Tenth European Individual Chess Championship in Budva

3/13/2009 – The Mediterranean coastal town in Montenegro is just a stone's throw away from the venue of the Fischer-Spassky revenge match of 1992. The eleven-round Swiss event with 306 players has a prize fund of 120,000 Euros, with 22 places in the next World Cup at stake. After seven rounds Ukrainian GM Andrei Volokitin is in the sole lead. A 12-year-old is doing fine too. Big illustrated report.

Aeroflot-gate: reactions from our readers

3/13/2009 – When he was crushed at the Aeroflot Open by a weaker player in just 21 moves top seed Shakhriyar Mamedyarov withdrew in protest, claiming his opponent had been using computer assistance. The accused, Igor Kurnosov, replied with an open letter, and ten days later Mamedyarov restated (and emphasized) his claims. All this has produced vigorous feedback from our readers. Excerpts.

Langrock’s Repertoire against the French Tarrasch

3/12/2009 – For the moment Sergei Tiviakov is on a roll – he is gaining Elo points all over the place (Moscow op, Pfalz op, Bundesliga) and in the Live Top List he is already over 2700 as well as being in 26th place. His last game before the European championships, against Feygin (for Eppingen in the Bundesliga), caught our interest particularly because what was up for discussion was a Tarrasch French with 3.Nd2 Be7 – exactly the variation which Hannes Langrock has been putting under the microscope from Black’s point of view in, so far, three articles (CBM 126, 127 and 128). Tiviakov chose the line with 4.c3, the final one to be investigated by Langrock in CBM 129, which is in preparation even as we speak. Could the reigning European champion demonstrate some advantage for White? A sneak preview of CBM 129.

Yuri Vovk wins 25th Cappelle-la-Grande

3/12/2009 – The nine-round open went from Saturday, February 28th to Saturday, March 07. Once again the organisers experimented with a new time contol, the “Decreasingly Accelerated System”. A total of 611 players took part, amongst them 102 GMs and 78 IMs, from 60 different countries – a good opportunity to shoot interesting portraits. Giant pictorial report by Dominique Primel.

Tenth European Women's Championship in Saint Petersburg

3/12/2009 – This event, an 11-round Swiss, has 168 players and a prize fund of 87,500 Euros. There are also 14 places in the next World Championship knockout tournament up for grabs. After five rounds four players are in the lead with 4.5 points, followed by eleven with 4.0 points. One participant is just ten. The husband of one of the favourites (can you guess who?) is providing us with photos and videos.

Alexander Moiseenko – the secret of success

3/11/2009 – He is 28, a lawyer by training but a strong chess grandmaster by profession. Recently Alexander Moiseenko won the very strong Aeroflot Open, together with Etienne Bacrot. This is just the culmination of a row of successful tournaments. Moiseenko spoke at length with our correspondent WGM Anastasiya Karlovich about training, tournament strategy and chess in Ukraine. Interview.

Aeroflot-gate: Mamedyarov sticks to his guns

3/11/2009 – Two weeks ago we reported from the Aeroflot Open, where top seed Shakhriyar Mamedyarov withdrew after a game where he felt his opponent, GM Igor Kurnosov, had been receiving computer assistance. A week later Kurnosov responded, and now Mamedyarov, who is not prepared to let the matter drop, has published a strongly-worded letter on an Azeri sports website. Translation.

The battle of the sexes – Kasparov vs Polgar

3/11/2009 – Four years ago Garry Kasparov retired from competition chess. The greatest female player of all time has also not been very active in the last few years. In his Playchess lecture Dennis Monokroussos looks back at one of the many memorable encounters between the two. Be there at 9 p.m. ET.

FIDE postpones Anand-Topalov WCh match

3/10/2009 – A FIDE Presidential Board meeting in Istanbul, Turkey, had decided to postpone the World Championship match between Viswanathan Anand and Veselin Topalov until latest April 20th, 2010, and opened the bidding process. Originally the match was scheduled for September this year. The PB also accepted the bid by UEP to stage the world chess championship cycle 2010-2011. Press release.

Istanbul GP: Four players lead after three rounds

3/10/2009 – The opening ceremony of the Is Bank Atatürk FIDE Women Masters in Turkey featured reigning Women's World Champion Alexandra Kosteniuk and Turkish media mogul Ahmet Çalik as special guests. After three rounds there are four players in the lead, with 2.5/3 points each. Top seeds Humpy and Hou Yifan, followed by Zhao Xue and IM Martha Fierro from Ecuador. Big pictorial report.

Annotation searches - Part 2

3/9/2009 – In our last column we began with a look at the "Annotation" tab of the Search mask in both ChessBase and Fritz. Our series on annotation searches continues in the new ChessBase Workshop. We'll discover how to find games with multimedia content as well as various other annotation forms. Find out more in the new Workshop.

5000 new and properly edited games – every week!

3/8/2009 – For the ambitious chess player a well maintained and continually up-to-date database is a must. The foundations for this can be laid once a year with the Mega or Big Database. But the 2009 edition also allows you to remain up-to-date. For the first time ever, users of ChessBase 10 can have access to a regular online update for the reference database for the whole of the year 2009 included. Week by week you can automatically download to your reference database approximately 5000 games which are not yet in Mega or Big. Of course they will be of the usual ChessBase quality standard, i.e. with edited player and tournament names, as well as Elo ratings and where appropriate team names.
Read more.

