US Championship – four players in contention

5/21/2010 – With one round to play before the field splits for the three-round quad finale, four of the top five seeds have the best chance of qualifying. Round six landed Gata Kamsky, Alex Onischuk, Hikaru Nakamura and Yury Shulman – 80 percent of the US Olympiad Team – atop the tables. All are undefeated with three wins and three draws each. Report by Mike Klein with beautiful portraits by Betsy Dynako.

Anand's helpers in Sofia – Part Two

5/20/2010 – In the second part of his interview on Playchess.com the old and new World Champion Vishy Anand talks about hardware – we now know that his opponent Veselin Topalov had access to an IBM super-computer with 8792 processors! – and how best to use computers for your preparation. He also compares them to human assistants, of whom Vishy had the very best.

GP in Astrakhan: Eljanov back in the lead

5/19/2010 – It's been a bit of a roller coaster, but after nine rounds and a fighting black piece victory over Teimour Radjabov, Ukrainian GM Pavel Eljanov is back in the sole lead at the FIDE Grand Prix. Four GMs – Jakovenko, Mamedyarov, Gashimov and Leko – follow half a point behind, notably with Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, who had a bad start, amongst them. Friday is a free day. Round nine report.

FIDE Grand Prix in Astrakhan: Inarkiev loses the lead

5/19/2010 – Ukrainian GM Pavel Eljanov was alone at the top of the table since round six, but in round eight he lost to his compatriot Ruslan Ponomariov in round eight. In that round Vladimir Akopian sweetened this three losses so far with a first victory, while Shakhriyar Mamedyarov also won his first game in this tournament when he beat Evgeny Alekseev. Four GMs share the lead. Round eight report.

Fundraiser in New York – echo in the press

5/19/2010 – A one-night binge in the Trump SoHo Hotel brought chess into the highlights of the international press. Karpov, Kasparov and Carlsen [memo: he must change that to Karlsen!] generated a large number of international reports, almost outshining the World Chess Championship in Sofia. Not unexpectedly the stories reflect the challenger's side of the ticket. Press links.

Anand in Playchess – the helpers in Sofia

5/19/2010 – The team of World Championship challenger Veselin Topalov reportedly spent a large sum of money to secure a 112 core computer cluster running at mind boggling speed. "How did the reigning champion counter this awesome hardware advantage," we asked. Anand answered this question in a candid and very detailed interview broadcast on Monday Playchess. He used a human cluster!

US Championship – Kamsky and Onischuk in the lead

5/19/2010 – After four rounds there were seven players jumbled at the top of the tables. Only two were left after round five had finished: GM Gata Kamsky and GM Alexander Onischuk. The second and third seeds, both won as White and are all alone at 4/5. A pack of four GMs is half a point shy of the leaders. IM Irina Krush, the only female participant, has a 2657 GM performance. Round five report.

US Championship – seven players with 3.0/4

5/18/2010 – Exciting games and close competition in Saint Louis: after two rounds there were two players in the lead, after three four players, and after four rounds seven players. Favourites Nakamura, Kamsky and Onischuk are at the top. The only female participant, IM Irina Krush, played 12 hours and 206 chess moves in the last two rounds. Round four report with a giant pictorial by Betsy Dynako.

Big Karpov fund-raiser in New York

5/18/2010 – Karpov, Kasparov and Carlsen – two former and one very likely future world champion – took part in a launch party and fundraiser in the spectacular Trump SoHo Hotel in New York. It is for Karpov's bid to become President of FIDE. There were chess games as well as entertainment and champagne, which introduced a slight complication in the festivities. Pictures and video.

Reactions to the Ilyumzhinov letter

5/17/2010 – The publication of the open letter yesterday by the FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, on the endorsement of Anatoly Karpov for the FIDE Presidency, has led to an unprecedented number of critical emails, especially from readers in Russia. Were we not fact-checking our reports, or were we in fact actively supporting the current administration? The letters contain a number of interesting links.

Inarkiev leads FIDE Grand Prix in Astrakhan

5/17/2010 – In round four Ernesto Inarkiev beat the great Vassily Ivanchuk with the black pieces, then in round six beat the equally formidable Boris Gelfand, also with black. Now the Russian GM is in pole position, with 4.0/6 points and a sterling 2856 performance. Half a point behind him there are four players, with many top seeds in the bottom half of the table. Round six report.

Anand in Playchess – on chess clusters and prep wars

5/17/2010 – There are rumours that the team of World Championship Challenger Veselin Topalov spent 100,000 Euros to secure a 112 core computer cluster, with the latest Rybka 4 program exclusively reserved for their use until the end of the match. How did the reigning champion Viswanathan Anand counter this awesome hardware advantage of the opponent. Answers today at 17:00h CEST on Playchess.

