9/22/2009 – Exactly 25 years after their first encounter – the World Championship match in Moscow – the perennial opponents Anatoly Karpov and Garry Kasparov are playing a twelve-game rapid and blitz match in the Spanish city of Valencia. The rounds start on Tuesday at 19:00h CEST (21:00h Moscow, 1 p.m. NY), with two days of rapid games and one for blitz. Watch it on Playchess.

9/22/2009 – The first two games of this match were both won by Black, after hard and interesting fights. Would White achieve a better result today? Almost. Former World Championship challenger Nigel Short had his younger Ukrainian opponent on the ropes, and only with a strong and imaginative defence could Zahar Efimenko save his bacon. Game three analysis by GM Klaus Bischoff.

9/21/2009 – The six-game encounter between former World Championship challenger Nigel Short and the promising Ukrainian grandmaster Zahar Efimenko started with musical pomp in the West-Ukrainian town of Mukachevo. In the first game Efimenko showed great style in beating his more famous and higher-rated British opponent with the black pieces. First round report with GM commentary.

9/21/2009 – In the first game the higher-rated player, Nigel Short, was somewhat shockingly defeated by his young Ukrainian challenger Zahar Efimenko, who had the black pieces. Today the British GM struck back with his own very convincing black-piece victory to equal the score. This looks like it's going to be a really hard-fought match. Game two analysis by GM Klaus Bischoff.

9/19/2009 – ...there wouldn't be any weak back ranks,' says an old German chess wisdom which once again hits the mark in the following position, where Black added fuel to the fire with 33...e3. How would you assess the situation now?
A) White achieves victory by deflecting the black queen with 34.a4;
B) advantageous is the rook swap on e8 followed by 35.Qxb6 (despite the rejoinder 35...exf2); 
C) the position is dynamically balanced.
The solution is here, but first ponder over it with a larger version of the diagram

9/18/2009 – It's been a good chess year for Israel, ranked third in the world behind Russia and Ukraine. The historic silver medal at the Dresden Olympiad was exhilarating, as were a string of individual victories in big events. Now two of the brightest young talents, Gil Popilski and Marsel Efroimski, have won the U16 boys' and U14 girls' European Championships. IM Yochanan Afek reports.

9/18/2009 – GM Adrian Mikhalchishin is a well-known chess trainer. He has assisted Romanishin, Beliavsky, Anatoly Karpov, the Polgars, the Polish, Dutch and Turkish national teams. He has captained a team with Karpov, Anand, Kramnik, Beliavsky, Short and Gelfand. He is also a leading expert on the Arkhangelsk Variation, and he provides five hours of video lessons on it on this new training DVD.

9/18/2009 – We promised you one more report from this Chinese tournament, with the lovely photos of Ye Rongguang, who apart from being China's first GM, is an avid photographer. On the free day Rongguang accompanied the players to the Ningbo Museum and Dongqian Lake, where many posed willingly in front of the Song Dynasty statues. We also revisit the controversy over the final round draw.

9/17/2009 – A scheduled training session with Garry Kasparov and Magnus Carlsen was used as an occasion to meet the Norwegian press. The two sat down for a friendly game against Education Minister Solhjell, and all three answered questions for a Channel 2 journalist. The government is set to back their brightest chess star, said the Minister, and his country's bid to host a Chess Olympiad. Video report.

9/16/2009 – One, the current US Champion, was born in the year the other, a former World Championship candidate, had just won the Soviet Championship for the third time. Their scintillating encounter, analysed by Dennis Monokroussos in his Wednesday night Playchess lecture, took place earlier this year at the NH Tournament in Amsterdam. Watch and learn on the server.

9/16/2009 – We reported recently on the event and the results, but with a disgracefully meager number of pictures. We just didn't have any – until suddenly our friend Ye Rongguang, the first Chinese player in history to gain the GM title, sent us a huge quantity. Rongguang is an avid photographer with professional equipment. Here is part one of a giant pictorial: impressions of Ningbo.

9/16/2009 – ... for Training and Instruction in Chess. The aim is to help in the development of chess federations in Africa, in the critical areas of introducing chess in schools, raising membership, organizing tournaments, getting finances and obtaining sponsorship. The first week of lectures and activities is to be held in a somewhat controversial location: Khartoum, Sudan. Press release of the TCF.