Ilyumzhinov: reunification with or without Kasparov

2/16/2005 – Reunification is still on track, the match in Turkey will go ahead, for an increased prize sum of $1.65 million. That was the gist of a press conference held by FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov in Moscow yesterday. He has given Garry Kasparov a deadline until February 26 to agree to the conditions, otherwise another player will replace him.

Susan Polgar in Lifestyles Magazine

2/15/2005 – The former women's world champion is rapidly becoming America's biggest chess asset, an ambassador, patron and promoter of the game. In a long article Lifestyles Magazine describes her chess activities, her personality, views and, well, her lifestyle in general. We bring you excerpts, links and pictures from the photoshoot.

ChessBase 9's material balance display

2/15/2005 – According to Jeremy Silman, imbalances are the keys to understanding chess positions. That's why ChessBase products don't provide a mere "captured pieces" display -- they display the material balance of what remains on the board. Find out how to use this valuable feature in our latest ChessBase Workshop.

World championship of tournament chess

2/14/2005 – That is what Garry Kasparov once called the Linares super-GM, which begins in a week, featuring the world's numbers one, two and three. In his Monday night Playchess lecture Dennis Monkroussos whets our appetite for this event with one of Kasparov's most important wins.

Over 120 Grandmasters at Aeroflot Open 2005

2/14/2005 – It starts tomorrow, at 3 p.m. Moscow time = 13:00h European Central, 07:00h NY, the strongest Open in the world, with 515 confirmed participants, 123 of them Grandmasters. The games will be played in Europe's biggest hotel, the Rossja, in the center of Moscow, directly next to Red Square. You can watch the games live on the official site or on Playchess.com. Here are all the details.

The most aggressive chess program in the world

2/14/2005 – Chess programs are know for their tactical strength, their ability to outcalculate any human player. But there is one that is more aggressive than its colleagues, always searching for the most daring moves on the board. . Deep Junior is, according to Aryan Argandewal, perfect for sharpening your attacking style.

Breaking news: FIDE world championship in Ho Chi Minh City?

2/14/2005 – The Vietnam News Agency, Vietnamnet, is reporting that the 2005 World Chess Championship will be held at the end of the year in Ho Chi Minh City. "The National Committee for Sports and Physical Training and the HCMC People's Committee are organizing the event," writes the agency.

From Momentoo: Faces of Corus

2/12/2005 – During the Wijk aan Zee Chess Tournament players were periodically hijacked on their way to the hall, enticed into a special room. It was the photo studio of Fred Lucas, the photographer doing the visuals for the official web site. Remarkable work. Fred has selected twelve of his own favourites for a review of Wijk.

Mega Database 2005's Superkey

2/11/2005 – It's not just another key file -- in fact, we called Joachim Zunke's comprehensive new openings key the Superkey for good reason. See what makes this key different and learn how to use ChessBase 9 to navigate it in this week's ChessBase Workshop.

Women can compete

2/10/2005 – At the recent US Championship a historic event went almost unnoticed. Chouchanik Airapetian became the first woman ever to receive a gender neutral invitation to the event. "Shoushan" predicts that in five years a woman will win the overall US Championship!

Old world sophistication, not rampaging rooks

2/10/2005 – When a magazine like Game Chronicles reviews a nerdy chess program you would expect a gigantic yawn. "When I began playing Fritz 8, I figured a jeans and T-shirt guy like me would hate it," admits reviewer John DeWeese, who also tried out our children's tutor Fritz & Chesster. See how he fared...

Caligula in Moscow

2/10/2005 – Garry Kasparov has once again lashed out at the Russian government, accusing President Vladimir Putin of behavior akin to that of the Roman emperor who appointed his stallion Incitatus a Consul in the Roman Senate. Kasparov warns that the patience of the Russian people is wearing thin. No mincing of words by the world's strongest chessplayer in this Wall Street Journal article.

Harikrishna catches Gelfand in Bermuda

2/9/2005 – With a black win in the last round the young Indian talent Pentala Harikrishna was able catch Israeli GM Boris Gelfand, who had led for most of the t2005 Bermuda Invitational. The event was a six-player double round robin. We bring you games and pictures.

Cricket's fine, but no chess for Iraq

2/9/2005 – The votes are still being counted, but it looks like the Shia leader Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani will emerge as the big winner in Iraq. With the distinct possibility of an Islamic theocracy emerging, the Ayatollah's teachings on chess, cricket, music, earrings and a variety of other topics are being carefully studied by the Western press.

Will the world end on Kasparov's 66th birthday?

2/8/2005 – The answer is no, almost certainly not. That is the conclusion drawn by NASA last week, after conducting radar measurements with the Arecibo radio telescope in Puerto Rico. The chances of a birthday armageddon have sunk from 2.7% to virtually zero. Warning: the following article has very little chess content. And it is not for the faint-hearted...

John Shaw in the interrogation room

2/8/2005 – Having just returned from Gibraltar, IM John Shaw will be asked, live on Playchess.com by IM Jacob Aagaard, why oh why he sacrificed that rook against GM Sasikiran. Do not miss this edition of Glasgow 3rd floor Chess Radio directly from Scotland at 20.30 CET Wednesday evening.

Fundamentals of the Benoni structures

2/7/2005 – In last week's Monday night Playchess.com lecture Dennis Monokroussos showed us an exciting game from the early 1800s. This week he fast-forwards 83 years to an all-or-nothing world championship game between Alekhine and Bogoljubow. Instructive stuff...

Invitation to New York from Accoona

2/7/2005 – The final of the Accoona Women's Championship will be held on March 1st at the ABC Times Square Studios, NYC. You can watch the action on Playchess.com, but if you live in the area you invited to attend personally. Accoona has made 200 free tickets available to our newspage readers. Come and get them...

Miscellaneous options

2/6/2005 – Tweak, tweak, tweak -- doesn't this guy ever do anything else? In his never-ending quest to unearth and reveal underdocumented features, columnist Steve Lopez shows you how to add voice support (among other things) to ChessBase 9 in the latest installment of ChessBase Workshop.

Accoona Women's Championship in New York

2/5/2005 – The final of the Accoona Women's World Chess Championship will be held on March 1st at the ABC Times Square Studios in the heart of New York City. It is sponsored by a new and very ambitious search engine company, and will be introduced by Steve Forbes. Ladies, start your engines...

Five winners at the Gibraltar Masters

2/5/2005 – There were 120 participants in the top group of the Bibtele.com chess festival in the British enclave on the southern tip of Spain. The winners at 7.5/10 were Aronian, Efimenko, Kiril Georgiev, Shirov and Sutovsky, who each won £2300. Report...

The Story of a Chess Player

2/4/2005 – If you know the very modest perennial 2600+ GM Jaan Ehlvest, you might expect him to say something like "I used to be a good player." Certainly players on the American tournament circuit would have to say "he still is!" Now the Estonian GM has written a new book.

Ephraim Kishon, 1924 – 2005

2/4/2005 – He was one of the most popular satirists of all time, with over 50 books selling 43 million copies in 37 different languages. He was also a chess enthusiast who survived the Holocaust by playing games against a guard. He even designed his own chess computer. Ephraim Kishon died on January 29, 2005, aged 80. In memoriam...

Following the footsteps of Judit Polgar

2/3/2005 – At the Asian Junior Girls chess Championship at Bikaner, a 14-year-old Indian girl walked away with the silver medal. Harika Dronavalli, India's new mega-talent, has won more titles than anyone else in her age group. Chess arbiter and reporter Manmohan Harsh has interviewed her and describes her young chess career.