1/7/2010 – He became a grandmaster at the age of twelve years and seven months – the youngest in history. Sergey Karjakin, who turns twenty next Tuesday, is ten months older than Magnus Carlsen, the current number one in the world rankings. In the magazine Segodnja Sport the former Ukrainian, who is lives in and plays for Russia, tells us about his chess programme, marriage and life in Moscow.

1/6/2010 – With one round to go the seven-time Hungarian champion Zoltan Almasi has scored 6.5/8, a full point ahead of his nearest rival, Gata Kamsky. Almasi has won five of his last six games, including a key game against Viktor Bologan in round six. His performance: 2859. Kamsky and Almasi face each other tomorrow in the final round. Pictorial report.

1/6/2010 – The 2009-10 Hastings Masters ended in a fourway tie for first place, between Mark Hebden of England, British Champion David Howell, Andrei Istratescu of Roumania, and Romain Edouard of France. In the final round Hebden and Istratescu halved out in 11 moves, but Howell had to fight for a black victory. Our report on the last two rounds includes a big pictorial of lesser-known players.

1/6/2010 – In 1910 Emanuel Lasker was World Champion, but the arguably strongest player in the world was the Polish master Akiba Kiwelowicz Rubinstein (1882–1961), a dominant figure in tournament chess who was winning most events and in glorious style. In this week's Playchess lecture Dennis Monokroussos looks at a game or two of his from the 1911 tournament in Karlsbad. 9 p.m. ET

1/5/2010 – According to the current FIDE rankings Magnus Carlsen is the strongest player in the world. But his rating of 2810 is not the highest ever. That was achieved by Garry Kasparov, who in the July 1999 FIDE list reached 2851 points. Two other players have at some stage had higher ratings than Magnus. Here's a list of all Super-GMs (over 2700) and their top ratings.

1/5/2010 – An active king often plays a decisive part in rook endings. If it can support a passed pawn in its advance, then the king and pawn form an extremely deadly duo. So the ability of the rook to cut off the king horizontally or vertically from one of the theatres of war and thus to restrict its activity is an important weapon in the arsenal of endgame technique. Karsten Müller has selected a recent endgame in which the theme of the barrier and the struggle against it are in the foreground.

Analysis of Brynell-Popov for ChessBase Magazine Online.

12/29/2009 – That's a praiser of past times, conservative, old fashioned, classic. It describes our reporter at the International Chess Congress in Hastings – 28th December 2009 through to 5th January 2010 – but also the event itself. Steve Giddins, who received a Latin phrasebook for Christmas, is said reporter. We are using "oldstyle" ChessBase diagrams to keep him happy. Round one report.

12/28/2009 – ... was the situation in this recent game from the German Bundesliga, where White to play had to calculate the consequences of 27.Rf7-f4+. How would you assess the position after that (diagram)?
A) White is better; 
B) the position is balanced; 
C) Black has the advantage.

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

12/27/2009 – The "Battle of the Giants" between tenth World Champion Boris Spassky, 72, and multiple World Championship challenger Viktor Korchnoi, 78 began with the latter pressing. But in the second half of the match it was Spassky who called the shots. He won two games and blundered away a good position in a third. Not bad after almost seven years of "hibernation". Report and games.

12/27/2009 – Alexander Grischuk and Peter Svidler both won in round six and drew in round seven to maintain their places at the top of the table. Grischuk has 5.0/7 with a 2833 performance, Svidler 4.5/7 at 2778. In the women's section Alisa Galliamova has conceded a single draw. She lead by a full point, with a 2868 performance, but can still be caught, e.g. by Nadezhda Kosintseva. Report by Misha Savinov.

12/26/2009 – There were four decisive games in round five of the men's section, with one sensation: the leader, Peter Svidler, lost to the youngest participant, 16-year-old Sanan Sjugirov of Kalmykia. That put Alexander Grischuk, who won his game, in the sole lead. In the women's section IM Alisa Galliamova continues her rampage and is leading by a full point. Games and statistics.

12/26/2009 – Correct evaluation of pawn endings is an important pillar of good endgame technique. So, e.g., in the following position Black had to come to a  judgment as to whether, after the exchange of rooks with 47...Rxe2 48.Kxe2, the ensuing pawn ending is a draw. Otherwise, he would be obliged to do without the exchange and to defend the rook ending.
What do you think? Does the exchange of rooks lead to a drawn position?

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