8/3/2009 – Tashkent, the capital of Uzbekistan, one of the world’s oldest cities, is celebrating its 2200-year anniversary this year. Among other events was an open chess tournament, seeing the top players from Uzbekistan and neighboring countries. Organized by the Mayor’s Office and Tashkent Chess Federation, it was the first edition of what, it is hoped, will turn into a traditional event.

8/3/2009 – Bulgarian chess trainer FM Valeri Lilov, rated 2411, has a weekly show on Playchess.com. On Mondays at 20:00h CEST (7 p.m. London, 2 p.m. New York) he presents practical chess problems and interesting themes based on games taken from recent super-tournaments. This time he will focus on the Planning in the games of grandmasters, with live audio commentary. Take a look, it’s free!

8/2/2009 – The ORDIX Open is a fixed date in the chess calendar for many rapid chess lovers and, this year no fewer than 694 participants made the pilgrimage to the Mainz Chess Classic. After the first five rounds, there are still eight players with a clean sheet: Grischuk, Sargissian, Meier, Mamedyarov, Naiditsch, Navara, Landa and Nielsen. Six more rounds are being played on Sunday. Illustrated report.

8/2/2009 – After World Champion Vishy Anand failed to qualify for the final of the GrenkeLeasing Rapid World Championship, Levon Aronian was clear favorite to win the title against Ian Nepomniachtchi. And indeed, the Armenian had no trouble beating his young opponent 3-1. The only surprise was how easily he seemed to do it. Anand drew his match for third place with Arkadij Naiditsch. Final report.

8/2/2009 – Remember Bobby Fischer winning US Championships – and Candidates matches – with incredible "to zero" scores? The American computer program Rybka reminded everyone of her (Rybka is female) famous human compatriot by winning the Chess960 World Championship qualifier 11.5/12. In the final Rybka beat her main rival Shredder 3:1. Congratulations to author Vasik Rajlich.

8/2/2009 – The Arctic Chess Challenge in Tromsø is this year’s most prestigious event in Norway. More than 35 titled players are taking part, including 13 GMs. Top seed is Polish GM Bartosz Socko, rated 2656, with three more super-GMs just below him. The tournament is truly an international open: the 118 participants hail from 26 countries, and from all parts of the world. Pictorial report.

8/2/2009 – These words come from the eleven-time Chess Classic winner Vishy Anand, who failed to qualify this time for the final on Sunday. Anand had a good position in his must-win game against Ian Nepomniachtchi – Q+2P vs Q – but only managed a draw. Levon Aronian, on the other hand, beat Naiditsch to secure his place one round before the end. Aronian plays Nepomniachtchi in the final.

8/1/2009 – In Chess960 the pieces are shuffled before the start of each game – to eliminate all opening preparation. But does that render top GMs helpless? It does not. For a long stretch Gata Kamsky, was leading. He lost to former world champion Rustam Kasimdzhanov in the final round, so that the winner in the end was top seed Alexander Grischuk. Report with lovely pictures by Christian Bossert.

8/1/2009 – The first day of the Rapid Chess World Championship in Mainz brought a nasty shock for the eleven-fold Chess Classic winner Vishy Anand, who lost his first two games, both with white, to Levon Aronian and newcomer Ian Nepomniachtchi. Anand retained chances to enter the final on Sunday by beating Arkadij Naiditsch in the third game. Aronian and Nepomniachtchi lead with 2.5/3. Illustrated report.

7/31/2009 – From July 20-28, Victoria, British Columbia played host to a number of events, including the Canadian Youth and Junior Chess Championships, and the British Columbia Open. Well attended and well received, the festival was highlighted by an encounter between GMs Mark Bluvshtein and Hikaru Nakamura during the opening ceremonies. Pictorial report.

7/31/2009 – ... is almost half done with a bishop placed on d3 (d6), keeping the enemy king in the c-file. Here Black sent out a clear signal with 23. ... Qxa2 - the white king is to be hunted down with 24...Nb3+. How do you judge the situation now?
A) Checkmate can only be prevented by giving up the queen, leaving Black on the victory path;
B) Thanks to Black's back rank weakness, White just so manages to escape into a roughly equal endgame;
C) White actually wins.
The solution is here, but first ponder over it with a larger version of the diagram.

7/31/2009 – On the first day of the Chess960 World Rapid Chess Championship in Mainz Levon Aronian had dominated, winning all three of his games. On the second day US GM Hikaru Nakamura had won all of his to get into the finals. And there he beat Aronian in the first three of four games to take the 2009 title of 960 World Championship. Illustrated report. with video.