors. Illustrated report with video highlights.

London Classic Rd8: Kramnik beats McShane for sole lead

12/11/2011 – It was a dramatic round with two of the leaders, Kramnik and McShane, facing each other, while fellow leader Carlsen had to contend with Anand. Though he made a go for it, Carlsen was unable to do better than a draw, while McShane tried hard to force things in his favor, which turned out to be a mistake as Kramnik neutralized all attempts to confuse the issue. Report and videos.

London R6: Friday Early Closing

12/10/2011 – After a positive glut of decisive results during the first five rounds, there were four draws in round six, all in under 40 moves. One of them was fairly uneventful but there was some interesting play on offer in the other three, especially with bye player Magnus Carlsen providing insightful commentary. Hikaru Nakamura remains in the lead, but three players have the chance to leapfrog over him on Saturday.