World Cup Finals: both games drawn, players under pressure

9/18/2011 – Alexander Grischuk played his final white game against Peter Svidler aggressively, and came close to losing it in time trouble. But after 29 moves a draw was agreed. In the match for third place Vassily Ivanchuk, playing white, had serious losing chances against Ruslan Ponomariov, but saved the minor piece ending. In the last game Ponomariov and Grischuk are under tremendous pressure.

CBM Blog: Rook ending always drawn + pawn races

9/17/2011 – Basically yes, but over the board matters are much more difficult than with the help of the computer of course, as our endgame expert GM Dr. Karsten Müller shows, using a game from the current World Cup tournament in Khanty Mansiysk. In a second very instructive example he takes us to the races, where White loses a drawn game with a greedy pawn capture.

World Cup Finals: Ivanchuk wins game two with black

9/17/2011 – Peter Svidler played fourteen moves of theory against his good friend Alexander Grischuk, then they played two more moves and agreed to a pragmatic draw. In the game for place three Vassily Ivanchuk came with a clear advantage out of the opening, and just when his opponent Ruslan Ponomariov appeared to be holding, he cracked under the pressure and gave Ivanchuk an important point.

London Chess Classic – presenting the participants

9/16/2011 – This popular tournament runs from 3-12 December 2011 and falls on two weekends, which means that spectators and amateur players in the side events only have to take one week off work to attend. It also means there will be two sets of weekend tournaments and blitz every evening. The classic itself has been increased to nine players to include the World number three Levon Aronian. Don't miss it.

The black bishops ...

9/16/2011 – ... already had the enemy king firmly in their sights here, and when White also opened the second diagonal with 26.Nxb8, world cup finalist Peter Svidler went in for the immediate kill - with which piece?
A) queen
B) rook
C) bishop

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

The Product Finder with Board: a new way to search

9/16/2011 – With literally hundreds of DVDs available, ranging from openings to games collections, it could be daunting to look through the long lists of product descriptions in the hopes of finding something useful. With the new Product Finder, all you need to do is set up a position, and not only will all opening DVDs covering it be shown, but even games collections as well. Here is a new way to search.

World Cup Finals G1: Svidler beats Grischuk, Ivanchuk draws Ponomariov

9/16/2011 – The first game of the finals and the fight for third place were not without drama. The primary battle for all the marbles Grischuk uncorked a strong novelty, but Svidler seemed ready for it and eventually it was Grischuk who lost his way. In a repeat match against Ponomariov, Ivanchuk generated chances in the endgame but failed to make the most of them. Will history repeat itself?

Shenzhen: Hou Yifan in the sole lead after eight rounds

9/15/2011 – The 17-year-old Chinese world women's championship has a plus four score and a 2650 performance, and leads by half a point ahead of GM Zhao Xue. Anna Muzychuk and Ruan Lufei share the third/fourth places another half-point further down. Friday is a free day, where the players will visit local schools. Our report after round eight includes photos provided by the organisers.

World Cup R6 TB: Grischuk makes it to the final

9/14/2011 – The first rapid tiebreak ended in a nice win by Alexander Grischuk, in the second Vassily Ivanchuk bounced back with a convincing win of his own. Then came the accelerated rapids – ten-minute time controls. In the first tragedy struck when Ivanchuk, in a potentially winning position, blundered horribly and lost. The finals start on Friday, with Peter Svidler playing Alexander Grischuk. llustrated report.

Poles take World Problem Solving Championship 2011

9/14/2011 – The picturesque Italian town of Jesi saw fierce competition amongst the world’s top problem solvers. The team event was won by the Polish solvers, whose average age was less than half that of the second-placed UK team. In the individual championship the 19-year-old Pole Kacper Piorun was victorious, ahead of the previous champion John Nunn, who sent us this report and sample problems.

How does one play against a World Champion?

9/13/2011 – GM Adrian Mikhalchishin shares his extensive experience working with players who faced World Champions, and the difficulties this unique challenge presents. He also breaks down the upcoming Women's World Championship and gives his opinion. He explains how he prepares players to face a champion, and how both the trainer and the student can make the most of this opportunity.

World Cup R6.2: Peter Svidler through to final

9/13/2011 – Former FIDE world champion Ruslan Ponomariov played a rare line of the Grunfeld, which allowed Peter Svidler to play very sharply and get a queenside pawn avalanche. The St Petersburg grandmaster refused a draw offer and forced a win in 43 moves. With this Svidler moves into the final. On the other board Ivanchuk and Grischuk drew an equally sharp game. Illustrated report.

World Cup R6.1: Both games drawn, Ukraine to move

9/12/2011 – Both the Russian grandmasters left in the World Cup played their first game of the semifinals with White. Realizing that the stakes are very high (there are only three tickets to the World Championship, not to speak of the substantial money prize) everyone played very carefully. The result: two draws, in 20 and 22 moves. On Tuesday the Ukrainians have white and thus the advantage. Semi-final report.

