Morelia Round three GM analysis

2/19/2008 – Topalov and Anand are marching through in Morelia. The Bulgarian is leading with 2.5 points out of three (3000+ Elo performance!), the world champion has half a point less. Together they scored four wins so far. No one else has a plus score after the first three rounds. GM Dorian Rogozenko analyses all four games from this exciting round. Learn and enjoy.

Aeroflot 2008: Two players lead with 4.5/5 points

2/19/2008 – They are Maxim Rodshtein from Israel and Ian Nepomniachtchi from Russia. Behind them are two further Russian GMs, Artyom Timofeev and Alexey Dreev. The Aeroflot Open 2008 has completed five rounds in the "Gamma-Delta" Hotel in Moscow. We bring you standings, games, pictures and videos.

Super-GM in Mexico – impressions of Morelia

2/19/2008 – For the third time we are spending a fortnight at this category 21 tournament – mainly in front of a computer. Which is fine, once communication problems are solved and you have been given a superior suite. We celebrated by taking a stroll though the beautiful Mexican town, where we witness a Quince Años ceremony and got to see a pink stretch Porsche. Big illustrated report.

Morelia R4: Shirov beats Topalov, Ivanchuk blunders

2/19/2008 – Vassily Ivanchuk is one of the world's most experienced players. And one of the strongest. In round four he ran into his old nemesis: the clock. Just before the first time control he blundered away a highly promising position against Levon Aronian and lost the full point. Meanwhile Alexei Shirov outplayed Veselin Topalov for his first Morelia 2008 victory. Express report with pictures.

Alik Gershon and Igor Nor on San Luis 2005

2/18/2008 – St Petersburg 1909, New York 1924, New York 1927, Zurich 1953 – these tournaments are remembered not just for the players and the games, but for the magnificent tournament books that were written about them. Now two chess writers have set out to do the same for the 2005 World Championship in San Luis. The genesis of such a project is illustrated in our interview with the authors.

Morelia R3: Anand and Topalov win

2/18/2008 – Vishy Anand bounced back from his round two loss with a fine black-pieces win against tournament youngster Magnus Carlsen. Veselin Topalov scored his second victory, a wonderful game against veteran Vassily Ivanchuk, to take the lead in this event. The other two games were drawn. Brief comments are provided by our Mexican friends in this illustrated report.

Tuesday night: 'Radio Rustam' on Morelia 2008

2/18/2008 – Former FIDE Chess World Champion Rustam Kasimdzhanov will be giving live online training on every Tuesday from 9 p.m. to 10 p.m. CET/GMT +1 on the Playchess server. In tomorrow's show, Rustam will present the highlights of Morelia-Linares 2008 so far. The transmission will feature live audio commentary, the entrance fee is ten Ducats. Review by GM Jacob Aagaard.

Morelia R2: Aronian beats Anand, Ivanchuk beats Leko

2/17/2008 – After yesterday's victory Vishy Anand fell to a terrible blunder on move 30 in his game against Levon Aronian. Similarly Peter Leko lost the thread around move 38 against Vassily Ivanchuk and gave up the full point. Radjabov spoilt a promising game against Veselin Topalov to a draw, while Shirov and Carlsen never really left the draw window. Express report with pictures.

Morelia R2: When everything goes wrong for a world champion

2/17/2008 – How often does Anand lose with the white pieces? In 2007 there wasn't a single game. On the other hand when the Indian champion does lose, he can do it in such a painful way. In his round two game against Levon everything went wrong. Here we see the full contingent of bad factors concentrated in a single game. GM Dorian Rogozenko analyses this and other games. Learn and enjoy.

The Guinness World Records Slump

2/17/2008 – In the early 1980s chess historian Edward Winter corresponded with the publishers of The Guinness Book of Records, and improvements to the chess coverage resulted. It was a very different story when he revisited the book a few years ago, and since then he has written in Chess Notes four annual reports on how Guinness treats chess nowadays. Readers may laugh or cry, or both.

Morelia R1: GM Dorian Rogozenko annotates

2/16/2008 – The starting round in Morelia provided three decided games out of four. Topalov and Leko won with the white pieces against Aronian and Radjabov respectively, while Anand scored a win with black against Shirov. "Let's hope that 'the return of the Sicilian' will remain the trend of this extremely strong tournament," says our GM commentator Dorian Rogozenko, in his analysis of round one.

Aeroflot Open 2000 under way in Moscow

2/16/2008 – It will probably be the strongest open of the year, and is taking place from February 13th to 22nd. The venue and official hotel the "Gamma-Delta" Hotel, which can accomodate 3,500 guests. The festival consists of four tournaments, each a nine rounds Swiss Tournament. We bring you results and games from the first two rounds, and a number of video links that provide impressions of the tournament.

