The Talented Mr Agdestein

12/14/2005 – Simen Agdestein, 38, is Norway's strongest player, having won the national title a total of seven times. He was a grandmaster at 18 and runner-up in the World Junior Championship in 1986, ahead of Anand, Bareev and Piket. Simen also represented his country in football, playing for the A-team until a knee injury stopped this career. Now he is going for something new: ballroom dancing.

The XYZ of the Benko Gambit

12/13/2005 – Just before recording his new "ABC of the Benko Gambit" DVD our chess trainer Andrew Martin, in his Wednesday night Playchess lecture, takes a look at Cheparinov-Ivanchuk from the FIDE World Championship. Black faltered, but Martin has some interesting improvements. Tune in...

Bobby Fischer's life for sale – on eBay

12/13/2005 – When he dropped out of public view in the seventies, World Champion Bobby Fischer placed all of his most valuable belongings into a Pasadena storage unit. Some years ago the contents were sold off by the landlord, apparently in response to nonpayment of rent. Now the Fischer memorabilia have appeared on eBay. Reactions...

Aronian in the final – Winter in Khanty-Mansiysk

12/13/2005 – The only decisive game in the semifinals so far was Levon Aronian's victory over Etienne Bacrot. The Armenian GM proceeds to the final, while Ponomariov and Grischuk decide who faces him in the tiebreaks tomorrow. Gelfand beat Gurevich in the second group. Viktoria Abakumovskikh has sent us a lovely winter photo report.

Playchess on your cellphone

12/12/2005 – ChessBase is currently testing new software that gives you direct access to the Playchess.com server on your cellphone. You can log in, watch games, follow broadcasts, even play against other visitors. This is possible using our client software Fritz Mobile, which is in the test phase. Try it out – it's free.

Khanty-Mansiysk: First games in semifinals drawn

12/12/2005 – Both the semifinal games of the FIDE World Cup were drawn, one uneventfully and one with a bit of excitement. In the matches for the places 5-16 there were two decided encounters: Boris Gelfand beat Mikhail Gurevich by refuting his over-ambitious attack; and Konstantin Sakaev spoilt a very nice game against Dreev with a capital blunder. Report and interviews.

McShane vs Kotronias – Chess for Zebras

12/11/2005 – In his Monday night Playchess lecture Dennis Monokroussos, influenced by Jonathan Rowson's latest book, shows us a Trompowsky game in which goes above the call to generate something new and peculiar. Learn some "Tromp" theory, loosen up your categories.

Grischuk and Vallejo advance to round six

12/11/2005 – All rapid games in the fifth round tiebreaks in Khanty were drawn, so the final places for the next round were decided in blitz games. Alexander Grischuk won both of his against Gelfand to book his place in the semifinals, while Francisco Vallejo Pons beat Dutch champion Loek van Wely to advance in the fight for places 9-16. Report and games.

Gelfand defeats Grischuk, Kamsky and Malakhov win

12/10/2005 – In round five of the FIDE World Cup three games were drawn. Only Boris Gelfand of Israel outplayed the young Russian hopeful Alexander Grischuk, 15 years his junior, to take a full point. In the battle for places 9-16 Gata Kamsky and Vladimir Malakhov scored. Results and games.

Chess is Cool – podcast with Alexandra Kosteniuk

12/10/2005 – Podcasting is essentially the Internet version of radio on demand, a method of distributing audio programs which users can replay at will on their computers, MP3 players or even cellphones. There are over 25,000 podcasts currently available, on countless subjects. Chess grandmaster Alexandra Kosteniuk provides us with fresh chess content. Go listen.

The Beer Sheva Chess Club

12/10/2005 – The city of Beer Sheva in Israel boasts a higher percentage of GMs per capita – one for every 22,875 residents – than any other city in the world. Recently it paid host to the World Team Championship, which was highly appropriate, since it is home to Eliahu Levant’s famous Beer Sheva Chess Club. Here's the story.

Making sense of the FIDE cycle

12/10/2005 – Why, many of our readers have asked, are eight players who got knocked out in round four of the World Cup in Khanty-Mansiysk still playing in the tournament? What, they want to know, is the point? Has it something to do with the 2007 FIDE world championship cycle? It most certainly does. Jeff Sonas explains in meticulous detail. Please concentrate.

