Almasi leads in Reggio Emilia

1/2/2008 – The 50th edition of the Torneo di Capodanno in the Italian town takes place from December 29th, 2007, to January 6th, 2008. After five rounds Hungarian GM Zoltan Almasi is in the lead, with 3.5/5. He is followed by four players: Ni Hua, Gashimov, Landa and Harikrishna. The ever active Viktor Korchnoi shares 6-9 with Tiviakov, Navara and Marin. Pictorial report.

Hikaru Nakamura: my best game ever

1/2/2008 – When one of the most successful players at the end of 2007 calls it the best game he has ever played we take notice. It was a brilliancy against Polish GM Michal Krasenkow, produced by the American GM Hikaru Nakamura, at the Barcelona tournament. This game is dissected on Playchess.com by Dennis Monokroussos in tonight's New Year's lecture.

Ramesh is the Commonwealth Chess Champion

1/2/2008 – He hails from Chennai, India, just like Vishy Anand, Krishnan Sasikiran, and thousands of other strong chess players. In the tradition of the "Chennai Chess Factory" R.B. Ramesh won the Commonwealth Championship 2007, which had 282 entries, with 13 GMs, 35 IMs and 12 titled women players, from eleven Commonwealth countries. Big pictorial report by Praful Zaveri.

Tournaments to watch and look forward to

1/1/2008 – The new year starts with two strong events – Reggio Emilia and Hastings – already under way, and three big ones coming up. The first is the ACP World Rapid in Odessa, Ukraine, then the Corus Chess Tournament in Wijk aan Zee and the Morelia-Linares Super-GM, with Anand, Kramnik, Topalov, Ivanchuk and others. Full information and links.

Alexander the First wins Russian Championship Superfinal

12/31/2007 – There were two Alexanders in the field: Morozevich and Grischuk. One round before the end the second was breathing down the neck of the first: after finishing a 100-move endgame successfully Grischuk lay just half a point behind the leader. In the final round, however, Morozevich beat Ernesto Inarkiev, while Grischuk drew against Peter Svidler. Illustrated report with endgame lesson.

Hastings 2007 – get ready for some nuckie

12/31/2007 – The annual Hastings tournament goes into its 112th edition, with a ten-round Swiss over the New Year, with 16 grandmasters and 16 IMs. One is Glenn Flear, an English GM who has lived for many years in France. Glenn recently wrote a superb book in which he develops the concept of "nuckie", i.e. NQEs, or "Not Quite Endgames". In Hastings he gave a practical demonstration.

Kramnik and Anand lead the January 1st 2008 FIDE ratings

12/30/2007 – In the October 2007 list World Champion Viswanathan Anand was clear first, with Ivanchuk and Kramnik following in second and third place. In the coming January 1st list Anand has lost two points and Kramnik gained 14 points, so that the two tie for first with a rating of 2799. Topalov is third, Ivanchuk has dropped to ninth place. View all the ratings.

The problem of draws – a Christmas solution

12/29/2007 – It is perhaps not appropriate to take up the subject while a tournament in Moscow is registering the lowest drawing rate in recent memory. But the question of quick, unfought draws still occupies the attention of our readers, and many have sent in new and imaginative proposals. One is so clever that we advocate trying it out immediately. The first organiser to do so gets to name it after his city.

Russian Superfinal and the even more remarkable Mr Morozevich

12/28/2007 – The draw average in the Russian Championship Superfinal is a pleasing low 46%. The statistics are heavily influenced by Alexander Morozevich, who has thus far, after eight rounds, one draw and one loss to his account. Morozevich has won the last six games of the tournament, four of them with the black pieces, beating both Svidler and Grischuk. He is playing like a 2900+ rated player.

Edward Winter presents: Unsolved Chess Mysteries (21)

12/26/2007 – An alleged prediction by Lasker. An obscure nineteenth-century chess treatise. Steinitz’s daughter. Famous quotes attributed to Breyer, Jaffe and Mendelssohn. The curious phrase ‘blind swine’. These and other matters are discussed in this latest selection from Chess Notes. Readers are invited to join in the hunt for clues.

Russian Superfinal and the Remarkable Mr Morozevich

12/25/2007 – Do you remember? Alexander Morozevich, top seed in the Russian Championship, started off by spoiling a winning position and then lost with the white pieces against a GM named Vitiugov. The end of his championship hopes? No way. Morozevich won the next four games to take the lead. In the women's section four players are in the joint lead. Report with new diagram format.

A personal portrait of World Champion Anand

12/23/2007 – The Indian network CNN-IBN has published an extraordinary TV portrait of Viswanathan Anand. In it Anand himself, his wife Aruna, his and her parents, friends, trainers, colleagues, all talk about the nation's favourite son. This includes music, food, clothing, travel, hobbies, ambitions, salsa and kickboxing. Yes, kickboxing. Take some time to watch this broadcast. It is a Christmas treat.

