León: Anand, Shírov… and a secret character

6/3/2011 – Viswanathan Anand is the reigning World Champion, and leads the FIDE world rankings. The Indian is also a well-known specialist in fast time controls. His opponent in the 14th edition of the traditional Ciudad de León Rapid Chess Match is the tremendously imaginative and combative GM Alexei Shirov of Spain. The match will be accompanied by a mysterious "Restless Player". 4:30 p.m. on Playchess.

Bartel wins King’s Gambit in Radom

6/3/2011 – For the fourteenth time, Polish chess players came to Radom to take part in a very unusual tournament dedicated to the most romantic of all chess openings. All the games in the tournament started from the very well known position after moves 1. e4 e5 2. f4. This year, the winner was Polish champion GM Mateusz Bartel, who kindly annotated one of his games for us. Enjoy.

Can population or GDP explain chess success?

6/2/2011 – How much of a country’s chess success can be explained in terms of its size? There is a positive relationship between the population of a country and the average ratings of its top players, but size is certainly not the only factor. But adjusting for population and GDP shows that some smaller countries can have considerably above-expected ratings. Can you guess which ones top the list?

CBM Blog: Fortress or Not? + Knight endings

6/1/2011 – Against a bishop the defender can often try to construct a fortress, as it can visit only half the squares of the chessboard, as our resident GM and endgame specialist Karsten Müller demonstrates. The themes of outside passed pawn and zugzwang play a major role in knight endings as well, where, due to the tactical abilities of the knight, great care is often required. Learn and become stronger.

ChessBase is 25: Birthday greetings from Anand

6/1/2011 – Our company was born on May 19, 1986, twenty-five years ago, and on May 19, 2011 one of our most loyal friends, World Champion Viswanathan Anand, logged into the Playchess server and sent us a ten-minute birthday greeting. It was quite moving to be reminded of the early days by one who was present at the time – and who has remained a close friend ever since. Must-watch historical video.

Brand new: 60 Minutes – Chess theory compact and to the point

5/31/2011 – How about this: world class grandmasters teach you how to play systems in which they are supreme experts. In the ChessBase Media format, which means full video and a synchronised board. In sixty minutes per lesson. For less than ten Euros ($14.25). The lessons are available as downloads, so you can start working immediately. Interested? Here are all the details and sample videos.

Kramnik: Reflections on the Candidates Matches

5/31/2011 – He called to congratulate us on our 25th anniversary, but we used the opportunity to discuss the results of the Candidates matches in Kazan with Vladimir Kramnik. Two resident GMs analysed critical games with him, after which Frederic Friedel interviewed the former World Champion on the more general subject of the format of the event itself. Kramnik insists it must be changed.

Brady – Bobby Fischer's Game of the Century

5/29/2011 – We recently published a review by Sean Marsh on Frank Brady's new biography of Bobby Fischer. In the meantime we have received the handsome volume from the author and are actually reading it – with immense pleasure. To give you an impression of the quality of this book we bring you a short excerpt of a story you know. Read how wonderfully Dr Brady weaves the well-known tale.

Short and Alina l'Ami win CUCA International

5/29/2011 – British GM Nigel Short won this GM Open in Luanda, with a resounding 8.0/9 points, but he was outshone by Romanian WGM Alina l'Ami, who took the women's section with a perfect 9.0/9 points. Equal second in the open section was Dutch GM Sergei Tiviakov, who together with Alina has been sending us photos from the Angolan capital. Final report with an unusual picture of Nigel Short.

CBM Blog: One diagonal, and to exchange or not to exchange?

5/28/2011 – Pure opposite colored bishop endings have a very large drawish tendency. If the defender is dug in on squares of his own bishop his fortress usually cannot be stormed. In his second example our resident GM endgame expert has a serious admonition: before trading down into a pawn ending you should calculate it to the end. Useful lessons for tournament success.

Italian National Scholastic Team Championship set a new record

5/28/2011 – This year the annual event attracted 1480 players from 286 schools from all over Italy. It was staged from May 12-15 in the beautiful city of Spoleto in Umbria, the center of the country. The large number of participants relied to a great degree on support from the FIDE Chess in Schools initiative and its Chairman Ali Nihat Yazici, as we learn from this illustrated report by IM Martha Fierro.

Feedback on Kazan – how should the Candidates be conducted?

5/28/2011 – The opinions range from joke to disaster, to a more balanced "Don't insult the players, they are not there to entertain us, they are there to win." As usual we received a large number of messages on the Candidates Matches in Kazan, while they were running, and on the controversy between the ECU President and the FIDE World Championship Chairman. Food for thought.

No fewer than four candidate moves ...

