Atatürk Istanbul: three players in the lead

3/14/2008 – Pia Cramling, the first women to to qualify for the "men's" world championship cycle, was lucky to survive the black piece attack of Hou Yifan, a player who was born two years after Pia had earned her GM title. Turkey's Ekatrina Atalik and India's Dronavalli Harika won their second games in a row. Drawing average still a very low 20%. Round three report.

Unfought draws – mathematical, logical and practical considerations

3/14/2008 – The problem of short "grandmaster" draws is one that has occupied our readers for some time. A number of proposals have been made, some quite ingenious, to force tournament and match players to be more aggressive, risk more and go for wins. Today we bring you a comprehensive analysis of the current state of the debate, by a mathematician and logician in Malaysia. Long interesting read.

Atatürk Istanbul: 13-year-old Hou leads women's super-tournament

3/14/2008 – Actually the shocking part is that the former women's world champion Zhu Chen is running a negative score of 0.0/4. In round four she lost against the new prodigy Hou Yifan, who is now in the lead with 3.5/4 points. Half a point behind are local player Ekaterina Atalik and Swedish veteran Pia Cramling. With four drawn games today the drawing average rose to 35%. Round four report.

Kharkiv: Rebellion of the Youngsters

3/13/2008 – This year the international tournament “Rector Cup”, staged in Kharkiv, Ukraine, celebrated its tenth anniversary. During that time participants from more then 20 countries have taken part. This year it was won by 16-year-old IM Vladimir Onishuk – for the second time in a row! And the women's section by a 15-year-old, Irene Kharisma Sukandar of Indonesia. Big pictorial report (with video).

Atatürk Istanbul: just one draw so far

3/13/2008 – After five decided games in round one, the second round saw Irina Krush pressure Ekaterina Atalik for 57 moves before conceding a draw. The other games were all decided, with three white and one black win. That's a total of one draw in ten games. Exciting aggressive chess again in the women's super-tournament in Istanbul. Illustrated report.

Five stars for Davies' Accelerated Dragon

3/13/2008 – The Accelerated Dragon is a great choice for club players as well as for IM and GMs. It gives Black excellent practical chances not just against 1.e4 – it can also be used against 1.c4, 1.Nf3 or even 1.d4. FM Carsten Hansen, a reviewer for Chess Cafe, wrote a book on the opening. He gives Nigel Davies' ChessBase DVD the full five stars. Buy it now or read more.

The Master of the Nimzo-Indian

3/12/2008 – One of the most important openings in all of chess is the Nimzo-Indian Defense, and within it one of the most important approaches for White starts with 4.Qc2. But is there a downside to this opening? Our Playchess.com lecturer Dennis Monokroussos uses a game by an artist of the white side of the NI Defense, GM Mihail Gurevich, to explain the principles. Tune in and learn.

Atatürk Istanbul: No draws in Women's Super-tournament

3/12/2008 – This is what people want to see. After hours of media attention, technical discussions and the opening ceremony, the participants of the İş Bankası Atatürk International Women Masters Chess Tournament sat down to play aggressive, fighting chess. All games in round one were decided, not a single one drawn. We bring you a first big pictorial report from Istanbul.

Threeway tie for first at Reykjavik Open 2008

3/12/2008 – The two Chinese GMs, Wang Hao, 2665 and Wang Yue, 2698, together with GM 7.0 GM Hannes Stefansson, all scored 7.0/9 at the Icelandic tournament. Wang Hao had the best tiebreak, the other two tied for 2nd-3rd. Longtime leader Fabiano Caruana was half a point behind. Boris Spassky and Pal Benkö were in Reykjavik to commemorate Bobby Fischer's 65th birthday.

International chess tournament in Fajr, Iran

3/11/2008 – It is not often that we can report from a chess event in this part of the world. Located in the north-western part of Iran, in spitting distance of Mosul and Kirkuk, the city of Urmia – Orumiyeh in Persian – played host to the sixteenth International Fajr Chess Tournament. It was in commemoration of the 29th anniversary of the Iranian Revolution. FM Arash Akbarinia reports.

David Howell meets world champions in Barcelona

3/11/2008 – What a drag! The youngest grandmaster ever in the UK, David Wei Liang Howell, 17, was invited to Barcelona, Spain, to play in the Catalonian League. There he was forced to escort a bevy of bubbly young girls, most of them world junior champions (who probably also hero-worship him), on sightseeing tours through the city and the famous Parc Güell. His host IM Anna Matnadze reports.

Women's Super-tournament in Istanbul

3/10/2008 – The Turkish Chess Federation, together with the country's largest bank, is staging a spectacular international women's event in the center of Istanbul. Round one is on Tuesday. The reason for this tournament: to promote women's chess in Turkey and prepare talented girls for a serious medal bid in future Chess Olympiads. An unrealistic goal? Well watch out, here come the Young Turks of tomorrow.

