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.

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.

12/2/2010 – The winners of this team tournament, staged at the National Law Academy in Kharkov, Ukraine, was won by a team with the catchy name of A DAN DZO-PGMB from Chernigov. Their top board, Baadur Jobova, scored 3.0/3. The event is aptly named after Femida, Goddess of the Justice. Big illustrated report by Anastasiya Karlovich.

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.

11/28/2010 – Yes, we know: nobody watches videos – certainly not long chess reports. But this is an exception. Take an hour off and follow this discussion with Garry Kasparov in the unique Googleplex environment. The former World Champion touches on a number of interesting topics: man and machine, talent, courage for risk, politics in Russia. Watch it in HQ Google video.

11/28/2010 – The Open Dutch Computer Chess Championship, celebrating its 30th edition, is one of the cornerstones in the highest echelons of computer chess competitions. This year, it included no fewer than three supercomputers, with massive clusters of hundreds of cores that can compute in less than an hour what a desktop would need several days and nights. Here is the report on this super chess.

11/28/2010 – The Russian Women's Superfinal had seen no fewer than three outright leaders, and by round 6 it was the turn of 17-year-old Nazi Paikidze. However, a fierce burst by the reigning champion Alisa Galliamova, with four straight wins, changed this, and it seemed hers. Again, nothing was as it appeared, and nerves were the deciding factor in the final stretch. Illustrated report of a thrilling event.