Russian men's Superfinal – Svidler and Karjakin take lead

12/13/2010 – After the somewhat sedate opening round, the second saw four decisive games and four players join Nepomniachtchi in the lead. The third round was marked by two victories, one by an inspired Svidler seeking an amazing sixth title, and the other by Karjakin over fellow Russian super talent Nepomniachtchi in an exciting game that lived up to the billing. Illustrated round three report.

Very active pieces...

12/13/2010 – ... had title holder Alexandra Kosteniuk in her second game at the Women's World Championship in Antakya, yet on the other hand White exerted central pressure against the shaky points d5, e5 and potentially f3. How would you assess the position? (Black to play)
A) good for White;
B) balanced;
C) won for Black;
The solution is here, but first ponder over it with a larger version of the diagram.

London R4: Anand mates Short, joins McShane in the lead

12/12/2010 – The fourth round showed a bit of luck for Anand. He benefited from a nasty oversight by Short, who blundered thinking he was going for the brilliancy prize. With this, Anand joined McShane in the leadership, who drew his game after Adams missed a cute equalizing trick. Kramnik outplayed Howell and also won, while Carlsen eventually outplayed Nakamura in a Dutch. Big illustrated report.

London Chess Classic – Carlsen vs Nakamura, and a walk in the park

12/12/2010 – One more round on Sunday, and after that a rest day. What to do in the fine, sunny London weather? How about a walk in the park? London has an excellent selection of open spaces to pick from, and Richmond Park is a beautiful nature reserve where you can see a wide variety of birds and animals. Meanwhile we provide you with some analysis from the round four encounter Carlsen vs Nakamura.

2010 Women's World Championship – Armageddon

12/12/2010 – It was an exciting round, and while the Elo favorites Koneru and Yifan went through smoothly, it also marked the end of Kosteniuk's title defense after she lost to Ruan Lufei. Skripchenko, facing Cmilyte, was once again saved in the tiebreak by her superior blitz skills. Indian Hakira and Muzychuk had an epic match that went the distance. Read what happened in the round three report.

Russian men's Superfinal – Beauty and the beast

12/11/2010 – The incredibly strong Russian men's championship Superfinal, with seven out of twelve players sporting 2700 ratings, just started with Grischuk, Svidler, Karjakin and Nepomniachtchi. The opening ceremony was a fun event followed by a robot challenge taking on two super GMs in a clock simul, and a knight odds against belle Mariya Fominykh. There are many beautiful pictures by Evgeny Surov.

Kavalek in Huffington: Imagination Breeds Creativity

12/11/2010 – How do chess players create beautiful games and compositions? Do they dig deep into their memory and retrieve ideas of others or do they use their own imagination? Obviously, it is a combination of both, because what they learn and remember and what they create themselves goes hand in hand. The art of creating is remembering and imagining, as illustrated by mathematician Noam Elkies.

London Classic – Round two commentary

12/10/2010 – Six decisive games so far, with all eight being exciting and entertaining. The Second London Chess Festival is giving the spectators their money's worth. Luke McShane is the sole leader after beating Nigel Short in a complicated tactical struggle. Two points behind him is America’s Hikaru Nakamura who scored a great win against former world champion Vladimir Kramnik. Round two commentary.

2010 Women's World Championship - Heads start to roll

12/10/2010 – The second round of the world championship was brutal, and while the very top-seeds such as Kosteniuk, Koneru, and Yifan, went through, others such as Kosintseva, Dzagnidze, and Stefanova, saw an abrupt end to their journeys. Players who were particularly strong at faster time controls benefited from the tiebreaks, but others not. Only sixteen players remain now. Round two report.

London Chess Classic - Anand beats Carlsen; McShane escapes

12/10/2010 – Although the count in decisive games (one) was calmer, the games were anything but. Anand got into trouble against Carlsen, then Magnus was completely lost, almost saved it and finally succumbed. McShane suffered terribly against Kramnik, and was on the brink of losing when a last minute blunder changed this. Howell drew with a clever fortress against Nakamura. With pictures and videos.

FIDE – who is being indecisive?

12/10/2010 – There are professionals out there thinking about chess – like Norwegian philosopher Rune Vik-Hansen, who presented a paper two years ago on the chess mind. Today he presents another (very extensive) paper for peer review, this time on the perceived inconsistency of the World Chess Federation, which "lives in a different world from the community it is set to represent." Treatise with summary.

London Classic – follow it live in your browser

12/9/2010 – The London Chess Classic is being broadcast live – commentary and all – on our Playches server. But what if you do not have membership (yet) or are running a Mac? Well, here's some good news: you can now watch the broadcast in a browser, together with automatic position evaluation by our most powerful engines. While you are waiting to try it out in round two here is analysis of the round one.

