6/21/2010 – After 6...c5 in the Vienna Variation of the Orthodox Queen's Gambit, theory frequently stretches far into the middlegame. But recently 6...h6 has come into contention – Kramnik, Aronian and Ivanchuk have all tried it. If this alternative turns out to be reliable, Black will have an elegant option to simply avoid the thicket of variations after the main move. Evgeny Postny has looked into the subject and provided us with thorough analysis of top games. His conclusion is cautious, since the idea is still fresh. But in the next issue of CBM there will be fresh annotated games with 6...h6. Read: Postny: Vienna with 6...h6.

6/21/2010 – Vassily Ivanchuk has won the Elite Group of this auspicious tournament, for the fourth time – something no other player has yet achieved. Second was 19-year-old GM Ian Nepomniachtchi, followed by Leinier Dominguez and Nigel Short. The FIDE presidential campaign has hit Cuba, with both Kirsan Ilyumzhinov and Anatoly Karpov visiting the closing ceremony. The former came there bearing gifts.

6/21/2010 – Two weeks ago we brought you an interview with the Rybka4 autor Vasik Rajlich. Today his openings specialist Jiri Dufek, who was a member of the Veselin Topalov World Championship team, tells us about the Rybka4 Book, which was generated with a 100-core machine and which not only makes the program even stronger – it also contains important novelties for tournament players. Part one.

6/20/2010 – The Master Group of the Ruy Lopez International Chess Festival 2010 was an eight-player Category 14 event (average Elo 2599), with mainly young and ambitious chess talents participating. It was won with a stunning 6.0/7 score by Ivan Cheparinov, known for seconding and assisting former FIDE world champion Veselin Topalov. Report with beautiful pictures by Jorge Armestar Marroquin.

6/20/2010 – It's not easy being the hot favourite in a Category 20 tournament – anything but clear victory would be considered a sensation. Well, top seed Magnus Carlsen has set to work. After three draws he has won two games in a row and leads the field ahead of Radjabov and Gelfand. On the free day there was a soccer match. Pictures and GM commentary of round five.

6/20/2010 – Anish Giri, the reigning champion, and Jan Smeets led the 2010 Dutch Championship from the start. They were joint leaders until the penultimate round, when young Anish lost to veteran Loek van Wely. In the final round Smeets secured the title with a three-move draw against the tail ender. In the women's section Peng Zhaoqin won her twelfth title. Final report.

6/20/2010 – ... but a whole piece White had already invested into his attack in this game. How would you assess the position after the greedy capture 24...Rxb2?

A) Black wins;
B) White checkmates;
C) there is dynamic equilibrium.

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

6/19/2010 – 19-year-old GM Ian Nepomniachtchi started with four draws before losing to Ivanchuk in round five. Since then the tide has changed: first he defeated Alekseev in a 66-mover in round six; then he took Bruzon's Berlin Defence apart; and finally Ian had a bit of luck against Nigel Short. Now, with two rounds to go, Ian is just half a point behind the leader, Vassily Ivanchuk. Round eight report.

6/19/2010 – We don't often see a non-sports international organization funding a chess tournament, especially a children's one. But that is exactly what the European Commission recently did in Uzbekistan. The event was organized by Europa House in Tashkent, together with the Uzbek Chess Federation, on the International Children's Day. Beautiful pictorial report by Jamshid Begmatov.

6/18/2010 – Have we seen this opening in top tournament play in the current century? After all it's supposed to be refuted. Magnus Carlsen used it in his game against top Chinese GM Wang Yue (possibly to avoid the Petroff) and won a full point. Radjabov and Ponomariov also won their games, making it 3-0 for White in this round. Radjabov and Carlsen lead. GM commentary by Dorian Rogozenco.

6/18/2010 – On April 1st of this year we reported – and it was not a tasteless April Fool's joke – that the remains of former World Champion Bobby Fischer could be exhumed to settle a paternity dispute. The District Court of Reykjavik did not allow it, but now the Iceland Supreme Court has overturned this ruling after receiving new evidence from the claimant Marilyn Young. The story is in the international news.

6/18/2010 – 154 moves had already been played in the game Aronian-Dominguez, when Aronian carried out a brilliant idea in the form of 155.Qb6+!. The intention is, after the forced exchange of the blockading queen with 155...Qxb6 156.Bxb6 and the bishop sacrifice Kxb6, to support the advance of the white passed pawn duo with 157.Kh5. So far, so good.
But what does White play if Black does not take the bishop but sets up a new blockader in front of the passed pawns with 156...Bg6? GM Karsten Müller has analysed the ending for ChessBase Magazine Online.