IM Bryon Nickoloff (1956 – 2004)

8/7/2004 – In 1999 doctors told Bryon Nickoloff that he had cancer and less than six months to live. But the well-known Canadian IM survived for five years, playing strong chess tournaments to the very end. His last game was at the Canadian Open in July, where he defeated his opponent with the black pieces. Bryon passed away on August 3rd. Frank Dixon remembers one of Canada's best.

Chess Classic 2004: Carmen in Mainz

8/6/2004 – She is one of the top ten earning super-models in the world, and a "kick-ass" chess player. And the President of the Estonian Chess Federation. Carmen Kass is the star guest at the Chess Classic, where she took on the chess champs in blitz games. (Oh, yes, Anand scored in his Rapid Chess match against Shirov). Here's the Carmen Kass story...

Dortmund 2004: A pictorial farewell

8/6/2004 – The Dortmund Super-GM is over, most of the players have migrated to Mainz to play in the Chess Classic., and there still remains a lot to show and tell. Like many unpublished pictures, or the press conference held by ACP president Joel Lautier, outlining the plan of the professional chess organisation. Here's our final Dortmund report.

Chess Classic 2004: A change of pace

8/5/2004 – Unlike Dortmund, the Mainz Chess Classic, which begins today, propagates faster and unusual forms of chess. There are Rapid and Fischer Random matches between world-class GMs, and Opens for Rapid and Random games. And lots more, as you can find out in our Chess Classic Guide...

Fritz middlegame trainer: attacking chess

8/3/2004 – Nearly everyone loves attacking chess, but few of us are good at it. Mainly because we don't know how to establish the prerequisites for an attack. IM Jacob Aagaard shows us how to create winning attacks in his new CD series Fritz Middlegame Trainer: Attacking Chess. Tear off the shrink-wrap and take a sneak peek at this two CD set in this week's ChessBase Workshop.

Maria Manakova in Speed

8/2/2004 – She is a full-fledged women's chess grandmaster, who recently scored 5/7 for her club at the European Club Cup in Crete. Maria has also become something of a sex symbol in the chess world. In a recent interview she spoke frankly about sex and chess, and also posed for the cover of a Russian rag magazine. We bring you the interview and pictures...

Morozevich clinches Biel with a 2863 performance

8/2/2004 – Alexander Morozevich won the Biel Chess Festival with some dazzling chess and a 2863 performance. India's Sasikiran also played with imagination and enterprise. We bring you games and results from the men's and women's groups in this pictorial report by Thomas Pähtz.

Dortmund Final 1: Battle Royal!

8/1/2004 – Vishy Anand was closing in for the kill but Vlady Kramnik had been saving his best for last. The first game of the final was drawn after a sensational defense by Kramnik. The only win of the day was scored by Naiditsch, his fourth in a row. The event concludes Sunday. Report, photos, and analysis

Capablanca vs Marshall reassessed

8/1/2004 – In the second part of his lecture on the Marshall Gambit (or the Ruy Lopez) our Playchess trainer GM Boris Alterman looks at a historical game between Capablanca and Marshall. It has been debated for 50 years, with changing assessments. Boris will present some remarkable discoveries he made during his work on tonight's lecture on Playchess.com.

Dortmund concludes: Vishy Anand Victorious

8/1/2004 – Anand picked up his first Dortmund trophy by crushing Vladimir Kramnik's Sicilian in their second rapid tiebreak game. It was a draw-filled tournament but in the end it found a deserving winner and the four top seeds on top. Svidler downed Leko in rapids to take third place. Naiditsch and Bologan won their consolation matches. Games and report.

Better is...

7/31/2004 – Hot-tempered people are said to have "a short fuse". In this week's ChessBase Workshop you'll see why Steve Lopez is slamming his chess book collection off the walls as he rants about standard chess clichés. Better skip this column if you're easily offended or are humor-challenged

Modern ways of playing the Sicilian

7/30/2004 – Why do chess players choose certain lines for their openings repertoire? Logic, pragmatism and brute statistics have a minor role in their choice. We usually opt for a line because it reflects our personality. Aryan Argandewal shows us how a ChessBase Openings CD could reach him...

