Krush US Champion, Houska leads in MonRoi Grand Prix

7/26/2007 – In the recent US Women's Championship in Stillwater, Oklahoma, it was top seed Irina Krush, WGM and IM with a 2479 FIDE rating (number 14 in the world), who took the title. Irina then rushed off to Montreal, where she is currently playing in the MonRoi Women's Grand Prix, where her British colleague Jovanka Houska is in the lead. Pictorial report and games from both events.

North Urals Cup: well balanced event, exciting play

7/26/2007 – At halftime all ten players in this tournament are very close together, just a point separating the first from the last. Elisabeth Pähtz recovered from her 0-3 start with two wins, Kateryna Lahno and top seed Hou Yifan faltered, Natalya Pogonina and Zhu Chen fought their way to the top. We bring you a full report with splendid pictures by event photographer Vadim Smalkov.

Biel 03: Wins for Bu vs Polgar, Motylev vs van Wely

7/26/2007 – Another day of exciting chess, with Bu Xiangzhi, the first Chinese GM to play in the Biel Chess Festival, defeating Judit Polgar in just 34 moves. Alexander Motylev, on the black side of an English Opening, demolished Loek van Wely. Top seeds Grischuk and Radjabov playing a cliff-hanger that ended after 66 moves in a draw. We bring you a report with pictures, and videos by Europe Echecs.

Stefanova leads in North Urals Cup 2007

7/25/2007 – After a win and a draw the former world champion Antoaneta Stefanova, Bulgaria, demolished Russian WGM and IM Alisa Galliamova in a brutal 20-mover in round three to take the sole lead in the North Urals Cup, which is restricted to top female players and is taking place from July 22 to 31 in Krasnoturinsk, Russia. With 47% draws this event is producing fighting chess. Big pictorial report.

Rajlich wins Sixth PAL/CSS Freestyle Tournament

7/25/2007 – For the first time in Freestyle a team has succeeded in regaining the title. Vasik Rajlich won the third event in June 2006, and now, together with his wife and French Defence expert IM Iweta Rajlich, has staged a come-back, winning the $16,000 finals on the Playchess server exactly one year later. The 32-processor computer "Mission Control" came sixth. CCGM Arno Nickel reports.

Disastrous start for Nigel Short in Montreal

7/24/2007 – The Eighth Montreal International chess tournament has started, with ten very strong GMs at the start. After four rounds of play it is Nigel Short who is making the news, with an unprecedented 0/4 score (possibly due to a dental problem). Gata Kamsky, Pavel Eljanov and the perennial Vassily Ivanchuk are in the lead with 3.0/4. Report with pictures and videos.

Chess clock for sale – for collectors and historians

7/24/2007 – It is not just any clock, but a Jaques London Congress Chess Timer, built in the first years of the 20th century and used during games 15-34 of the Capablanca-Alekhine match in Buenos Aires in 1927. After that it was used in various simultaneous exhibitions given by Lasker, Capablanca, Alekhine and Tartakower. The clock was retired in 1955 and is now for sale on eBay.

Biel 02: Onischuk beats Grischuk, remaining games drawn

7/24/2007 – The second round of the International Chess Festival in Biel/Bienne saw the battle of the Schuks, with Oni beating Gris, who at 23 is probably too young for the Slav. The other games were all drawn. Polgar and Carlsen fought out a theoretically important Open Spanish battle, whilst Motylev drew a long ending against Pelletier. Radjabov-Bu was 15 moves long. Report and games.

Smudo, Vaile, Vladimir and Ludwig – when chess meets music

7/23/2007 – Can a chess program play music? Can Fritz compose? Or to frame the question more precisely: can the search algorithms we find in chess also be used to compose fully arranged musical pieces? These questions were recently answered in an event featuring some famous German TV stars and world champion Vladimir Kramnik. Big illustrated report with Ludwig samples.

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.