12/2/2010 – Dragoljub Velimirovic used to be one of the most feared attackers in the world, always looking for the impossible. His imaginative play was compared to the colorful world champion Mikhail Tal's razzle-dazzle. His playing style was unique, daring and often falling off the edge. He made risky moves and so many of them that you wondered how much punishment his chess pieces could take. Latest column.

12/2/2010 – "Peter Svidler is the black sheep of contemporary chess – original in every way. Which other Russian player is keen on cricket, prefers English to Russian, doesn’t consider Leo Tolstoy a great writer, resigns in drawn positions and plays billiards masterfully? Only Peter." That is the assessment of Sergey Shipov, who published this 'chess conference' on the Russian news portal Crestbook.

12/1/2010 – ... and then some. The New York Times was approached by the President of the World Chess Federation, who offered to answer readers’ questions. The result is a giant three-part Q+A which deals with all aspects of Ilyumzhinov's career and work, including the perennial question about alien abduction and the galactic origin of chess. Turns out he will be publishing a book on the subject.

11/30/2010 – It is known as "the tournament with the horse": there is a giant one of the Trojan variety to be seen at the location in the Dutch city of Wolvega, and the first prize includes a live horse – theoretically. Actually the winner gets, in addition to his prize money, a check that allows a local charity to buy a horse for its equestrian therapy. This year's tournament was won by English GM Luke McShane. Report.

11/30/2010 – Victory came with the penultimate round, which the young female talents won 3:1. It mattered not that the legendary veterans could score a revenge 3:1 in the final round. The young ladies took the match by four points. Humpy Koneru was the top player with 6.0/8 points, Vlastimil Hort the top male with 5.0/8. We bring you a final illustrated report with pictures and portraits of the players.

11/29/2010 – In 1975 Bobby Fischer filed a $20,000,000 libel suit over a book by Brad Darrach on the 1972 Spassky v Fischer world title match in Iceland. What were the rights and wrongs of the affair? The Editor of Chess Notes examines the coverage of the time, which is highly revealing about the individual reviewers and commentators, quite apart from the insights provided into Fischer and Darrach themselves.

11/22/2010 – The Editor of Chess Notes points out that writers of opening monographs often simply ignore the detailed work of theoreticians from bygone years. Taking Alekhine’s Defence as an example, he gives many references to forgotten articles published in magazines up to the middle of the twentieth century, including analysis by such luminaries as Réti and Grünfeld. A salutary lesson.

11/22/2010 – ... one must be able to take something, the second player had thought here liquidating White's passed pawn with 25...Bb5xc6, which was of course followed by 26.Rb1-e1 whereupon all black pieces were directly or indirectly attacked. How would you assess the position now?
A) Black can favourably unpin;
B) no advantage, but the strong b-pawn guarantees Black the draw;
C) Black ultimately loses a pieces.
The solution is here, but first ponder over it with a larger version of the diagram.

11/21/2010 – The event is just huge and is a chess lover's dream come true. It is hosting the Ibero-American Championship, then there is a high-profile bonanza with 10-minute games with stars such as Topalov, Polgar, and Ivanchuk, plus simuls by Karpov and Kasparov, a huge outdoor chess art exhibition, lectures, a recreation of "The Turk", and a giant open. Plentiful pictorial by Nadja Wittmann.

11/20/2010 – This could be the highest chess tournament in Europe. It is staged in the pretty Alpine town of Livigno, located at an altitude of 1,816 meters, in an area famous for its scenery, cows, cheese and birth rate (highest in Italy). The inhabitants are convinced that it is more beautiful than the neighboring St. Moritz and set out to prove this with a chess tournament. Big pictorial report by Diana Mihajlova.

11/19/2010 – We are pleased open the virtual doors to our new online shop, bringing new features to help simplify your purchases, payable also with PayPal and Ducats(!), as well as manage your PlayChess account, and download versions of our programs you bought, with the option to re-download if you need. We are giving away four weeks of Premium Playchess subscriptions too! Let us give you a quick tour.

11/19/2010 – Larry Evans, who died at the age of 78 this Monday, scored an impressive nine points in ten games in his first Olympiad for the U.S. In 26 years, from 1950 to 1976, he chalked up 64.5/100 points in eight Olympiads. GM Lubomir Kavalek, who played next to him at the 1976 Olympiad in Haifa, shows us one of the most thrilling games of Evans' career in this Huffington Post column.