Tomashevsky wins EU Championship – by a hair's breadth

3/18/2009 – The tiebreaks at the European Championship in Budva, Montenegro, produced a final between GMs Evgeny Tomashevsky and Vladimir Malakhov, both from Russia. Tomashevsky won the first rapid game and lost the second, so that an Armageddon game was required. Malakhov had the black pieces and only needed to draw. In fact he had a winning position and then hung a rook! Take a look.

Istanbul: Humpy wins, Zhao loses for an exciting finish

3/18/2009 – French GM Marie Sebag actually did it: she outplayed the leading Zhao Xue to give the Istanbul Women's Grand Prix a rousing finish. Especially since Koneru Humpy scored a crushing win against Antoaneta Stefanova, and Hou Yifan survived a tough game against Elina Danielian. So it's Humpy, Hou and Zhao with 7.5/10 in the final round. All have the black pieces. Watch it on Playchess.

Correspondence players – a potent chess playing entity!

3/17/2009 – "With all the super-tournaments going on nowadays, it's easy to forget that there are other great players producing work of art." Our Playchess lecturer Dennis Monokroussos is referring to correspondence players and shows us an impressive example. Be there at 9 p.m. ET.

Amber R4: Kramnik goes into the lead

3/17/2009 – In Round 4 of the 18th Amber Blindfold and Rapid Tournament Vladimir Kramnik defeated the luckless Wang Yue 2-0 to take the sole lead in the overall scores. He achieved this mainly with a fine 3.5/4 performance in the blindfold section. In second place are last year's winner Levon Aronian and Alexander Morozevich, who won Amber in 2002, 2004 and 2006. Report after round four.

Congestion at the top of the European Championship in Budva

3/17/2009 – After ten rounds, with one to go, a total of nine players are in the lead, poised to win the event, half a point behind are fourteen more who have theoretical chances. So the final round on Tuesday is bound to bring a lot of action, which you can follow on the Playchess server. The official web site has many hundreds of (uncaptioned) pictures of players. Photo report of soccer, sun and sea.

European Women's Championship: three players on top

3/17/2009 – On her birthday Iweta Rajlich, wife of Rybka programmer Vasik Rajlich, made herself a special gift: she defeated Nino Khurtsidze and joined Hungarian GM Hoang Thanh Trang in the lead. Salome Melia also won her game and made it a threesome. Eleven players follow half a point behind. We bring you results and games, new videos by Europe Echecs and a pictorial report by Elena Mikheeva.

Istanbul: the tide turns, Zhao beats Hou

3/17/2009 – The meteoric path of 15-year-old Hou Yifan has been stopped – by her compatriot Zhao Xue, who defeated her after the younger girl blundered on her last move before the time control. Zhao now leads with 7.0/8 points and a 2790 performance. Behind the Chinese girls and always good for a big finish: India's GM Koneru Humpy, the second strongest female player in history. Big pictorial report.

Kasparov: Anand’s reign will end soon

3/17/2009 – It sounds ominous, when quoted by the broadsheets and repeated in chess blogs. "Vishy is a brilliant player," Kasparov said in New Delhi, "but it is very difficult to compete at 40. I will be surprised if he can go on any longer." Kasparov himself will soon be 46, Anand is pushing forty, and there are 13 and 14-year-olds out there baying at their heels. Article, transcripts and a video interview.

European Championship – prepare for a Wednesday spectacle

3/17/2009 – Eleven players finished the European Championship with 8.0/11 points, which produces a tiebreak spectacle tomorrow, starting at 10:00 a.m. local time. A final decision on what will transpire will be taken late tonight by the Technical Commission. It will probably be a knockout system with byes in the first round. If you are on the Playchess server at 10 a.m. you can watch the drama unfold.

Edward Winter's Chess Explorations (18)

3/16/2009 – Chess books can be notoriously carefree, and the gaffes of publishers and/or authors may be visible even before the tome is opened. Only the stout-hearted should look at the examples given by the Editor of Chess Notes, such as a publisher unable to spell its own name and specimens of faulty titles, wrong names and incorrect cover illustrations. It all makes for irresistibly grisly reading.

Amber R2: Morozevich joins Aronian in the overall lead

3/16/2009 – Chinese GM Wang Yue has in the past week travelled from Linares to Beijing to Nice – not such a good idea when you are facing 2700+ opposition in your events. Russian GM Alexander Morozevich beat him with white in the blind chess game and completely outplayed him in the rapid. Morozevich joins Levon Aronian who today made Peter Leko an unexpected present. Photos by John Nunn.

Istanbul: Chinese girls dominate, Hou with 2900+ performance

3/16/2009 – Owing to technical and communications problems we have not been able to do wall-to-wall coverage of the very attractive FIDE Women Masters in Turkey, where the Chinese GMs Hou Yifan and Zhao Xue are dominating in stunning fashion, with 2905 and 2746 performances respectively. But now we intend to take up reporting again for the last four rounds. Here for starters is a big pictorial report.

