2/1/2010 – The Editor of Chess Notes discusses a quintet of positions submitted by readers. The common theme is that in each case it has so far proved impossible to find the full game-score. Can further details about the games be discovered? Even if not, readers will certainly enjoy some entertaining and instructive play from a cast which includes Ehlvest, Nimzowitsch, Pachman, Simagin and Soultanbéieff.

1/31/2010 – The top seed and leader of the A-Group, Magnus Carlsen, drew his final game, as did his main contenders, which left the 19-year-old Norwegian the sole winner of the tournament. His FIDE ranking in the next list will most likely be the second highest in history. Kramnik and Shirov share 2nd-3rd. In the B-Group Anish Giri was first, ahead of top seed Naiditsch. Illustrated report.

1/30/2010 – The Chess Festival in Gibraltar has set up an innovative broadcast suite called Archie, costing £100,000, which provides live audio and video streaming from the playing venue. The host is GM Stuart Conquest, who yesterday invited the guest of honour Boris Spassky to join him "for a few minutes". This turned into nearly three hours! Here are links and the solution to our Tannhäuser puzzle.

1/30/2010 – Vishy Anand drew the first nine games of this event, and was to be found in the bottom half of the field. Today the World Champion beat his 2008 challenger Vladimir Kramnik, and after a win in round ten he is now in place four. After a draw against Peter Leko, Magnus Carlsen leads alone, half a point ahead of Kramnik and Shirov. The final round games begin an hour earlier tomorrow. Illustrated report.

1/29/2010 – An Englishman, a Frenchman and a German – sounds like the start of a tired old music-hall joke – are in the lead with 3.0/3 points in the Masters group of the 8th Gibtelecom Chess Festival in Gibraltar. They are Michael Adams, Laurent Fressinet and Jan Gustafsson. Notworthy: Super-GM Ivan Cheparinov drew after a queen-sac brilliancy by Norwegian amateur Victor Havik. Round three report.

1/29/2010 – You know him from the live commentary of Wijk aan Zee on Playchess. Grandmaster Daniel King has been a professional chess player for more than twenty years. At the same time he has distinguished himself as a coach, helping many of England‘s younger generation to achieve their potential. He can help you too, with his popular Power Play DVDs, of which there are now a dozen.

1/29/2010 – Vladimir Kramnik was in a bit of trouble with his Petroff against Alexei Shirov, but his defences held. Meanwhile his main rival in this tournament, Magnus Carlsen, kept up the pressure and his opponent Leinier Dominguez cracked in time trouble. With that he caught up with Kramnik on the scoreboard. Carlsen's trainer Garry Kasparov showed us some lines in a previous game. Illustrated report.

1/28/2010 – Seeing all these superstars at the Corus Tournament 2010, one can easily forget that also the C-group provides a wealth of highly interesting chess. For example this game, where White after Black's last move 23...Bg7-f6 had to parry the attack on his queen. The strike 24.Rxf5 in your opinion leads to what?
A) advantage for White;
B) balanced play;
C) advantage for Black.
The solution is here, but first ponder over it with a  larger version of the diagram.

1/28/2010 – Ten rounds have been played, three to go, with Thursday the rest day. That give us a chance to catch up on the somewhat neglected lower groups. After our recent Group B pictorial we turn our attention to Group C, where six players are 20 years old, five younger and three older. Dutch photographer Frits Agterdenbos has sent us information and pictures for another lovely close-up gallery.

1/28/2010 – In chess we grapple with honesty, deceitfulness, bravery, aggression, fear, beauty, and creativity. Chess is an activity in which we deploy almost all our available cognitive resources; making it an ideal laboratory for investigation into the workings of the mind. That is the subject of a new book by an Argentinian biologist. Guess who reviewed it and guess whose 25-year-old photos we found.

1/27/2010 – We had to wait ten rounds for this: World Champion Vishy Anand won his first game, with a little help from opponent Alexei Shirov. Magnus Carlsen surprised everyone in the world by playing the French Defence for the first time in a tournament game – and won it against his permanent rival Sergey Karjakin. Vladimir Kramnik drew and is in the sole lead. Illustrated report.

1/27/2010 – In round 7 in Wijk, Nigel Short was within touching distance of a win over Ex-World Champion Vladimir Kramnik. In the position in the diagram he had to decide whether to exchange queens or to gobble up another pawn with Qxc5. Short chose 50.Qxc5, but after 50...Be6! 51.g4 Bxf5 52.Qxf5 Qb2+ the activity of the black queen turned out to be the decisive drawing factor, despite Black being two pawns behind. But how should the minor piece ending after 50.Qxf6 gxf6 be evaluated? Can the extra pawn be made to tell in the struggle of knight against bishop? Yes, says GM Karsten Müller in ChessBase Magazine Online.