CBM Blog: Opposition and the Horwitz Manoeuvre

9/12/2011 – The first games of the World Cup semi-finals did not produce a lot of material for commentary. So we use this analytical pause to bring you two endgame lessons by GM Dr. Karsten Müller. The examples are taken from earlier games in Khanty-Mansiysk and give you insights into complex opposition and a classical winning technique that Ruslan Ponomariov executed perfectly. Look and learn.

Shenzhen Women's Grand Prix - Five tied for first after five rounds

9/12/2011 – After the fourth and fifth rounds, Hou Yifan and Zhao Xue were first joined in the lead by Anna Muzychuk in round four, and then by Tan Zhongyi and Ruan Lufei in round five. The rest day, after the fourth round, coincided with a special Chinese holiday that celebrates the moon's brightest and most beautiful appearance in the year, including colorful festivities around it. A beautiful pictorial.

Kings and Queens - A match in rapid classic chess and Chess960

9/12/2011 – As a part of the launch of the renovated St. Louis Chess Club, together with the World Chess Hall of Fame, a Kings and Queens team match is also taking place, pitting the men against the women not only in rapid classic chess, but also Chess960. The event has a generous $52,000 prize fund and live online commentary by WGM Shahade and GM Seirawan. Here is the report with pictures and videos.

Ten years of ChessBase News

9/12/2011 – Actually we began with a web news service around 1995 – with a static HTML site and a few news items per week. On September 12 2001 we launched the new database driven service, and have since then published more than 7,500 reports and stories – becoming the premium news page for chess. You can use our new archive and search functions to browse around nostalgically in the past.

World Cup R5.2: Radjabov equalises, Polgar and Gashimov eliminated

9/11/2011 – Azeri GM Taimour Radjabov lost his first game against veteran Vassily Ivanchuk; in the second he struck back and equalised, forcing a tiebreak on Sunday. David Navara and Alexander Grischuk are also tied and meet in the tiebreaks. Peter Svidler tricked Judit Polgar and Ruslan Ponomariov won a black game against Vugar Gashimov. Both are now in the semi-finals. Illustrated report.

World Cup R5 tiebreaks: It's Russia vs Ukraine in the semifinals

9/11/2011 – Alexander Grischuk won his first rapid chess game against David Navara and survived the second to proceed to the next round. Vassily Ivanchuk managed to hold a difficult ending against Teimour Radjabov and then went on to outplay him in the second game. On Monday Grischuk plays Ivanchuk, and Peter Svidler faces Ruslan Ponomariov. Full illustrated report.

World Chess Hall of Fame opens in St. Louis

9/11/2011 – The World Chess Hall of Fame, a cultural non-profit institution relocated from Miami and chose St. Louis as its new home due to the city’s growing reputation as a center of chess. To celebrate its new space, a live chess event was organized to launch the first-ever Chess Merit Badge for the Boy Scouts of America. GM Nakamura participated and stood in as the black king. Laura High reports.

World Cup R5.1: Ivanchuk leads against Radjabov

9/10/2011 – Three games were decided quickly – in 14, 16 and 28 moves. But even short games can be of considerable theoretical interest, as the annotation of Svidler-Polgar by GM Efstratios Grivas clearly show. There was one decisive game: Taimour Radjabov overlooked a tactical shot by Vassily Ivanchuk and, playing a queen for rook and bishop down, lost in 41 moves. Illustrated report.

Queens, checks and passed pawns

9/9/2011 – Here White had just checked on c4 in order to capture the enemy Bc3 and after ...Qe4 followed by the advance of the e-pawn to set his own c-pawn in motion. Which continuation leads to victory for Black now?
A) 38...Kh8 39.Qxc3 Qe4
B) 38...Kh7 39.Qd3+ f5
C) 38...Kh7 39.Qd3+ g6

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

FIDE Women's Grand Prix in Shenzhen, China

9/9/2011 – The second stage of FIDE Women's Grand Prix cycle 2011-2012 is being staged from 5th to 20th of September in the Wuzhou Hotel in Shenzhen, China. It includes the a current and a former women's world champion, the reigning European champion and a bevvy of top female players. After three rounds Hou Yifan and Zhao Xue lead. Big illustrated report.

World Cup R4.2: Judit evens the score

9/8/2011 – In the second game of round four in the World Cup the amazing Judit Polgar, a loss down against Cuban GM Lenier Dominguez, actually pulled back with a black-piece win. Navara, Svidler and Radjabov went through, the former two with 2-0 wins, with Peter Svidler eliminating Gata Kamsky. Five of the eight games were decisive, five pairings go to the tiebreaks on Thursday. Illustrated report.