11/13/2009 – Sweden is not really the most romantic place on earth in November. It is quite cold already and the days are getting shorter and shorter. Nevertheless, two brave chess players from Hamburg/Germany did not mind all the weather circumstances and came to Stockholm to play chess. Cheap flights and Swedish hospitality made it possible. Pictorial report by Andreas Albers.

11/13/2009 – Feeling better? At last the top seed Magnus Carlsen, 18, has scored a win in this tournament. It came in the form of an explosive English Attack in the Scheveningen, which floored the former FIDE world champion Ruslan Ponomariov in 31 moves (actually with a mate in three). With plus one Carlsen now occupies fourth place alone, behind Kramnik, Anand and Ivanchuk. Full report with annotations.

11/12/2009 – On November 4th the World Junior Championship in Patagonia, Argentina, ended, with a final-round surge by the French participant (and top seed) Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, who caught his main rival, Sergei Zhigalko from Belarus, to take the title. Maxime has given us an exclusive English language interviews, while we use the opportunity to take a nostalgic look back at past events.

11/11/2009 – Almost exactly a year ago the two were playing for the title of World Champion. Now Vladimir Kramnik and Viswanathan Anand are battling each other for the lead in the Tal Memorial in Moscow. Kramnik worked very hard in an 81-mover against Boris Gelfand, but had to concede a draw. Anand beat Peter Leko in a Semi-Slav and joined Kramnik in the lead. Round five report.

11/11/2009 – Sammy Reshevsky (1911-1992) was at one time one of the strongest players in the world. He did have some weird weaknesses, though. Apart from time trouble and carelessness in opening preparation he had an apparent blind spot to stalemate. This is the subject of the Playchess lecture at 9 p.m. ET by FM Dennis Monokroussos. Before that IM Merijn van Delft discusses current games. Schedule.

11/11/2009 – "A knight on the rim is dim" - there is no aphorism which is known more widely to amateur players than this one. And although there are more than enough exceptions to this rule, the phrase naturally is also fully justified. All the more so when the case involves not just a knight on the edge of the board, but that rarely spotted example of the species: a knight in the corner. Recently, one such example caused Ivan Cheparinov all sorts of problems, when the sad-looking steed was corralled in the corner with the help of a bishop. GM Karsten Müller analyses the ending Cheparinov-Caruana for ChessBase Magazine Online.

11/11/2009 – Yesterday we published a report on an Icelandic court awarding Fischer's estate to his lawfully wedded wife Miyoko Watai. Today we received a message from Marilyn Young, Fischer's "Filipina live-in partner", who is seeking justice for her and Fischer's eight-year-old daughter Jinky. The two are on their way to Iceland to file their claim. Marilyn has sent us some fairly compelling photographic evidence.

11/11/2009 – And Vladimir Kramnik has once again taken the sole lead, with plus three and a 2955 performance. In a remarkable game against former FIDE world champion Ruslan Ponomariov, Kramnik pressed for 81 moves until the Ukrainian's succumbed to zugzwang. Gelfand laid Aronian's Meran System to waste, Morozevich-Ivanchuk ended in a black victory by the masked chessplayer!

11/10/2009 – The chess legend Bobby Fischer died in Iceland on January 17, 2008. He was buried in the compound of a church in Selfoss, 60 km from the capital Reykjavik. Since then there has been a battle over his estate, which is claimed by his nephews Alexander and Nicholas Targ. Now the Reykjavik District Court has ruled in favour of Fischer's lawfully wedded wife, Miyoko Watai. Pictorial report.

11/9/2009 – "Veselin will rest on the Canary Islands, Anand rests on old laurels," is the title of the telephone interview by the Topalov manager in the Bulgarian sports newspaper Gong. Danailov expects that in the six months before the World Championship match in Sofia "the team of Anand will do everything possible to make us nervous." But they are ready, steeled by experience in Elista. Highlights.

11/9/2009 – On the latest Elo rating list we find Pavel Eljanov at 2729 Elo points on place 17. In the live rankings, with his extraordinary European Team Championship results evaluated, he is number 11 in the world. The Ukrainian GM has been climbing steadly since April. His secret: enormous talent, hard work – and marriage! We bring you a photo report and an annotated brilliancy by Pavel Eljanov.

11/8/2009 – All games were drawn, except one: Vladimir Kramnik beat Peter Svidler in an Exchange Grünfeld that looked quite effortless on the part of the former World Champion. Magnus Carlsen, it was revealed, is suffering from a throat infection and has played his last three games with A fever. The Norwegian is now on antibiotics. Full report to follow, but here are the games and results.