World Cup R6.1: Both games drawn, Ukraine to move

9/12/2011 – Both the Russian grandmasters left in the World Cup played their first game of the semifinals with White. Realizing that the stakes are very high (there are only three tickets to the World Championship, not to speak of the substantial money prize) everyone played very carefully. The result: two draws, in 20 and 22 moves. On Tuesday the Ukrainians have white and thus the advantage. Semi-final report.

CBM Blog: Opposition and the Horwitz Manoeuvre

9/12/2011 – The first games of the World Cup semi-finals did not produce a lot of material for commentary. So we use this analytical pause to bring you two endgame lessons by GM Dr. Karsten Müller. The examples are taken from earlier games in Khanty-Mansiysk and give you insights into complex opposition and a classical winning technique that Ruslan Ponomariov executed perfectly. Look and learn.

Shenzhen Women's Grand Prix - Five tied for first after five rounds

9/12/2011 – After the fourth and fifth rounds, Hou Yifan and Zhao Xue were first joined in the lead by Anna Muzychuk in round four, and then by Tan Zhongyi and Ruan Lufei in round five. The rest day, after the fourth round, coincided with a special Chinese holiday that celebrates the moon's brightest and most beautiful appearance in the year, including colorful festivities around it. A beautiful pictorial.

Kings and Queens - A match in rapid classic chess and Chess960

9/12/2011 – As a part of the launch of the renovated St. Louis Chess Club, together with the World Chess Hall of Fame, a Kings and Queens team match is also taking place, pitting the men against the women not only in rapid classic chess, but also Chess960. The event has a generous $52,000 prize fund and live online commentary by WGM Shahade and GM Seirawan. Here is the report with pictures and videos.

Ten years of ChessBase News

9/12/2011 – Actually we began with a web news service around 1995 – with a static HTML site and a few news items per week. On September 12 2001 we launched the new database driven service, and have since then published more than 7,500 reports and stories – becoming the premium news page for chess. You can use our new archive and search functions to browse around nostalgically in the past.

World Cup R5.2: Radjabov equalises, Polgar and Gashimov eliminated

9/11/2011 – Azeri GM Taimour Radjabov lost his first game against veteran Vassily Ivanchuk; in the second he struck back and equalised, forcing a tiebreak on Sunday. David Navara and Alexander Grischuk are also tied and meet in the tiebreaks. Peter Svidler tricked Judit Polgar and Ruslan Ponomariov won a black game against Vugar Gashimov. Both are now in the semi-finals. Illustrated report.

World Cup R5 tiebreaks: It's Russia vs Ukraine in the semifinals

9/11/2011 – Alexander Grischuk won his first rapid chess game against David Navara and survived the second to proceed to the next round. Vassily Ivanchuk managed to hold a difficult ending against Teimour Radjabov and then went on to outplay him in the second game. On Monday Grischuk plays Ivanchuk, and Peter Svidler faces Ruslan Ponomariov. Full illustrated report.

World Chess Hall of Fame opens in St. Louis

9/11/2011 – The World Chess Hall of Fame, a cultural non-profit institution relocated from Miami and chose St. Louis as its new home due to the city’s growing reputation as a center of chess. To celebrate its new space, a live chess event was organized to launch the first-ever Chess Merit Badge for the Boy Scouts of America. GM Nakamura participated and stood in as the black king. Laura High reports.

World Cup R5.1: Ivanchuk leads against Radjabov

9/10/2011 – Three games were decided quickly – in 14, 16 and 28 moves. But even short games can be of considerable theoretical interest, as the annotation of Svidler-Polgar by GM Efstratios Grivas clearly show. There was one decisive game: Taimour Radjabov overlooked a tactical shot by Vassily Ivanchuk and, playing a queen for rook and bishop down, lost in 41 moves. Illustrated report.

Queens, checks and passed pawns

9/9/2011 – Here White had just checked on c4 in order to capture the enemy Bc3 and after ...Qe4 followed by the advance of the e-pawn to set his own c-pawn in motion. Which continuation leads to victory for Black now?
A) 38...Kh8 39.Qxc3 Qe4
B) 38...Kh7 39.Qd3+ f5
C) 38...Kh7 39.Qd3+ g6

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

FIDE Women's Grand Prix in Shenzhen, China

9/9/2011 – The second stage of FIDE Women's Grand Prix cycle 2011-2012 is being staged from 5th to 20th of September in the Wuzhou Hotel in Shenzhen, China. It includes the a current and a former women's world champion, the reigning European champion and a bevvy of top female players. After three rounds Hou Yifan and Zhao Xue lead. Big illustrated report.

World Cup R4.2: Judit evens the score

9/8/2011 – In the second game of round four in the World Cup the amazing Judit Polgar, a loss down against Cuban GM Lenier Dominguez, actually pulled back with a black-piece win. Navara, Svidler and Radjabov went through, the former two with 2-0 wins, with Peter Svidler eliminating Gata Kamsky. Five of the eight games were decisive, five pairings go to the tiebreaks on Thursday. Illustrated report.

