New Fischer movie by Liz Garbus – trailer and videos

5/24/2011 – Bobby Fischer, one of the most famous chess players in the world, is no longer with us. But he remains in our culture’s memory years after his passing, and decades after he gave America one of its greatest Cold War moral victories. That is the centerpiece of Garbus’s compelling, thorough film, to be released in July. Our reporter Sabrina Chevannes visited the pre-screening in London.

FIDE Candidates Finals G5: No winner in trenchwar

5/24/2011 – Today's game was a battle through and through, and textbooks will probably pick up on it, owing to its singularly narrow strategic focus. In a Queen's Gambit Declined, the players quickly set out to fight for the e5 square: Gelfand to slip in his pawn break, and Grischuk to prevent it. The positional complexities were enormous, so here is the detailed GM Commentary by Elshan Moradiabadi.

Dangzhou: 16-year-old Yu Yangyi wins with 2880 performance

5/24/2011 – It is one thing to have a mid-tournament performance above 2800, it is another to actually end with a nine-round performance of 2880, and that is exactly what 16-year-old Yu Yangyi just did. Not only that, but he butted heads with all the strongest players from the Chinese contingent, including an eighth-round win over 2nd place, Wang Yue (2714). Final illustrated report by Gu Xiaobing.

Poisoned pawn variation

5/24/2011 – In yesterday's 5th game of the candidates final Grischuk at this point refrained from 29.Qh3xh7 (diagram) and preferred to exchange queens on c8 instead. What do you think, which black reply made him decline the pawn?
A) 29...Kf7
B) 29...Qf5
C) 29...Qg4

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

Attack and defence

5/24/2011 – White's pieces are clearly targeting the black king. What would be your evaluation of the position after the sequence 20.Ng5 (diagram) hxg5 21.Nxg7 with the idea 22.Qh5+? 
A) dangerous attack for White;
B) advantage to Black;
C) balanced if both sides follow up correctly (perpetual check).
A toughie!
The solution is here, but first ponder over it with a larger version of the diagram.

Happy Birthday! Anatoly Karpov turns sixty

5/23/2011 – He is one of the greatest chess players in the history of the game, World Champion from 1975 to 1985, superb tournament player with 160 first-place finishes against world-class opposition, including the legendary 2985 performance at Linares in 1994. Our special birthday present is an amusing little video, narrated by the late Alexander Roshal, on the eleven-year-old prodigy Karpov.

FIDE Candidates Finals G4: Another short draw

5/23/2011 – After the short draw in game three, and the rest day that followed, the spectators were entitled to expect today's game to be a good fight at the very least. But no such luck. The grandmaster we had lined up to annotate the game told us, "The match is very disappointing... Have you ever seen a sports event that ended precisely when the heat was at its highest?". Report and picture.

St. Louis Matches: Nakamura and Robson win classical

5/23/2011 – The start was inauspicious to say the least with Nakamura losing the first game, and getting into trouble against Ponomariov in the opening of most of the games. Yet sheer grit kept him alive, and in the sixth he finally got it all right. "I was just simply outplayed," Ponomariov explained. Robson also won his last game taking the score to 4.0-2.0. The rapids start Tuesday. Report and videos.

2nd Hainan Dangzhou: Yu Yangyi leads with 2882 performance

5/22/2011 – After seven rounds, 16-year-old Yu Yangyi still leads, though with 5.5/7 and a 2882 performance now. Current Chinese number two, Wang Yue is close behind, though seems to be having an epiphany as the ultra-positional player has been experimenting with the other extreme. During the rest day, the players gave simuls to children from the area. Illustrated report by Gu Xiaobing.

Ivanchuk catches Le in final round of Capa Memorial

5/22/2011 – One round before the end the Vietnamese super talent Le Quang Liem led the field at the 46th Capablanca Memorial in Havana, Cuba, by a full point. But he still had to face Vassily Ivanchuk. Le played a brave game with black and had (we believe) the required draw in hand. But a few small inaccuracies left the Ukranian GM three pawns up and a clear win. The two players shared first.

Chess and general impressions from Luanda

5/22/2011 – The CUCA International Chess in Angola's capital of Luanda is a generously staged event in an exotic part of the world. We have problems coming by the games, but two of the participants, Romanian-born WGM Alina l'Ami and GM Sergey Tiviakov, originally Russia – both now live in Holland – took time off to explore the town and its culture. From them we have received this giant pictorial report.

Saint Louis: Nakamura equalises, Robson stays ahead

5/21/2011 – Ruslan Ponomariov and Ray Robson both won their first-round games at the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis. In round three the Ukrainian GM's opponent Hikaru Nakamura drew level, while GM Ben Feingold has not been able to win a game against the 16-year-old Guam-born GM who lives in Largo, Florida. Robson leads 2.5:1.5. Report after round four.

