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.

1/27/2010 – It was a fateful day – in all three groups. Vladimir Kramnik beat Magnus Carlsen after the latter blundered in terrible time trouble. Smeets, van Wely and Karjakin won their games, against Caruana, Leko and Nakamura. In Group B Anish Giri suffered his first loss against Anna Muzychuk, while Ray Robson also dropped the full point against his main rival Li Chao. Big pictorial report.

1/26/2010 – He has two victories over Bobby Fischer, two against Tigran Petrosian and two against Mikhail Tal. Friðrik Ólafsson of Iceland earned his GM title 52 years ago. In 1978 he succeeded Max Euwe as President of FIDE, where he served until he was replaced by Florencio Campomanes in 1982. Ten days ago he played a brilliancy in a rapid chess event. Today Fridrik celebrates his 75th birthday.

1/26/2010 – We have been following the first Super-GM event of the new decade very closely, but our attention and photographic efforts have been mainly concentrated on the A-Group. We should remember: Group B is a category 16 event with a rating average of 2629 – a top tournament anywhere else. To make amends Dutch photographer Frits Agterdenbos has sent us splendid close-up gallery.

1/25/2010 – This could be an all-time world record: eight chess players from Brunei are planning to scale Mount Everest, as part of a project to help poor families in the Southeast Asian country. At the South Base Camp, 5,360 metres above sea level, the team will play a chess tournament. It is the highest in the federation's history – could it be the highest level ever in the world? Brunei FM report.

1/25/2010 – At the end of last year Garry Kasparov sat down for an indepth interview with our Malaysian correspondent Edwin Lam Choong Wai. In part one he spoke about his early years and his collaboration with Magnus Carlsen. In the current session he talks about the first Karpov-Kasparov match, the anniversary exhibition in 2009, and his strength in simultaneous play. With a very nice example.

1/25/2010 – We have heard many excuses before: illness, missed flight, or Oscar Wilde's classy "I have to decline due to a subsequent engagement". But this one is new: I cannot attend the Gibtel Masters because I am taking part in the opera Tannhäuser (by Richard Wagner). Still, even without the singing, dancing, soccer-playing GM the event has a great field. Preview.