Chess Olympiad: Chess and Culture

5/16/2006 – The 37th Chess Olympiad will be an event full of chess, and full of cultural activities related to the game. Chess and Music, Chess and Theatre, Chess and Cinema – these are some of the themes of the Olympiad. The games themselves will be broadcast on the Internet, with GM Yasser Seirawan doing highlight commentary and interviews.

Election 06: Leong's call for unity and compromise

5/16/2006 – Ignatius Leong of is the long-serving General Secretary of FIDE and part of the Kirsan Ilyumzhinov reelection campaign. Now the Singapore-based Leong has published a "call for unity", in which he proposes merging the two presidential tickets into one, with Ilyumzhinov as Chairman and Bessel Kok as President. The latter has replied to Leong's proposal and has respectfully declined.

MTel R4 Express: Anand wins, Kamsky on the rampage

5/15/2006 – After his shock defeat at the hands of Gata Kamsky, Indian star Vishy Anand came back strongly today with a win against former FIDE world champion Ruslan Ponomariov. Meanwhile US GM Kamsky chalked up a 24-move win against Peter Svidler to stay in the lead. Games and wrap-up.

Elections 2006: Chess Infidelity!

5/15/2006 – Kirsan Ilyumzhinov is claiming 70 votes in his election campaign to remain FIDE President. His challenger Bessel Kok has 37. But there is a massive qualitative difference between the rock solid endorsements received by his Right Move and the bogus claims of "Chess Infidelity", the FIDE side, says Kok. The two are as different as chalk and cheese.

MTel Round 3 analysis by GM Mihail Marin

5/14/2006 – Lowest seed Gata Kamsky shocked chess fans all over the world by beating Vishy Anand, 132 points his superior. And he did it with the black pieces. If you want to know what transpired in that and the other two games you are welcome to replay the highly instructive commentary by Mihail Marin.

Christiansen vs Wojtkeiewicz in Fischer's Variation

5/14/2006 – Larry M. Christiansen, born on June 27, 1956, was U.S. junior champion in 1973, 1974, and 1975, senior champion in 1980, 1983, and 2002. His playing style is aggressive and tactical. In his Monday night Playchess lecture Dennis Monokroussos shows us a memorable effort in Fischer's 6.Bc4 variation. Be there, watch it.

MTel R3 Express: Cowboy beats Indian to take the lead

5/14/2006 – We can't think of many taller orders in the chess world than beating a hot Vishy Anand with black, but that's just what Gata Kamsky did. In two games against Anand since making his comeback, Kamsky is two for two. The American's win also put him in the clear lead with 2.5/3 when the other games were drawn. Games and wrap-up.

MTel R2 analysis by GM Mihail Marin

5/13/2006 – A close look at the bloody third round by our star Grandmaster annotator, Romania's Mihail Marin. In-depth analysis of Kamsky-Bacrot, Topalov-Anand, and Svidler-Ponomariov. Dozens of diagrams, PGN download, and online replay are all just a click away. Don't miss it.

Alexandra Kosteniuk in Penthouse

5/13/2006 – This is not something you will want to miss: chess beauty Alexandra Kosteniuk, number three female chess player in the world, has been given a full four-page spread in the American Penthouse Magazine (May 2006 issue). "All the right moves" is the title of the beautifully illustrated article by Dave Hollander. Quick, go get a copy!

MTel R2: Anand beats Topalov with black

5/12/2006 – This is going to be an exciting event for sure. In round two Anand traumatised the Bulgarian nation by beating their hero, FIDE world champion Veselin Topalov, with the black pieces. And very convincingly too. Peter Svidler defeated Ruslan Ponomariov; Kamsky beat Bacrot in an endgame scramble. Games and summary.

MTel R1: Anand beats Bacrot

5/12/2006 – Vishy Anand has won his first game, from the black side of a Queens Indian Petrosian. The other two games, Peter Svidler vs Veselin Topalov and Ruslan Ponomariov against Gata Kamsky, were drawn. Now with pictures and full annotations by GM Mihail Marin!

Editing player names in ChessBase 9

5/12/2006 – A potential problem with using chess data gathered from multiple sources (especially online ones) is the non-standardization of player names in the game headers. The good news is that ChessBase 9 provides you with the tools you need to help you standardize these miscellaneous spellings and clean up your database's Player Index. Learn how (and why) to do it in the latest ChessBase Workshop.