Unforgettable Venezuelan chess party

9/8/2011 – The magic of chess seized Barquisimeto, Venezuela, and lived up to its expectations for the First International Chess Festival held there in a tribute to IM Wiston Boada, to celebrate 25 years of chess and selflessness in promoting it. AjedrezVinoTinto put together a beautiful festival with 80 players and even invited renowned Spanish journalist Leontxo García to lecture. Large illustrated report.

Garry Kasparov chats with Brazilian icon Jô Soares

9/8/2011 – While visiting Brazil, Garry Kasparov was interviewed by the Brazilian talk show host and icon, Jô Soares. Soares, a well-known polyglot, conducted the entire interview in English, and had come very well-prepared as he started the discussion with the champion's retirement in 2005, talking about the inauguration of the Kasparov Chess Foundation in São Paulo, and more. An excellent interview.

World Cup R4 Tiebreaks: Polgar and Ponomariov win on last blitz

9/8/2011 – Anyone looking at the scoreboard would conclude that the results of the fourth round were eminently logical as the Elo favorites, all went forward. However, the matches could easily have gone otherwise. For the Cubans, it was an especially bad day, as both Leinier Dominguez and Lazaro Bruzon lost in the last blitz game to Judit Polgar and Ruslan Ponomariov respectively. Report, pictures, and games.

World Cup R4.1: no draw death in Khanty-Mansiysk

9/7/2011 – Round four in the World Cup was another uncompromising day – six games out of eight were decisive! White won four times, Black scored two wins, and of the two draws one was well fought out. Dominguez, Navara, Gashimov, Potkin, Radjabov and Svidler go into the second game on Wednesday with a win under their belts, the first two with the advantage of the white pieces. Illustrated report.

Kavalek in Huffington: The Hand of God in Chess?

9/7/2011 – The drama surrounding the game David Navara vs Alexander Moiseenko continues to occupy the chess world, and has made it into the mainstream media. In his Huffington Post chess column GM Lubomir Kavalek felt a deja vu: a game he had played in 1965 wound down to a similar Q vs R+P ending which he proceeded to win. Kavalek also philosophises about offering a draw in a winning position.

The last day of the “Botvinnik Memorial”

9/7/2011 – On the last day of the three-day Botvinnik Memorial in Moscow there were no more battles among the grandmasters. This day was dedicated to remembering the 6th World Champion Mikhail Botvinnik. On the program was the inauguration of a plaque dedicated to Botvinnik, and a simul by the participants against 80 juniors from around the country. A pictorial report by Anna Burtasova.

Sonas: what exactly is the problem?

9/6/2011 – In recent weeks two strong GMs have sent us their solutions to the problem of draws in chess (have rapid game deciders on the same day, they propose). This has caused quite a stir in the chess world. We asked chess statistician Jeff Sonas to scientifically analyse the problem – it's got to be good to know exactly what we are talking about. Here are his remarkable findings.

World Cup R3.2: Fair play in Khanty-Mansiysk

9/5/2011 – Game two of the third round of the World Cup produced an extraordinary display of fairness. First David Navara accidentally touched a piece, but his opponent, Alexander Moiseenko did not insist on the "touch-move" rule that would have lost him the game. Moiseenko was subsequently outplayed by the Czech GM, who with a forced mate on the board offered him a draw. Chess gentlemen.

2011 L. Rudenko Memorial won by 13-year-old Goryachkina

9/5/2011 – In its fifth edition, the Lyudmila Rudenko Memorial, dedicated to the second Women's World Champion, brought together 43 female players, vying for a spot in the Russian Women's Cup later this year. In spite of a field including no fewer than eight WGMs, the surprise winner was 13-year-old Alexandra Goryachkina, a full point ahead of the field. Report and pictures by Evgenia Doluhanova.

World Cup R3 Tiebreaks: Navara wins, and Mamedyarov falls to Zherebukh

9/5/2011 – It was an incredibly bloodthirsty round of tiebreaks with nine of the first ten games ending in a decisive result. For those wondering whether Navara's sports-manship would cost him the potential $8000 he risked losing, it did not, and he beat Moiseenko to pass forward. The biggest surprise was 18-year-old Zherebukh's victory over World Championship Candidate Mamedyarov. Report, pics, and games.

World Cup R3.1: Top players clash, Polgar, Kamsky, Sutovsky win

9/4/2011 – Round three of the World Cup saw top players finally encountering each other, with upsets still possible. The big one was the victory of the only remaining female in the event, Judit Polgar, over top seed Sergey Karjakin. Emil Sutovsky brought down the great Vassily Ivanchuk and Alexander Grischuk outwitted Alexander Morozevich with an obscure line of play. Illustrated report.

How to build your own USB Electronic Chess Board

9/4/2011 – How would you like to build your own full-sized wooden electronic board. Sound impossible or highly improbable? Not so. If you are the type of person who enjoys building models, or challenging projects, Bryan Whitby has created a website with step-by-step instructions, and plenty of pictures, showing you how to build a USB chess board that can be hooked up to Fritz. See the video and learn how.