6/25/2010 – In all three games of the final round Black was victorious: Radjabov beat Gelfand, Ponomariov beat Nisipeanu and Carlsen beat Wang Yue. This left the youngest player with the highest rating two full points clear of the field, with an incredible 2918 performance. That translates to a FIDE rating of 2826, the second highest in chess history. Final report with commentary by Dorian Rogozenco.

6/24/2010 – In chess one small slip can turn a winning advantage into a draw – or even a loss. Nobody is immune to blunders, not even the champions. That is a common theme in the excellent new book John Nunn's Chess Endings. The English grandmaster gives plenty of examples where the mighty falter. GM Lubomir Kavalek picks two positions for his HuffPost chess column. Solutions next week.

6/24/2010 – What chess program is best suited for analysis? Rybka, Fritz, or Shredder? Is there any sense in using more than one of them? Bo Bredenhof is a correspondence chess player and experienced engine user for years. In his article at  chesscafe.com he tells us where each top programs has its strengths and where it fails to find the best move. His bottom line: united they stand strong.

6/23/2010 – The first Women's World Blitz Championship is in Moscow from September 15 to 18, with a total prize fund of € 60,000. Two Online Qualifiers on the Playchess server allow five players each to qualify for the finals. The first was completed last Saturday, the second will be held on Thursday, June 24th at 19:00h (CEST). You can still make it. Results and details.

6/23/2010 – You may have suspected it, but a study by two scientists has produced empirical proof: being physically fit is good for your chess. Their conclusions: organisers should provide facilities for active forms of recreation; parents and chess coaches, and the players themselves, should be aware of the significance of fitness preparation. Study by Agnieszka Fornal-Urban and Anna Keska.

6/23/2010 – IM Tamas Horvath is the organiser of this impeccably run event, which takes place in a pretty little spa town in the Balaton lake region of Hungary, an oasis of peace and tranquility. The 2000 Euro first prize drew a large number of titled players: nine GMs, 22 IMs and 19 FMs, WGMs and WIMs. Young talents abound. You will see many new faces and this big pictorial report.

6/22/2010 – The Kings Tournament has moved to its original location in Bazna, and Magnus Carlsen continues his amazing series, scoring his fourth consecutive win, this time on the white side of a Sicilian Dragon against Teimour Radjabov. The performance of the 19-year-old Norwegian: 2955. Gelfand defeated Nisipeanu and is now alone in second place. Commentary by GM Dorian Rogozenco.

6/22/2010 – The German engineer and computer pioneer Konrad Zuse was born one hundred years ago today. He is considered the inventor of the world's first programmable computer, and the first high-level programming language. This anniversary leads us to pause and consider how far we have come in a single human lifetime – and where the development of computers is leading. Food for thought.

6/22/2010 – For a while there, towards the end of his game against Boris Gelfand, it looked as though the Norwegian super-GM was going to pull off a fifth victory. Actually Magnus Carlsen had escaped from some pressure exerted by his Israeli opponent. Radjabov-Ponomariov ended in a draw, while Wang Yue messed up his white game against Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu and lost. GM commentary.

6/21/2010 – Two games in round six of this Category 20 Super-GM ended in draws, but the ever astonishing Magnus Carlsen struck out again, for the third time in succession and with the black pieces, this time goading Ruslan Ponomariov into complication which the young Norwegian understood better. His performance so far is 2919, his "live rating" 2821. Commentary by GM Dorian Rogozenco.

6/21/2010 – After 6...c5 in the Vienna Variation of the Orthodox Queen's Gambit, theory frequently stretches far into the middlegame. But recently 6...h6 has come into contention – Kramnik, Aronian and Ivanchuk have all tried it. If this alternative turns out to be reliable, Black will have an elegant option to simply avoid the thicket of variations after the main move. Evgeny Postny has looked into the subject and provided us with thorough analysis of top games. His conclusion is cautious, since the idea is still fresh. But in the next issue of CBM there will be fresh annotated games with 6...h6. Read: Postny: Vienna with 6...h6.

6/21/2010 – Vassily Ivanchuk has won the Elite Group of this auspicious tournament, for the fourth time – something no other player has yet achieved. Second was 19-year-old GM Ian Nepomniachtchi, followed by Leinier Dominguez and Nigel Short. The FIDE presidential campaign has hit Cuba, with both Kirsan Ilyumzhinov and Anatoly Karpov visiting the closing ceremony. The former came there bearing gifts.