Hastings Congress 2011/12 won by GM Wang Yue

1/8/2012 – Aside from national championships, the Hastings Congress is the longest running chess tournament in history, with a tradition going back to 1919, won by Capablanca. Over the years, the grand event has seen almost every world champion (except Fischer and Kasparov), and the ultimate who's who of greats. This year Chinese GM Wang Yue added his name to the illustrious list of winners.

ChessBase DVDs – The Battleground of Ideas

1/7/2012 – This month in Chess Cafe Steven B. Dowd is reviewing opening, middlegame, and endgame DVDs by ChessBase, starting with Sergei Tiviakov's Scandinavian. "This is one of those rare trainers that actually gives insight into the grandmaster's lab" he writes, adding that for counter-punchers who like activity as Black the opening is perfect and the six-star DVD too good to pass up.

David Friedgood: introducing myself

1/7/2012 – Chess problems are a world of their own. They share with chess the rules of the game, but introduce dimensions that are missing in the over-the-board version. We are glad to welcome a new contributor to our somewhat sporadic section on problem chess, which was nevertheless very popular with our readers. We wish you happy solving over the weekend.

Volokitin wins double-game tournament in Donostia

1/6/2012 – Ukrainian GM Andrei Volokitin beat his Viktor Laznicka 2-0 in the final of the Donostia Chess Festival. The pressure became so high that the Czech player, who had suffered from a case of nerves in the semi-finals, simply forgot about time in one of the games, and after rejecting a draw offer, went on to lose. Final report with great pictures by WGM Anastasiya Karlovich and David Llada.

Cool and correct?

1/6/2012 – In this position the first player couldn't resist and with 41.Qxh6 made a spectacular queen sacrifice. After its acceptance with 41...gxh6 42.e6+ ...

A)... White wins in all lines;
B)... best play produces a perpetual check;
C)... Black prevails.

ChessBase Magazine, larger diagram and solution.

54th Reggio Emilia: The stars align for Anish Giri as he takes first!

1/6/2012 – After four rounds, he stood at a mere 1.0/4, but a fantastic comeback with 5.0/6 allowed 17-year-old Anish Giri to take sole first after his rivals, Nakamura and Morozevich, both of whom had better tiebreaks, lost in the final round. Moro came second, while Nakamura took third. Guramishvili won the women's event ahead of Sharevich and Brunello. Final report, photos and games.

The Lewis Chessmen: Lillören's misdemeanor

1/6/2012 – The Icelanders are not going to give in: in the battle with the Norwegians over the origin of the famous Lewis Chessmen – a collection of chess pieces, handcrafted in the 12th century – they repudiate the recent article by Morten Lillören disputing the Icelandic origin. This was the subject of a symposium on the Chessmen held in the location of their assumed origin.

54th Reggio Emilia: Giri beats Nakamura to tie for lead

1/5/2012 – The ninth and penultimate round was as dramatic as could be, and for all the right reasons as far as fans were concerned. Giri defied the pundit expectations by beating Nakamura with black, and is now tied for first with Nakamura and Moro. Caruana also won and it all comes down to the last round. In the women's event the final round will also decide. Report, games, and interview with Giri.

A Gross Miscarriage of Justice in Computer Chess (part four)

1/5/2012 – As proof that Vas Rajlich had copied program code the ICGA presented pages and pages of Fruit and Rybka code side by side. But, according to Dr Søren Riis, what was labeled as Rybka code was actually fabricated to look like Fruit. He criticizes the ICGA's process failures and ruminates on the reasons behind the unprecedented vendetta launched against the star chess programmer.

Bologan: The Catalan – A Complete Repertoire for White

1/4/2012 – It is one of the most solid openings for White and forms part of the large and strong fianchetto family in which White builds his strategy mainly around the bishop on g2. This DVD by GM Viktor Bologan covers all of Black’s replies to the Catalan, some of which can even transpose to other openings such as the Tarrasch System and the Queen’s Indian. Chess Cafe review by Carsten Hansen.

54th Reggio Emilia: Ivanchuk has a meltdown

1/4/2012 – Normally, the news would be that Morozevich beat Nakamura (which he did) and is now right behind (which he is), followed by Giri in third, but Ivanchuk stole their thunder. In round seven, visibly haunted by his loss to Giri, he dropped a piece against Vitiugov in such a way that spectators were left gaping. In round eight, against Caruana, he just flipped and literally tried to give away all his pieces!

A Gross Miscarriage of Justice in Computer Chess (part three)

1/4/2012 – A core accusation against Vas Rajlich is that Rybka and Fruit have very similar positional evaluations, and the use of floating point numbers in Rybka’s time management code had to be copied from Fruit. Søren Riis enumerates the ten substantive evaluation differences and shows how the second accusation boils down to a single misplaced keystroke with zero impact on Rybka's play.

