Biel 01: Happy Birthday, Judit Polgar – and great game!

7/23/2007 – The Grandmaster Group of the 40th annual Biel Chess Festival started with a spectacular black win for Judit Polgar, who was also celebrating her 31st birthday, over Loek van Wely. Magnus Carlsen was the second successful player, in a marathon game with white against China's Bu Xiangi. The other three games were drawn, mostly after interesting fights.

Exciting cuts in the Caro-Kann

7/22/2007 – Fire-on-board expert Alexei Shirov has recently released his eighth Fritz Trainer DVD, this time covering his best games in the Advance Variation of the Caro Kann. IM Steingrimsson watched the five-hour session with the Super-GM and found it entertaining and exciting. 'It is like an intellectually stimulating adventure film,' he says. Buy the DVD now or read his review.

You talking to me? Top-class chess returns to England

7/21/2007 – The first international tournament ever was held in London in 1851, but nowadays Britain organises few international chess events. That will all change in August, as London plays host to its strongest international event for 20 years, the Staunton Memorial. Two weeks later, the city of Liverpool will hold a summit match between Great Britain and China. ChessBase will have full coverage.

Fabiano Caruana – youngest US and Italian GM in history

7/20/2007 – At the "First Saturday" GM tournament in Budapest a 14-year-old lad took first place, scoring 7.0/9, a point and a half ahead of the rest. The 2631 performance gave Fabiano Caruana his final GM norm, making him the youngest US or Italian grandmaster in history (he has dual citizenship). We take you on a tour of Budapest, the tournament and end with an indepth chat with Fabiano.

ChessBase Light 2007 - part 9

7/20/2007 – ChessBase Light 2007 is a downloadable free program designed to introduce you to the world of chess databases. If you wish, you can upgrade the program to the Premium version by "activating" it. Learn more about the activation procedure in the new ChessBase Workshop.

Readers' choice: it's Short vs Topalov in a Dragon

7/19/2007 – Our Playchess trainer Dennis Monokroussos asked his readers to pick a Dragon game for this week's lecture. They decided on Nigel Short vs Veselin Topalov, Linares 1995, in which the 19-year-old Bulgarian showed his penchant for creating ultra-complex positions in which the better fighter will win.

500 billion billion moves later, computers solve checkers

7/19/2007 – For almost twenty years now Jonathan Schaeffer, a professor at the University of Alberta in Canada, has been working on checkers. His program Chinook won the world championship against the best humans, after which he went about solving the game completely. We interview him and ask about the potential to solve chess. In the initial position of the game of checkers is a draw.

Asian Chess Championship for boys and girls

7/18/2007 – From 27 June to 08 July Tashkent hosted the Asian Youth Chess Championship 2007 for boys and girls under 16 and 18. It was a good time, perfect organization, splendid venue, strong players – everything you need for a great chess tournament. Jamshid Begmatov has a truly monumental collection of photos and impressions to share. Give an Uzbek a camera and this is what you get.

Edward Winter presents: Unsolved Chess Mysteries (10)

7/18/2007 – Did Tsar Nicholas II award the ‘grandmaster’ title to the five finalists of St Petersburg, 1914? What connection exists between the Morphy family and Murphy beer? Can the full score of one of Pillsbury’s most famous brilliancies be found? Did a 1940s game repeat a position composed 1,000 years previously? Edward Winter, the Editor of Chess Notes, presents new mysteries for us to solve.

Enter the secret archives of the Russian chess school

7/17/2007 – Adrian Mikhalchishin, a Grandmaster since 1978, is still one of the world's top trainers. Among others he trained the team of the USSR and Anatoly Karpov. Needless to say, he knows the Russian chess school by heart. On his first DVD he reveals several strategical methods that had been introduced and perfected by such giants as Botwinnik, Petrosian, Tal etc. Buy his DVD now or read more.

FIDE to hold public hearing on Topalov/Danailov

7/17/2007 – FIDE Ethics Commission is to hold a hearing (on July 28 in Athens) on the activities of Veselin Topalov and his manager Silvio Danailov during and after the 2006 World Championship match in Elista, in particular the accusations that his opponent may have been cheating and that the Topalov team was under pressure by the organisers and FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov. Statement and summary.

My Brilliant Brain – tonight at nine on five

7/16/2007 – Britain's ITV/five has produced a documentary series that explores the brain power of exceptional people – like a seven-year-old concert pianist who has already committed 40 pieces to memory. Tonight's one-hour segment is about chess – more specifically about 38-year-old Susan Polgar, who seems to prove that genius is “not born, but made”. It airs at 9 p.m. Don't dare miss it.

