FIDE Grand Prix in Karlovy Vary officially cancelled

1/19/2009 – The Grand Prix circuit, announced by FIDE in February 2008, has run into further trouble. After Doha pulled out and the event had to be hurriedly moved to Elista, Kalmykia, some of the participants – Magnus Carlsen, Michael Adams – followed suit. Then the fourth Grand Prix in Montreux, Switzerland was cancelled, and now the sixth in the Czech Republic is off the table. Press release.

Wijk R01: More pictorial impressions from day one

1/18/2009 – There are three "GM tournaments" in Wijk aan Zee, with a total of 37 grandmasters, two IMs, one WGM and two FMs. Two of the 42 players are female, two are just 14 years old. Naturally the top section attracts the greatest attention, but we don't want to ignore totally the other interesting participants. For starters we bring you players, biographies and a video report.

Wijk R02: Ivanchuk, Morozevich strike back

1/18/2009 – After their shock losses in round one the top seeds Vassily Ivanchuk and Alexander Morozevich struck back. The Ukrainian player defeated Wang Yue in just 25 moves, after the Chinese GM's opening preparation went catastrophically wrong, while Morozevich produced the first defeat of a Dutch player – Loek van Wely – in this year's event. Full report with pictures and annotated games.

Are you ready? Wijk aan Zee starts on Saturday

1/17/2009 – The players have arrived in the Dutch seaside town, the opening ceremony has been conducted, and the pairings of all three groups are now available. The games start on Saturday, January 17th at 13:30. You can watch them live on the official web site and the Playchess server. Jeroen van den Belt provides us with pictorial impressions from the opening day.

Rybka, Fritz lead on the computer rating lists

1/17/2009 – Running on an Intel Core 2 Quad 64-bit the program Rybka reaches an Elo rating of astronomic 3227 points (in tournament games against other computers). Second on the list is Deep Fritz 11 on the same hardware, 142 points below Rybka. The rating list is compiled by a Swedish group on the basis of thousands of games. Good news: both programs are available in our shop.

First anniversary of Bobby Fischer's death

1/17/2009 – Exactly one year ago a great chess legend died, at the age of 64. Bobby Fischer was buried without ceremony in a private cemetery in southern Iceland, which now has a simple headstone – a reader sent us a picture. In a commemorative article we remember Bobby with an inspiring story from his childhood – "The Sicilian Vespers" and with links to his Sixty Memorable ChessBase Reports.

Wijk R01: Top seeds Ivanchuk, Morozevich falter

1/17/2009 – Vassily Ivanchuk will be howling at the moon tonight. In an essentially drawn position, one move before the time control, the top seed in the A-Group overstepped and handed the point over to a pleasantly surprised Jan Smeets. Third seed Alexander Morozevich was taken to the cleaners by the former boy prodigy Sergey Karjakin. We bring you pictures, games and comments.

Where do you put the knight?

1/16/2009 – Most of us have a general but rather coarse idea of what a bad or good knight or bishop is. There is still so much to learn from classical games like those of Bobby Fischer, especially when you get them presented by a top-class trainer like GM Daniel King on his latest Fritz-Trainer DVD on 'Knights and Bishops'. Buy 'Power Play 8' now or read this review with sampler.

Computer chess pioneer Mikhail Donskoy passes on

1/16/2009 – He was the first world computer chess champion, winning the title in 1971 in Stockholm, with his program Kaissa, running on a ICL System 4/70. Already in the seventies Mikhail Vladimirovich Donskoy and his Kaissa team implemented chess algorithms that are cutting edge today. He died on Tuesday at the age of 60. Misha will be remembered for his intelligence, kindness and humour. In memoriam.

Warming up for Wijk – or regaining one's drive

1/16/2009 – There are plenty of super-GM tournaments these days – so many, in fact, that even the most enthusiastic chess fans may start to lose their natural enthusiasm. But there are a few that never fail to interest, and one of them starts on Saturday, in the windswept Dutch seaside town of Wijk aan Zee. We will provide full and spectacular coverage on Playchess. Steve Giddins gets us in the mood.

First Asian Club Cup – chess in the Garden City

1/15/2009 – The city of Al Ain, with its 600,000 population, is the fourth largest in the United Arab Emirates. It is known as the "Garden City", because of its many parks, tree-lined avenues and decorative roundabouts. Al Ain was host to the First Asian Club Cup, which was duly won by the Al Ain Chess Club A. We bring you a final report By IM Ravi Kumar, with pictorial impressions and annotated games.

Handedness, practice and talent in chess

1/15/2009 – How are handedness and chess skills related? Is there a critical period for learning chess? How long does it take to reach 2200 Elo points? Prof. Gobet and Dr. Campitelli have found that there are fewer right-handers in the chess population, that one should start devoting time to chess no later than the age of 12, and that it takes on average about 11,000 hours of practice to reach 2200. Interesting read.

