Wijk R12: after the penultimate round – too close to call

2/1/2009 – Incredible: one round before the end six players are in the joint lead, with 7.0/12. The talk of the town was Magnus Carlsen, who won his game and joined his previous year's co-winner in Wijk, Levon Aronian in the lead. In Group B Nigel Short and Rustam Kasimdzhanov battle it out for first place, and in Group C the two youngest players lead. The final round starts on Sunday at 12:30 p.m.!

Wijk R13: Sergey Karjakin wins Wijk aan Zee 2009

2/1/2009 – A very dramatic final round saw the Ukrainian star Sergey Karjakin defeat Leinier Dominguez with black to go into the lead. Magnus Carlsen had chances against Wang Yue, but threw away the game. With that Karjakin had the sole victory in his pocket. In Group B it was Fabiano Caruana and in Group C Wesley So who took first place. Full illustrated report.

Wijk R11: Dominguez beats Aronian, Kamsky, Movsesian, Radjabov win

1/31/2009 – Levon Aronian can forget about cruising to victory in Wijk aan Zee. Today he suffered a shock loss against the Cuban GM Leinier Dominguez. Gata Kamsky clobbered Sergey Karjakin on the white side of a Slav. Movsesian beat van Wely and Radjabov beat Wang Yue. Aronian, Radjabov, Dominguez and Movsesian lead after eleven rounds, with Carlsen and Karjakin in hot pursuit. Pictorial report.

Anish Giri, 14, makes his final GM norm

1/31/2009 – Who is the world's youngest grandmaster? The correct answer, as of today, is Anish Giri, a Nepalese-Russian lad who lives in Holland. Anish completed his final GM norm on Saturday by beating GM Eduardo Iturrizaga of Venezuela. The lad is 14 years, 7 months and two days old – a pleasantly precocious, independent, quadrolingual lad. We have some great Wijk aan Zee pictures by John Nunn.

Wijk free day: Statistics and Slumming (part three)

1/30/2009 – There are three rounds left in Wijk aan Zee, and in each of the three groups there is a sole leader by half a point. The shortest game so far was a 12-move draw, the longest a 99-move win by the youngest player (with black) against the oldest. The best performance so far is 2826 (by Aronian), and the most points above the nominal rating was +138 (by Bosboom). Free day report.

Kuzubov wins Grugaon Open in India

1/29/2009 – Gurgaon is just a short highway drive south west of New Delhi. The city of 250,000 is the sixth largest in the state of Haryana and has become a center of outsourcing and real estate. It is considered one of the poshest areas of Delhi. The Gurgaon International Open Grandmasters Chess Tournament was held in Suncity World School and won by Ukrainian GM Yuriy Kuzubov. Big pictorial report.

The Fighting Dutchman

1/29/2009 – Are you still looking for a repertoire against 1.d4 that will not end up in passive or drawish positions? You can easily be put out of this misery, says Andrew Martin on his two latest Fritz Trainer DVDs. For the Dutch Defence is a system for players with a real fighting spirit and especially suited for the average player. Buy his 'Leningrad Dutch' and 'Anti Dutch' now or read this review with sampler.

Wijk R10: Aronian, Carlsen win, Aronian leads

1/28/2009 – Armenian GM Levon Aronian broke the three-way tie for leadership in Wijk aan Zee by grinding down England's Michael Adams and taking sole first place in the tables. Magnus Carlsen scored his first victory in this event, over Cuban Leinier Dominguez, to move into third. The most exciting game was the furious draw between Radjabov and Smeets. Report, videos and pictures by Fred Lucas.

Kramnik vs Shirov – part two of the early battle

1/28/2009 – Last week our Playchess lecturer Dennis Monokroussos analysed a 1994 battle between Vladimir Kramnik and Alexei Shirov. The former had achieved a big pawn clamp on the queenside, and to avoid suffocation Shirov speculatively sacrificed a bishop. The game had reached its high point, when the variations really become insane. You can catch the second half on Wednesday at 9 p.m. EST.

7th Gibtelecom Chess Festival kicks off!

1/28/2009 – It is a very popular event, played in many different groups. The Masters, an open Swiss, attracts numerous international stars – this year a record 199 players from 36 countries, including 35 grandmasters. They compete for £100,000 sterling of prize money, with £15,000 going to the eventual winner. But they also enjoy a late winter stay at the southern-most tip of the Iberic peninsula.

Wijk aan Zee rest day – we went slumming again

1/27/2009 – On the second free day in Wijk we again take a look at the "lower" groups – each of which itself could be an attractive main tournament. Nigel Short leads alone in the B-Group, with 5.5/8 and a 2774 performance – but it was David Navara who won an Expert's Prize for his fine sixth-round win against Vallejo. In the C-Group Tiger Hillarp Persson is a full point ahead. Pictures by Fred Lucas.

Mythbusting in Chess

1/27/2009 – Adam, Jamie, Kari, Grant and Tory – not to forget Buster – have all contributed to clearing up the truth behind myths and urban legends. But they have never to our knowledge touched chess. Now an Australian reader ("Mythbusters" is produced by an Australian company) has attempted to remedy the situation, quite in the spirit of the Discovery Channel program. Here his conclusions.