Chinese dragon wins Canadian Open

7/16/2007 – Chinese super-GM Bu Ziangzhi is a man of few words, but many powerful moves. He demonstrated his class last week at the 2007 Canadian Open Chess Championship in Ottawa, the capital of Canada. In a field crowded with more than twenty GMs, including Nigel Short, Vadim Milov, Sergey Tiviakov and Kamil Miton, Bu finished clear first. Big illustrated report.

On the path to super-grandmasterdom: India's Koneru Humpy

7/15/2007 – At 20 Koneru Humpy is the second-highest ranked female player (after Judit Polgar) in the FIDE rating lists. In 2002 she set a world record by becoming the youngest-ever woman to earn the men's GM title, at the age of 15 years, 1 month and 27 days. Now she has won the Kaupthing GM Open, which pushes her rating to 2600. Will she be the second female Super-GM in history?

ChessBase Light 2007 - part 8

7/14/2007 – Our ChessBase Workshop series on ChessBase Light 2007 continues with a column devoted to multiple methods for using a chess engine to analyze a position from a database game. Learn more in the latest Workshop.

Strong and valid: Karsten Mueller's endgame course

7/13/2007 – With his four training DVDs German grandmaster and endgame expert Karsten Mueller provides a full endgame course, covering the whole scope of the field. The final vol. 4 is the most important one, since here Mueller discusses more complex endgames and thereby extends current endgame theory . Buy it now or read this review with sampler.

A Short guide to the Canadian Open 2007

7/13/2007 – It features 22 grandmasters from more than a dozen countries, over 270 players in all, mostly from Canada but from as far away as Vietnam, Russia and Australia. The nine-day, one-section event, with a $26,500 CAD prize fund, has so far more than fulfilled their expectations. We bring you the standings after round seven and take you on a walk around Ottawa with Nigel Short.

Vladimir Kramnik: World Championship Chess (and boxing)

7/12/2007 – After winning the Dortmund Super-GM Vladimir Kramnik travelled to Hamburg to produce his first DVD in the ChessBase Media System, recording over six hours of video material that traces his path to the top of the chess world. After finishing he rushed to Cologne to support his chess playing friend Vladimir Klitschko, who was defending his world championship title in boxing. Pictorial report.

Is chess more complete than life?

7/11/2007 – Imagine an endgame database, in which the result for every position with all 32 men has been calculated up to mate. We would have an algorithm that defines perfect play in chess. We would also have to conclude that while objective truth is impossible in life, it is, in general, possible in chess. Professor Christian Hesse ponders this question and combines it with a logical chess puzzle.

Outstanding play in Lesiege vs Gershon

7/11/2007 – Who? In his Thursday night lecture our Playchess trainer Dennis Monokroussos shows us a game played by two relatively unknown grandmasters, Canadian GM Alexandre Lesiege and Alik Gershon of Israel. Join us on Thursday at 9 p.m. ET to watch this dazzling game.

Carsten Hensel on Kramnik and the World Championship cycle

7/11/2007 – After his victory in Dortmund world champion Vladimir Kramnik came to Hamburg for a few days, to record his first DVD with ChessBase. With him was his manager Carsten Hensel, who also looks after the interests of Hungarian chess star Peter Leko. During the recording sessions with Kramnik there was ample time to talk to Carsten and get his take on the situation in world chess. Interview.

40 days to go and 50 years ago…

7/10/2007 – The fourth edition of the Dato’ Arthur Tan Championship begins on August 26, 2007 in Kuala Lumpur. It is an 11-round FIDE-rated event, with time control of 90 min + 30 sec increment from the first move. The tournament is sponsored by chess philanthropist Dato’ Tan Chin Nam, the total prize money for this year’s competition is US $21,000. Here are impressions of what awaits you.

First International Carinthian Chess Festival

7/10/2007 – The Carinthian (German: Kärnten) town of Velden has 2000 inhabitants and is famous for its mountains and lakes. And swans. And sports car festivals. And a chess tournament, which will hopefully become an annual event. This year it was equipped with eight GMs, one WGM, ten IMs, two WIMs, ten FMs and one WFM. Big photo report by Meri Grigoryan.

Aronian: the world championship should be decided in a match

7/9/2007 – Levon Aronian is one of the hot favourites for the world championship in Mexico City this September. What does he think of his chances, what does he think about the format? In an article in the German broadsheet Neues Deutschland, born in Armenian and now living in Berlin, speaks about these and other subjects relating to the inclusion of Veselin Topalov in the FIDE cycle. Interview.