Poet Laureate Simic: 'I grew up bent over a chessboard'

10/16/2007 – Dušan Simic was born in Belgrade, Yugoslavia, and leant English at the age of fifteen. His family emigrated to the US, where he changed his first name to Charles. He became a professor of American literature and this August was appointed 15th Poet Laureate to the Library of Congress. In an ABC News item Simic recites a poem about growing up with chess in war-torn Belgrade.

Anand mobbed on arrival in India

10/16/2007 – This is what happens when you become world champion and one billion fans are waiting for you to return to your native country. Viswanathan Anand arrived just after midnight in New Delhi, where chaotic scenes ensued while press and public jostled to get a glimpse of him. Anand took it in his stride and on Monday evening visited the president of the country. News reports.

Edward Winter presents: Unsolved Chess Mysteries (17)

10/16/2007 – This further selection from Chess Notes examines some gross examples of fraud and plagiarism in chess literature. A number of books, for instance, have been published in Canada and India under the names of Brian Drew, Frank Eagan, Thomas E. Kean and Philip Robar, but did any of those individuals even exist? Readers are invited to join in the hunt for clues.

IV Calvia Chess Festival in Magaluf

10/15/2007 – This annual event started on October 6th (with an amateur open). It is taking place in Majorca, which is part of the Balearic Islands archipelago in the Mediterranean Sea. Which means the climate is balmy and the landscape lush. The big International Open begins today, with lots of grandmasters. One of them, Sergey Tiviakov of Holland, has submitted a pictorial report.

Andrew Martin's opening training

10/15/2007 – Our Chessbase Workshop columnist continues to catch up on his previews of ChessBase training CDs. In the latest column he tears the shrinkwrap off of four opening DVDs by Andrew Martin to offer a look at the goodies they contain. Workshop...

American fighter takes on German champ in Chessboxing

10/14/2007 – David “Double D” Depto and “Anti Terror” Frank Stoldt will meet for the World Championship in Chessboxing. Six rounds of speed chess and five rounds of boxing will take place alternatingly. In a maximum of eleven rounds, the decision will come either through K.O. or check mate. The match takes place on November 3rd 2007 in Berlin, Germany. Press announcement.

Rainer Buhmann wins Winterthur Open

10/14/2007 – The 7th Winterthur Chess Week 2007 took place from Thursday, October 5th until Saturday, October 13th 2007 in Winterthur, Switzerland. The main event, an Open, was a nine-round Swiss, FIDE-rules, 40 moves in 2 hours and 1 hour for the rest of the game. The prize fund was CHF 11,500, with the winner getting CHF 2,500. On the side players enjoyed chess variants.

Four training DVDs by Alexei Shirov

10/13/2007 – Our ChessBase Workshop columnist Steve Lopez has been getting lazy in regard to his previews of ChessBase training disks, as he himself states in his latest column. Recognizing that you have a problem is the first step to curing it; please offer him your support by reading the latest column in which he previews four DVDs by Alexei Shirov. Workshop...

Turkish Chess Federation sues the European Chess Union

10/12/2007 – Turkey is a hotbed of chess development, and has one of the wealthiest and most active chess federations in the world. In 2009 the TCF was set to stage three major European events. After their efforts were thwarted by the European Chess Union the TCF has decided to sue, and are demanding the resignation of the ECU president. Press release.

Chess for peace and understanding

10/11/2007 – For the past two years an international charity movement, "Chess – a Peace Ambassador", has been implementing exchange programs between Georgia and Catalonia. The goal is to foster friendship between peoples and nations, get participants familiar with different cultures, facilitate intellectual development and, most importantly, promote chess as a true peace ambassador. Pictorial report.

Can you guess who this (future) grandmaster is?

10/11/2007 – Here's another teaser from our early-pictures scrapbook: who is the child in this photo? He was a bit of a boy prodigy, who was often seen playing in the New York City area. Today he is a strong grandmaster, living in Europe, where he is the top player in his country. He has an incredibly insightful style of annotating games. We provide you with a few more or less helpful clues.

Botvinnik vs Schmid: understanding Benoni concepts

10/11/2007 – In 1960 German GM Lothar Schmid, played an opening that is named after him – the Schmid Benoni – against world champion Mikhail Botvinnik. A tense struggle and a battle of conceptions ensued. The game, which our Playchess trainer Dennis Monokroussos discusses, is very useful for understanding key concepts of the Benoni. Nine p.m. ET.