Morelia R1: Three wins in round one

2/16/2008 – The Mexican half of the Morelia-Linares tournament has started with a bang. Three of the four games ended in decisions. Vishy Anand beat Alexei Shirov with the black pieces, Peter Leko and Veselin Topalov won their games against Teimour Radjabov and Levon Aronian respectively with white. Magnus Carlsen and Vassily Ivanchuk drew in 39. Pictorial report.

Morelia-Linares Super-GM starts today

2/15/2008 – For the third time this double-round robin tournament, split between Mexico and Spain, is being held, and for the third time we are attending. After a 28-hour trip we have arrived in Morelia, where all eight players are already gathered. The first round is on Friday, with live coverage on the official site and on Playchess.com. We bring you a first pictorial report.

Challengers Match Kamsky-Topalov to be held in Bulgaria...

2/14/2008 – ...unless a country comes up with a US $250,000 bid by April 11th. FIDE has announced its decision to tentatively accept the US $150,000 bid made by the Bulgarian Chess Federation. The match is scheduled for Nov.-Dec. 2008, after the Anand-Kramnik match. Spanish Playwright Fernando Arrabal has published the entire correspondence between FIDE and Kamsky. Press release and links.

People and personalities – photo retrospect (part two)

2/14/2008 – Tomorrow – February 15 – the Super-GM in Morelia and Linares starts. We have survived our 30-hour journey to Mexico and are preparing first reports, while settling down in our hotel and getting communications up. The press conference is coming up, with the opening ceremony tonight. To bridge you over here is part two of our pictorial retrospect of Wijk.

Boris Spassky, the overshadowed genius

2/13/2008 – He is one of the great legends of chess, but Boris Spassky had the misfortune to be continually overshadowed by others – especially Mikhail Tal and Bobby Fischer. A grandmaster at 18 and a Candidate at 19, he did win the world championship title. Our Playchess.com lecturer Dennis Monokroussos looks at an exciting game from his 1968 Candidates match with Efim Geller. Enjoy.

Is the French still ok?

2/13/2008 – Former world champion Rustam Kasimdzhanov has recorded three DVDs on 'Beating the French' which deals with the aggressive approach 3.Nc3. Each DVD covers one of Blacks main reactions and shows how White gains good winning chances. 'It is strategic, it is tactical, and the subtleties are simply fascinating' is Bob Long's conclusion for vol. 1. Buy the DVD now or read his review.

'We want to win Gold at the 2012 Chess Olympiad'

2/11/2008 – In March 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. But why are they doing this, and intend to continue doing so for the next five years? To encourage Turkish ladies to the point where they can compete for medals at the Olympiad, that's why. Interview with the TCF President.

Remembering Bobby Fischer – on the Dick Cavett Show

2/10/2008 – "Among this year’s worst news, for me, was the death of Bobby Fischer," writes one of America's great talk show hosts, Dick Cavett. "Towering genius, riches, international fame and a far from normal childhood might be too heady a mix for anyone to handle. For him they proved fatal. I’m still sad about his death. In our three encounters, I became quite fond of him." Eulogy and video.

Artyom Timofeev wins Moscow Open 2008

2/10/2008 – After eight of the nine rounds in this tournament Russian GM Ernesto Inarkiev was in the lead, having won seven games in a row! Half a point behind were Artyom Timofeev and Alexander Lastin. The showdown came in the final round, when Timofeev played Inarkiev. It was a titanic 117-move struggle, which decided the winner of the tournament. Final report.

Alexei Shirov on the Irtysh at minus 20°C

2/9/2008 – The 2007 FIDE World Cup was held at the end of November in Khanty-Mansiysk, the heartland of Russia, temperatures and wind chill can drop to dangerous levels. Especially if you are riding a snowmobile on the frozen surface of a mighty river. As was done by World Cup finalist (and ChessBase DVD author) Alexei Shirov, who we are glad to report, survived the ordeal.

Timofeev, Popov, Inarkiev lead in Moscow Open

2/8/2008 – In round one third seed Ernesto Inarkiev, rated 2681, lost to FM Okara Andrey, rated 2402 and 158th seed. A shock, but Inarkiev recovered from it very nicely, thank you, and won the next six games. He is now in the lead, together with GMs, Artyom Timofeev and Ivan Popov. In the women's section 17-year-old IM Anna Muzschuk leads, having conceded just a single draw so far. Pictorial report.

Alexander Riazantsev leads Moscow Open 2008

2/7/2008 – You may not have heard the name before, and may not be able to pronounce it now, but the 22-year-old Russian grandmaster won his first four games to take the sole lead in the Open A group. In round five he drew and allowed four other players to catch up. Twenty players follow half a point behind. A small number of games are available from this event. We bring you standings and pictures.