5/28/2011 – ... the first player had to consider here when she went for 34.Rd1-d8 (diagram), pinning the Bf8 on the opponent's back rank but also making her own king prone to perpetual check ideas. What is the correct continuation for Black now?
A) 34...Rd6
B) 34...Rxf6
C) 34...Qb1+ 35.Kh2 Qe4
D) 34...Qb2
The solution is here, but first ponder over it with a larger version of the diagram.

Accusations by the ECU and FIDE over Kazan

5/27/2011 – "The current KO system for the Candidates tournament is negative for chess," says the European Chess Union President Silvio Danailov, who demands that the World Championship Committee Chairman resigns. The Chairman, FIDE Deputy President Georgios Makropoulos, sent us his reply, accusing Danailov of electioneering for the 2014 FIDE presidential election. Hostilities and tension.

NASA: Earthlings, it’s time to keep your pieces from floating away

5/27/2011 – In the past we have reported a number of times on NASA Space Station astronauts playing chess against earth-bound citizens. One of the biggest chess enthusiasts, Greg Chamitoff, and his colleague Gret Johnson are currently playing an Earth vs. Space match, on Facebook and Twitter. NASA has started it with an textbook plug for chess. Watch the video!

St. Louis: Nakamura and Robson prevail in whirlwind final

5/27/2011 – Both the native GMs led after the six classical games. Hikaru Nakamura went on to defeat Ukrainian FIDE ex-world champion Ruslan Ponomariov by 3-1 in the rapids, while Ray Robson held Ben Feingold 2-2 to maintain his two-point overall lead. The rapid chess phase was interrupted by tornado warnings, which sent the players into the basement. Final report.

Kavalek in Huffington: It's Anand vs. Gelfand for the World Chess Crown

5/26/2011 – Boris Gelfand of Israel won the Final FIDE Candidates Match, defeating GM Alexander Grischuk of Russia 3.5 to 2.5 in Kazan, Russia, on Wednesday. It is a culmination of his successful chess career. With the victory, he earned the right to challenge the world champion Vishy Anand of India for the world title next year. GM Lubomir Kavalek analyses the final decisive game.

PokerListings: Best bets are chess players!

5/26/2011 – Every year, PokerListings releases its list of Best Bets for the upcoming 2011 World Series. This year they have decided to go with chess: "If there is a group of people more prepared for success than chess players, we haven't found it." They list child chess prodigy Jeff Sarwer, Dan Harrington, Almira Skripchenko and Dinara Khaziyeva as prime examples. Report with videos of Almira in action.

FIDE Candidates Finals: Gelfand wins right to challenge Anand in 2012!

5/25/2011 – We had a bit of it all in this final, with moments of quietness, moments of boredom, and at the end, just great chess. Grischuk played a Gruenfeld, and ran into trouble with a novelty by Gelfand. The position teetered but held, until a mistake put Gelfand in command, and he brought home the point, winning the right to challenge Anand in 2012. Report with annotations by GM Alejandro Ramirez.

New Fischer movie by Liz Garbus – trailer and videos

5/24/2011 – Bobby Fischer, one of the most famous chess players in the world, is no longer with us. But he remains in our culture’s memory years after his passing, and decades after he gave America one of its greatest Cold War moral victories. That is the centerpiece of Garbus’s compelling, thorough film, to be released in July. Our reporter Sabrina Chevannes visited the pre-screening in London.

FIDE Candidates Finals G5: No winner in trenchwar

5/24/2011 – Today's game was a battle through and through, and textbooks will probably pick up on it, owing to its singularly narrow strategic focus. In a Queen's Gambit Declined, the players quickly set out to fight for the e5 square: Gelfand to slip in his pawn break, and Grischuk to prevent it. The positional complexities were enormous, so here is the detailed GM Commentary by Elshan Moradiabadi.

Dangzhou: 16-year-old Yu Yangyi wins with 2880 performance

5/24/2011 – It is one thing to have a mid-tournament performance above 2800, it is another to actually end with a nine-round performance of 2880, and that is exactly what 16-year-old Yu Yangyi just did. Not only that, but he butted heads with all the strongest players from the Chinese contingent, including an eighth-round win over 2nd place, Wang Yue (2714). Final illustrated report by Gu Xiaobing.

Poisoned pawn variation

5/24/2011 – In yesterday's 5th game of the candidates final Grischuk at this point refrained from 29.Qh3xh7 (diagram) and preferred to exchange queens on c8 instead. What do you think, which black reply made him decline the pawn?
A) 29...Kf7
B) 29...Qf5
C) 29...Qg4

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

Attack and defence

5/24/2011 – White's pieces are clearly targeting the black king. What would be your evaluation of the position after the sequence 20.Ng5 (diagram) hxg5 21.Nxg7 with the idea 22.Qh5+? 
A) dangerous attack for White;
B) advantage to Black;
C) balanced if both sides follow up correctly (perpetual check).
A toughie!
The solution is here, but first ponder over it with a larger version of the diagram.