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.

Wijk R03: Ivanchuk, Morozevich lose in roller coaster event

1/20/2009 – First round the top seeds Vassily Ivanchuk and Alexander Morozevich both lost their games, then both won in round two. Today Morozevich was defeated by Gata Kamsky, who played a very convincing game. Vassily Ivanchuk lost in his trademark heart-wrenching style to Teimour Radjabov. After three rounds five players lead, with 2.0/3. We bring you a full report with commentary, pictures and videos.

John Nunn: Winning Quickly at Chess

1/20/2009 – Most chess books are full of analysis, lengthy postmortems of games that attempt to extract ultimate truth. Here is one that at first sight seems rather "skeletorial". The author includes only short grandmaster games – 25 moves or less – with short comments and just a few important variations. But as John Lee Shaw discovered, there is a clever instruction purpose behind this method. Book review.

Ganguly wins 7th Parsvnath Open in New Delhi

1/20/2009 – He was Anand's second at the World Championship in Bonn, and when Vishy himself arrived at the tournament an inspired Surya Shekhar Ganguly defeated the leading GM Petr Kostenko to lay the foundation for his ultimate victory. A case for the doping commission of FIDE? Hardly – inspiration is as far as we know not on the list. Ganguly beat Russian GM Mikhail Ulibin on tiebreak points. Report.

Wijk R04: Drawfest before the day of rest

1/20/2009 – It is often seen in GM tournaments: the play before a rest day tends to be quiet, caution is the order of the day. In the fourth round of Wijk aan Zee 2009 all seven games of the A-Group were drawn, five of them quietly. But the encounter Carlsen vs Aronian, with a miracle escape by the Armenian GM, fired everyone's imagination. We bring you extensive live annotations by GM Sergey Shipov.

FIDE Grand Prix in Karlovy Vary officially cancelled

1/19/2009 – The Grand Prix circuit, announced by FIDE in February 2008, has run into further trouble. After Doha pulled out and the event had to be hurriedly moved to Elista, Kalmykia, some of the participants – Magnus Carlsen, Michael Adams – followed suit. Then the fourth Grand Prix in Montreux, Switzerland was cancelled, and now the sixth in the Czech Republic is off the table. Press release.

Wijk R01: More pictorial impressions from day one

1/18/2009 – There are three "GM tournaments" in Wijk aan Zee, with a total of 37 grandmasters, two IMs, one WGM and two FMs. Two of the 42 players are female, two are just 14 years old. Naturally the top section attracts the greatest attention, but we don't want to ignore totally the other interesting participants. For starters we bring you players, biographies and a video report.

Wijk R02: Ivanchuk, Morozevich strike back

1/18/2009 – After their shock losses in round one the top seeds Vassily Ivanchuk and Alexander Morozevich struck back. The Ukrainian player defeated Wang Yue in just 25 moves, after the Chinese GM's opening preparation went catastrophically wrong, while Morozevich produced the first defeat of a Dutch player – Loek van Wely – in this year's event. Full report with pictures and annotated games.

Are you ready? Wijk aan Zee starts on Saturday

1/17/2009 – The players have arrived in the Dutch seaside town, the opening ceremony has been conducted, and the pairings of all three groups are now available. The games start on Saturday, January 17th at 13:30. You can watch them live on the official web site and the Playchess server. Jeroen van den Belt provides us with pictorial impressions from the opening day.