8/25/2009 – One was hit by a bug – the biological kind –, the other by an as yet unexplained passion for cricket. But Hikaru Nakamura managed to win a brilliancy in spite of two emergency trips to the bathroom during the game. And Peter Svidler has regained all his normal determination after England had won the Ashes and he could concentrate on chess. Report by Steve Giddins, pictures by John Nunn.

8/25/2009 – Recently Sergey Karjakin, once the youngest GM in chess history, and WIM Kateryana Dolzhikova, student of English linguistics, were married. After a brief honeymoon in the Crimea the two rushed to Jermuk, where Sergey played in the Fifth FIDE Grand Prix. Press officer Lilit Mkrtchian spoke to the pair about marriage, plans, chess and general interests. Interviews.

8/25/2009 – We are once more publishing one of the 11 classical opening articles from ChessBase Magazine as a freebie. The subject is a line of the Najdorf Variation with 6.Bg5; namely the black move 7…Nbd7 and the extremely venomous reply 8.Bc4. What is special about it is that if Black plays "normal" Sicilian moves, he regularly collapses. 8.Bc4 could even be described as a trap, because the player with Black must know what to do; the correct move order will hardly be found over the board. The Israeli grandmaster Evgeny Postny explains to you exactly how White can be successful against almost all moves by Black... and of course what the single correct move is.
Complete overview of ChessBase Magazine 131
Postny: Najdorf with 7…Nbd7 8.Bc4

8/25/2009 – Imagine getting all the most recent games for any position, or all of a specific player, in less than a second. From a four-million-game database that is kept up-to-date without you having to do a stroke of work. And imagine you can get that all for free, with one single download, today. If you are satisfied you can upgrade to the full Premium version. ChessBase Light 2009 yours for the taking.

8/24/2009 – It was a weekend of the world champions. After playing simuls against 200 opponents, marking the 200th jubilee of the world's oldest chess club, eight champions took part in an all-play-all rapid chess tournament in Zurich, Switzerland. It was won by the 14th World Champion Vladimir Kramnik, with the current World Champion in second place. Report with pictures and videos.

8/23/2009 – Ukrainian GM Vassily Ivanchuk won his final game in Jermuk with the black pieces against Vladimir Akopian to take overall victory with 8.5/13 points and a performance of 2830. Lev Aronian and Boris Gelfand won their games to take equal 2nd-3rd. Gelfand beat Peter Leko, who had been leading for most of the tournament, and was relegated to 4-6th place. Final report.

8/23/2009 – Steve Lopez, our ChessBase Workshop columnist, contends in his latest article that the ability to recognize threats is one of the most important chess skills for a beginner to cultivate, and describes how Fritz11's "Threat" function will help in that endeavor. Find out more about it in the latest Workshop.

8/22/2009 – In our continuing ChessBase Workshop series discussing Fritz11 features for beginners we look at Fritz' electronic chess coach. Need a hint? Want a takeback? The Fritz Coach not only lets you take back moves but also alerts you to your errors in the first place. Learn more about the Coach feature in the newest ChessBase Workshop.

8/22/2009 – The Fifth FIDE Grand Prix continues to produce fighting chess. A relatively low 61% of the games so far were drawn, but only two of 47 draws were in less than 25 moves. In round eleven there was one 31-mover, the rest 40 moves or more. And two decisive games, which however left the top of the table unchanged. Full report with more beautiful pictures by Arman Karakhanyan.

8/22/2009 – This Dutch event pits five talented young players against five older and experienced colleagues. In the past the latter kept getting whupped, so the organisers decided that the Experience team needed a little less experience and a little more youthful energy. The strategy seems to be succeeding, as the younger older players are in the lead after two rounds. Steve Giddins on GMs and GOMs.

8/22/2009 – For a number of years now, the annual Russia versus China match has served as an opportunity for the perennial powerhouse to match wits with the rising star. Russia took the inaugural match, but China took the next three. Last year, dissatisfied with recent results, Russia turned the tables once more. This year marks the sixth such much and China currently looms large.

8/22/2009 – Another exciting round: Israeli GM Boris Gelfand beat former FIDE world champion Rustam Kasimdzhanov with the black pieces, knocking the Uzbek from the lead trio and into the chasing pack. Gelfand joined him, Alekseev and Aronian, a half-point behind the leaders. The thrilling conclusion comes on Sunday, with the games starting at 13:30 (instead of 15:00) local time = GMT+4. R12 report.