Dortmund Semis 2: Anand and Kramnik reach final

7/30/2004 – It hasn't exactly followed an exciting script, but in true Hollywood fashion we get a happy ending anyway. Both semifinal games were drawn. Anand-Leko and Kramnik-Svidler both drew the rapid games and went to blitz tiebreaks. The world's #2 and #3 will face off in the final starting Saturday. Report and photos.

Girls and boys at the European championship

7/30/2004 – The European Youth Chess Championship is under way in Ürgüp, Turkey. The town is filled with 670 players and 600 parents, from a total of 39 countries. There are groups for under 10, 12, 14, 16 and 18, with separate sections for boys and girls. Games, results, pictures and videos are provided by the official web site...

Dortmund Semis 1: Semifinals begin with draws

7/30/2004 – The preliminaries are over and the mini-match phase has begun. Anand played a short draw against Leko. Svidler drew against Kramnik after suffering for a long time in the Grunfeld. In the consolation tourney for 5th-8th Naiditsch won his second straight game by doing what Kramnik and Leko could not. He beat Karjakin. Games and report.

North Urals Cup – Ladies super-tournament

7/29/2004 – One of the strongest women's tournaments of all time is being held in the central Russian city of Krasnoturinsk, with the current and former world champions, and chess legend Boris Spassky speaking at the openings ceremony. We bring you games, results and a spectacular picture report.

Dazzling Morozevich dominates Biel again

7/29/2004 – If Dortmund has been making you drowsy it's time to take a caffeinated drink of the Biel supertournament. Just like last year, Alexander Morozevich won first place with a round to play. Krishnan Sasikiran has locked up second. Few draws, many spectacular games, what more could you want? Photos, report, and analysis.

Fischer's appeal rejected

7/28/2004 – Bobby Fischer's appeal against his deportation was rejected today by Japanese authorities. Meanwhile the Icelandic Chess Federation has appealed to US president Bush to pardon Fischer and set up a petition web site to collect signatures. In Tokyo a "Free Fischer Press Conference" is scheduled for Thursday. More...

Kasim and Playchess in Uzbekistan

7/28/2004 – Where is Rustam Kasimdzhanov? Normally he lives in Germany, but we could not reach him there. So we contacted our friends in Uzbekistan, who confirmed: Kasim is paying the country of his birth a visit. And receiving a hero's welcome. Jamshid Begmatov tells us about this and about his Playchess adventure on Uzbek TV...

Nigel Short takes Tai Yuan

7/27/2004 – After a bad spell the English Super-GM with a sometimes rating of 2700 has struck again, winning the GM tournament in Tai Yuan a full point ahead of the field. We called Nigel to ask him about this splendid victory, and also discuss some of the other events that are enthralling chess fans at the current time. Here's a transcript of the conversation.

Dortmund R6: Anand, Svidler, Kramnik, Leko

7/27/2004 – Anand was already through, Svidler clinched it with a sixth-round draw against Anand. In Group two once again all games were drawn, leaving all players tied at 3.0/6 points. In the rapid chess (10 min + 5 sec) tiebreak Kramnik and Leko were successful and progress to the semifinals. For now we bring you results, games and pictures.

When Bush was V.P. and Ljubo was king

7/26/2004 – From the mid-70s through the early 90s there was a non-Russian player who was incredibly dynamic and creative, thriving in imbalanced, tactical positions with a strength very few of his peers could match. Our online trainer Dennis Monokroussos looks at a 1985 gem of a game by Ljubomir Ljubojevic.

Dortmund R5: Anand and Svidler make their moves

7/26/2004 – Would somebody in Group 1 go wake up the guys in Group 2? Anand and Svidler beat Rublevsky and Naiditsch while Group 2 was again all draws. Where do you go for analysis when the #2 and #3 players in the world are in action? To #1, of course! We also bring you a behind-the-scenes pictorial report by Olena Boytsun

Alterman on the Marshall Attack

7/25/2004 – One of the world’s first Grandmasters of chess, America’s Frank J. Marshall (1877-1944), left behind a lasting legacy to the chess world with his revered gambit against the Ruy Lopez – the Marshall Attack. Boris Alterman looks at Marshall's revolutionary idea in his Sunday night online lecture.