Antic wins Plovdiv, Georgiev set to break record

2/12/2009 – Serbian GM Dejan Antic won the jubilee 30th edition of the Bulgarian Open Championship in Plovdiv this year. The prize fund was not the greatest, but using some very imaginative trick the organisers persuaded 237 players –64 from foreign countries – to attend. During the evnt GM Kiril Georgiev trained for his Guinness Book attempt to break the World Simul record.

Topalov: 'This match is going to be very tough'

2/12/2009 – It starts next Monday, the special Candidates Match between Veselin Topalov and Gata Kamsky in Sofia. The Topalov team has already taken residence in the Bulgarian capital, Kamsky and his helpers arrive today. Topalov, a Bulgarian who lives in Spain, enjoys the home field advantage – theoretically. There are, as he stresses, also disadvantages. Interview with Dagobert Kohlmeyer.

2008: biggest winners and losers in chess

2/12/2009 – Who was the biggest winning chess player in 2008? Which chess master made the biggest losses? These are hard questions and we will give you a hint: the winner took home close to four million dollars, the loser saw 1.8 billion dollars disappear from his account. Another unhelpful hint: one of the two is called Weinstein. Completely mystified? Here's the answer.

This is how contemporary chess is played

2/11/2009 – 2008. Grand Slam in Bilbao. 17-year-old Magnus Carlsen, already one of the top grandmasters in the world, faces Levon Aronian in a theoretically significant Semi-Slav. Carlsen introduces a dynamic, even shocking pawn sacrifice for the initiative. In his Playchess lecture Dennis Monokroussos looks at this highly instructive game. Be there at 9 p.m. ET.

UEP: 'Creating unforgettable events'

2/11/2009 – As reported last Saturday FIDE announced the bids for the next World Championship cycle – actually one offer, from the Universal Event Promotion GmbH. Today UEP elucidated with details regarding dates, prize funds, taxes, format and venues ("in principle anywhere in the world"). The entire bid totals an amount of 3.5 to 4 million Euros inclusive all costs for the whole package. Press release.

Onischuk, Pogonina win Moscow Open

2/10/2009 – A total prize fund of seven million Rubles (almost $200,000) make it one of the best-paid open events in the world. Actually there are seven tournaments. The top "Open A" was won by Alexander Onischuk from the USA, while Natalija Pogonona won the women's "Open C” by a full point. From wintery Moscow we bring you games, results, videos – and a big picture gallery by Yana Melnikova.

Big prizes for Turkish chess talents

2/10/2009 – Does your chess federation put out massive money prizes for young talents to make GM or WGM norms? No? Well here's one that does: the Turkish Chess Federation has initiated a new project called “Golden Children”, to find mega talents, who can win up to 380,000 Turkish Lira (approximately €190,000 or US $235,000). If you are a young Turk you can now hit the jackpot.

First Chess Biathalon, in Jefferson County

2/9/2009 – What a great idea! In an area where there is lots of snow, and where most people are accomplished Nordic skiers, why not mobilise the chess enthusiasts amongst them to take part in a Chess Biathlon. You ski and stop, not to shoot at targets, but to solve chess puzzles. Is this the first time that such an event was staged? It is certainly worth emulating.

Huge success of the Arcapita Open in Bahrain

2/8/2009 – The Kingdom of Bahrain is an microstate in the Persian Gulf, nested between Saudi Arabia and Qatar. In 2002 Vladimir Kramnik played a match against Deep Fritz here, this year, for the second time, the Bahrain Chess Club staged an International Open with 14 grandmasters. One of them fell in love with the country and wants to stay there forever. Giant photo report by Mikhail Golubev.

Topalov under pressure+ UEP bids for World Championship

2/7/2009 – In just ten days the World Championship qualifier between Gata Kamsky and Veselin Topalov starts in Sofia, Bulgaria. The winner, according to a FIDE decision, will be the challenger of World Champion Vishy Anand later this year. Topalov's manager Silvio Danailov has spoken out in an interview with a Bulgarian newspaper, while FIDE announces the bids for the next cycle. News and views.

