7/4/2009 – US President Barack Obama is meeting with several prominent members of the Russian opposition, including United Civil Front leader (and former chess world champion) Garry Kasparov. The meeting is set to take place on July 7th at the Ritz Carlton hotel. "The previous American administration didn’t dare to do this,” said Kasparov in a radio interview. Report in 'The Other Russia'.

7/4/2009 – The city of Dortmund has been struck by a heatwave. Problem is you do not have much air-conditioning – in Germany you need it for just a couple of weeks per year. All of the players in the Sparkassen GM tournament seemed fazed by the temperature and all three games ended in more or less rapid draws. Meanwhile Sofi Leko, wife of Peter, discussed literature with a German professor. Pictorial report.

7/2/2009 – The bishop sac on h7 (h2) to rip open the enemy's king position is a classical motif in chess. Sometimes it is good, sometimes it isn't - but one always has to be aware of it. And what is the case after 13.Nxc4 here?
A) Black wins easily, after all he's not got only one bishop, has he?
B) The sac is correct, however, victory requires yet a 'silent hammer blow'.
C) As good as it might look, the strike backfires; with cool defence White gets the advantage. The solution is for replay here or as video sample from Kings Powerplay 1 DVD. Hint: first ponder over it with a larger version of the diagram.

7/2/2009 – The Sparkassen Chess-Meeting, the most important traditional chess tournament in Germany, started with a fine victory by top seed Magnus Carlsen. The 18-year-old Norwegian GM out-maneuvered his opponent, Russia's top GM Dmitry Jakovenko, in a knight vs bishop ending and took the full point after 49 moves. The other games were drawn. Report with commentary.

7/2/2009 – Hungary certainly does not lack in chess tournaments. The year starts with the traditional early January tournament organised by the Hungarian Chess Federation, soon afterwards, in March, the spring season starts with the Spring Chess Festival. This year was the 25th edition. The events in Budapest are fraught with cultural activities. Illustrated report by Diana Mihajlova.

7/1/2009 – Few things in chess are more satisfying than winning a model game. The opening prep goes smoothly, one gains an advantage of some sort of another, and a series of fine moves leads to the inexorable conclusion: we win! And then there's the other 90% of the time. Lecture this Wednesday at 9 p.m. ET on Playchess.

6/25/2009 – Being blind or visually impaired does not mean you cannot enjoy chess. Naturally the games cannot be conducted as in normal events – the blind need a separate pegged board which they can touch during the games. And the moves are naturally exchanged verbally. The Junior Chess Championship for the Blind and Visually Impaired in Täby/Stockholm was won by Daniel Pulvett of Venezuela.

6/24/2009 – In August there will be a spectacular event celebrating the 200th jubilee of the oldest chess club in the world: the Schachgesellschaft Zürich, which was founded in 1809. Attendees include Kasparov, Anand, Karpov, Korchnoi, Kramnik, Spassky, Ponomariov and Topalov. To prepare you for the jubilee Richard Forster and Christian Rohrer retrace the historical development of the club.

6/23/2009 – The top encounter Gelfand-Ivanchuk did not develop into the merciless battle many expected – it ended in a draw by repetition in twenty moves. Shirov vs Radjabov ended in 38 moves peacefully. In Kamsky-Nisipeanu the American GM missed very good winning chances – he went for a beautiful knight sacrifice but missed the study-like win. Commentary by GM Dorian Rogozenco.

6/23/2009 – Exchange variations of nearly all openings are quite unpopular with the second players, since White often gets to play for the advantage without any risk. Naturally, in these lines there is a very high demand to obtain an active game with Black. GM Dejan Bojkov shows how this is possible against the King's Indian with 6.h3 and 7.dxe5, which he proved in practice at the Bulgarian Championship when he used this variation to rake in the full point and clinch the title. Here you can see the article (one of a total of 12 opening contributions) in full length. Complete survey of ChessBase Magazine 130. See Bojkov: Kings Indian 9.Bg5 Na6 10.Nd5 Rd6

6/22/2009 – Vassily Ivanchuk chalked up the third win in succession at the Romgaz Turneul Regilor in Romania, beating Alexei Shirov in a beautifully entertaining game. The Ukrainian, who came last in the Sofia Super-GM in May, with a performance of 2610, is now playing at 2946! Teimour Radjabov scored his first victory in this event against Gata Kamsky, who is having a really bad tournament. Round seven report.

6/22/2009 – Bulgarian chess trainer Valeri Lilov gives live online training on the Playchess server. On Mondays at 20:00h CEST (7 p.m. London, 2 p.m. New York) he will comment practical chess problems and key parts of games from recent super-tournaments. This time, the games will be from the recently finished Super GM tournament in Poikovsky and there will be live audio commentary. For this week's Playchess lecture you can try to solve the following position. The solution will be revealed in the Monday evening show. Come Monday night and improve your chess while having a lot of fun! Take a look, it’s free!