EU Women's Championship: Hoang Thanh Trang leads

3/15/2009 – After seven rounds of the European Individual Women's Championship, an 11-round Swiss with 168 players which is taking place from March 7–21 in Saint Petersburg, Russia, the sole leader is GM Hoang Thanh Trang with 6.0/7 points. Twelve players follow half a point behind. We bring you results and games, new videos by Europe Echecs and beautiful player portraits by WGM Irina Sudakova.

Amber 2009: Aronian with a flying start

3/15/2009 – Last year Levon Aronian won the blindfold and rapid spectacle in Nice by 2½ points. This year he has started with a 2-0 score – against his first opponent, Vassily Ivanchuk. The Amber tournament is being staged in the Palais de la Mediterranée in Nice and carries a prize fund of € 216,000. As a special service we bring you, this year and with pleasure, special photo coverage by John Nunn.

GM to be banned for not playing in National Championship?

3/15/2009 – G.N. Gopal, 19, is one of India's bright young stars, with high ambitions for the next Asian and the World Junior Championship. Unfortunately he may not be able to participate. The Indian Chess Federation is considering a one-year ban, since Gopal failed to play in the national championship (he had a prior contractual obligation to play in an event in Mexico). Media news and Gopal's views.

Anand in interview – on intuition, creativity and blitz chess

3/14/2009 – In the past month we brought you two sections of an unprecedented in-depth interview conducted by Indian colleagues with World Champion Viswanathan Anand. Today we continue the series with Anand's take on game formats, computer moves (ugly or creative?), Karpov, Kasparov, and secretly watching people on the chess servers. Part three of four.

Tenth European Individual Chess Championship in Budva

3/13/2009 – The Mediterranean coastal town in Montenegro is just a stone's throw away from the venue of the Fischer-Spassky revenge match of 1992. The eleven-round Swiss event with 306 players has a prize fund of 120,000 Euros, with 22 places in the next World Cup at stake. After seven rounds Ukrainian GM Andrei Volokitin is in the sole lead. A 12-year-old is doing fine too. Big illustrated report.

Aeroflot-gate: reactions from our readers

3/13/2009 – When he was crushed at the Aeroflot Open by a weaker player in just 21 moves top seed Shakhriyar Mamedyarov withdrew in protest, claiming his opponent had been using computer assistance. The accused, Igor Kurnosov, replied with an open letter, and ten days later Mamedyarov restated (and emphasized) his claims. All this has produced vigorous feedback from our readers. Excerpts.

Langrock’s Repertoire against the French Tarrasch

3/12/2009 – For the moment Sergei Tiviakov is on a roll – he is gaining Elo points all over the place (Moscow op, Pfalz op, Bundesliga) and in the Live Top List he is already over 2700 as well as being in 26th place. His last game before the European championships, against Feygin (for Eppingen in the Bundesliga), caught our interest particularly because what was up for discussion was a Tarrasch French with 3.Nd2 Be7 – exactly the variation which Hannes Langrock has been putting under the microscope from Black’s point of view in, so far, three articles (CBM 126, 127 and 128). Tiviakov chose the line with 4.c3, the final one to be investigated by Langrock in CBM 129, which is in preparation even as we speak. Could the reigning European champion demonstrate some advantage for White? A sneak preview of CBM 129.

Yuri Vovk wins 25th Cappelle-la-Grande

3/12/2009 – The nine-round open went from Saturday, February 28th to Saturday, March 07. Once again the organisers experimented with a new time contol, the “Decreasingly Accelerated System”. A total of 611 players took part, amongst them 102 GMs and 78 IMs, from 60 different countries – a good opportunity to shoot interesting portraits. Giant pictorial report by Dominique Primel.

Tenth European Women's Championship in Saint Petersburg

3/12/2009 – This event, an 11-round Swiss, has 168 players and a prize fund of 87,500 Euros. There are also 14 places in the next World Championship knockout tournament up for grabs. After five rounds four players are in the lead with 4.5 points, followed by eleven with 4.0 points. One participant is just ten. The husband of one of the favourites (can you guess who?) is providing us with photos and videos.

Alexander Moiseenko – the secret of success

3/11/2009 – He is 28, a lawyer by training but a strong chess grandmaster by profession. Recently Alexander Moiseenko won the very strong Aeroflot Open, together with Etienne Bacrot. This is just the culmination of a row of successful tournaments. Moiseenko spoke at length with our correspondent WGM Anastasiya Karlovich about training, tournament strategy and chess in Ukraine. Interview.

Aeroflot-gate: Mamedyarov sticks to his guns

3/11/2009 – Two weeks ago we reported from the Aeroflot Open, where top seed Shakhriyar Mamedyarov withdrew after a game where he felt his opponent, GM Igor Kurnosov, had been receiving computer assistance. A week later Kurnosov responded, and now Mamedyarov, who is not prepared to let the matter drop, has published a strongly-worded letter on an Azeri sports website. Translation.

The battle of the sexes – Kasparov vs Polgar

3/11/2009 – Four years ago Garry Kasparov retired from competition chess. The greatest female player of all time has also not been very active in the last few years. In his Playchess lecture Dennis Monokroussos looks back at one of the many memorable encounters between the two. Be there at 9 p.m. ET.