11/1/2010 – The 2010 World Youth Chess Championship took place at Porto Carras, Greece, and once more crowned new champions, bringing to the fore names to be remembered. Among the most remarkable were American Steven Zierk, rated 26th at 2391, yet taking the gold with a 2723 performance, and Azerbaijani Kanan Azar Izzat, 35th, and also gold. See the photos of these future stars in the final report.

11/1/2010 – The rivalry between the two Ks is the stuff of legends. In Kasparov vs Karpov 1988-2009, an absorbing new book by Garry Kasparov, the centerpiece is his last world championship match against Karpov in 1990. The highlight was the 16th game with 102 moves, the longest win in world championship history. It contained a very special manoeuvre, which GM Lubos Kavalek describes in his chess column.

11/1/2010 – Truly exquisite play occurred in a little-known game won by Capablanca, at breakneck speed, in a simultaneous exhibition (St Petersburg, 1913). The Editor of Chess Notes presents some text-book discussion and cooperation on the subject among his readers. The pawn ending, involving the complexities of the distant opposition, gives rise to a number of highly instructive manoeuvres.

11/1/2010 – Magnus Carlsen, who has topped the world chess rankings since January 2010, lost a whopping 24 points in the last two-month period. But it is a tribute to the young Norwegian that he could take this and only slip to second place, two points behind World Champion Vishy Anand, who is back on top. Aronian has climbed to number three with a 2800+ rating. November 2010 FIDE rankings.

10/31/2010 – This double round robin tournament in Holland was won convincingly by the second youngest player in the field, top French GM Maxime Vachier Lagrave, who turned twenty a day before the start of the event. Maxime, rated 2721, lost no games, beat top seed Shirov once and Tiviakov twice, finishing a point ahead of the field and gaining 12 rating points. Happy birthday, Max!

10/31/2010 – Black equalises in the Caro-Kann against 3.Nc3; at the moment, only 3.e5 gives White some hope of an opening advantage. Things are as clear-cut as that according to Leonid Kritz. In any case, the German grandmaster also delivers his contribution to proving this statement, at least as far as the second part on the Advance Variation is concerned. In the critical line after 3...Bf5 4.Nf3 e6 5.Be2 c5 6.Be3 he shows how White achieves a slight advantage both against 6...Qb6 and also 6...cxd4. The Olympiad game Karjakin-Eljanov confirms Kritz' analysis. You will find another 11 articles on the DVD of CBM 138. Read: Kritz' complete article

10/26/2010 – The 2010 World Youth Chess Championship is underway at picturesque Porto Carras, Greece, and has just completed seven rounds. Nearly 1400 children have come from 87 countries to compete for the World Champion titles in categories ranging from Under-8 to Under-18, including players who are already repeat champions. Here is an illustrated report with many lovely pictures.

10/25/2010 – "Israel destroys Iran – on the chess board". This was the gleeful headline of countless news reports. Last year Iranian GM Morteza Mahjoob had played against 500 opponents with a 88.4% score. Now Gershon hast topped that by taking on 523 opponents with a 86% result, and got his name into the Guinness World Records book. We bring you a big pictorial report and videos.

10/24/2010 – The Russian team won the 2010 title with 13 match points, ahead of four teams with eleven apiece. But the most outstanding performance came from Armenian GM Levon Aronian, playing for Mika Yerevan, who scored 4.5/6 with a 2884 performance that brings him to 2801 (and at least number three in the world) on the next FIDE rating list. Aronian is only the sixth player to cross the 2800 mark.

10/24/2010 – Yesterday it was all about Anand's loss to Bacrot, in a position that he could have drawn. Now that the dust has settled (somewhat – the letters are still pouring in), we turn our attention to the two other games that we sadly neglected. Both were drawn but both interesting and one quite nerve-racking. Once again we bring you the entertaining and instructive commentary of GM Anish Giri.

10/24/2010 – Another exciting day: while Anand settled for a safe draw against Vugar Gashimov (to recuperate on the free day), bottom seed Etienne Bacrot continued his rampage with a black-piece win against Wang Yue; and Magnus Carlsen continued his forceful comeback with another fine victory – over second seed Veselin Topalov. Illustrated report with analysis by GM Elshan Moradiabadi.

10/23/2010 – Yesterday all games were drawn, while today, in round three, all three games were decisive, with Vishy Anand and Etienne Bacrot beating Veselin Topalov and Vugar Gashimov, both with the black pieces. Meanwhile Magnus Carlsen celebrated a second victory, this time against Wang Yue with white. We bring you a full report with analysis by GM Anish Giri.