The homecoming: Boris Gelfand is back (Part I)

6/19/2011 – Winning the World Cup and now the Candidates Matches has made Gelfand a household name in Israel, and on his return from Kazan he was greeted at Ben-Gurion Airport by his family, fans and old friends – amongst them our colleague Shay Bushinsky, who later visited Boris at his home in Rishon Le-Zion. The two had a long discussion, which resulted in this must-read interview for ChessBase.

Medias Kings Rd8: three draws, Carlsen leads with two games to go

6/19/2011 – After breathtaking battles day in and day out, and at least one knockout for the audience, today's games all ended in a draw. To be fair they were hard fought, but nobody fell to the mat. With only two rounds left, Carlsen maintains his lead and it is now that much harder to overtake him. Our GM commentator Dorian Rogozenco provides commentary in his entertaining and instructive style.

Edward Winter's Chess Explorations (63)

6/18/2011 – The latest picture quiz from the Editor of Chess Notes presents for identification seven chessplayers. Since all of them are leading masters, the whole exercise ought to be simplicity itself. As will be seen, however, there is one slight complication with the photographs. Can readers rise to the challenge? Personally inscribed book prizes are on offer to those who can identify the mystery seven.

Medias Kings Round six: Commentary by GM Rogozenco

6/18/2011 – Three interesting and exciting games, one decisive: the 66-mover between Sergey Karjakin and Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu, a Schliemann Gambit in which the Romanian sacrificed two pawns for activity but got into time trouble and went down to the ruthless pressure of former boy wonder and youngest GM in history Sergey Karjakin. Our resident GM Dorian Rogozenco presents video and analysis.

Medias Kings Rd7: Carlsen supreme with 2913 performance

6/18/2011 – The impulse is to use words like impressive and powerful, but with three rounds to go, the thesaurus might soon run out of synonyms. Magnus Carlsen outwitted Vassily Ivanchuk in an endgame, doing what he does best, by finding every possible way to give his opponent ways to go wrong, however slightly. He now leads alone with 5.0/7. Videos and commentary by GM Dorian Rogozenco.

Classical line opening ...

6/18/2011 – ... the first player had in mind here when after 21.f5 exf5 he went for the sacrifice on f7. Accepting it  - 22.Nxf7 Kxf7 leads to ...

A)... victory for White;
B)... draw by move repetition;
C)... advantage for Black.

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

Ponomariov leads 80th Ukrainian Chess Championship

6/17/2011 – After a long break the Ukrainian Chess Federation has organized the Ukrainian Chess Championship 2011 in Kiev, from June, 9th until June 21st. It is the strongest event in the history of the independent Ukraine. After seven rounds former FIDE world champion Ruslan Ponomariov leads with 5.0/7 and a 2814 performance. We have received a big pictorial report by WGM Anastasiya Karlovich.

Medias Kings Rd6: Karjakin wins to share lead with Carlsen

6/17/2011 – With Magnus Carlsen making moves to run away with the tournament, one question was whether anyone would (or could) challenge him for it. Round six saw fellow boy wonder Sergey Karjakin outlast Romanian Nisipeanu in an epic endgame battle and draw level with Magnus. We bring you an express report with sensational pictures of the strongest football player rated over 2558.

Ilyumzhinov-Gaddafi encounter: international media reactions

6/16/2011 – News and TV channels picked it up with glee: while NATO aircraft were (probably) targeting Muammar Gaddafi directly, the Libyan dictator sat down with the "eccentric" President of the World Chess Federation for a friendly game. Not really a positive picture, and harsh criticism has rained on Kirsan Ilyumzhinov. He sees his visit as a mission of peace and has appealed to people not to politicize the issue.

CBM Blog: The Umbrella and a Domination Duel

6/16/2011 – In rook endings you often have to hide from a rain of checks, and it is expedient to bring along an "umbrella". Same colored bishop endings have a relatively large drawish tendency, and one major winning strategy is to restrict the enemy bishop and exchange it. You can learn a lot by replaying the lessons provided by our resident GM and endgame specialist Karsten Müller.

Medias Kings Rd5: Thrilling chess by all; Carlsen leads

6/15/2011 – The fifth round was certainly a looker with all games featuring action-packed chess. Carlsen beat Nisipeanu with his signature play, and is now on 3.5/5 with a nigh 2900 performance. Karjakin faced Ivanchuk's Giuoco Piano and shocked him with 16...Bxh3!! in a fantastic attack. Radjabov and Nakamura played a Najdorf that drew after mind-boggling tactics. Commentary by GM Dorian Rogozenco.

Medias Kings Rd3: Commentary by GM Dorian Rogozenco

6/14/2011 – Round three of the Kings' Tournament in Romania was marked by the victory of Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu over the international star Vassily Ivanchuk. In the postmortem session with our resident commentator Dorian Rogozenco the local son was very animated in his comments. Rogozenco has again prepared some fine analysis of all three games, which we present here for your study and enjoyment.