Master Moves #20

1/3/2012 – All the deepest plans or endgame technique are useless if you fall victim to a shot that leaves you in a lost position. Likewise, sometimes that superior play will only offer a single window of opportunity to deliver that final blow, so it is vital to be ready for it when it does. All the shots that follow were played at the Groningen Chess Festival. Go on and strut your stuff!

Groningen chess festival won by Alexander Kovchan and Robert Hess

1/3/2012 – The Groningen chess festival took place from December 21st to 30th, and had a number of activities, including three Swiss opens and two matches. The main open was the 'A' event, which was won by Ukrainian GM Alexander Kovchan, who edged out American GM Robert Hess on tiebreak after both scored 7.0/9. Sergei Tiviakov came in third. Illustrated report.

A Gross Miscarriage of Justice in Computer Chess (part two)

1/3/2012 – In this part Dr Søren Riis of Queen Mary University in London shows how most programs (legally) profited from Fruit, and subsequently much more so from the (illegally) reverse engineered Rybka. Yet it is Vasik Rajlich who was investigated, found guilty of plagiarism, banned for life, stripped of his titles, and vilified in the international press – for a five-year-old alleged tournament rule violation. Ironic.

54th Reggio Emilia: Nakamura wins (again), and so do both juniors

1/2/2012 – Three straight rounds, in a tournament in which all the players are rated 2700 and up, where every game ended in a decisive result. Nakamura outclassed Vitiugov and now has a commanding lead over the field, with a 3018 performance. Giri beat Ivanchuk, while Caruana avenged his loss to Morozevich. Sopiko Guramishvili has a 1.5 lead in the women's section. Round six report and games.

Donostia/San Sebastián: and then there were eight

1/2/2012 – We remind you: this is an extraordinary knock-out event in that the participants have to play two games against each other – simultaneously. In the A group three of eight matches were decided in classical games, three in rapid games and two in simultaneous blitz. All quite harrowing, as we learn from the players and in our illustrated report by WGM Anastasiya Karlovich.

A Gross Miscarriage of Justice in Computer Chess (part one)

1/2/2012 – "Biggest Sporting Scandal since Ben Johnson" and "Czech Mate, Mr. Cheat" – these were headlines in newspapers around the world six months ago. The International Computer Games Association had disqualified star programmer Vasik Rajlich for plagiarism, retroactively stripped him of all titles, and banned him for life. Søren Riis, a computer scientist from London, has investigated the scandal.

Edward Winter's Chess Explorations (76)

1/1/2012 – Exactly 30 years ago the Editor of Chess Notes began his forum devoted to history and lore, a miscellany of forgotten games, compositions, biographies, photographs, quotes, enigmas and exposés, scrutinizing without fear or favour the saints and sinners of chess, the champions, amateurs, scholars and reprobates. Here is a guide to help readers continue to enjoy the mass of unique material.

54th Reggio Emilia: Spaceship Nakamura takes off

1/1/2012 – It was an impressive turnaround when, in round four, Nakamura downed Giri in a game where the young Dutchman seemed out of sorts, while Morozevich lost his lead when he was defeated by Ivanchuk in an exciting game. This was only a prelude to round five when Nakamura and Ivanchuk had a thrilling battle, which gave the American the sole lead. Pictures and New Year wishes.

FIDE ratings – Carlsen starts 2012 with thirty-point lead

1/1/2012 – If it wasn't for you-know-who twelve years ago we would have said this was unique in world chess: the Norwegian GM Magnus Carlsen has climbed to 2835, his highest rating ever, and now leads the field by a full thirty points. Two other players, Aronian and Kramnik, are above 2800, and the World Champion Anand has dipped just below the mark for the first time since July 2010. January 2012 ratings.

Double-game tournament in Donostia/San Sebastián

12/31/2011 – This event, which is taking place from December 28th 2011 to January 5th 2012 in northern Spain, is unusual in that, following an idea by David Bronstein, the participants play two classical games against each other – simultaneously. It is a knock-out tournament, with the eliminated players continuing in a parallel group. Here's a nicely illustrated report by WGM Anastasiya Karlovich.

Rilton Cup in Stockholm

12/30/2011 – This chess tournament, staged for the seventh time, is thanks to a very generous man, Dr. Tore Rilton, a Swedish doctor who left six million Swedish kronor in his will to be used only for chess. The venue is the beautiful Clarion Hotel, with a view of Stockholm directly outside the playing hall. In spite of some opening problems Alina l'Ami managed to send us this big illustrated report.

Kavalek in Huffington: The World Chess Hall of Fame

12/30/2011 – The World Chess Hall of Fame, which was recently relocated from Miami to St. Louis, celebrated its tenth anniversary this month. When it first opened in December 2001, Czech GM Lubos Kavalek was inducted there together with five great chess players, with whom he had a lot in common. He tells us all about it in his latest Huffington Post column.