Women's World Championship starts in Tirana – first game drawn

11/14/2011 – The match started with Koneru Humpy exerting tremendous pressure on the Chinese prodigy Hou Yifan right from the opening. Hou showed great resilience and patience, as she decided to defend to the point of sacrificing a pawn to reach a defendable endgame. Despite Humpy's persistence, the game was eventually drawn, but not for lack of fighting spirit! Full illustrated report with GM commentary.

FIDE Women’s World Chess Championship starts on Monday

11/13/2011 – The two opponents – Hou Yifan of China and Koneru Humpy of India – represent over a third of humanity. They are playing their match in a country of three million people, one that not too many people have had an opportunity to visit. We undertook the trip to Tirana in Albania and, together with all the details of the upcoming match, bring you pictorial impressions of the venue.

CBM training: Polerio's Eckenspiel, Dominance, Excelsior

11/13/2011 – "Many thanks for the continual presentations of endgames," writes Gene Bate of Kansas City, USA. "I cannot find words to tell you how much I appreciate those news items!" To which we say: keep searching, Gene! But seriously, so many people are writing in the same vein that we know we are doing something right with Karsten Müller's ChessBase Magazine column. Here are this weekend's lessons.

Edward Winter's Chess Explorations (73)

11/12/2011 – Marking the tenth anniversary of the death of Tony Miles, at the age of only 46, the Editor of Chess Notes discloses some tantalizing brief extracts from his correspondence with the great British master. They include discussion of the 22-board blindfold exhibition which Miles gave in Roetgen, Germany in 1984. All the game-scores were passed on by Miles for safekeeping and are given here now.

VG Nett quotes Carlsen on the Kasparov-Nakamura cooperation

11/11/2011 – Magnus Carlsen, as you probably know, was trained by Garry Kasparov in 2009 and 2010, then in March 2010 the two terminated their collaboration. Last week it was revealed that Kasparov had taken on a new trainee, American GM Hikaru Nakamura – since January this year. After a long New in Chess interview with both proponents now Magnus has aired his views in this VG Nett report.

Using chess engines to estimate human skill

11/11/2011 – In sports and games, rating systems are a widely accepted method for estimating skill levels of the players. They are based on the outcome of direct competitions only. Matej Guid and Ivan Bratko of the University of Ljubljana propose a different approach: to assess skill level at chess by applying chess engines to analyse positions and moves played. Interesting academic study.

CBM training: Missed turn-around, key diagonal, rampant rook

11/10/2011 – There is a wonderful endgame section in every issue of ChessBase Magazine, with practical lessons taken from current tournament play. The trainer is GM Karsten Müller, who also gives us a weekly session of topical endgames with detailed instructions on how to handle them. You can study Dr Müller's analysis or download the games for later review. Look, learn and enjoy.

ETCC R7: Azerbaijan crushes Bulgaria, takes the lead

11/10/2011 – After six rounds Romania, Azerbaijan and Bulgaria were in the lead, with ten match points each. Then came the unexpected drubbing, and could have easily ended with a 4-0 for the Azeris. Bulgaria , who were in the lead after five rounds, are now in place six, while Azerbaijan is first on match and board points. The Russian women continue to lead, with two full match points. Report after round seven.

London Chess Classic and the history-making 2800 club

11/10/2011 – The 2011 London Chess Classic is now just a month away – and it just got a little bit stronger. The latest ratings published by FIDE are the ones which will apply to the event. At the top of the list, for the first time in the history of chess competition, there are four players rated 2800 or more. All are playing in London. So that's not a bad place to be, from December 3-12.

ETCC R8: Germany upturns tables with win over Azerbaijan

11/10/2011 – And the leader changes again! Germany scored a surprise 2.5-1.5 victory over Azerbaijan, with Arkadij Naiditsch convincingly defeating Teimour Radjabov on the top board. They (the Germans!) now share the lead with Armenia, who outplayed Netherlands. The Russian women moved closer to the title by beating France. Individual board ranking lists are out. Round eight report.

Sam Collins: Know the Terrain Vol 3. Central Majority

11/9/2011 – "I really enjoyed the last Know the Terrain video," writes Chess Cafe reviewer Steven Dowd, "and the material in this one is probably even superior, as Collins discusses this idea of a central majority in ways I have not heard about before. It is an important theoretical contribution and anyone getting through the DVD will have weapons at his disposal that his opponents will not have." Curious?

Tiviakov wins First Panama Chess Open

11/9/2011 – Do not ask us how he does it – we have no idea! But Dutch GM Sergei Tiviakov somehow manages to (1) travel to the most exotic places in the world, (2) win the tournaments staged there, and (3) send us a huge batch of photos he has taken during his stay. Here are his pictorial impressions of a rare Middle American event, and the solution to our Panama Canal quiz question.