Ponomariov, Bacrot, Aronian through

12/10/2005 – Three players went through to the semi-final stage of the FIDE World Cup three, while Grischuk fought back to even his loss against Gelfand in game one. Magnus Carlsen beat Joel Lautier in the second group, Kamsky was successful over Sakaev, as was Malakhov over Dreev. Full illustrated report.

Eco and distributed computing

12/10/2005 – Is chess mathematically solvable? It's an idea which has been bounced around on computer chess message boards for years. Can a chessplaying program find a forced win for either player? Can a chess engine even find an advantage after twenty moves in a specific variation? We crunch some numbers and melt a few calculators in this week's ChessBase Workshop.

Bareev defeats Carlsen, Bacrot KO's Lautier

12/9/2005 – For young Magnus Carlsen (picture) the rocket ship ride in Khanty-Mansiysk has come to a tragic end. In the tiebreaks against Evgeny Bareev he turned a lovely win into a traumatic loss. The French civil war was duly won by Etienne Bacrot. Levon Aronian eliminated Vallejo Pons, Boris Gelfand ground down Alexey Dreev. Report and games.

Fritz 9 wins German Game Developer Award

12/9/2005 – Normally these prizes are given to fast-paced action-packed PC and console games. But this year one of the prizes went to a chess program. Fritz 9 received an award in the category "innovative technology" for its realtime generation of music and the animation of the Chess Turk. Congratulations.

The surealistic art of chess

12/9/2005 – Chess has inspired many artists, who are fascinated by the endless imagery of board and piece. Here is one who gives chess art a surreal twist. ARTitsa produces pictures on canvas that illustrate the imaginative and metaphorical aspects of the game. How about a Dali-like chess picture to replace that boring Monet? Samples.

Dieter Nisipeanu in the Heart of Transylvania

12/8/2005 – It is a place we normally associate with a certain fanged count, but the province of Transylvania has its own authentic heroes. Like Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu, the reigning European champion, who paid the area a visit and spent a very intense day visiting the historical places and playing a 40-board simul. Big illustrated report.

Grischuk, Rublevsky, Ponomariov win

12/7/2005 – With the FIDE World Chess Cup down to 16 players things are becoming tense. In the first half of round four Rublevsky and Ponomariov defeated Sakaev and van Wely with the black pieces, while Alexander Grischuk (picture) did the same, brutally, to Gata Kamsky with white. 15-year-old Magnus Carlsen is still going strong. Full report.

Grischuk, Rublevsky, Ponomariov advance in Khanty

12/7/2005 – Five games of the FIDE World Chess Cup in Khanty-Mansyisk go into the tiebreak on Thursday, with only the winners of yesterday's first game going through to the next round. Grischuk took Kamsky to the brink of a 2-0 shut-out, while Ruslan Ponomariov did exactly that to Dutch champion Loek van Wely. Report and games.

The Portuguese Gambit or Jadoul Variation

12/6/2005 – This opening, which starts with 1.e4 d5 2.exd5 Nf6 3.d4 Bg4?!, has an enthusiastic worldwide following. In his Wednesday night Playchess lecture chess trainer Andrew Martin will tell us whether all the fuss is justified. He will also look at a popular response to 1.d4 and review an excellent new book. Tune in...

FIDE to charge $1 million for a presential bid

12/6/2005 – In an interview with Sport Express Kirsan Ilyumzhinov has revealed a startling plan to force any challenger during the May 2006 FIDE presidential election to put up $1 million for the privilege of running. He also reveals an equally revolutionary new plan for the World Chess Championship. First protests are already in.

FIDE World Cup Round 3.2

12/5/2005 – Even Emil Sutovsky is feeling the heat. All but five of the sixteen matches are headed to rapid and blitz tiebreaks. Three players won back on the second day, but one favorite, Shirov, is on the way home thanks to Mikhail Gurevich. Maybe appearing on the homepage here is a good luck charm? Report and photos from Siberia.

FIDE World Cup Round 3.3 - Tiebreaks

12/5/2005 – The cull continues in Khanty-Mansyisk. 128 has now become 16. No sudden death was needed and most of the eleven tiebreak sessions were over after the rapid games. Almost all the favorites are through, joined by a 15-year-old prodigy and an American former prodigy on the comeback trail. 4th round pairings and all results here.