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.

Wijk free day: Statistics and Slumming (part three)

1/30/2009 – There are three rounds left in Wijk aan Zee, and in each of the three groups there is a sole leader by half a point. The shortest game so far was a 12-move draw, the longest a 99-move win by the youngest player (with black) against the oldest. The best performance so far is 2826 (by Aronian), and the most points above the nominal rating was +138 (by Bosboom). Free day report.

Kuzubov wins Grugaon Open in India

1/29/2009 – Gurgaon is just a short highway drive south west of New Delhi. The city of 250,000 is the sixth largest in the state of Haryana and has become a center of outsourcing and real estate. It is considered one of the poshest areas of Delhi. The Gurgaon International Open Grandmasters Chess Tournament was held in Suncity World School and won by Ukrainian GM Yuriy Kuzubov. Big pictorial report.

The Fighting Dutchman

1/29/2009 – Are you still looking for a repertoire against 1.d4 that will not end up in passive or drawish positions? You can easily be put out of this misery, says Andrew Martin on his two latest Fritz Trainer DVDs. For the Dutch Defence is a system for players with a real fighting spirit and especially suited for the average player. Buy his 'Leningrad Dutch' and 'Anti Dutch' now or read this review with sampler.

Wijk R10: Aronian, Carlsen win, Aronian leads

1/28/2009 – Armenian GM Levon Aronian broke the three-way tie for leadership in Wijk aan Zee by grinding down England's Michael Adams and taking sole first place in the tables. Magnus Carlsen scored his first victory in this event, over Cuban Leinier Dominguez, to move into third. The most exciting game was the furious draw between Radjabov and Smeets. Report, videos and pictures by Fred Lucas.

Kramnik vs Shirov – part two of the early battle

1/28/2009 – Last week our Playchess lecturer Dennis Monokroussos analysed a 1994 battle between Vladimir Kramnik and Alexei Shirov. The former had achieved a big pawn clamp on the queenside, and to avoid suffocation Shirov speculatively sacrificed a bishop. The game had reached its high point, when the variations really become insane. You can catch the second half on Wednesday at 9 p.m. EST.

7th Gibtelecom Chess Festival kicks off!

1/28/2009 – It is a very popular event, played in many different groups. The Masters, an open Swiss, attracts numerous international stars – this year a record 199 players from 36 countries, including 35 grandmasters. They compete for £100,000 sterling of prize money, with £15,000 going to the eventual winner. But they also enjoy a late winter stay at the southern-most tip of the Iberic peninsula.

Wijk aan Zee rest day – we went slumming again

1/27/2009 – On the second free day in Wijk we again take a look at the "lower" groups – each of which itself could be an attractive main tournament. Nigel Short leads alone in the B-Group, with 5.5/8 and a 2774 performance – but it was David Navara who won an Expert's Prize for his fine sixth-round win against Vallejo. In the C-Group Tiger Hillarp Persson is a full point ahead. Pictures by Fred Lucas.

Mythbusting in Chess

1/27/2009 – Adam, Jamie, Kari, Grant and Tory – not to forget Buster – have all contributed to clearing up the truth behind myths and urban legends. But they have never to our knowledge touched chess. Now an Australian reader ("Mythbusters" is produced by an Australian company) has attempted to remedy the situation, quite in the spirit of the Discovery Channel program. Here his conclusions.

Wijk R09: Karjakin, Aronian, Dominguez win and lead

1/27/2009 – Sergey Karjakin defeated yesterday's leader Sergei Movsesian; Levon Aronian beat Gata Kamsky with black; and the new Cuban star Leinier Dominguez defeated Daniël Stellwagen – with that all three winners rose to the leading 1–3 spot, with 5.5/9 points. Magnus Carlsen still hasn't won a game, Alexander Morozevich is at the bottom of the table. Report with videos and pictures by Fred Lucas.

Impressions from Wijk – Round Seven

1/25/2009 – Our daily reports contain a lot of chess. But we have been frugal with the visuals, bearing in mind the admonition of a young GM that we were publishing too many pictures "of us players, from the front, from the side, from above, from below, thinking, not thinking." To compensate here are some unusual visual impressions from Wijk by Dutch photographer Frits Agterdenbos. Feast your eyes.

Wijk R08: Ivanchuk beats Karjakin, Wang beats Morozevich

1/25/2009 – Yesterday the young Ukrainian GM Sergey Karjakin led the A-Group in Wijk. Today he lost to the experienced Ukraining GM Vassily Ivanchuk and dropped to place five. Alexander Morozevich, the world's number five player, continued his losing streak and is now alone in last place, with a dismal 2.5/8. In the C-Group the oldest player, Oleg Romanishin, lost to the youngest, Anish Giri. Report.

New Rybka analysis tools

1/25/2009 – One of the "old standards" in the area of positional analysis is the ability to show the next best move (or even multiple lines of play). But there's a "tradeoff": displaying multiple variations slows down the engine's analysis. The Rybka software contains a new feature which presents the user with more control over this process. You can learn all about it in our latest ChessBase Workshop.