GM Giovanni Vescovi wins seventh Brazilian title

12/9/2010 – It was a vindication against a federation that has been snubbing him, and a validation of his status as the top Brazilian player, GM Giovanni Vescovi tied a record that has stood for more than 50 years with his win of a seventh title as Brazilian Chess champion, 1.5 points in front. His closest rival, Rafael Leitao, scored unevenly, but did play a magnificent combination. Illustrated report.

London Classic - McShane shoots ahead, Carlsen strikes back

12/9/2010 – After such an exciting first round, who would have thought the second could do as well, yet it did. After McShane's shock win over Carlsen, he followed it up with a second win over Short, taking sole lead. Carlsen put his slip behind him and defeated Adams in a combative game, while Anand was unable to beat Howell. Kramnik was unrecognizable and was soon lost to Nakamura. Pictorial report.

London Classic – Explosive start, McShane beats Carlsen

12/8/2010 – The 2nd London Chess Classic started magnificently for the spectators, with no fewer than three wins out of four games. The shocker was English GM McShane's explosive win over Magnus Carlsen, winning in grand style no less. Adams had little trouble with Howell, while Kramnik slowly shoved his way into Short's position. Anand-Nakamura was a 74-move draw. Round one report.

Starts tomorrow: the London Chess Classic 2010

12/7/2010 – The strongest event in Britain – and one of the premier tournaments of the year 2010 – begins tomorrow at 14:00h in the Olympia Conference Center in Kensington, London. It includes Anand, Carlsen and Kramnik. Today was the opening press conference and the drawing of lots, which results in a full pairing table. To get you in the right mood we bring you a big photo report.

2010 Women's World Championship - Round two started

12/7/2010 – The striking disparities in pairings that existed in the first round are gone, and for some players, this was the true beginning of competition. The first surprise was Tatiana Kosintseva's collapse after botching a dead won position, to actually end up losing. On the other hand, some showed growing form such as Elisabeth Paehtz who found all the right moves to beat Cmilyte. Illustrated report.

Aquaprofit Polgár Sakknap – the sisters' reunion

12/6/2010 – The three Polgar sisters – GMs Susan and Judit, IM Sofia – live on three different continents, each with a family of two children. Recently they were all brought together by the chess-friendly Hungarian company Aquaprofit, for simultaneous exhibitions, book signings and chess art. Diana Mihajlova has sent us a big pictorial report and some very nice video impressions.

2010 Women's World Championship - First upsets

12/6/2010 – In an unusual pairing system that had top boards sporting over 500 Elo over their adversaries, while the middle of the field played virtual mirrors, it seemed unlikely any of the strongest would suffer, yet even such shielding was not enough. The biggest name was Cramling's loss to local Turkish talent, Yildiz. However, Kovanova's spectacular win over Pogonina was the game of the round. Report.

Rethinking top level chess – a mandatory move

12/5/2010 – Who is the strongest player in the world? Does the World Champion win his title in the most effective way? How much should we depend on the Elo rating system, and are there better alternatives for determining world rankings? After three years spent writing a PhD thesis on games and sports at the Paris-Sorbonne Manouk Borzakian turns his attention to chess in this thought-provoking paper.

2010 Women's World Chess Championship - Round one

12/5/2010 – Sixty-four of the top female players in the world have gathered at Hatay, Turkey, to fight for the title of World Champion, and register their names in the annals of history. The tournament is a knockout event held in a beautiful, but unusual locale: the Antakya Archaeological Museum, famed for its impressive collection of ancient mosaics. Here is the opening and first round report.

Anand: Chess has become more dynamic

12/4/2010 – This morning we opened the biggest Hamburg newspaper to see a full page on Vishy Anand, talking about computers and how they have changed his and the world's approach to the game. Yes, and also about quitting chess at 41 (spoiler: he is not considering it). Yesterday the Telegraph had an interview with Magnus Carlsen. All because of the London Chess Classic that begins next Wednesday.

Giant slalom

12/3/2010 – Black's cornered king was already stalemated in this game from the recent Remco Heite Tournament, meaning that he had only to give both his rooks to achieve the desired half point. The sequence 39...Rf1+ 40.Kxf1 Rf2+ leads to
A) victory for White;
B) draw;
C) victory for Black (just kidding).

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

Flanking and bodychecks

12/2/2010 – Did you know that you can follow our ChessBase Magazine Blog on this special index page, which lists all columns? There is a permanent link to it on the left of our main news page. In the CBM Blog extraordinary experts keep you briefed on games and occurrences in recent days and weeks. Like the endgame on the left, in which it is Black to move. He is fighting for a draw with bishop and king against the pair of white passed pawns (g4,h4). In the game, the pawns outran him. Now it is your turn to try and find the narrow path to safety. CBM endgame expert GM Dr Karsten Müller has analysed the ending for ChessBase Magazine Online.