Russian Superfinal with lots of fighting chess

12/22/2007 – This is what people want to see: 2700+ players in a crisis, bouncing back dramatically, as Svidler and Morozevich did. Just 50% of the games in the Russian Championship so far were drawn, White won 28% and Black 22%. In the women's section it was even more dramatic: just 23% drawn games, with 44% white and 33% black wins. One lady, Natalija Pogonina, has a perfect 3.0/3.0 score.

Women's Super-tournament – participants and venue

12/22/2007 – In March 2008 the Turkish Chess Federation, together with the country's largest bank, is staging a spectacular international women's event on the 41st storey of the tallest building in the center of Istanbul. Two weeks after the tournament was announced the ten participants have been fixed. You may want to plan a trip to Turkey next March to watch this tournament in rarified heights.

Chess Festival in Benidorm – where a new genre is born

12/21/2007 – The Sixth International Chess Festival in Benidorm, Spain, attracted hundreds of players from all over the world. Aleksander Delchev of Bulgaria won the Open Master, World Champion Vishy Anand gave a very strong simul on 35 boards. But the show was stolen by the smallest event, an Advanced Chess Tournament, where the participants were allowed to use computer assistance.

Kasparov in New York – and on Al Jazeera

12/20/2007 – What does the former World Champion do when he is not taking part in political rallies against Russian leader Vladimir Putin, or serving a prison sentence in Moscow for political activities? Garry Kasparov spends quality time in New York, doing book signings in the mega bookshops of the US metropolis. We have pictures from recent signings and a remarkable must-watch TV report on Al Jazeera.

Get into the mood for Bonn 2008

12/20/2007 – Yesterday's announcement of the next World Championship match Anand vs. Kramnik in October 2008 in Germany was great news. Another top event in chess history, and a fascinating perspective for the coming year. For everyone who is still missing something for Christmas, Bob Long strongly recommends Kramnik's DVD 'My Path to the Top'. Simply superb. Buy it now or read more.

Russian Superfinal under way in Moscow

12/19/2007 – The Russian Championship Superfinal runs from 17-30 December (rest days 21st and 25th), at Moscow's Central House of Chessplayers (the former Moscow Central Chess Club). Round one saw a terrible loss for Svidler with the white pieces, a spoiled brilliancy for Morozevich, and a beautiful queen sacrifice from one of the outsiders. Report with pictures.

Take care – it's the Caro-Kann

12/19/2007 – Caro-Kann players have to be a hardy lot. There are quite a few aggressive schemes against it, and a moment's carelessness can get even a player slaughtered. Tonight our Playchess lecturer Dennis Monokroussos looks at a example by the great Caro-Kann expert Alexey Dreev. Be there and learn.

Anand vs Kramnik World Championship Match 2008

12/19/2007 – After lengthy negotiations FIDE, the two players and the organizers Universal Event Promotion (UEP) have come to an agreement: the next World Chess Championship will take place from October 11 – 30, 2008, in the National Art Gallery in Bonn, Germany, with the reigning world champion Viswanathan Anand taking on challenger Vladimir Kramnik in a twelve-game match. Press release.

Chess and Nutrition – how to feed a chess grandmaster

12/19/2007 – Many aspects of the extraordinary abilities of top chess players have undergone the scrutiny of science. Mental and physical exercises have been devised to optimise their performance. Now a nutritional scientist has systematically studied the eating habits of grandmasters – 72 of them. His paper culminates in a catalog of dietary instructions for serious chess players.

Understanding Grandmaster play – Fabiano annotates

12/18/2007 – Recently a 15-year-old won the Italian Championship. Fabiano Caruana took the title in this twelve-player round robin with a resounding three-point victory and a 2740 performance, which exceeded a theoretical GM norm by a point and a half (Fabiano already has the GM title). Lase week we featured this achievement in a special report. Today we bring you a key game annotated by the champ.

New: Mega Database 2008 is out!

12/17/2007 – It once started as a disk. Now the new ChessBase Databases Big and Mega 2008 come on DVDs, with 3.8 million games. Mega Database 2008 with 61,000 commented games is the starting point for any serious study of chess. All games are classified by ECO key, names, tournaments, etc. and include the Playerbase 2008 with 30,000 pictures. Buy Mega 2008 now or read more.

Khanty-Mansiysk Final: Kamsky wins, to challenge Topalov

12/16/2007 – American GM Gata Kamsky has won the FIDE World Cup. In the fourth game he was able to force a perpetual check and hold Alexei Shirov to a draw, which meant that he had won the Final with a score of 2.5:1.5 (three draws, one win). Kamsky won, did not lose a single game and performed 102 points higher than his nominal 2714 rating. Congratulations Gata!