12/7/2010 – The striking disparities in pairings that existed in the first round are gone, and for some players, this was the true beginning of competition. The first surprise was Tatiana Kosintseva's collapse after botching a dead won position, to actually end up losing. On the other hand, some showed growing form such as Elisabeth Paehtz who found all the right moves to beat Cmilyte. Illustrated report.

12/6/2010 – The three Polgar sisters – GMs Susan and Judit, IM Sofia – live on three different continents, each with a family of two children. Recently they were all brought together by the chess-friendly Hungarian company Aquaprofit, for simultaneous exhibitions, book signings and chess art. Diana Mihajlova has sent us a big pictorial report and some very nice video impressions.

12/6/2010 – In an unusual pairing system that had top boards sporting over 500 Elo over their adversaries, while the middle of the field played virtual mirrors, it seemed unlikely any of the strongest would suffer, yet even such shielding was not enough. The biggest name was Cramling's loss to local Turkish talent, Yildiz. However, Kovanova's spectacular win over Pogonina was the game of the round. Report.

12/5/2010 – Who is the strongest player in the world? Does the World Champion win his title in the most effective way? How much should we depend on the Elo rating system, and are there better alternatives for determining world rankings? After three years spent writing a PhD thesis on games and sports at the Paris-Sorbonne Manouk Borzakian turns his attention to chess in this thought-provoking paper.

12/5/2010 – Sixty-four of the top female players in the world have gathered at Hatay, Turkey, to fight for the title of World Champion, and register their names in the annals of history. The tournament is a knockout event held in a beautiful, but unusual locale: the Antakya Archaeological Museum, famed for its impressive collection of ancient mosaics. Here is the opening and first round report.

12/4/2010 – This morning we opened the biggest Hamburg newspaper to see a full page on Vishy Anand, talking about computers and how they have changed his and the world's approach to the game. Yes, and also about quitting chess at 41 (spoiler: he is not considering it). Yesterday the Telegraph had an interview with Magnus Carlsen. All because of the London Chess Classic that begins next Wednesday.

12/3/2010 – Black's cornered king was already stalemated in this game from the recent Remco Heite Tournament, meaning that he had only to give both his rooks to achieve the desired half point. The sequence 39...Rf1+ 40.Kxf1 Rf2+ leads to
A) victory for White;
B) draw;
C) victory for Black (just kidding).

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

12/2/2010 – Did you know that you can follow our ChessBase Magazine Blog on this special index page, which lists all columns? There is a permanent link to it on the left of our main news page. In the CBM Blog extraordinary experts keep you briefed on games and occurrences in recent days and weeks. Like the endgame on the left, in which it is Black to move. He is fighting for a draw with bishop and king against the pair of white passed pawns (g4,h4). In the game, the pawns outran him. Now it is your turn to try and find the narrow path to safety. CBM endgame expert GM Dr Karsten Müller has analysed the ending for ChessBase Magazine Online.

12/2/2010 – The winners of this team tournament, staged at the National Law Academy in Kharkov, Ukraine, was won by a team with the catchy name of A DAN DZO-PGMB from Chernigov. Their top board, Baadur Jobova, scored 3.0/3. The event is aptly named after Femida, Goddess of the Justice. Big illustrated report by Anastasiya Karlovich.

12/2/2010 – Dragoljub Velimirovic used to be one of the most feared attackers in the world, always looking for the impossible. His imaginative play was compared to the colorful world champion Mikhail Tal's razzle-dazzle. His playing style was unique, daring and often falling off the edge. He made risky moves and so many of them that you wondered how much punishment his chess pieces could take. Latest column.

12/2/2010 – "Peter Svidler is the black sheep of contemporary chess – original in every way. Which other Russian player is keen on cricket, prefers English to Russian, doesn’t consider Leo Tolstoy a great writer, resigns in drawn positions and plays billiards masterfully? Only Peter." That is the assessment of Sergey Shipov, who published this 'chess conference' on the Russian news portal Crestbook.

12/1/2010 – ... and then some. The New York Times was approached by the President of the World Chess Federation, who offered to answer readers’ questions. The result is a giant three-part Q+A which deals with all aspects of Ilyumzhinov's career and work, including the perennial question about alien abduction and the galactic origin of chess. Turns out he will be publishing a book on the subject.