Freestyle Tournament final begins today

7/14/2006 – Are you interested in seeing chess played at the very highest level? It involves grandmasters and experts selecting their moves with computer assistance. The final of the 3rd PAL/CSS Freestyle Tournament begins today at 17:00h CEST on the Playchess.com server, and ends on Sunday evening. The prize fund is $16,000. Come and watch the fun!

Late again: the Andrew Martin Radio Show

7/14/2006 – The Radio Show of our Playchess lecturer Andrew Martin is running very late this week, but the good news is that it will take place this Friday evening, at 22:30 GMT 23:30 CEST, with special guest GM Nigel Davies. This will be a one-off spontaneous experience! Don't miss it!

Norwegian Championship: Agdestein or Carlsen?

7/13/2006 – Grandmaster Simen Agdestein, also a former national soccer player, won the Norwegian chess championship last year – narrowly ahead of his student and sparring partner Magnus Carlsen. The latter, just 15 years old, has now overtaken Agdestein by 81 rating points. The two will probably settle the title question amongst themselves. Report.

USA win World Cup ahead of Germany

7/11/2006 – In the World Soccer Championship the US went out in the preliminaries, and Germany made it to the semi-finals to take third. In the Women's World Cup, that was played last weekend in Dresden, Germany, and mirrored the FIFA event, the picture was different: Susan Polgar triumphed for the USA. Illustrated report.

An easy way to chess improvement

7/10/2006 – Lower and middle strength chess players often find it hard to improve their play. Replaying hundreds of games is too exhausting and time consuming. IM Andrew Martin's DVD "The Scandinavian – The Easy Way" promises the reverse. Learn to master an ambitious repertoire against 1.e4 in a three hours Chess Media course. Review.

Fritz Endgame Turbo 3 - Part 2

7/10/2006 – In the second of two ChessBase Workshop columns on Fritz Endgame Turbo 3, we look at some specific installation instructions and see some specific examples of the endgame tablebases in action. Workshop...

Alekhine's fanciful fabrications

7/9/2006 – World Champion Alexander Alekhine was one of the all-time greats, and many of his games are works of art. Some unfortunately literally so – they were simply made up. In this week’s Monday night Playchess lecture Dennis Monokroussos looks at some brilliant Alekine fakes and the games they were based on. A summer time chess feast.

Maurice Ashley on Hip Hop, GZA and Will Smith

7/8/2006 – He is the first black grandmaster in history, and also an extraordinary chess teacher, an organiser and a friend of the stars. In this indepth interview by Adisa Banjoko, the "Bishop of Hip Hop", Maurice Ashley tells about his life, his likes and his encounters with GZA and Will Smith. Fascinating stuff.

Shredder 10 and the Shredderbases

7/7/2006 – The German chess engine Shredder is one of the strongest in the world. But the program has won a lot of fans for another reason: it is a very powerful analysis tool. And now, in Version 10, it's analytical abilities have improved considerably. For instance: the endgame tablebases work thousands of times faster than before. Here's how...

Actions and excitement in New York rapid

7/6/2006 – The prestigious New York Athletic Club was recently host to a high-calibre event, with six GMs averaging over 2665 Elo apiece, played a rapid chess tournament. In the end it was won by the Grinder, ahead of the Ambassador, the Rock, the Gentleman, the Silencer and the Terminator. Interested to know who these players are? Well read our illustrated report.

Short on the ECF, Rublevsky, Crimea, FIDE, Brunei

7/6/2006 – As a chess grandmaster he made it to a challenge for the world championship title, and at 41 he is playing quite successfully in top international events. But it is as a chess columnist that Nigel Short has really blossomed. Sacked after ten years work for the Sunday Telegraph, Nigel now produces an even more scintillating column for the Guardian. We bring you excerpts.

Who will be the next Freestyle Champion

7/5/2006 – Neither the summer weather nor the Soccer World Cup stopped more than 100 players from all over the world from enter the 3rd PAL/CSS Freestyle Tournament, which ended last weekend with the tie-breaks for the Final in July 14-16. About 20 titleholders were attracted by the opportunity to win one of the money prizes: $8,000, $4,000 or $2,000 dollars. Report by Arno Nickel

Karpov on AI, search engines and chess

7/5/2006 – For the US launch of the Accoona search engine in March this year Garry Kasparov was the keynote speaker. The European launch saw former world champion Anatoly Karpov doing the honors. Karpov used the occasion to describe his (and Kasparov's) involvement in the Accoona project, but also about artificial intelligence and chess.

