ChessBase photo reporter Tiviakov wins Politiken Cup

7/28/2008 – He spends an inordinate amount of time taking pictures, selecting and sorting them, giving them proper file names, so that the editors can make proper reports. Somewhere in the middle of it all Dutch GM Sergey Tiviakov finds time to actually participate, play his games – and even to win. He took the Politiken Cup 2008 in Helsingør, Denmark on tiebreak points. Illustrated (of course) report.

Biel R7: Dominguez, Alekseev, Bacrot win, Dominguez leads

7/28/2008 – We had almost forgotten that it was possible: Magnus Carlsen can lose a game. The Norwegian pressed for a win against Evgeny Alekseev for over 70 moves and then lost a pawn race. Leinier Dominguez defeated the luckless Yannick Pelletier to take over the lead from Carlsen, and Etienne Bacrot continued his comeback with a black win over Alexander Onischuk. Round seven report.

Biel R6: Carlsen, Dominguez and Bacrot win

7/27/2008 – All three games reached decisions in round six of the Biel GM tournament. Magnus Carlsen defeated Yannick Pelletier with the black pieces, while co-leader Evgeny Alekseev imploded against Etienne Bacrot. Alexander Onischuk got into trouble against Leinier Dominguez, then turned the game into a theoretical draw, only to lose it when his Cuban opponent played on. Exciting games.

It has started – the North Urals Cup 2008

7/27/2008 – A low drawing ratio, fighting chess, grandmasters, girls with curls – this is what makes women's chess so attractive. The North Urals Cup 2008 begins today, with GM Koneru Humpy, GM Antoaneta Stefanova, GM Pia Cramling, IM Marie Sebag, IM Anna Muzychuk, GM Xu Yuhua (world champions), IM Anna Ushenina and WGM Natalija Pogonina. Pictorial, interview with Xu Yuhua.

Asian Youth Championship – a story told in pictures

7/26/2008 – "When you see the beautiful eyes of an eight-year-old girl filled with tears, you think to yourself, is chess really worth it? But when she has forgotten her stupid blunder and starts to play against her next opponent, you realize that she may have lost her game, but she has won something that without chess she could never have experienced." Pictorial impressions from by FM Arash Akbarinia.

'Topalov has not signed' – Challenger Match in doubt?

7/25/2008 – Just when we thought everything was settled for a World Championship Challengers' Match between Gata Kamsky and Veselin Topalov in Lvov, Ukraine – November 26 to December 14 – Topalov's manager Silvio Danialov says his his client has not yet signed anything. Turns out neither has Kamsky, since according to FIDE "the contract has not been finalized with the organisers". Details.

Biel R5: Bacrot beats Pelletier, Carlsen and Aleksev lead

7/25/2008 – It was like in the 19th stage of the Tour de France: nothing changed at in the top part of the table, as the games Carlsen-Dominguez and Alekseev-Onischuk were drawn. But at the bottom end Etienne Bacrot scored his first victory in this tournament, against Swiss GM Yannick Pelletier, who suffered his fourth defeat. Round five halftime report.

Asian Youth Championship in Teheran

7/24/2008 – Chess is a primordial sport, but children can also play it fairly well. Last week, ancient Persian hosted the 2008 Asian Youth Chess Championship. A large number of extremely talented girls and boys, from the largest and most populated continent, competed in twelve different sections, widely varied, from lively playful eight-year-olds to romantic fall-in-love eighteen-year-olds. Illustrated report.

Boris Savchenko leads Politiken Cup with 6/6

7/24/2008 – It doesn't really make sense to calculate the performance of a perfect score, but we will mention that after winning all of his first six games in the Danish Politiken Cup one comes up with 3151 for St Petersburg GM Boris Savchenko. This 22-year-old talent is not just viciously strong, he also has a keen sense of humour, as you can see in this pictorial report by Sergey Tiviakov.

Biel R4: Evgeny Alekseev and Leinier Dominguez win

7/24/2008 – Before this round Magnus Carlsen was just two points behind Vishy Anand in the inofficial "live ratings". A win would have put him over the top. But that was not to be: Carlsen drew against Alexander Onischuk with black. Meanwhile Bacrot and Pelletier continued their losing streak, falling to Dominguez and Alekseev respectively. The latter joins Carlsen in the lead. Round four report.

Anand: A champion should play all formats

7/23/2008 – Is he still smarting over Vladimir Kramnik's recent attack? "I prefer not to give too much attention to interviews," said World Champion Viswanathan Anand. And what about the other claims and remarks? "I think analysing his games keeps me fairly occupied these days, I don’t want to start analysing his words." Anand spoke to Vijay Tagore in this DNA Sunday Interview.

Chess Classic Mainz 2008 starts next week

7/23/2008 – The annual Chess Classic in Mainz, Germany, will be held from July 28th to August 3rd, 2008. The big event is the Grenke-Leasing Rapid Chess World Championship with Anand, Morozevich, Carlsen and Judit Polgar. There are a number of Chess 960 events, one a Woman World Championship, and one a category 29 (!) Chess960 Computer World Championship. Full details.