Medias Kings Rd4: Hard fights, but no knockouts

6/14/2011 – It is always disappointing to report that all games ended in draws. In this round, however, you will find interesting hard-fought games. Carlsen almost got a good advantage with black against Karjakin, but missed his chance, while Nakamura pressured Ivanchuk. Radjabov played his pet Schliemann, always an interesting game. Illustrated report with full commentary by GM Dorian Rogozenco.

Ilyumzhinov visits the beleaguered Gaddafi

6/13/2011 – In a somewhat precarious move FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov has visited the Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, who is under siege by rebels across the country and by Nato air strikes. The visit was part of FIDE's “Year of Africa”, and Ilyumzhinov, who has had good relations with Gaddafi for years, played a game of chess against his eldest son Muhammad, Libyan state television reports.

Medias Kings Rd2: Commentary by GM Dorian Rogozenco

6/13/2011 – Once the games of a round are over the players – well, at least the ones who have not suffered a disaster – proceed to the press room to discuss the moves with the resident GM. Later in the evening Dorian Rogozenco inserts much of this into his own analysis and sends us his commentary in ChessBase format. On this news page we present it to you with our new JavaScript player.

19th Sigeman: Three way tie for first

6/13/2011 – The 19th Sigeman tournament took place in Malmö, Sweden, pitting a mix of international players against local talent. None of the players was able to really break out of the crowd, and it ended on a three-way tie for first between Giri, So, and Tikkanen with 3.0/5. Tikkanen's result was the proportionate best as the newly titled GM was also the lowest-rated in the lineup. Report.

Medias Kings Rd3: Nisipeanu hero of the day

6/13/2011 – It seems as if none of the players is destined to finish without at least one win: after blundering away a drawn position to Nakamura, Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu extracted his pound of flesh from Ivanchuk in round three. Sergey Karjakin and Hikaru Nakamura played a Najdorf that never quite took off, and Magnus Carlsen drew with Teimour Radjabov. Express report with pictures.

Learn to master most tricky endgames

6/13/2011 – Endgames with kings and pawns may seem like just a matter of counting. But very often they are not! Kasparov once said that he found exactly this type of endgames the hardest to analyse. On his new Powerplay DVD Daniel King deals with the fundamentals of pawn endgames and manages to explain them "in a down to the earth manner", as GM Steingrimsson put it. Buy it now or read more.

Medias Kings Rd1: Commentary by GM Dorian Rogozenco

6/12/2011 – One of the key persons at the Medias Kings' Tournament is GM Dorian Rogozenco, who not only advises the organisers, but also interviews the players after the games. Then, after a swim and a meal, this industrious grandmaster retires to his room and prepares full annotations to all the games, in his own well-loved style. We present his notes and analyses in our new JavaScript player.

Medias Kings Rd2: Nakamura wins after Nisipeanu blunders

6/12/2011 – In the second round, the two winners from round one drew after it quickly became evident neither could force the issue. Radjabov obtained a significant space advantage over Karjakin but was unable to make anything of it, while Nakamura and Nisipeanu also seemed destined to draw until a late-game hallucination by the Romanian handed the win to the American. Express report with pictures.

King's Tournament Medias – pictures from the opening ceremony

6/11/2011 – Friday afternoon the six players of the Fifth Kings Tournamentin Medias gathered together in the Natural Gas Documentation and Information Centre to meet the sponsors, Romgaz, execute the drawing of lots and speak to the journalists. The ceremony had a world champion present: Ognean Mihnea-Ionut, World School under seven Champion. Photographic impressions by Frederic Friedel.

Medias Kings Rd1: Carlsen and Ivanchuk open with wins

6/11/2011 – All the ingredients for a super tournament are there, with ultra-talented players known for their creativity and combativeness. Magnus Carlsen, always in the center of the international spotlight, beat Nakamura in a powerful game in the opening round, while Ivanchuk did much the same against Radjabov, in a highly original King's Indian Averbakh. Express report with pictures.

Checks and counterchecks

6/10/2011 – In this position White had just played 26.Nxe5 inviting his opponent to go for 26...Rxg2. Which continuation leads to victory after that?

A) 27.Nf7+ Kg8 28.Nh6+;
B) 27.Ng4+ Kg8 28.Qe6+; 
C) neither nor, Black can always save his skin with a discovered (counter)check.

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

King's Tournament in Medias starts on Saturday

6/10/2011 – The fifth edition of the Kings Tournament will be held in Medias, Romania, from June 11-22. The event is a category 21 double round robin with six players, all but one over 2700 (Elo average: 2758). Most have arrived in Bazna, their place of residence. Just getting there was an electrifying experience, as Frederic Friedel reports in the first installment of his Medias journal.