1/22/2010 – At last: Nigel Short chose a favourite variation of the main line Spanish and held a comfortable draw against Alexei Shirov. The Spaniard is now at 5.5/6, with his performance rating at "just" 3094. With his second win Vladimir Kramnik has joined the follower group 1.5 points behind Shirov. In Group B it is Anish Giri and Group C Ray Robson who are dominating. Both are 15. Round six report.

1/22/2010 – When left on its own, a knight frequently has difficulties holding together one flank in problems. If the pawns are not occupying one of the few formations which suit it, it generally cannot manage the task. This motif underlies the piece sacrifice 35.Rxc4!? Rxc4 36.Nxc4 Kxc4 37.Ke4! - played in the game Lock-Webb from the Masters in Hastings - with which White set his opponent serious practical problems. How would you evaluate the resulting position? Can Black still hold the draw or will the white pawns triumph? GM Karsten Müller has analysed the position for Chess Base Magazine Online.

1/21/2010 – Many books have been written about the American chess genius and world champion Bobby Fischer. But now there is a remarkable new one, by German GM Karsten Müller, whom you will know from his articles and multimedia lectures in ChessBase Magazine. This book contains almost 1000 Fischer games, all of them annotated by GM Müller – a monumental task. Interview with the author.

1/21/2010 – Can anything stop this man? A fifth consecutive win, with the black pieces against Loek van Wely, put Alexei Shirov a point and a half ahead of the field. Vladimir Kramnik scored his first victory in this tournament, while World Champion Vishy Anand is stuck at 50%. In Group B 15-year-old GM Anish Giri leads, as does 15-year-old GM Ray Robson in Group C. Big report with pictures by Fred Lucas.

1/21/2010 – When Magnus Carlsen lost a pawn against Loek van Wely on his 10th move in well-known way, many might wondered whether he had not fallen into a familiar opening trap. After all, on the CD-ROM "1000 Opening Traps" the pawn loss was branded a mistake, and so far statistics clearly seemed to confirm this. Yet reportedly the Norwegian had followed a recommendation of Garry Kasparov, and it soon turned out that Black gets quite a lot for the pawn.
Buy "1000 Opening Traps" in shop anyway
Replay Van Wely - Carlsen with annotations

1/20/2010 – Daaim Shabazz met the Haitian chess team at the 2006 Olympiad – a genuine and enthusiastic group. They missed the Olympiad in 2008 because of a series of hurricanes. The country had a small, but thriving chess community before the earthquake struck. Since then Daaim has been unable to make contact with anyone in the Haitian chess community. An appeal for assistance.

1/19/2010 – A total of 445 players competed in the first qualifier for the FIDE Internet Championship, and tested the tournament software on the Playchess server to its limit. Everything went smoothly, and ten players have qualified for the final on January 30. The second qualifier is on Wednesday evening, the third on Saturday afternoon, with three more to follow. You can play in as many as you like.

1/19/2010 – Last year Garry Kasparov visited Asia – for the first time since the Philippines Olympiad in 1992. He was in India and in Malaysia, where our reporter Edwin Lam did a Q&A with him. Kasparov spoke engagingly and candidly about Asia, his early career as a chess player, his protégé Magnus Carlsen and his Chess Foundation in America. Not a line of blah in this interview. Must read.

1/19/2010 – He is a well-known firebrand in the chess world. In Wijk he is currently playing at a 3500 level. But Alexei Shirov is also a prolific chess teacher, and his ChessBase DVDs are amongst the most popular. Take for instance one of his latest, on the Philidor Defence, a surprise opening that can give rise to extreme open and closed positions. Shirov's treatment is reviewed by a field biologist in the Yukon.

1/19/2010 – A complicated position arose during time trouble in Tomashevsky (2708) vs Fier (2653). The pawn structure leaves us in no doubt: it was a King's Indian. The sacrifice 35...Bxg4 is on the cards, but calculating through all the consequences accurately is hardly possible. What does your intuition tell you?
A) The sacrifice is unsound. Black does not get sufficient compensation.
B) The sacrifice is playable. The position remains balanced.
C) 35...Bxg4 decides the game in Black's favour.
The solution is here, but first ponder over it with a larger version of the diagram.

1/19/2010 – Vassily Ivanchuk needed 26 moves to finish off Loek van Wely. Magnus Carlsen had Nigel Short on the ropes, but let the British GM escape with a draw. Kramnik was in trouble against Tiviakov but survived. Alexei Shirov scored his fourth win in succession, to lead with a 4.0/4 score and a 3483 performance. You'd think that was a record, but he will have to win the next five games to do that. Curious?

1/19/2010 – Edgar Colle (1897–1932) was a Belgian chess who scored excellent results in world-class tournaments. He died tragically at the age of 34, and is mainly remembered for the Colle Opening System 1.d4 d5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.e3. This, as Dennis Monokroussos relates in this week's Playchess lecture, was not what he was able to play in a beautiful game against Ernst Grünfeld. Be there at 9 p.m. EST.