FIDE Candidates Finals G3: Strong novelty... quick draw

5/21/2011 – The third round of the candidates was quite disappointing, and not so much because it was a fourteen-move draw, but the circumstances. Grischuk chose a rare move in the Queen’s Gambit Declined, and ran into a strong and unpleasant novelty right there and then. It promised to be a fascinating game, and just as the spectators were settling down for the upcoming struggle...Draw!?! Report.

European Women's Championship: Cmilyte is champion!

5/21/2011 – It was a tough competition but Lithuanian GM Viktorija Cmilyte made it almost seem easy. After a five in five start she stumbled against Stefanova, but responded as if nothing had happened and still finished on an incredible 9.0/11 and a 2692 performance, including eight wins in eleven games. Bulgarian Antoaneta Stefanova stayed close and came clear second with 8.5/11. Report and videos.

Greetings from Pál Benkö for 25 years of ChessBase

5/20/2011 – "Congratulations to ChessBase on your 25th anniversary! Your news page is the the first thing I look at every day when I go on the Internet. You do such wonderful work. Keep up your great service for the whole chess world." Heartening words from legendary great chess player, theorist, author and problem composer – who in addition sent six anniversary puzzles for our readers.

Kavalek in Huffington: How to Cook in Chess

5/20/2011 – Actually, "to cook" in chess has nothing to do with culinary pleasures, but is a dreaded thing for chess composers. A problem is cooked when there a different unintended solution is found. But a composition can be also cooked when someone creates a sound problem or study from an unsound work and eliminates the dual solution. You can also have it both ways as Prof. Noam Elkies proved.

FIDE Candidates Finals G2: Grischuk close to win against Gelfand

5/20/2011 – It was an exciting game with the players opting for a complicated Symmetrical English. Gelfand got the worst of it and ended up with a rook for two pieces. In the ensuing endgame the two fought hard and Grischuk seemed to have a winning position. However with an array of paths to choose, a clear victory never materialized, and Gelfand held. GM commentary by Alejandro Ramirez.

ChessBase is 25

5/19/2011 – It is difficult to determine the exact date when ChessBase was born. Was it when a science journalist and a future World Champion discussed computer databases? Or when a very talented programmer started to actually write one? We think it was when the two showed the prototype to the World Champion and decided, at his urging, to commercialise the product. That was May 19, 1986.

FIDE Candidates Finals: First game drawn after fight

5/19/2011 – The last match of the Candidates is upon us, this time a six-game match to decide Anand's challenger. Grischuk and Gelfand played a Queen's Gambit Declined, though contrary to his treatment of Kramnik, Grischuk was not amenable to a fightless draw. The game simplified to a tough rook endgame in which Grischuk pressed hard but never broke the balance. GM Alejandro Ramirez annotates.

Le Quang Liem and Andreikin lead at Capa Memorial

5/18/2011 – The 46th Capablanca Memorial is taking place from May 10-21, 2011, in Havana, Cuba. The Elite Group is a double round robin with six strong GMs. Top seed Vassily Ivanchuk suffered a somewhat mysterious defeat in round four, while GM Le Quang Liem from Vietnam survived a long attack by Czech GM David Navara in the same round. Entertaining.

2nd Hainan Dangzhou: 16-year-old Yu Yangyi leads

5/18/2011 – After the success of the first Hainan Dangzhou tournament, the second edition is underway and a long-term contract has already been signed for five tournaments. This year has the cream of the crop of Chinese players including Wang Hao, Wang Yue and the teen prodigies, Hou Yifan and Yu Yangyi. 16-year-old Yangyi leads after three rounds. Here is the illustrated report by Gu Xiaobing.

Ponomariov draws first blood in Saint Louis

5/18/2011 – From May 17-25 there is an interesting match taking place at the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis: top US GM Hikaru Nakamura plays former FIDE world champion Ruslan Ponomariov in six regular and four rapid games. The event has unprecedented live and archived video coverage – hours and hours of it. In their first game Ponomariov was forced to mate with bishop and knight.

CUCA International in Angola

5/18/2011 – In a sign of the enormous reconstruction efforts being made in Angola, the CUCA international Chess event is being held in the capital Luanda. The Open brought star chess globetrotters, Nigel Short and Sergey Tiviakov, not to mention the generous prize fund, and the Women's event has also been given its due. With his tireless camera, here is a large pictorial by Sergey Tiviakov.

2011 Canadian Closed Chess Championship

5/17/2011 – Canada’s top players gathered at the University of Guelph, playing for the Zonal title and a berth in this year’s World Cup. The tournament, with 29 players, was topped by GM Bator Sambuev, 2750 on the Canadian rating scale (2513 FIDE), who finised equal first together with IM Eric Hansen, Alberta’s provincial champion. Bator won the tiebreak, Hansen got the World Cup ticket. Illustrated report.