ChessBase and Correspondence chess -- part 4

4/3/2007 – In the fourth part of our ongoing ChessBase Workshop series on correspondence chess, we'll learn about your "electronic research assistant" who will take care of the drudgery of finding and tabulating the results of past games in your master database. Find out more about the Opening Report in this week's ChessBase Workshop.

FIDE April rankings: Vishy Anand is numero uno

4/2/2007 – FIDE came under worldwide pressure and – relented. Over the last two days the April rating list was corrected to include the important Morelia/Linares tournament. In the new and now official list India's Viswanathan Anand is in first place, with 2786 rating points, ahead of Veselin Topalov and Vladimir Kramnik, both 14 points lower. Congratulations Vishy! Lists, statistics and commentary.

Breaking news: FIDE's April rating list will include Morelia/Linares

4/1/2007 – On March 31 the World Chess Federation published its April rating list which, to everybody's surprise, did not have India's Vishy Anand in the number one slot, but Veselin Topalov, 13 points ahead of Anand. For the first time in many years the Linares tournament, which Anand won by a full point, was not rated. The Indian Chess Federation protested and FIDE has now agreed to correct the list.

Fritz trainer: Emanuel Lasker, New York 1924

4/1/2007 – After winning the 1924 New York tournament Dr Emanuel Lasker, who was passionately interested in new technologies, recorded his comments on the games using the fledgling new technology of talking movies. The film material was recently recovered and digitally remastered. We have turned it into a Fritz Trainer DVD with twelve video lessons. You can order it now.

Kasparov in England – catch him if you can

4/1/2007 – After taking Germany (and Switzerland) Garry Kasparov now continues his book promotional tour in the UK. There is a book signing on Tuesday, plenty of print reports, photo shoots, radio interviews and TV appearances, on Sky, BBC and, would you believe it, Al Jazeera. Here's a schedule of Kasparov's activities.

Blindfold king Kramnik wins 16th Amber Tournament

3/30/2007 – World champion Vladimir Kramnik won the 16th Amber Blindfold and Rapid Tournament, with a two-point lead over runner-up Vishy Anand. It was Kramnik's sixth victory in Monaco. The key for his success was a very powerful performance in the blindfold competition, where he scored 9 out of 11, which amounts to an almost 3000-level performance. Final report.

Powerful: King's 'Attacking the king'

3/30/2007 – Launching a successful attack is a skillful business that often demands great creativity. And like most themes in chess, this is a skill that can be honed and polished. In this second DVD in the Power Play series, Grandmaster Daniel King looks at attacking play and asks, what makes for a successful attack? Buy 'Attacking the king' now or read this review with sampler.

ChessBase and Correspondence chess – part 3

3/30/2007 – In Part Three of a series on ChessBase and correspondence chess, we look at bookkeeping -- how easily you can keep track of your moves and your opponents', the time you've used, and the other routine chores involved in postal/e-mail chess. Workshop...

Donald Byrne: encouragement for Dragon fans

3/29/2007 – The name is most often associated with the dramatic "Game of the Century" loss to the 13-year-old Fischer. But Donald Byrne was an impressive player in his own right, as our Playchess trainer Dennis Monokroussos shows in this 1955 Dragon against Efim Geller. A nice win by a good guy.

Amber: Kramnik leads by two points, set to win

3/29/2007 – With a round to go World Champion Vladimir Kramnik has clinched the blindfold section, while the world's top rated player Vishy Anand has already taken the rapid tournament. On the overall table Kramnik is two points ahead of the field, with Anand and Ivanchuk theoretically able to catch him in this Monte Carlo extravaganza. Round nine and ten reports.

Dresden, Miskolc, Yerevan, Sofia, Elista, Dortmund

3/29/2007 – With the Amber tournament over some chess fans are getting a tad nervous. When are the next major events? You can calm down: in April we have the European Championships and a rapid chess match between Kramnik and Leko, in May one between Kramnik and Aronian, then M-Tel Masters, then the FIDE Candidates, then the Dortmund Super-GM. Chess calendar April-June 2007.

Maxime Vachier-Lagrave outperforms French students

3/28/2007 – It is hard to believe: the best chess players, some rated up to 2400, from universities all over France gather together to play a qualification tournament. Eight winning teams of four players each then face the country's youngest grandmaster, a 16-year-old lad, in a clock simultaneous exhibition. The lad concedes just one draw. We predict a bright future for Maxime.