Dial M for Mate – mini-subscription to ChessBase Magazine

3/10/2008 – Feel unsure about the two-monthly delivery of comprehensive chess training on DVD? Well, here's a chance to try it out, for three issues. Our special mini-subscription brings you three issues, CBM 122 to 124, for the price of 49.85 Euros. With all the games and training sections that make you a better player. And as a bonus you get a short movie produced by film group in Berlin. Order now.

Ramon Mateo wins 3rd International West Open Toulouse

3/9/2008 – He turns 50 this year, and is rated 2484. In this big French Open IM Ramon Mateo made his third GM norm by beating GM Igor Miladinovic, 2602, in the final round. Now Mateo must try to reach a rating of 2500 to become the first grandmaster, ever, to hail from the Dominican Republic. We bring you a tournament report from Colomiers, with games and pictures.

Fabulous Fabiano leads in Iceland

3/8/2008 – He is fifteen and already 2598 Elo points tall. After five rounds of the Reykjavik Open Fabiano Caruana has conceded a single draw and is performing at a 2832 level. Born of Italian parents "Fab Fab" has lived and trained in the US, Spain and Hungary. He shares the lead with Icelandic GM Hannes Stefansson. Top seed Wang Hao of China, rated 2665, is in fifth place. Illustrated report.

Linares R13: Radjabov and Topalov win, Anand leads

3/7/2008 – Nothing changed at the top and at the bottom of the table – the gap was simply enlarged. After equaling with black Alexei Shirov suffered a painful blunder loss against Teimour Radjabov, while Peter Leko was outplayed by Veselin Topalov in a 48-move struggle. Anand remains in the lead, followed by Magnus Carlsen. Full report with pictures of the players in action.

Linares R14: All games drawn, Anand wins Super-GM

3/7/2008 – Four players had a chance to at least tie for first – the preconditions were in place for a thrilling last round. This might have seemed especially likely, given the very low percentage of draws (by super-tournament standards) so far, but as it turned out “safety first” was the rule of the day. Anand retained his half point lead, Magnus Carlsen came second. Full illustrated report.

Organiser beats top star in Reykjavik Open

3/6/2008 – Is it politically correct? In round one FM Bjorn Thorfinnsson, rated 2364, was paired against the top seed, Chinese GM Wang Yue, rated close to 2700. Undiplomatically Thorfinnsson won that game. A total of 24 GMs and 18 IMs are taking part in the XXIII Reykjavik Open. After three rounds three players have a perfect score, and three girls are amongst the top five. Illustrated report.

Monokroussos on Krejcik-Krobot

3/5/2008 – Who?? If you haven't heard of these players, that's okay: our Playchess.com lecturer Dennis Monokroussos hadn't either, until a few days ago, when he discovered a 1908 masterpiece in Edward Winter's historical column. He has made this extraordinary brilliance by the white player the subject of his Wednesday night lecture. Be there and enjoy.

Winner Takes It All in Iceland

3/4/2008 – Actually everyone got their fair share at the Team Championship in Iceland, which was won by the team of Taflfélag Reykjavikur, ahead of Hellir. There were delicious meals and beer at the closing ceremony, with Abba’s “Winner takes it all” performed in honor of the champions. The participants got to visit an Icelandic water reserve which featured "four desperate men.“ IM Dejan Bojkov reports.

Linares R12: Carlsen mates Topalov, closes gap to Anand

3/4/2008 – The 17-year-old wonderboy from Norway has done it again. Magnus Carlsen got himself into a somewhat precarious situation, two pawns down, against the former FIDE world champion Veselin Topalov, but fought back to equalise. Just when everyone was expecting a draw disaster struck and Topalov blundered. Full report with games, commentary and video.

Linares R11: Topalov and Leko win, Anand leads

3/3/2008 – Veselin Topalov beat Alexei Shirov in an Exchange Grunfeld that lasted just 34 moves. Peter Leko got an extra pawn and ground down Magnus Carlsen in a 62-move effort. The other two games were drawn, which left Anand with a one-point lead over Aronian, Carlsen and Topalov, with three rounds to go. We bring you a full report with pictures and video interviews by Europe Echecs.

A French tribute to Bobby Fischer

3/2/2008 – 64 years, 64 squares. International Grandmaster at 15 years old. The 11th champion of the world left behind no school, no follower. He was incarcerated in Japan and died far from his old chess friends in Iceland. Who was Bobby Fischer? The French chess magazine Europe Echecs has devoted its whole issue to Fischer. Excerpts.

Linares honors its greatest son

3/2/2008 – Forget chess for a moment, on this free day of the Super-GM in the Andalusian capital. Forget the games and cross tables. We took a stroll to the Andrés Segovia museum, built for one of the greatest classical guitarists who ever lived. He was born in Linares and almost single-handedly turned the gut guitar into the concert instrument it is today. Pictures and videos.