Linex and Monte-Carlo are European Team Champions

10/10/2007 – The men's team of Linex Magic Merida won six of seven matches, winning the European Team Championship with 13 match points. In the women's section it was Cercle d'Echecs de Monte-Carlo that came first with 11 match points. The higest performance was 2904 in the men's section and 2800 in the women's, scored by India's Koneru Humpy. Report with pictures and videos.

Recent ChessBase disks

10/10/2007 – It seems like you can't swing a stick these days without hitting a newly-released ChessBase instructional disk. You'll find previews of three of these releases – King's Indian Saemisch System, 1...d6 Universal, and My Path to the Top – in the latest ChessBase Workshop.

Vaganian and Mamedyarov with 2900+ at team championships

10/9/2007 – After four rounds the Alkaloid team was in the lead, but two consecutive losses set them back to place 12! Now, with one round to go, Linex Magic is in front, with 11/12 match and 24½ board points at the European Team Championships. In the women's section Monte-Carlo with Koneru Humpy has already wrapped it up. Today we look at individual performances.

Chess Expeditions: Humor in Chess

10/9/2007 – Sigmung Freud had a psychoanalytical theory of humor – and a repertoire of jokes that said more about him than about humor in general. The Scottish poet and essayist James Beatty came closer to a definition, but even today humor remains a subtle, not well understood phenomenon. So what about chess? Is there humor in the Royal Game? Prof. Christian Hesse has a positive answer.

King's Gambit and the story-teller Paul Hoffman

10/8/2007 – A new chess book is creating a buzz, and not just in the chess world. King's Gambit was written by award-winning author Paul Hoffman, who has had a life-long love affair with the royal game. The book is receiving international attention and good reviews in newspapers and magazines. Having known Paul for some time now we asked him for excerpts, which we duly received. Reviews and sampler.

New record for the European Youth Chess Championships

10/8/2007 – While Anand and co. were battling it out in Mexico, a 758-participant championship was taking place in Sibenik, Croatia: the Youth Championships in age categories 10-18 for boys and girls. Exciting, fighting chess by real enthusiasts who love the game – like this 10-year-old who won the under 12 with an incredible 8.5/9 score. Big pictorial report by Dr. Valery Golubenko.

Alkaloid and Monte-Carlo lead in European Club Cup

10/7/2007 – After four rounds the team of Alkaloid, with Mamedyarov, Georgiev, Volkov, Kozul and others (rating average 2611) is in the lead, having won all four matches so far and scoring a total of 18.5 board points. In the women's section it is the team of Monte Carlo, with Humpy, Arakhamia-Grant, Cramling and others (rating average 2535) with 12.5 board points. Results, games, pictures and videos.

The Days and Knights of Tom Murphy

10/6/2007 – Chess players and hustlers come from all over to be part of Washington's Dupont Circle scene. Tom Murphy, a member of the university's senior faculty, is holding a private seminar for a graduate of George Washington University who was taking a couple of weeks to hone his game of chess before joining the workforce. Must read must watch big Washington Post article.

Tournaments to watch and look forward to

10/5/2007 – Suffering from withdrawal after three weeks of the world championship in Mexico? There are a number of events coming up which you can mark up in your event calendar. The European Club Cup is under way, a rapid match between Leko and Ivanchuk starts on October 25, then there is the World Youth Championship, the World Chess Cup and the Corus Chess Tournament. Full information and links.

Simply mind-blowing

10/5/2007 – Each month, Danish FM Carsten Hansen writes a column at ChessCafe.com, focusing mainly on opening books and software. His current column includes a review of ChessBase Magazine 118. Hansen is deeply impressed with the 'astounding amount of material', the hundreds of annotated games etc., and recommends to give ChessBase Magazine a try now. Buy CBM 118 or read more.

Everybody's there – at the European Club Cup in Turkey

10/4/2007 – The 23rd European Club Cup for Men and the 12th European Club Cup for Women are taking place from October 2nd to 10th in Kemer, Antalya, Turkey. There are 56 teams participating in the men's section and 18 teams in the women's. You won't believe how many world class stars are participating. We bring you a first report with a video of the opening ceremony.

The secret Weapons of the Champions

10/3/2007 – GM Mikalchishin, former trainer of Anatoli Karpov, lately recorded two powerful training DVDs covering several middlegame themes. In his review of the first DVD, Steve Giddins stresses that already a single of Mikalchishin's nuggets is worth the price of the DVD and tells you how to make it a personal, one-to-one training session. Buy 'The secret Weapons' now or read more.