NH: Ashes to ashes – Experience leads 13.5:11.5

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.

Serge 'n Kath: interviews with the youngest Super-GM couple

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.

Opening surveys in ChessBase Magazine 131

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

New and blindingly fast: ChessBase Light 2009

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.

Vladimir Kramnik wins Champions Rapid in Zurich

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.

Jermuk R13: Ivanchuk wins fifth FIDE Grand Prix

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.

Fritz11's 'Threat feature'

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.

The coach in Fritz11

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.

Jermuk R11: Eljanov, Inarkiev win, lead unchanged

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.

NH Tournament: Experience Grandmasters lead 6.0-4.0

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.

Russia vs. China: China leads 25.5-24.5

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.

Jermuk R12: Gelfand beats Kasimdzhanov, six players in contention

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.

Swedish Astronaut to play Chess from Space

8/21/2009 – Remember American astronaut Greg Chamitoff, who a year ago played chess against the NASA ground stations. Well, now European Space Agency astronaut Christer Fuglesang, Sweden, is going to do the same, playing a game against the Swedish public. Right now Fuglesang is in quarantine awaiting an August 24th launch. But the game has already started, and you can take part.

Balkan Grand Prix: Pleasure in Cetinje

8/21/2009 – Instituted this year, the Balkan Grand Prix serves as an effort to promote increased cooperation and interaction between the Balkan countries: Bulgaria, Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Romania. In the recently completed second stage of this Grand Prix, Bulgarian grandmaster, Dejan Bojkov, finished on top. His report and pictorial impressions follow.

Missed tactical opportunities...

8/21/2009 – ... in games on the very highest level truly are a rare occurrence. Yet sometimes... Okay, this is what happened: 36.Nxf6+ Rxf6 37.Rxf6 Qxf6 38.gxf4 gxf4 39.Qe2 and soon after the peace pipe was smoked. How would you judge this sequence?
A) the moves were correct, so the draw was the logical result.
B) Black missed a forced win on the way.
C) using a little trick, White could have obtained a clearly better endgame.
The solution is here, but first ponder over it with a larger version of the diagram

Interview with Monika Socko, winner of the Arctic Challenge

8/20/2009 – Grandmaster Monika Socko is from Poland, married to Polish GM Bartoz Socko, who is two hundred points higher than her on the FIDE scale. Still, Monika finished first in the Arctic Chess Challenge in Tromsø, with 7.0/9 and a rating performance of 2639, while her husband came 13th, a full point behind her. Son Szymon also played. Misha Savinov spoke to the winner.

Jermuk R10: four wins, seven exciting games

8/20/2009 – The three leaders drew their games – 82, 73 and 65-move battles – while Aronian, Inarkiev, Alexseev and Gelfand won theirs, providing more excitement and potentially ranking this tournament amongst the best for entertainment value in the recent past. Those who suffered withdrawal: yesterday was a free day that took many of the players to an outing in the wild Jermuk landscape. Big pictorial report.

The World’s Oldest Chess Club: Part IV (1975 to the present)

8/20/2009 – This weekend sees the climax of two weeks of celebration for the 200th jubilee of the world's oldest chess club: the Schachgesellschaft Zürich. Kasparov, Anand, Karpov, Korchnoi, Kramnik, Spassky, Ponomariov, Judit Polgar, Topalov and Hug will be participating in simuls and a rapid chess event. Richard Forster and Christian Rohrer retrace the historical development of the club.

Rooks need space...

8/20/2009 – ... in order to show off their maximal strength, so it's no wonder that they tend to be particulary strong in endgames. Here Black had just played 32...Rxd5. How would you assess the situation now?
A) The position is balanced, both sides have active rooks.
B) Black can realize the advance ...d6-d5 when his mobile pawn centre will give him the edge.
C) No need for endgame subtleties, White can employ a winning combination.
The solution is herebut first ponder it with a larger version of the diagram.

Baltic Queen International Tournament: Atalik in the lead

8/19/2009 – With seven of nine rounds completed in the Baltic Queen, IM Ekaterina Atalik of Turkey has taken the sole lead with 5.0/7, followed by GMs Arakhamia and Cramling. With the top contenders meeting in the final rounds a climatic finish is expected, Viktorija Cmilyte, 4.0/7, may certainly make a statement as well. Feel the atmosphere in St Petersburg in this big photo report by IM Irina Sudakova.

Abby Marshall wins 2009 Denker Tournament of High School Champions

8/19/2009 – At eighteen years of age, WFM Abby Marshall is making waves in the United States. In addition to being the only girl to hold two Susan Polgar National Invitational for Girls titles, achieved consecutively in 2005 and 2006, she has recently added a victory at the Denker Tournament of High School Champions to her mantle - the first female to do so. We follow her activities in Indianapolis.

Asian Youth Championships – a clean sweep by India

8/19/2009 – 240 players participated, from 14 different countries. For one week the 2009 edition of the Asian Youth Championships witnessed the vibrant and energetic activities of children on and off the board, in New Delhi. The Indian contingent faced little resistance and grabbed gold medals in seven categories, mustering 23 out of 36 medals in total. Illustrated report with Bhangra dance instructions.

Djaja study: how humans and computers solved it

8/19/2009 – Remember the study we showed you in one of our Chess Classic reports? The one which top grandmasters failed to solve, while the program Rybka succeeded in just over a minute? We promised to give you the astonishing solution, which we now do, together with a number of interesting – and sometimes delicate – anecdotes describing how the humans fared. 1-0 for the computers on this one.

Mate with three

8/19/2009 – The new ChessBase Magazine taster is a threefold package: read CBM for half a year at reduced price; choose your favourite bonus DVD – by Anand, Kramnik, Kortchnoi, or Hort; and with the December issue of CBM you will get a special offer for the new Mega Database 2010 at only a third of the regular price. Order your CBM taster now, or read more about the new CBM 131 here.