Tuticorin tournament – faked or flawed?

5/11/2006 – Last September there was a 153-player Swiss Open in Tuticorin, Tamilnadu state, India. The results were submitted and duly rated by FIDE. Only problem: a number of participants listed in the results had never set a foot in Tuticorin or played in the event. Most had names beginning with an "A", some of them are even retired. Fake event or a screw-up with submission?

M-Tel Masters starts today

5/11/2006 – Topalov, Anand, Svidler, Ponomariov, Bacrot and Kamsky, with an average Elo of is 2747, are taking part in this category 20 double round robin tournament from May 11–21 in Sofia, Bulgaria. As in last year's M-Tel they are not allowed to offer draws. Players and schedule.

$16,000 up for grabs in computer-assisted play

5/11/2006 – The Third PAL/CSS Freestyle Chess Tournament on the Playchess server is coming up in June, once again with a substantial prize fund. This time the time controls for our Advanced Chess competition have been increased to 60 min. + 15 sec., in order to give the human component more opportunity for analysis. Like to play? It's lots of fun!

Elections 2006: Does democracy work in FIDE?

5/11/2006 – A recent article published on our news page asked "Who controls FIDE?" and led to vigorous debate in chess circles all over the world. One article we received was from a 17-year veteran of FIDE elections, IM David Levy. In the next days we will bring you a number of articles and comments from all sides of the spectrum. Here for today is Levy's opinion.

Alexei Shirov: My Best Games in the Spanish

5/11/2006 – There are few grandmaster who enjoy the popularity of this man. Born in 1972, he has obviously inherited the uncompromising attacking style of his latvian compatriot Mihail Tal. Alexei Shirov has been delighting chess fans for over a decade. Now he adds teaching chess to his repertoire. Come watch and listen.

Election 2006: A lesson in democracy

5/11/2006 – Yuriy Vasiliev is a journalist working for "Sport-Express Daily" in Moscow. In recent months he has thrown his full support to the Kirsan Ilyumzhinov re-election effort, writing a series of articles for the campaign web site. Recently he reacted to an article that appeared on our news pages, using George Orwell's "Animal Farm" to defend the FIDE electoral system of one-country-one-vote.

Fedorchuk, Sargissian, Petrosian win 8th Dubai Open

5/10/2006 – This year's Sheikh Rashid Bin Hamdan Al Maktoum’s Cup boasted 22 grandmasters, 19 IMs and 40 FIDE titled players in a field of 146. A Ukrainian and two Armenians took the lion's share of the $40,000 total cash prizes. A number of young players made IM or WGM norms. Illustrated report.

Inside the World Championship

5/9/2006 – Have you ever wondered what exactly goes through the minds of the players at the highest level of chess? What the tactics are when the tension is high, what they see, how they plan. On Wednesday night our Playchess lecturer Andrew Martin tells it with two games between Petrosian and Spassky.

Timman wins Sigeman 2006

5/9/2006 – We are always delighted when a very young player wins a tournament. For some reason this is also the case when the oldest player is victorious. That was the case in Malmö, Sweden, when Dutch chess legend Jan Timman, 54 years young, finished a full point ahead of the field (performance: 2762). Games and pictures.

Wilhelm Steinitz, the trailblazer

5/8/2006 – He was the first official World Champion, but Wilhelm Steinitz often doesn't receive the honor he's due. In his Monday night Playchess lecture Dennis Monokroussos show you how the 59-year-old defeated world champion Emanuel Lasker in the 1895/96 St. Petersburg tournament. A remarkably energetic effort.

Knight Magnus defeats King Loek

5/8/2006 – Last week's match between Magnus Carlsen and Loek Van Wely saw all the elements of a battle placed in both a medieval and modern context. The Little Big Man from Norway won the tiebreak, to the delight of the small Dutch village Schagen, also known as "Magnus City". We bring you a big pictorial report by Frits Agterdenbos.

Nigel's sub-Saharan chess tour

5/6/2006 – Recently former world championship challenger Nigel Short toured southern Africa, a trip that stirred up some resentment in one of the countries he visited. But mostly it was a rousing success in an area where grandmasters are a seldom seen species. From South Africa we received this lovely report by Jackie Ngubeni.