Raaphi Persitz, 1934–2009

2/6/2009 – We have received the sad news from Tel-Aviv: Raaphy Persitz, English-Israeli-Swiss chess player, passed away in his sleep at the age of 74. Apart from his chess skills he was mainly known as one of the brightest financial analysts in Israel, writing to the last day his highly instructive articles in the respectable daily Haaretz, which belonged to his family. Eulogy.

Peter Svidler wins the 7th Gibtelecom tournament in Gibraltar

2/6/2009 – After nine rounds five GMs were tied for first. Peter Svidler beat Pentala Harikrishna and Vadim Milov beat Boris Avrukh in round ten to force a rapid chess tiebreak, which Svidler won quite convincingly to take the £15,000 first prize. Best female player was Nana Dzagnidze of Georgia. We have a pictorial report plus video footage of Peter doing something you have never seen him do before.

Ghaem Maghami beats Karpov in 'Mate of the King'

2/5/2009 – The event was staged in Teheran to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the Islamic Revolution in Iran. Four classical, four rapid and four blitz games between the 12th World Champion Anatoly Karpov and the best ever Iranian player Ehsan Ghaem Maghami. A special rule: play to mate or dead draw, to entertain the public. The Iranian GM won the match narrowly. Illustrated report.

Edward Winter's Chess Explorations (16)

2/5/2009 – Graceful acknowledgement of defeat was not always the proudest trait of nineteenth-century chess, and the Editor of Chess Notes looks back at ‘the heyday of self-exculpation’. There were players who deployed an imaginative panoply of excuses which included headaches, indigestion, travel, heat, bad light and creaking doors. For writers of the time it all provided rich material for satire.

Hou Yifan, a Chinese chess prodigy

2/5/2009 – If a player were to be awarded a prize for an overall most successful year, then 2008 would most certainly belong to Hou Yifan. The 14-year-old Chinese girl with two trademark hair clips in her hair, has been gracing many of the major high class tournaments. Her impressive performances at most of them culminated in the GM title and a 2620 performance in Wijk aan Zee. Portrait and interview.

This Week on ChessBase: Hamppe-Meitner, Vienna 1872

2/4/2009 – In his Wednesday night Playchess lecture Dennis Monokroussos show us a true classic from the days of yore. Black sacrifices a piece on move three (!!), then goes on to give up a queen, knight and bishop, all for the sake of the attack. And this game has stood the test of time, weathering expert scrutiny and computer analysis. Nine p.m. ET – be there to watch and wonder.

Chess Grandmasters at the Davos conference

2/3/2009 – As the World Economic Forum held its annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland, two chess grandmasters weighed in on the crisis that has hit the economies of industrialised nations. One was Chess World Champion Vishy Anand, the other one of the leading economic thinkers in the world, Ken Rogoff – who in his day was listed in 40th place in the world chess rankings. Articles and videos.

Pocket Fritz 3 - Chess on the move

2/3/2009 – Pocket Fritz 3 is the ultimate mobile chess companion, ready to play anywhere and anytime. It comes with an extremely strong engine, powerful training features, and access to the Online Database with more than four million games. For users of this very popular program there is now a second superb upgrade, available free of charge. Buy Pocket Fritz 3 now or read more.

Rybka's Monte Carlo analysis

2/3/2009 – It's the ChessBase Workshop that readers have been clamoring for – an exploration of the new Monte Carlo Analysis feature of Rybka3. In this function the program plays a large number of very fast games against itself, and comes up with a unique evaluation of the position. It's not as complicated as you might think – find out all about it in the newest Workshop.

7th Gibtelecom Chess Festival – Gashimov leads

2/2/2009 – This popular tournament, which is taking placed from January 27 to February 5th, in the luxurious Caleta Hotel in Gibraltar, has Azeri GM Vugar Gashimov in the lead after seven rounds, with 6.0 points and a 2826 performance. Half a point behind are GMs Svidler, Harikrishna, Milov, Beliavsky and others. Amongs the visitors are two little girls whose parents are both full GMs.

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.