Wijk R09: Karjakin, Aronian, Dominguez win and lead

1/27/2009 – Sergey Karjakin defeated yesterday's leader Sergei Movsesian; Levon Aronian beat Gata Kamsky with black; and the new Cuban star Leinier Dominguez defeated Daniël Stellwagen – with that all three winners rose to the leading 1–3 spot, with 5.5/9 points. Magnus Carlsen still hasn't won a game, Alexander Morozevich is at the bottom of the table. Report with videos and pictures by Fred Lucas.

Impressions from Wijk – Round Seven

1/25/2009 – Our daily reports contain a lot of chess. But we have been frugal with the visuals, bearing in mind the admonition of a young GM that we were publishing too many pictures "of us players, from the front, from the side, from above, from below, thinking, not thinking." To compensate here are some unusual visual impressions from Wijk by Dutch photographer Frits Agterdenbos. Feast your eyes.

Wijk R08: Ivanchuk beats Karjakin, Wang beats Morozevich

1/25/2009 – Yesterday the young Ukrainian GM Sergey Karjakin led the A-Group in Wijk. Today he lost to the experienced Ukraining GM Vassily Ivanchuk and dropped to place five. Alexander Morozevich, the world's number five player, continued his losing streak and is now alone in last place, with a dismal 2.5/8. In the C-Group the oldest player, Oleg Romanishin, lost to the youngest, Anish Giri. Report.

New Rybka analysis tools

1/25/2009 – One of the "old standards" in the area of positional analysis is the ability to show the next best move (or even multiple lines of play). But there's a "tradeoff": displaying multiple variations slows down the engine's analysis. The Rybka software contains a new feature which presents the user with more control over this process. You can learn all about it in our latest ChessBase Workshop.

Wijk R07: Movsesian beats Ivanchuk, joins Karjakin in the lead

1/24/2009 – After beating the third seed yesterday Sergei Movsesian today downed top seed Vassily Ivanchuk with the black pieces. Jan Smeets blundered at the end of a tough game to give Morozevich a win. Daniel Stellwagen somehow wriggled his way out of a dead lost position against Gata Kamsky to salvage a draw. In group B Nigel Short leads after defeating Rustam Kasimdzanov. Round seven report.

Wijk R06: Karjakin escapes Carlsen, leads A-Group

1/23/2009 – In the clash of the prodigy rivals Magnus Carlsen played aggressively and imaginatively, and has Sergey Karjakin on the ropes. But at the critical moment he didn't heed the advice of Emanuel Lasker (see report) and threw away the win. Adams beat Wang Yue, Morozevich lost to Movsesian, and Radjabov beat Kamsky. Report, annotated games, and a young photographer's impressions from Wijk.

Wijk aan Zee rest day – slumming it

1/22/2009 – It is one of the strongest super-tournaments in the world, but Wijk is also a chess festival with almost 2000 participants competing in all kinds of events. The B and C Groups are GM tournaments which could be the main attraction in many other chess festivals. We use the rest day to "slum it" a bit and take a look at the great chess and players from these groups. With pictures by Fred Lucas.

Chess Classic in Queenstown – an adventure down under

1/22/2009 – It is like a zillion miles away, and it takes you weeks to get there. Well, not quite – more like 34 hours. But the journey is well worth undertaking. You get ten days of chess, and can tack on another ten days of adventure and nature in one of the last wild spots on our planet. We didn't make it to Queenstown, but received this big pictorial report from our intrepid reporter Evi Zickelbein.

FIDE exonerates Ivanchuk on missing drug test

1/22/2009 – You remember the Sword of Damocles hanging over Vassily Ivanchuk's head? The world's number three player had stormed out of the hall after the final, deeply traumatic game, without heeding the request of an arbiter to take a drug test. For this a two-year ban was threatened. After thorough investigation FIDE has concluded that it was a misunderstanding and decided there will be no penalty.

Wijk R05: Dominguez defeats Morozevich, Karjakin leads

1/22/2009 – Cuban GM Leinier Dominguez administered a crushing defeat to the number three seed Alexander Morozevich, while Aronian, Karjakin and van Wely won their games against Movsesian, Stellwagen and Radjabov respecively. This leaves Karjakin in the sole lead with 3.5/5, and as fate would have it, tomorrow he faces his main age-group rival Magnus Carlsen. Report with annotated games.

Fire on Board – Shirov at his best

1/21/2009 – Alexei Shirov makes heavy use of tactical complications to defeat his opponents. In an equal or worse position he will often reach into his bag of tricks and bamboozle his opponent. As he did to long-time rival Vladimir Kramnik in an incredible game that our Playchess lecturer Dennis Monokroussos has in store for you tonight. See you on the server, Wednesday at 9 p.m. EST.

Kramnik on his new second and his new manager

1/21/2009 – Curious? In part two of his interview Vladimir Kramnik graciously agrees to talk about his lost World Championship match against Anand – what went wrong – and reveals a new member on his team. He also speaks about the separation from his long-years manager Carsten Hensel, and whom he has appointed to replace him. Kudos if you can guess both persons before reading this interview.