Just in case: Anand vs Kamsky in 2009

7/22/2008 – This year Anand defends his title against Vladimir Kramnik, while Gata Kamsky plays a special Challenger's Match against Veselin Topalov. So it is conceivable that we will see an Anand-Kamsky world championship match in 2009. In his Wednesday night Playchess lecture Dennis Monokroussos looks with feverish anticipation at this possibility. Tune in and enjoy.

ChessBase.com back online

7/22/2008 – No, we did not suddenly lose interest in bringing you the latest news from the chess world. It was a major computer glitch in our news server, which went down on Friday night. We were able to revive it and display the site, but could not add or modify anything without risking new problems. Now we have things up and running and hope to provide you with uninterrupted coverage.

IM Roeland Pruijssers wins Leiden Chess Tournament

7/22/2008 – With 84 participants, seven GMs and four IMs, the Second Leiden Chess Tournament, staged in the Denksportcentrum of the Dutch city, was taken by Roeland Pruijssers on tiebreak points ahead of GM Erik van den Doel. Four GMs were in the follow-up group, and half a point behind we find a Russian FM with an Indian name: Anish Giri, aged thirteen. Striking pictorial by Frits Agterdenbos.

Biel R3: Carlsen, Onischuk win, Carlsen leads

7/22/2008 – After three rounds of play the top seed in the Grandmaster Tournament in Biel, 17-year-old Magnus Carlsen, already has two victories under his belt. In an aggressive game against top French GM Etienne Bacrot, after a little hiccup the Norwegian took the point in 31 moves. Alexander Onischuk needed 57 to grind down Yannick Pelletier and join Evgeny Alekseev in second place. Round three report.

41st Biel Chess Festival under way

7/21/2008 – Two rounds have been played in the idyllic Swiss town of Biel (or Bienne), in this category 18 event, with the players Magnus Carlsen, Evgeny Alekseev, Leinier Dominguez, Etienne Bacrot, Alexander Onischuk and Yannick Pelletier competing. After two rounds Carlsen and Alekseev are in the lead, having beaten Pelletier and Bacrot respectively. First report.

Rybka 3.0 – Not just the strongest chess program in the world

7/18/2008 – Developed by IM Vasik Rajlich, Rybka is the shooting star amongst chess programs. It won the 2007 world championship and leads easily in all computer rating lists. Now it is available in the dramatically improved version 3.0 and under the ChessBase-Fritz interface. It includes exciting new analysis functions you will not find in other programs. You can order it now.

Times of India on 'Kramnik's psychological warfare'

7/17/2008 – Recently Vladimir Kramnik spoke about the world championship title which Anand won last year. His interview, says one of India's most prestigious newspapers, is full of salvos against the title holder. "Kramnik’s stance smacks of double standards and selective amnesia," editorialises the newspaper, which goes on to deliver its own salvos against the challenger. Let the hostilities begin.

Four players tie for first at Karpov Poikovsky tournament

7/17/2008 – The event, named to honour its patron Anatoly Karpov, saw firebrand Alexei Shirov take the sole lead after seven rounds, only to lose fairly traumatically to Vugar Gashimov, a soon-to-be 22-year-old grandmaster from Azerbaijan. All other games were drawn, as were all five games of the final round. In the end Rublevsky, Jakovenko, Gashimov and Shirov shared first. Results, games and statistics.

Benko (of 3...b5!? fame) turns eighty

7/16/2008 – Pal Benko, grandmaster, author, and composer of superbly imaginative endgame studies and problems, was born in France but was raised in Hungary (where he is known as Benkö Pál). He is most famous for the eponymous Benko Gambit, 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 c5 3.d5 b5, which is the subject of tonight's Playchess lecture by Dennis Monokroussos. Tune in for the grand Benko Birthday Show.

Edward Winter's Chess Explorations (5)

7/16/2008 – We launch a major innovation: the ChessBase Simul Hunt. The aim is to save from oblivion as many games as possible played by readers in simultaneous displays. The Editor of Chess Notes invites all readers to submit their wins, draws and losses for inclusion in a special database. The best games will be annotated at ChessBase by a guest master. We look forward to your contribution.

Chess 960

7/16/2008 – Have you tried Chess 960 yet? It's a chess variant (devised by Bobby Fischer) which is steadily growing in popularity. In fact, you can even play Chess 960 in Fritz 11 and analyse it with ChessBase 10. In his latest column, our ChessBase Workshop correspondent shows you how. Workshop...

Rublevsky, Jakovenko, Shirov lead in Karpov tournament

7/15/2008 – The name of the town, located just east of the famous – in chess circles – is Poikovsky, but you will need to search for "Poykovskiy" to find the one we want in Google. The tournament is a ten player category 18 with an average rating of 2691. After six of nine rounds there are three players with 4.0 points. Draw average so far: 63%. We bring you results and games.