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 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.

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.

Join Shirov's world of chess

2/7/2008 – Even for strong players with high Elo ratings and FIDE titles it can be very inspiring to listen to a top player like Shirov present his games and ideas. Hedinn Steingrimsson became a GM end of 2007. He has watched several of Shirov's Fritz Trainer DVDs and says he is just delighted by the new Spanish Vol 2 DVD. Buy it now or read the Icelander's review.

To Gligoric with Love – a legend turns 85

2/6/2008 – Svetozar Gligoric, born in Belgrade on February 2, 1923, is the best ever chess player in Serbia and ex-Yugoslavia. He won the national championship eleven times, earned twelve Chess Olympiad medals, six in European championships and was candidate for World Championship title many times. Gligoric was honoured on his 85th birthday with an 85-player Swiss tournament. Illustrated report.

Fischer vs Spassky – the critical sixth game

2/6/2008 – Fischer started his 1972 World Championship match with a blunder and a forfeit. He won games three and five to pull level, and then in game six abandoned his usual 1.e4, sending shock waves through Spassky and the chess world with 1.c4. Our Playchess.com lecturer Dennis Monokroussos looks at this key game.

FIDE announces its Grand Prix Circuit 2008/09

2/6/2008 – The World Chess Federation, together with its commercial arm, Global Chess, is staging a Grand Prix circuit. The top 40 players can participate in four out of six 14-player events that will be staged around the globe. Venues are Baku, Krasnoyarsk, Doha, Montreux, Elista and Karlovy Vary, top qualified players are Anand, Kramnik, Topalov, Kamsky, Shirov, Carlsen and Karjakin. Announcement.

People and personalities – photo report from Wijk (part one)

2/5/2008 – Inspired by the recent pictorial by Fred Lucas on our news pages we went through our own modest photographic spoils from the Wijk aan Zee 2008 tournament. We spent three days in the Dutch sea-side town, equipped with a less ambitious (and much lighter) camera, and met many old friends there. Here then is part one of our pictorial retrospect of Wijk.

Moscow Open 2008 under way

2/4/2008 – The total prize fund is five million rubels, which translates to US $205,000 or close to 140,000 Euro. There are four groups, two open, one for women and one for children. Total number of participants: around 1000. Venue: Russian State Social University in Moscow. Dates: February 2nd to 10th. After two rounds only a few games are available, but a bunch of pictures by Eugene Atarov.

Edward Winter presents: Unsolved Chess Mysteries (24)

2/3/2008 – It has been called the perfect murder. Did the chessplayer W.H. Wallace construct an elaborate alibi before killing his wife at their Liverpool home in 1931? The Editor of Chess Notes examines the chess aspects of the classic Wallace murder case, including a claim that Wallace played against Capablanca. Once again readers are invited to join in the hunt for clues.