ETCC R5: Bulgaria take sole lead in open section

11/9/2011 – Topalov and his men defeated the German team 3-1 to emerge leaders, after Azerbaijan and France signed a truce when GM Vugar Gashimov had a medical condition during the round. Top seed Russia clawed back with a 2.5-1.5 victory over Ukraine. the Russian women maintained their lead despite Nadezhda Kosintseva’s second consecutive loss, to Georgian Nana Dzagnidze. Round five report.

Thirty years later – Makro tells it all

11/7/2011 – He's been in the middle of chess politics for almost thirty years now, the mercurial second-in-charge of FIDE. Deputy President Georgios Makropoulos was in the middle of everything when the infamous "toiletgate" scandal broke, and watched some of FIDE's commercial enterprises go down the drain. In this yard-long interview "Makro" speaks about it all – in typically candid and provocative fashion.

ETCC R3: Azerbaijan, Spain lead, Russian women dominate

11/6/2011 – After shocking England in the second round of the open section the Greece hosts succumb to higher rated Azerbaijan in the third round. Tournament favourites Russia were held to a draw by lower rated Netherlands, so plenty of fight remains in the open section with uncompromising play all around. The Russian women’s team continued its rampage. Round three report.

ChessBase Tutorial: Indian Defences

11/6/2011 – This month in the Chess Cafe Steven Dowd looks at "an ingenious way for people to become acquainted with an opening." He confesses he has never seen this type of product before and "being an old-school skeptic, I wondered how well a video could introduce a player to opening structures." After working through the product he comes to the conclusion that the DVD deserves five stars out of six.

ETCC R4: Germany and Bulgaria triumph, Germany leads

11/6/2011 – Normally we are scheduled to cover the European Team Championship after every second round. But round four was so interesting that we are slipping it in. The sensations: Russia was soundly defeated by Bulgaria 3-1, and even more sensationally: Germany beat Ukraine 3½-½ to take the overall lead in the event. We bring you the most interesting games in our round four extra report.

FIDE ratings – big gains by Radjabov and Morozevich

11/5/2011 – The top has a new occupant: Azeri GM Teimour Radjabov took a 29-point leap from 13th to place five, while Alexander Morozevich gained 25 points to move from place seventeen to nine. Amongst the women's the sensation is of course GM Zhao Xue, who has gained 61 points from 22 games in the last two months. Carlsen, Anand, Aronian and Kramnik remain at the top. November 2011 ratings.

CBM Endgame training: Which way to go + knight tactics

11/5/2011 – GM Karsten Müller's endgame instructions in ChessBase Magazine are extremely popular, and earning numerous players quite a few additional rating points in practical tournament play. Today Dr Müller concentrates turns his attention to knight manoeuvres, with examples derived from recent international games. This a free weekend lesson in endgame technique.

Grivas: Chess Expertise Step by Step

11/5/2011 – Greek grandmaster Efstratios Grivas is a highly experienced chess trainer and chess author. He has participated in the ChessBase sponsored program of training sessions for talented young players. In addition he has recorded a number of training DVDs, the latest of which deals with rook handling in the endgame, with four hours of personal video instructions. Do not miss this one.

Sicilian Tactics

11/4/2011 – Black has driven the white c3-knight to e2 with 18...b4. The strike 19...Nxe4 20.Qxe4 Bxg5 (with the idea ...Bc6) now ultimately leads to what?

A) piece win for White;
B) plus exchange for Black;
C) a roughly balanced ending.

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

European Team Chess Championship starts in Halkidiki

11/4/2011 – This nine-round Swiss, which will run from November 4-12, has a total of 38 countries in the open and 28 in the women's section. In round one on Thursday the top seed Russia squeaked out a win over Moldova, ranking 20th, while the Russian women – actually the Kosintseva sisters – demolished the Israelis 3-1. We bring you a richly illustrated round one report.

Whoah! We're Going To Ibiza

11/3/2011 – Ibiza (or Eivissa) is a Spanish island in the Mediterranean Sea, 79 km off the coast of the city of Valencia in Spain. It is known as the Party Capital of the world, but also for its beautiful Mediterranean scenery and climate. The Eivissa Chess Festival, which was held there, was comfortably won by Dutch GM Erwin l'Ami (7.5/8 points). His wife, WGM Alina l'Ami, sent us this lovely pictorial report.

White Mouse Sebag wins trip to Bejing

11/3/2011 – The qualifier for a fully funded trip to the SportAccord World Mind Games in Bejing (December 8-16), which was held on the Playchess server, was won by a player called Sourisblanche – white mouse in French. Turns out this is Marie Sebag, former wonder girl and at 25 a full grandmaster, who outplayed her very strong but tiring rivals from Asia and Russia. Congratulations Marie!