Women's World Championship

5/25/2004 – With the controversy around venue and security in the past, the games finally began in Elista, Kalmykia. The top seeds started strong, all moving into the second round. The second round concludes tomorrow. The savvy veterans are going to have their hands full with the teenagers soon enough.

Alexey Dreev leads in Russian Championship

5/25/2004 – The qualifiers for the 57th Russian Championship have started, in St Petersburg and Tomsk. GM Alexei Dreev is in the lead with a perfect 4/4 score. The winners go on to play in a super-final in September with Kasparov, Kramnik, Karpov and Svidler. There the prize is $300,000. Details...

Kasparov blood-curdling testimony

5/25/2004 – We know him as an fear-inspiring player on the chess board, but in the political arena Garry Kasparov also remains true to his nature. Brave, outspoken, even incautious, he'll express his view without fear of consequences. You can see this in his article in the Wall Street Journal and his powerful statement to the Human Rights commission in Washington. Here are excerpts and links.

The Mysterious Minority Attack

5/24/2004 – Cross your heart, do you know what the Minority Attack really is? How it works and what role the "Karlsbad formation" plays? Let our online trainer Dennis Monokroussos unravel its mysteries so you can use it with ruthless efficiency in your games. Today Dennis starts his two-part lecture.

Alterman on the Morphy Attack

5/23/2004 – He never lost a tempo, the center was focal point of his strategy. When he had a development advantage he would smash open the position for a crushing attack. "His mastery of open positions was so vast that little new has been learned about such positions after him," wrote Botvinnik. On Sunday GM Boris Alterman lectures on the 'Morphy Attack', on Monday you can play in a simul against him. Details...

Bikini chess championship in Ukraine

5/23/2004 – The Ukraine Women's Championship 2004 was held in the beautiful Black Sea resort of Alushta. It brought us dazzling chess – and dazzling pictures of young women grandmasters and IMs in beachside circumstances. We remain eternally indebted to the tournament winner and new Ukraine women's champion Olga Alexandrova for sending us this pictorial report.

Chess in a library – Dutch team playoff

5/22/2004 – Last year it was held in a casino, this year in a library. You decide which is more appropriate for the playoffs for the Dutch Team Championship, which involves the four highest-placed teams with top GMs participating. We bring you the results, all the games and a pictorial report...

The Giuoco Piano

5/21/2004 – In this week's ChessBase Workshop, ChessBase columnist Steve Lopez hits a "mid-life chess crisis" but finds the antidote in an unexpected form. Read his preview of the new opening training CD The Giuoco Piano by Reinhold Ripperger in the new ChessBase Workshop.

Pono's plan – a new proposal for unity

5/20/2004 – A week ago Garry Kasparov made some interesting remarks on how he would go about unifying the world championship title. Some days later Yasser Seirawan chipped in with his own ideas on the format. Now another key player has submitted his views on the subject or unification. Here is FIDE champion Ruslan Ponomariov' proposal.

Benefit simul by Alexandra and Yannick

5/18/2004 – To promote the 37th Biel Chess Festival (July 17–30) two of the stars, European women's champion Alexandra Kosteniuk and top Swiss GM Yannick Pelletier gave a simultaneous exhibition for children – free of charge. We bring you an illustrated report and, for your bedroom wall, some exciting pinup pictures.

Kasparov visits Italy and revisits St. Petersburg

5/18/2004 – The super-tournament in St. Petersburg 1914 saw the 45-year-old world champion Emanuel Lasker inflict a terrible blow on a young contender for his title, Akiba Rubinstein. Garry Kasparov, who dealt with this game in his highly successful book "My Great Predecessors", revisits the historic encounter with fresh analysis.

Chess in the City

5/16/2004 – On Friday we attended the press conference for the ChinaCom.com French-American Women's Chess Championship. The Russian Samovar in New York City will host the September match between Almira Skripchenko and Irina Krush. We survived the media blitz to bring you interviews and a full photo report.

