Back from Bonn – the hero returns

11/23/2008 – After his remarkable success at the World Championship in Bonn, where he defended his title in a match against Vladimir Kramnik, Vishy Anand has returned to India and his native Chennai to a hero's welcome. The festivities have just begun, but we have first videos from the arrival, where thousands were gathered in spite of the very late hour. Anand and his wife Aruna give interviews – in Tamil. Fascinating.

Lessons for life

11/22/2008 – Sometimes most of your pieces are in good position but you need that last piece to get into place before everything just clicks together for the final attack.  But what piece is it and where to put it? In his latest Powerplay DVD Daniel King shows you how to 'Improve Your Pieces'. Sean Marsh watched the new course and found a good deal of eternal wisdom. Buy it now or read more.

Olympiad R8: Armenia beats France, Israel in sole second

11/21/2008 – The French team, who were looking so good yesterday, suffered a painful ½:3½ beating at the hands of the leading Armenians, who are now a match point ahead of Israel, and two ahead of Russia and Ukraine. The biggest performance, 2936, has been given by Veselin Topalov, who is likely to climb to over 2800 in the next FIDE list. In the women's section China still leads. Full illustrated report.

Olympiad R7: Armenia lead ahead of Germany, Israel and France

11/21/2008 – The win came on board three: Gabriel Sargissian defeated Alexander Grischuk, and with it the Russian hopes of catching the leading Armenians. Now Kramnik and Co. are in the third tier, together with Ukraine, China, Vietnam and the US and behind Germany, Israel and France. In the women's section Ukraine has come to within a point of the leading Chinese. Big pictorial report.

Deep Fritz 11 is fast – and now available from ChessBase

11/21/2008 – Fritz 11 is a complete rewrite of the famous Fritz program. It is crammed with tactical strength and chess knowledge. But until recently it ran on just one processor. Now ChessBase has released a "deep" version that supports up to 16 CPUs or cores. On a quad system, fast becoming the industry standard, it runs almost four time faster than on a single core. A perfect partner for chess analysis.

Olympiad R6: Armenia and Russia lead with 11/12 points

11/20/2008 – After a 2:2 against Ukraine, and wins by Russia and Armenia over England and Azerbaijan respectively, the leading Germany join six other teams in the second slot. In the women's section China beat Hungary to take a two-point lead, with Russia, Netherlands, Ukraine, USA and Poland in second place. TV ChessBase is producing interviews after the games. Pictorial report.

Aronian: 'I have a lot of blood in my brain'

11/20/2008 – The world's number seven ranked player has some unusual (or maybe not) views on the game at which he so excels. "Women cannot play chess," he says flat out, "they are generally much too emotional." And "chess programs are our enemies, they destroy the romance of chess." We have translated his interview from last weekend in the Berliner Zeitung. Interesting fellow.

Kamsky-Topalov to be held in Bulgaria, Feb 16–28, 2009

11/19/2008 – FIDE has announced that an agreement has been reached for the Challenger Match between Topalov and Kamsky. It will take place in Sofia, Bulgaria, from 16th to 28th February, 2009 with a prize fund of US $250,000, which will be shared equally by the players. Press release and blitz interview.

Chessboxing Triumph in London

11/19/2008 – This hybrid sport, with four-minute sessions of chess interspersed with three minutes of boxing, is the brainchild of Dutch event artist Iepe Rubingh. The match ends in checkmate or knockout. Chessboxing is fast becoming a world-wide phenomenon, overtaking chess in the number of spectators it can attract. The latest match took place in London. Pictorial report.

Olympiad R5: Six teams with 9/10 points

11/18/2008 – Germany and Russia drew their match, Armenia, Ukraine, Azerbaijan and England won theirs, so now there are six teams with an equal number of match points at the top of the table. The day's sensation: Adams lost with white against 16-year-old Fabiano Caruana. In the women's section China thrashed their main rival Poland to take the sole lead. Results, games, giant pictorial.

Tromsø – a Chess Olympiad in the midnight sun?

11/18/2008 – It lies well within the Arctic Circle and has a history of chess activity. Now the city of Tromsø is bidding to host the 2014 Chess Olympiad in one of the most attractive regions of Europe. A full presentation is being made at the Olympiad in Dresden. We visited the city this summer and support their bid with some WYSIWYG evidence of why it is ideally suited for an Olympiad. Photo report.

Olympiad R4: Germany ahead of Russia

11/17/2008 – Talk about home advantage: the German Olympiad team is in the lead, a few tiebreak points ahead of Russia, both teams having won all their matches so far. Israel beat Egypt in a somewhat charged political match. In the women's section China and Poland have won all their matches and lead with 8/8. We bring you results, games and once again a giant pictorial report.