Edward Winter presents: Unsolved Chess Mysteries (3)

3/27/2007 – Recently-discovered photographs from one of Alekhine’s last tournaments, in Spain in 1945, are proving baffling. Do they show that a 15-move brilliancy commonly attributed to Alekhine is spurious? And do they disprove claims that another of his opponents was an 11-year-old boy? Chess Notes investigates, and once again our readers are invited to join in the hunt for clues.

ChessBase and Correspondence chess – part 2

3/27/2007 – In the latest of an ongoing series of ChessBase Workshop columns on correspondence chess, we describe how to set up your correspondence "recorder" databases. That's no typo -- you'll need more than one database. Find out why in the new ChessBase Workshop.

Amber: Kramnik leads, Anand in pursuit

3/26/2007 – Vladimir Kramnik is the blindfold king. The world champion has scored an incredible 7.5/8 (one draw in eight games), with a theoretical rating performance of over 3200. Anand scored a 2-0 victory over Paco Vallejo to narrow the gap in both sections to Kramnik to 1.5 points. Their overall performances are 2929 and 2833. Monday is a free day. Full illustrated report.

Andrew Martin: Pure propaganda

3/26/2007 – This week's Playchess radio show targets the subject matter for three Chessbase DVDs, two which are just out and the other about to be made. The first game focuses on the Modern Slav with 4...a6, the second on the Alekhine with 5...c6, and the third on a perfectly played Czech Benoni by Lev Aronian. The show starts on Wednesday at 16:00 GMT / 17:00 CEST.

Chatalbashev wins Bulgarian Championship in Pernik

3/24/2007 – The women's section, played for the 56th time, was a cliff hanger, with four players battling and tying for first. Exciting chess. In the men's section there was no tension predicting the outcome. Elo favorite Boris Chatalbashev took the lead after the third round and never left any doubts as to his intentions after that. He won with 1.5 points more than the competition. Report and games.

Kramnik, Aronian, Ivanchuk still lead in Monaco

3/23/2007 – In Round 6 Vladimir Kramnik regained the overall lead, thanks to a 1½-½ win over one of the co-leaders, Levon Aronian. The other, Vasily Ivanchuk, was lucky to draw his mini-match against Peter Svidler and is now in second place, half a point behind Kramnik. Peter Leko and Teimour Radjabov both chalked up a win to improve their positions in the overall table. Round six report.

Anatoly Karpov Tournament in Poikovsky

3/23/2007 – The 8th Anatoly Karpov Tournament in Poikovsky is under way, but already it is as good as won by Dmitry Jakovenko, who keeps showing great chess skill combined with enormous playing capacity, collecting one good result after another. Games, results and a big pictorial report by Misha Savinov.

The King's Indian reloaded – part 2

3/23/2007 – Thanks to Radjabov, Kasimdhzanov and others the King's Indian is part of a lively discussion in the top level chess again. Another KID expert, Alexei Shirov, recently made an over five hour DVD, in his famous and highly praised "best games" series. Buy his King's India DVD now or read this review with sampler.

ChessBase and Correspondence chess – part 1

3/23/2007 – ChessBase Workshop readers have requested a series of columns on the use of ChessBase in correspondence chess; Steve Lopez has been only too happy to comply. In the first installment of this series, he discusses the benefits to playing chess at coorespondence time controls as well as some legal and illegal uses of computers in correspondence play. Workshop...

ACP Survey: what the players think about draw offers

3/22/2007 – In February the Association of Chess Professionals asked its members what should be done to combat short, unfought draws, which are often perceived to be the bane of chess. The ACP published a questionnaire, 171 members replied.

Fifth Freestyle Tournament Final this weekend

3/22/2007 – The 5th PAL/CSS Freestyle Main Tournament, staged on the Playchess server, ended in a dead heat of 17 players. None of the 131 participants from 32 countries, including 20 titled players, managed to achieve six points in eight games, which is the magic barrier for qualification. The final, with ten players, will be held as a round robin tournament this weekend. Come and watch.

Kramnik, Aronian, Ivanchuk lead in Monaco

3/22/2007 – Tournament leader Vladimir Kramnik got an easy point in the blindfold game against Anand when the latter hung multiple pieces in round four. But after the rest and outing day Kramnik lost 1½:½ to Vasily Ivanchuk, allowing him and Levon Aronian to join him in the lead. Anand and Svidler are a point behind. Report.