8/21/2009 – Instituted this year, the Balkan Grand Prix serves as an effort to promote increased cooperation and interaction between the Balkan countries: Bulgaria, Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Romania. In the recently completed second stage of this Grand Prix, Bulgarian grandmaster, Dejan Bojkov, finished on top. His report and pictorial impressions follow.

8/21/2009 – Remember American astronaut Greg Chamitoff, who a year ago played chess against the NASA ground stations. Well, now European Space Agency astronaut Christer Fuglesang, Sweden, is going to do the same, playing a game against the Swedish public. Right now Fuglesang is in quarantine awaiting an August 24th launch. But the game has already started, and you can take part.

8/21/2009 – ... in games on the very highest level truly are a rare occurrence. Yet sometimes... Okay, this is what happened: 36.Nxf6+ Rxf6 37.Rxf6 Qxf6 38.gxf4 gxf4 39.Qe2 and soon after the peace pipe was smoked. How would you judge this sequence?
A) the moves were correct, so the draw was the logical result.
B) Black missed a forced win on the way.
C) using a little trick, White could have obtained a clearly better endgame.
The solution is here, but first ponder over it with a larger version of the diagram

8/20/2009 – The three leaders drew their games – 82, 73 and 65-move battles – while Aronian, Inarkiev, Alexseev and Gelfand won theirs, providing more excitement and potentially ranking this tournament amongst the best for entertainment value in the recent past. Those who suffered withdrawal: yesterday was a free day that took many of the players to an outing in the wild Jermuk landscape. Big pictorial report.

8/20/2009 – Grandmaster Monika Socko is from Poland, married to Polish GM Bartoz Socko, who is two hundred points higher than her on the FIDE scale. Still, Monika finished first in the Arctic Chess Challenge in Tromsø, with 7.0/9 and a rating performance of 2639, while her husband came 13th, a full point behind her. Son Szymon also played. Misha Savinov spoke to the winner.

8/20/2009 – This weekend sees the climax of two weeks of celebration for the 200th jubilee of the world's oldest chess club: the Schachgesellschaft Zürich. Kasparov, Anand, Karpov, Korchnoi, Kramnik, Spassky, Ponomariov, Judit Polgar, Topalov and Hug will be participating in simuls and a rapid chess event. Richard Forster and Christian Rohrer retrace the historical development of the club.

8/20/2009 – ... in order to show off their maximal strength, so it's no wonder that they tend to be particulary strong in endgames. Here Black had just played 32...Rxd5. How would you assess the situation now?
A) The position is balanced, both sides have active rooks.
B) Black can realize the advance ...d6-d5 when his mobile pawn centre will give him the edge.
C) No need for endgame subtleties, White can employ a winning combination.
The solution is herebut first ponder it with a larger version of the diagram.

8/19/2009 – With seven of nine rounds completed in the Baltic Queen, IM Ekaterina Atalik of Turkey has taken the sole lead with 5.0/7, followed by GMs Arakhamia and Cramling. With the top contenders meeting in the final rounds a climatic finish is expected, Viktorija Cmilyte, 4.0/7, may certainly make a statement as well. Feel the atmosphere in St Petersburg in this big photo report by IM Irina Sudakova.

8/19/2009 – The new ChessBase Magazine taster is a threefold package: read CBM for half a year at reduced price; choose your favourite bonus DVD – by Anand, Kramnik, Kortchnoi, or Hort; and with the December issue of CBM you will get a special offer for the new Mega Database 2010 at only a third of the regular price. Order your CBM taster now, or read more about the new CBM 131 here.

8/19/2009 – It was arguably the most dramatic match in chess history. Challenger Anatoly Karpov was on the verge of winning it, when he took game 23, but was foiled by World Champion Garry Kasparov in the very last game. History only remembers the winners, but as Dennis Monokroussos shows in his Wednesday night Playchess lecture, Karpov's best efforts are worth another look. So are these videos.

8/19/2009 – Six draws from seven games – but happily there was quite a bit of excitement in at least two games. One was of course Rustam Kasimdzhanov's victory over Ivan Cheparinov, which brought the former FIDE World Champion into the lead group of Peter Leko and Vassily Ivanchuk, a full point ahead of the field. We bring you a big illustrated report with impressions by Arman Karakhanyan.

8/19/2009 – At eighteen years of age, WFM Abby Marshall is making waves in the United States. In addition to being the only girl to hold two Susan Polgar National Invitational for Girls titles, achieved consecutively in 2005 and 2006, she has recently added a victory at the Denker Tournament of High School Champions to her mantle - the first female to do so. We follow her activities in Indianapolis.