Max Euwe Matches – Giri beats Short, draws match

5/17/2010 – The Max Euwe Veteran-Youth match challenge finished , and can be considered an unequivocal success. Five young Dutch talents had the opportunity to butt heads with experienced grandmasters in serious four-game matches, a rare opportunity to learn and gain experience. Four were beaten by the GMs, 15-year-old Dutch Champion Anish Giri, scored a remarkable 2-2 draw. Final report.

Max Euwe Matches – Danger for Seirawan, brilliancy by Schut

5/16/2010 – In the second round of the Max Euwe event, the action started to heat up as the Youth struck back at the older guard with the weapons young players are usually so well-equipped with: tactics. The one exception was in fact board one, where GM Nigel Short came within a whisper of beating his opponent, 15-year-old rising star, GM Anish Giri. Report after round three.

Ilyumzhinov: 'I will run for FIDE President once again'

5/16/2010 – On Friday we reported that the Russian Chess Federation had nominated Anatoly Karpov as its candidate for FIDE Presidency by a quorum vote of 17/32. The incumbent, Kirsan Ilyumzhinov said that this "decision" was shrouded in clear deceit – "it makes a mockery of Karpov and his team, who believe they are capable of running a future FIDE." Open letter.

US Championship starts in Saint Louis today

5/14/2010 – The 2010 US Chess Championship is taking place from May 13 (round one at 2:00 p.m. local time) to May 25 (possible tie breakers) at the Chess Club & Scholastic Center of Saint Louis, which is hosting the event for the second year in a row. The prize fund has risen to $170,000 – more than a 25 percent increase from last year. The winner will take home $35,000. Live coverage on Playchess.

Queens belong into the corner...

5/14/2010 – ... was Black's reasoning in this position, when he surprisingly uncorked the exchange 19...Bxd5. How would you evaluate the situation after 20.Rxd5?

A) the double attack 20...Qa8 simply conquers a piece;
B) White can save his material by a counterattack;
C) Black wins after all, but the real hammerblow is yet to come.

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

Breaking news: Karpov nominated by Russian Chess Federation

5/14/2010 – Three weeks ago the chairman of the supervisory board of RCF, Arkady Dvorkovich, stated that the Federation had nominated incumbent Kirsan Ilyumzhinov as its candidate for FIDE presidency. A quick response by rival Anatoly Karpov said this was a unilateral decision by an Ilyumzhinov ally, not the formal vote that was required. That took place today and nominated Karpov. Details.

Final FIDE Grand Prix in Astrakhan

5/13/2010 – The location is the same as for the first five Grand Prix tournaments: the Caucasian region in southern Russia. There are 14 players in a round robin, with high stakes, since the players are competing for a place in the candidates' matches. This explains the sluggish start with 76% draws after three rounds. On the other hand, the opening ceremony was quite flashy. Pictorial report.

Video interview with Vishy Anand

5/13/2010 – Immediately after the final game of the World Championship match in Sofia GM Robert Fontaine, roving reporter of the French chess magazine Europe Echecs, conducted an interview with the old and new Champion. Anand discussed his thoughts in some key positions, and about the match in general, in a second interview with the Indian news agency NDTV. Definitely worth a watch.

Max Euwe Matches – junior talents vs strong GMs

5/13/2010 – The Max Euwe Centrum is located in the Max Euweplein 30-a in Amsterdam. It is a chess promotion center which periodically holds high-category events, like the one that is currently running and pits five talented young Dutch players against experienced grandmasters. Top pairing: Nigel Short vs Anish Giri. Find out why Anish was barred from the opening ceremony.

World Championship: International press reaction

5/12/2010 – Naturally Anand's victory was celebrated most of all in India, where he has around one billion fans. The broadsheets were full of the event – with rush video or telephone interviews, of which we have a number of examples for you to enjoy. The reporters also descended on Anand's parents and extracted statements from them. Review of the reports and feedback from our readers.

The Fischer ending

5/12/2010 – The endgame of rook+bishop against rook+knight is also known in chess literature as the Fischer ending, at least if the side with the bishop has the upper hand. The name arose because the American world champion Robert James Fischer was very successful with this distribution of material against Soviet grandmasters, with one of many examples being the fourth game in his Candidates match against Taimanov in Vancouver 1971. Karsten Müller has annotated for ChessBase Magazine Online a recent model example of the Fischer endgame, namely the game Jakovenko-Rakhmanov. ChessBase Magazine Online.

Playchess version 5 – watching live games

5/12/2010 – In this tutorial on the Playchess software, you will discover some of the new features in the interface related to broadcasts – such as watching several boards at once, not to mention many of the great options available for free to premium accounts such as multimedia commentary of events, and multimedia lectures (openings, famous games, etc.). Don't miss out on the fun.