Free day: Internet, quails and bowling in Linares

3/7/2009 – Between the rounds of the Super-GM in Linares there are free days. The evening before a break is a great time to take dinner with even the most intense players; and on the free day itself there are usually outings and social gatherings for the journalists. Here's what we did on the last free day, together with pictures of pretty girls and some more-or-less harrowing tales around the tournament.

Linares R14: All games drawn, Grischuk wins on tiebreak

3/7/2009 – All four games of the last round were drawn, leaving two players at the top of the final table: Vassily Ivanchuk, who first won Linares 18 years ago, and Russian GM Alexander Grischuk. Both have plus two (8.0/14), but Grischuk has three wins to Ivanchuk's two. Third is Magnus Carlsen, fourth World Champion Vishy Anand. Pictorial report.

Annotation searches - Part 1

3/7/2009 – The Search mask in both ChessBase and Fritz is a handy and versatile tool for locating games in a database. In the new ChessBase Workshop we examine using the Search mask to find deleted games, games which start from non-standard positions, and those containing critical position annotations. Learn more in the new Workshop.

Linares R12: Carlsen defeats Grischuk, lead narrows

3/6/2009 – In the critical game of the tournament Magnus Carlsen took down Alexander Grischuk, who has been the sole leader by a full point since round seven. With his victory the Norwegian GM joined Vassily Ivanchuk in the second slot, half a point behind Grischuk. The other games were drawn, with Radjabov-Dominguez producing an exciting fight. Big pictorial report, commentary by Anish Giri.

The ACP-ChessBase questionnaire – preliminary results

3/6/2009 – Three weeks ago the Association of Chess Professionals (ACP) and ChessBase sent out a poll to top chess players. Their answers kept coming in, with more expected soon. Full results will be presented soon. However, we have decided to send the following preliminary results to the FIDE Presidential Board, which is meeting in Istanbul from the 6-8th of March 2009. Figures and opinions.

Linares R13: Carlsen falters, Ivanchuk catches up

3/6/2009 – Vassily Ivanchuk, who won Linares in 1991, is poised to do so again, eighteen years later, when he defeated Levon Aronian to join Alexander Grischuk in the lead. The latter was unable to convert a very promising position against Vishy Anand. The tragedy was Magnus Carlsen, who had a well-deserved win on the bat, but spoilt it to a draw. Big pictorial report with annotations by Anish Giri.

Linares: The Anibal Hall of Fame

3/5/2009 – For many years the Linares Super-GM was played in the ballroom of the Anibal Hotel (the tournament was created by the owner). Now it is in a theater, but the players still stay in the Anibal. The lobby and restaurant of the hotel are adorned with portraits from previous events, starting from 1991 – a moving experience to see the great players fifteen and more years ago. Let's talk a walk in time.

Women Grand Prix Series in Istanbul

3/5/2009 – Today the players arrive, Friday are the technical meetings and opening ceremony, on Saturday the first event for a new FIDE Women Grand Prix series 2009/2010 starts, in the Is Bankasi Art Gallery in Istanbul, Turkey. Twelve of the strongest in the world will play a round robin event for a total prize fund of 40,000 Euros. Press release and pictures of the ladies.

The save/replace game dialogue - part 3

3/5/2009 – ChessBase 10 contains a large variety of fields into which you can input player and tournament information when saving a game. Some of these can be confusing for new users. In our closeup look at ChessBase game header fields you'll discover some little-known tricks regarding annotators and publishing sources as we wrap up our three part series. ChessBase Workshop.

Linares R11: All games drawn, with some fighting chess

3/4/2009 – Two games, Ivanchuk-Carlsen and Wang Yue-Anand, were relatively unspectacular draws, but the other two, Alexander Grischuk vs Teimour Radjabov and Leinier Dominguez vs Levon Aronian, had the spectators on the edge of their seats. Both games have been annotated by our team of GM Mihail Marin and GM-elect Anish Giri. We also bring you new pictorial impressions from Linares.

7.g4 – Investigations by a specialist

3/3/2009 – The game Carlsen - Anand, Linares 2009, – see the analysis by Dorian Rogozenco – was worthy of attention for several reasons. One aspect was the question as to whether the opening moves chosen by the World Champion in the Shabalov-Shirov Gambit led directly to a somewhat inferior endgame. One of the greatest specialists in this gambit move (7.g4) is the Polish GM Michal Krasenkow. In CBM 127 and 128 (with a concluding part to follow in CBM 129) he examined his favourite move against the Semi Slav. Have a look here, in a shortened reprise of his contribution to CBM 127, at the section which deals with 7…Nxg4.
ChessBase Magazine 127
Krasenkow: 7.g4 Nxg4.

Linares R9: Carlsen strikes back with a sharp Dragon

3/2/2009 – First the other three games: they were all more or less uneventful draws, with one listless 17-mover. But we were compensated by a wonderful Dragon by Magnus Carlsen, who tied up his opponent into an amazing zugzwang position at move 42. Alexander Grischuk still leads by a full point. But tonight you must study Carlsen's Dragon, lovingly annotated by GM Mihail Marin.