12/14/2004 – US champion Hikaru Nakamura's first event as US champion has been a big success. With victory in game five he won his match against Ukraine's Sergey Karjakin with a game to spare. The match has been a slugfest and the only draw was perhaps the most exciting game of the match! Photos and analysis.

12/12/2004 – Are you attracted to the King's Indian Defense, but tired of dealing with tons of theory in the main lines, or still not sure what to do about the Bayonet Attack? Well fear not: this week's Playchess.com lecture Dennis Monokroussos offers a sound way around those problems! Details...

12/11/2004 – When Hikaru Nakamura won the US Championship this week he didn't go to Disneyworld. Instead he went to Mexico to play a match against Ukrainian star Sergey Karjakin. Nakamura just turned 17 and Karjakin is a month shy of 15. The six-game match started with two wins by the US champ. Report and photos.

12/11/2004 – Due to their dynamism, blitz tournaments are always fascinating. Instant duel, instant bloodshed! But when you organize it in the vicinity of the Kremlin, with supertalents like Morozevich, Rublevsky, Vlad Tkachiev and Sasha Grischuk, suddenly the event becomes a global spectacle. Here's a report with lots of pictures.

12/10/2004 – The Russian Championship has been over for some time now. We all know the result and, of course, Garry Kasparov's remarkable +5 victory. "He utilized his pit-stops better than his opponents, he changed his tires early on," writes Misha Savinov, who was in Moscow and sent us this illustrated report.

12/10/2004 – The first medal in US women's team history has reached home shores to fanfare from coast to coast. This week they were welcomed in New York by the state's Governor, George Pataki. In the evening there was a media reception. Both events included the team's special trainer, Garry Kasparov. Report and beautiful photos.

12/9/2004 – The Chess Media System feature of ChessBase 9 and the Fritz family of playing programs allows instructors to provide video chess instruction in a more engaging manner than standard chess videos by using fully animated chessboards. The latest entry in the Fritz Trainer series is Andrew Martin's DVD The ABC of the Ruy Lopez. In this week's ChessBase Workshop, we tear off the shrinkwrap to bring you details on our latest chess DVD release. Workshop...

12/7/2004 – As we reported recently, FIDE was preparing to cancel its plans to hold the reunification match between Garry Kasparov and Rustam Kasimdzhinov, scheduled for January 14, 2005, in Dubai, UAE, and to make arrangements to stage it in Turkey instead. Now FIDE confirms that negotiations with Dubai have indeed been terminated.

12/7/2004 – On the Wednesday evening lecture live on Playchess.com in our Glasgow Chess Radio, IMs Jacob Aagaard & John Shaw will again discuss current events in chess. This includes the events at the recently completed US Championship 2005.

12/6/2004 – Hikaru Nakamura, a teenage ace from White Plains, NY, beat Alex Stripunsky for the US championship title and $25,000 in prize money. With that Hikaru became the youngest winner of the 159-year-old title since Bobby Fischer.The women's section was won by Rusudan Goletiani. Here are the results, games and lots of pictures in our final report.

12/5/2004 – Why did a man who looks disconcertingly like Arnold Schwarzenegger visit a beautiful soccer model last weekend? For a chess lesson he had won in a competition? During a trip to a tiny island off the German coast? Which the British had tried to blow up with 6800 tons of explosives? Even if you don't believe this convoluted tale, at least enjoy the pictures...

12/4/2004 – After eight rounds at the 2005 US Championship in San Diego Alex Stripunsky and 17-year-old Hikaru Nakamura are in the lead. We bring you results and games, but also a something special: a set of twelve positions from this event which you can print out and use to hone your tactical skills.