Hell-hound on my trail

7/5/2006 – Tonight, after you have finished watching France-Portugal you may want to find out how demolition man Sergey Tiviakov could win the Dutch Championship with an incredible 9/11 score. To do so, and learn a lot of other things, visit the Radio Show of our Playchess lecturer Andrew Martin, which, to accommodate the soccer, starts at 22:00 GMT / 23:00 CEST.

Gata Kamsky wins World Open

7/5/2006 – Nine players tied for first, with 7.0/9 each, in the 34th Annual World Open in Philadelphia. A tiebreak playoff between Gata Kamsky and Vadim Milov was won by the former FIDE world championship finalist. There were 46 GMs, 26 IMs and 5 WGMs in the main group, the prize sum for the winner was US $28,000, but in the end first place got $6,000. We tell you why.

Parimarjan Negi, India's youngest ever grandmaster

7/5/2006 – This lad has broken a number of records. Making his final GM norm at the age of 13 years 3 months and 22 days he became India's youngest Grandmaster. Before him it was Pentala Harikrishna, who did it at 15, breaking Anand's 14-year record of 18 years. But Negi has also broken Magnus Carlsen's record by five days to become the second-youngest GM is chess history.

Shipov wins Midnight Sun, Carlsen second

7/3/2006 – The Midnight Sun Chess Challenge in Tromsø, Norway, was won by Russian GM Sergei Shipov, who scored 7.5 points in nine rounds. Second was fifteen-year-old Magnus Carlsen with 7.0, who beat Leif Erland Johannessen on tiebreak points. We bring you a final report with pictures from Whale's Island.

Topalov tops July 1st FIDE Ratings

7/3/2006 – With Kasparov now classified as "inactive" and no longer occupying his usual place on the FIDE rating list, Veselin Topalov takes top berth with 2813 points. Anand has dropped badly after a poor showing at the Olympiad, but remains in second. Vladimir Kramnik, recovering from an illness, has climbed to fourth behind Levon Aronian. Full lists.

Learning the Scandinavian from Vishy Anand

7/2/2006 – India's supreme chess player Viswanathan Anand is second to none in producing beautiful games – well-prepared, displaying astounding tactical imagination, and forceful execution. In this week’s Monday night Playchess lecture Dennis Monokroussos looks at an Anand effort against Lautier's Center Counter and uses it as instructional material in the Scandinavian Defense.

Three ChessBase disks

7/1/2006 – ChessBase's new opening and historical CDs and DVDs are the latest topic of interest for our ChessBase Workshop columnist. If you want to find out what's on "How to Play the Najdorf, Vol. 2" (by Garry Kasparov!), "The ABC of the Benko Gambit", and "World Champion Capablanca", check out our new ChessBase Workshop.

Sergey Tiviakov wins the Dutch Championship

6/30/2006 – It is one of the stronger national championships, with ten GMs and two IMs. It was won by Sergey Tiviakov, who scored 9.0/11 points, 1.5 more than his nearest rival. In the women's section there was an even more startling result: Peng Zhaoqin won all but one game and took the championship with a 8.5/9 score. Report.

AeroSvit R11: Rublevsky wins, Ivanchuk second

6/29/2006 – The AeroSvit tournament in Foros ended with draws by all top boards, giving Russian GM Sergei Rublevsky undivided first, with 7.5/11 and a 2824 performance. Second was Ukrainian perennial Vassily Ivanchuk, with 7/11 and a 2784 performance. We bring you all results, games and a special report on the Crimean venue.

Alexei Shirov's 'Best Games in the Sicilian Najdorf'

6/28/2006 – IM and Senior Trainer Jovan Petronic has studied the third training DVD by Alexei Shirov and enjoyed the experience of watching the author of 'Fire on the Board' in full action. "Your chess will certainly come a bit closer to understanding the moves and ideas behind a chess geniuses mind." Review.

Carlsen leads the Midnight Sun Challenge

6/28/2006 – A fifteen-year-old super-grandmaster, blessed with an Elo of 2646, is leading the Midnight Sun Chess Challenge in Tromsø. Magnus Carlsen of Norway looks set to break a few new records with the form that he is showing these days. The event is being held well within the Arctic Circle, where at this time of year the nights are bright as day. Misha Savinov reports.