Edward Winter's Chess Explorations (12)

11/17/2008 – The Editor of Chess Notes has been working with the Chief Editor of the Oxford English Dictionary on chess lexicology. Three fields are covered: the oldest occurrences of chess terms, unusual vocabulary, and ‘chessy’ words. Enter the world of the skewer, x-ray attack, sui-mate, pedaneous chess, and chessikins. We present the current listings, and readers are invited to contribute further citations.

Olympiad R3: Norway beats China, Ugandans forfeited

11/16/2008 – The shocker of round three was nineteenth seed Norway's 2.5:1.5 win over third seed China. Armenia and Germany won to take first and second place on the table. The Ugandan team appeared for the round with only one player, owing to visa problems, and have sent an urgent appeal for assistance. In the women's section top seed, Russia almost lost to eleventh seed India. Big pictorial report.

Olympiad R2: Azerbaijan and Armenia lead, US twice upset

11/15/2008 – After two rounds at the Olympiad in Dresden 20 teams have four points each, with Azerbaijan and Armenia leading on tiebreak points. The upset was the 2:2 draw between 10th seed US against 27th ranked Greece. In the women's section Israel, ranked 21st, beat the seventh seed Americans. Fourteen teams lead with four points each, with Russia ahead on tiebreaks. Massive photo report.

Olympiad R1: Azerbaijan and Armenia score 4-0

11/14/2008 – The first round of the Chess Olympiad in Dresden, Germany, began with white-wash victories by Azerbaijan and Armenia. Host Germany defeated Scotland 3.5:0.5, and the second team actually beat Bulgaria 2.5:1.5. In the women's section Russia crushed Azerbaijan 4-0, while Germany was held by Iran. We bring you the results of the top boards and photographic impressions of the participants.

Kamsky-Topalov: Bulgarian offer, Chernenko's $935,000 guarantee

11/14/2008 – The Bulgarian Chess Federation confirmed that it wishes to host the match, but is "extremely surprised why the financial arrangements have been changed" [from $150,00 to $250,000]. Now Gata Kamsky's manager Oleksandr Chernenko tells us that his US $935,000 bid will be transferred to FIDE the moment he sees the contracts and knows what he is paying for. Open letters.

Chess Olympiad in Dresden – the Opening Ceremony

11/13/2008 – German Interior Minister Wolfgang Schäuble was present, FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov could not attend, owing to a car accident he suffered in Moscow on the previous day. The 38th Chess Olympiad began with a spectacular opening ceremony, which took place in a giant ice skating hall (and on ice!). Delegations from 152 nations saw a very impressive show. Pictures and videos.

Ponomariov: 'Probably I became world champion too early'

11/12/2008 – Ruslan Ponomariov was born on October 11 1983 in Ukraine. At the age of fourteen he became the youngest ever player at that time to be awarded the GM title. In 2002, at 18, he beat his fellow countryman Vassily Ivanchuk to win the FIDE world championship. A planned match against Garry Kasparov fell through the following year. Here's a candid interview with Ponomariov at 25.

Remembering Lembit Oll

11/11/2008 – Our Playchess lecturer Dennis Monokroussos takes a look back at a career highlight of the late great Estonian grandmaster Lembit Oll, whose life tragically ended in 1999 at the age of 33. The 1982 Estonian Champion was a great player and a great theoretician. This Wednesday Dennis will show us how Oll helped put a French Defense line out of business. Be there at 9 p.m. ET.

Vladimir Kramnik: My Path to the Top

11/11/2008 – He may have recently lost a match to Vishy Anand, but Vladimir Kramnik has won three World Championships in his time, and has been a force in major tournaments for over a decade now. Given these successes, there was plenty of material for ChessBase's DVD product Vladimir Kramnik: My Path to the Top. It includes over six hours of video, all narrated by Kramnik himself. Review.

The 38th Chess Olympiad in Dresden begins on Wednesday

11/11/2008 – It starts in the evening at 20:08h local time (reflects the year 2008 – get it?) with a big opening gala which has show stars and musical performances. Over 500 persons are involved in the show. If you cannot be in Dresden you can still catch the opening ceremony and the rest of the event on the Chess Olympiad TV. And on Playchess, which will broadcast 32 games plus video interviews. Details.

World Blitz Championship in Apple City

11/10/2008 – Did you know that domestic apples come from a wild species called Malus sieversii. And that you can still find trees bearing these ur-apples in Alma Ata ("Apple city") or Almaty, as it is called today. Last weekend the World Blitz Championship was held there, and won by Cuban GM Lenier Dominguez. Here from Kasakhstan is a big pictorial report by Alexander von Gleich.

The Great ChessBase Simul Hunt (4)

11/9/2008 – Our Simul Hunt series continues with Karsten Müller’s annotations to games submitted by readers in Brazil, Italy, Switzerland and the United States. The masters featured include Henrique Mecking (facing the Marshall Attack) and Vladimir Kramnik, and there is also a 23-move brilliancy in which two masters played in tandem. Discover these entertaining and instructive games.