Monokroussos on the Great Dane Larsen

5/16/2004 – Now essentially retired, Bent Larsen was one of the very best players in the world from the early 60s through the early 80s. In Monday's audio broadcast Dennis Monokroussos shows us examples of Larsen's "non-traditional understanding" of the game. Details...

Explosive start to chess championship in Turkey

5/16/2004 – European Individual Chess Championship in Antalya started with a bang – literally. At midnight before the first round an energy building, 100 metres from the hotel, exploded! The fire was extinguished and technicians rushed in to get everything ready for the chess games, scheduled to start 13 hours later. We have pictures...

The Fried Liver Attack

5/16/2004 – It started out as the 'Chigorin Counter Attack', and great credit for developing the theory and practice of the Two Knights Defence must go to the old masters. On Sunday GM Boris Alterman tells us all about the most aggressive attacking lines in this opening. Details...

A new plan for unification

5/16/2004 – The man behind the Prague Agreement for the unification of the world chess championship title, Yasser Seirawan, recently told us about the background of its failure. He was subsequently criticised by Kasparov, and today replies with a new constructive proposal to resolve the mess in the chess world. Read about it in this open letter to Garry Kasparov.

World Chess Politics – a review

5/14/2004 – As everybody knows the world of chess is in strife. On a daily basis we receive articles, communiqués and press releases from antagonist parties. A lot of new material has accumulated in our files. Since nobody can be expected to read it all we provide, as an additional service, brief summaries of all documents.

Classical Chess World Championship announced

5/13/2004 – In a beautifully-staged press conference in Hamburg, the Swiss Tobacco manufacturer Dannemann today formally announced the staging of the "First Classical World Chess Championship after four years" between Vladimir Kramnik and Peter Leko. We bring a keynote statement by ACP president Joel Lautier in our pictorial report.

Nielsen, Hansen win, fourth GM norm for Carlsen

5/13/2004 – Top Nordic players and a few foreigners battled it out in the Sigeman Tournament in Malmo. The two top Danish grandmasters decided the outcome in the last round. Trailing half a point behind the two was a Norwegian chess prodigy. Here's a pictorial report.

Time to register – Third ACP Internet event

5/12/2004 – After the very exciting ACP Inaugural (78 participants, 54 GMs, 22 rated over 2600) and the first Women's Internet Tournament the ACP is staging a third Internet tournament for its members. It is sponsored by ChinaCom and will be hosted on the Playchess.com server from May 31 to June 5th. Here are all the details...

The Match of the Generations

5/11/2004 – Jonathan Pein, member of the Wood Green Chess Club in London, is five years old. His club comrade Philip Gelman is 102 – the only serious chess player in the UK older than the chess federation. To celebrate the 100th anniversary of the British Chess Federation the two played a match against each other. Guess who won...

Garry Kasparov on the record

5/11/2004 – FIDE is moving ahead with their knock-out world chess championship in Libya. Tomorrow is a press conference for the Kramnik-Leko world championship. Ponomariov is writing letters of protest. The ACP is criticizing FIDE. The name Kasparov is often mentioned but only now is the world's top-ranked player speaking out, and only here at ChessBase. Mig Greengard got on the phone to Moscow and brings sound and fury.

USCF, Israeli GM protest FIDE decisions

5/10/2004 – The President of the United States Chess Federation has expressed "grave concern over the FIDE Presidential Board's recent mismanagement of its responsibilities", citing FIDE's accounts, which are in grave arrears, and especially the decision to hold the world championship in Libya. The latter is of grave concern to Israeli players. Here are all the details...

Mysterious and annoying – the Berlin Defence

5/9/2004 – Few openings strike terror into the heart of a chess fan like the Berlin Defense. It is mysterious and annoying to many players, and if we play and understand the Berlin, and our opponents play natural, normal moves, we will have excellent winning chances! Find out all about it in Dennis Monokroussos' audio Playchess lecture.