Duel of chess legends Garry Kasparov and Nigel Short

10/3/2011 – They slugged it out for the World Championship in London in 1993. Now, 18 years later, the two are back at the board for an eight-game blitz match in Belgium. Sponsors and organisers are "Your Next Move", an initiative that supports chess as a sport and aims at creating an impetus among young people aged six to twelve. Visit this event if you can.

CBM Blog: Race of passed pawns + a hiding place

10/3/2011 – Oh bother – more chess training and study, further improvement of your tournament results. Wait, that's a good thing, isn't it? Free lessons from a world-renowned endgame expert, every few days. This time GM Karsten Müller, who has a PhD in mathematics, shows us two practical examples from games played in recent months. Take a break to hone your chess skills.

São Paulo Masters – Nakamura, Carlsen win, Nakamura in second place

10/3/2011 – Magnus Carlsen defeated Vassily Ivanchuk in a French Defence in a line used successfully in 1997 by Morozevich. US GM Hikaru Nakamura, who we can feel must have a new trainer, played the English against Paco Vallejo. He beat the luckless Spaniard (–4, +1) and has now taken second place in this event. Find out the secret side of Carlsen in the large illustrated report by Albert Silver.

Edward Winter's Chess Explorations (70)

10/3/2011 – The Editor of Chess Notes puts forward a range of practical suggestions for authors and columnists. How to make the best use of limited time and resources? What to write about and what to avoid? And perhaps the trickiest question of all: how to react when it all goes wrong? For chess writers everywhere, we proudly present the ultimate survival guide.

Only the tip of the iceberg

10/2/2011 – The game Aronian-Ivanchuk from last Friday was a great fight full of drama and tactics. From the wealth of variations, may it suffice to name only three in this critical position (after 25...Bf3+). How would you assess each of them?
A) 26.Kc2 Rfc8+ 27.Kb1
B) 26.Rxf3 Qxf3+ 27.Be2 Qxf6 28.g5
C) 26.Rxf3 Qxf3+ 27.Be2 Qh1+ 28.Kc2

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

CBM Blog: Dominating the queen – a Knightmare

10/2/2011 – Ready for some more endgame lessons from GM Karsten Müller? He shows us how, in a queen ending, the activity of the queens and the safety of the kings is of paramount importance. In the second example a knight has to make an important decision on which path to take – White went astray and lost instead of winning. Find out why, learn and become a better player.

São Paulo Masters – Ivanchuk and Anand score, Ivanchuk leads

10/1/2011 – Vassily Ivanchuk won his third game in a row in round four, beating Levon Aronian with the black pieces. World Champion Viswanathan Anand also scored a black victory against Spanish GM Francisco Vallejo. The game Magnus Carlsen vs Hikaru Nakamura ended in a draw, which left Ivanchuk with a five-point lead (in the Bilbao 3-1-0 system). Large illustrated report by Albert Silver.

Beauty Queens and Battling Knights

9/30/2011 – Male chess players choose riskier and more aggressive chess openings when playing against attractive women compared to when playing against less attractive women, although the Elo rating and style of play are the same. The scientists who have found this out are asking our readers to participate in a one-minute survey of their own behavior. You can win $500 if you do.

São Paulo Masters – Both Carlsen and Anand lose

9/30/2011 – In terms of statistical oddities, round three ranks right up there. Not only did Carlsen, the highest ranked player, lose to Vallejo, but Anand also lost to Ivanchuk. This not only meant the top rated players in the world lost in the same round in the same tournament, but both are now the tail-enders of the event. Report on round three and rest day by Albert Silver with analysis by GM Moradiabadi.

A history of cheating in chess (1)

9/29/2011 – Hardly a month goes by without some report of cheating in international chess tournaments. The problem has become acute, but it is not new. In 2001 Frederic Friedel contributed a paper to the book "Advances in Computer Chess 9". It traces the many forms of illicit manipulations in chess and, a decade later, appears disconcertingly topical and up-to-date. We reproduce the paper in five parts.

Chinese dominate at the Malaysian Chess Festival 2011

9/29/2011 – For the eight year running the Malaysian Chess Festival was held at Mid Valley City, a one stop destination for living, business and leisure on the periphery of Kuala Lumpur City Centre. This year's edition saw patron Dato Tan, 85 years old, playing in the Senior section. In the Open we find the first six places taken by Chinese players, one of them in fact female. Big pictorial by Andrew Ooi.

CBM Blog: Breakthrough, bodycheck and cut off

9/28/2011 – When passed pawns are far advanced you must always watch out for breakthrough motifs and promotion combinations, our resident endgame expert Dr Karsten Müller tells us. He also shows us, once again with a recent example, the two themes that are most important when a rook fights against a pawn. Here's your chance to learn from the GM and improve your chess.

How to manage your mind at the board

9/28/2011 – Psychologist George Zeigler of San Diego has been playing chess for thirty years. Ten years ago he went over all his losses and discovered that well over 80% of them had little to do with being outplayed. Rather they resulted from his state of mind at the time the moves were made. This led to his studying the key skills utilized by the chess master. Here he shares his results with our readers.

Nigel Short simul and lectures at RA Chess Club

9/27/2011 – The chess club in Ottawa has a special relationship with the former World Championship challenger. GM Nigel Short, who in recent months has been on fire with a string of sterling results, turned up a second time to give a simul and a lecture – his first on the 1993 match against Garry Kasparov in London. You will find annotated highlights from the simul and lecture in this report by John Upper.

São Paulo Masters – Ivanchuk beats Vallejo and ties Aronian

9/27/2011 – Although the scoreboard is much the same as yesterday, the content was quite another story. Carlsen and Aronian drew in a hard positional struggle, while Nakamura and Anand had a complex game that ended in as sharp a finish as possible. Ivanchuk and Vallejo kept all eight pawns for seventeen moves until the Spaniard finally went astray and lost. Comments by GM Elshan Moradiabadi.

Moscow beats St. Petersburg at 100th anniversary encounter

9/26/2011 – Last week, St. Petersburg hosted the traditional and historic match between Russia`s two greatest cities: Moscow and St. Petersburg. The first such chess match was held 100 years ago – in 1911, after which 21 more meetings have taken place. After a five-year break another was finally held, promising to be an annual event thanks to the sponsorship of “Gazprom”. Report by Anna Burtasova.

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.