Edward Winter's Chess Explorations (15)

1/14/2009 – We travel back in time to the golden age of Hollywood and, in the words of the Editor of Chess Notes, to ‘the only screen goddess lucky enough to marry a FIDE President’. But there is also a walk-on part for Errol Flynn, as well as some chess politics, a photograph gallery and, even, a game won by Akiba Rubinstein. Glamour, nostalgia and some surprises.

Kasparov gets personal – in a remarkable BBC interview

1/14/2009 – This is the former world champion as you have seldom heard him before. Interviewed for BBC Radio 4 by Fergal Keane, Garry Kasparov speaks about his youth, his parents, his heritage, ethnicity in the Soviet Union and Russia, his political struggle and whether he thinks he will survive it. This interview will go offline in six days. Catch it while you can.

Efim Geller – winning past your prime

1/13/2009 – The career of Efim Geller (1925-1998) was drawing to a close. And yet, in 1979 he won the Soviet Championship in Minsk, with an undefeated 11.5-5.5 score, ahead of Yusupov, Balashov and (a very young) Garry Kasparov. In our Playchess lecture Dennis Monokroussos shows us an instructive example of Geller's deep chess understanding in this tournament. Wednesday at 9 p.m. EST.

Hetul Shah, nine-year-old grandmaster slayer

1/13/2009 – This has to be one for the records. At the Parsvnath Open in New Delhi the nine-year-old Hetul Shah defeated an experienced grandmaster, with the black pieces, in a regular tournament game with FIDE time controls. His opponent was 31-year-old Kasakh GM Nurlan Ibrayev, rated almost 600 points higher than the lad, and now probably the world's most embarrassed GM. Games and pictures.

ChessBase 10 taken for a tour in The Atlantic

1/13/2009 – Not the ocean, the monthly magazine known for its visionary articles. In December The Atlantic took a look at the ChessBase 10, the "beefier new version of the database program that is the tournament player’s gold standard." The reviewer, Edward Tenner, concludes: "New chess software makes it easier for younger players to reach the top of their game - and harder to stay there." Rook dreams.

First Asian Club Cup in Al Ain

1/12/2009 – Everybody knows that Asian Chess is on the rise, but people tend to concentrate on China and India and ignore upcoming federations like Iran, Philippines, Indonesia, Vietnam. The United Arab Emirates hosted the first Asian Club Cup in Al Ain, with a total of 30 clubs with 27 grandmasters, representing 24 Asian countries. Report by GMs Adrian Mikhalchishin and Georg Mohr.

Viktor Korchnoi honored in Berlin

1/11/2009 – The Emanuel Lasker Society was founded in 2001 to preserve the legacy of the great German World Champion. The weekend activities started with Viktor Korchnoi, multiple world championship challenger, becoming an honorary member. Part of the festive evening was a Playchess game between the former FIDE world champion Rustam Kasimdzhanov and the visitors. Photo report.

Rybka's shared analysis

1/9/2009 – Shared Analysis -- what is it? Is it two players conspiring in the tournament hall rest room? Maybe Allwerman's back with a new computer? Try neither -- it's a new analysis mode in the Rybka3 packages which involves a pair of "twin" chess engines analyzing simultaneously. You can learn more about it in the latest ChessBase Workshop.

Chess in Schools – the Shevah-Mofet Academy in Tel-Aviv

1/8/2009 – In many countries the education system is in crisis, with academic scores dropping. Some schools are discovering that chess lessons dramatically change the attitude of students, and develop intuition and experience in modulating most practical solutions for similar tasks in their real lives. An elite school in Israel has set up a Chess Academy run by a grandmaster. Boris Alterman reports.

Chess in Turmeric Town Sangli

1/8/2009 – If you wonder how India keeps churning out those child prodigies, head to Sangli. A spacious town (a rarity in India), nestled 400 km to the south east of Mumbai, Sangli stakes a claim for being the largest trading hub for Turmeric in Asia. The town derives its name from Saha Galli, which means Six Lanes in Marathi, the local language. Here from M. Jagadish a pictorial report of chess at the grassroots.

Blindfold Chess – history, psychology, champions, records

1/8/2009 – Just occasionally a new book on our game turns up which is likely to be of widespread interest throughout all parts of the chess world. Blindfold Chess by Eliot Hearst and John Knott (McFarland, 2009), hot off the press, is definitely a volume not to be missed, as it is by far the most detailed study ever made of this fascinating subject. We take an early dip into it.

Learning from the greatest – Paul Keres

1/7/2009 – The Estonian chess genius was born on January 7, 1916 – 93 years ago today. Though he never became world champion, very few players came as close to the throne as he did. In our Playchess lecture Dennis Monokroussos shows us a remarkable game Paul Keres played against Efim Geller at the 1962 Candidates – a game that is worthy of appreciation and emulation.