5/19/2010 – Ukrainian GM Pavel Eljanov was alone at the top of the table since round six, but in round eight he lost to his compatriot Ruslan Ponomariov in round eight. In that round Vladimir Akopian sweetened this three losses so far with a first victory, while Shakhriyar Mamedyarov also won his first game in this tournament when he beat Evgeny Alekseev. Four GMs share the lead. Round eight report.

5/19/2010 – A one-night binge in the Trump SoHo Hotel brought chess into the highlights of the international press. Karpov, Kasparov and Carlsen [memo: he must change that to Karlsen!] generated a large number of international reports, almost outshining the World Chess Championship in Sofia. Not unexpectedly the stories reflect the challenger's side of the ticket. Press links.

5/19/2010 – The team of World Championship challenger Veselin Topalov reportedly spent a large sum of money to secure a 112 core computer cluster running at mind boggling speed. "How did the reigning champion counter this awesome hardware advantage," we asked. Anand answered this question in a candid and very detailed interview broadcast on Monday Playchess. He used a human cluster!

5/19/2010 – After four rounds there were seven players jumbled at the top of the tables. Only two were left after round five had finished: GM Gata Kamsky and GM Alexander Onischuk. The second and third seeds, both won as White and are all alone at 4/5. A pack of four GMs is half a point shy of the leaders. IM Irina Krush, the only female participant, has a 2657 GM performance. Round five report.

5/18/2010 – Exciting games and close competition in Saint Louis: after two rounds there were two players in the lead, after three four players, and after four rounds seven players. Favourites Nakamura, Kamsky and Onischuk are at the top. The only female participant, IM Irina Krush, played 12 hours and 206 chess moves in the last two rounds. Round four report with a giant pictorial by Betsy Dynako.

5/18/2010 – Karpov, Kasparov and Carlsen – two former and one very likely future world champion – took part in a launch party and fundraiser in the spectacular Trump SoHo Hotel in New York. It is for Karpov's bid to become President of FIDE. There were chess games as well as entertainment and champagne, which introduced a slight complication in the festivities. Pictures and video.

5/12/2010 – Naturally Anand's victory was celebrated most of all in India, where he has around one billion fans. The broadsheets were full of the event – with rush video or telephone interviews, of which we have a number of examples for you to enjoy. The reporters also descended on Anand's parents and extracted statements from them. Review of the reports and feedback from our readers.

5/12/2010 – The endgame of rook+bishop against rook+knight is also known in chess literature as the Fischer ending, at least if the side with the bishop has the upper hand. The name arose because the American world champion Robert James Fischer was very successful with this distribution of material against Soviet grandmasters, with one of many examples being the fourth game in his Candidates match against Taimanov in Vancouver 1971. Karsten Müller has annotated for ChessBase Magazine Online a recent model example of the Fischer endgame, namely the game Jakovenko-Rakhmanov. ChessBase Magazine Online.

5/12/2010 – In this tutorial on the Playchess software, you will discover some of the new features in the interface related to broadcasts – such as watching several boards at once, not to mention many of the great options available for free to premium accounts such as multimedia commentary of events, and multimedia lectures (openings, famous games, etc.). Don't miss out on the fun.

5/11/2010 – After eight rounds top Czech GM David Navara still had a clean, 100% score and a performance rating in the 32 hundreds.This did not seem realistic and was recalculated using a proposal by computer scientist Ken Thompson. In the final round David generously drew a game and thus obtained a proper Elo performance: 2963. But the debate continues: how should we evaluate 100% or 0% results?

5/11/2010 – Viswanathan Anand, playing black in the final game, avoided a decision by rapid and blitz tiebreak. In a balanced Queen's Gambit Declined, the World Champion took a shot at weakening his Bulgarian challenger's king. Veselin Topalov panicked, as in a flash his chances were dashed and the Bulgarian could wrap up his defence. A fantastic final game by Anand who retains his crown.

5/11/2010 – "Before the game I tried to guess the opening," says our commentator GM Anish Giri, "and believe it or not, I actually managed to predict it!" Anand played the solid or trustworthy Queen's Gambit Declined, employed a relatively unknown idea, equalized and profited from a suicidal pawn exchange by his opponent. "Great and flawless play by Anand," says Anish in his instructive analysis.