World Chess Solving Championship in Greece

8/31/2004 – The athletes have left, and now some of the finest minds in the world are collecting in Halkidiki, Greece, to solve direct, help and self mates, endgame studies and a host of other chess problems. Themis Argirakopoulos has sent us a comprehensive report on problem chess and even supplied samples to test your wits against the champions.

The Vladimir Kramnik Web Site

8/30/2004 – While classical chess world champion Vladimir Kramnik and his challenger Peter Leko have gone into seclusion, preparing for their match which starts in less than a month from now, the former has launched a new web site devoted to his biography, games, interviews and photos. More...

Alexander Morozevich’s coming-out party

8/30/2004 – He is gifted and idiosyncratic, one of the world's strongest active players. In 1995, at seventeen, he came out with a fine win against world championship challenger Vishy Anand. In his Monday night lecture our Playchess.com trainer Dennis Monokroussos discusses this extraordinary game.

Database searches

8/30/2004 – This week's ChessBase Workshop continues our series on database searches. The most common type of search involves the game header information. We explore the "Game data" tab of the search mask here.

Secrets of the Rauzer Attack

8/29/2004 – After finishing a couple of Variations in the Accelerated dragon, our GM trainer takes a look at one of the most important and most dangerous of White’s weapons – the Rauzer Attack! You can watch and listen to him live on the Playchess.com server in his Sunday night lecture.

Hydra unbeatable in Abu Dhabi

8/29/2004 – The super high-power match between a the multiple world champion chess program Shredder and a new 16-processor version of the hardware program Hydra ended in a 5.5:2.5 victory for the latter. Hydra also beat an Elo 2628 GM 3.5:0.5 in an informal match. Here is our final extensively illustrated report.

Najdorf syndrome and the secret of the Filipinos

8/27/2004 – The 1st Dato’ Arthur Tan Malaysian Open Chess Championship 2004 was held from the 21st to the 26th of August Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. First prize was taken by China's whiz kid GM Ni Hua (the total prize fund was US $12,000), ahead of Australia's GM Ian Rogers. Edwin Lam reports.

Morovic wins tournament, Anand wins exhibition

8/27/2004 – For his third tournament victory in a month Vishy Anand closed out the Desafio de Xadrez in Sao Paulo, Brazil in impressive fashion. By winning his last five games he ran his score to a tremendous 8.5/10, three points ahead of Morovic. No one else could manage a plus score. We have games, report, and photos from Brazil.

Listen to Bobby Fischer

8/26/2004 – In emotional phone calls from his detention cell in Tokyo ex world champion Bobby Fischer gave a Philippine radio station two lengthy interviews. Fischer is facing deportation and incarceration in the US, and voices his nightmare fears: "I will be tried, convicted, sentenced, imprisoned, tortured and murdered." We have summary transcripts and audio files.

Chess for Girls gets a boost in America

8/25/2004 – The inaugural Susan Polgar National Invitational for Girls in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, saw the winner earning a four-year full tuition and fees scholarship to the University of Texas at Dallas, worth up to $40,000 plus incentives! This is what professional management can do for chess. Illustrated report...

Database basics - part 1

8/24/2004 – In the new ChessBase Workshop, columnist Steve Lopez gets back to basics with the first entry in a new series on how to use chess databases to improve your own chess skills. In our first installment, we examine what a database is and why using one as part of your chess study is important. More...

Dramatic moments around Fischer's deportation

8/24/2004 – First the Japanese Justice Minister Daizo Nozawa issued a deportation order against former world champion Bobby Fischer's, then Fischer's lawyers filed a lightning appeal on the grounds that physical deportation would be a flagrant violation of Fischer's right to full legal recourse and protection under Japanese law. Here's the full story by Fischer's legal coordinator.

Anand demolishing field in Sao Paulo

8/23/2004 – Yawn. Another week, another win for Viswanathan Anand. The Indian star has it on cruise control in Brazil at the Desafio de Xadrez. For Anand that means winning three in a row including a victory over Karpov. At least the race for second place is interesting! Games and report.

Anand leads Desafio in Brazil

8/22/2004 – Advertised as the first time Anand, Kasparov, and Karpov have appeared together in Latin America. Anand and Karpov are playing in a rapid tournament with Brazil's best. Kasparov is there giving a simul and launching the Brazilian edition of his latest Predecessor book. Results and analysis.

Alterman on the Accelerated Dragon 2

8/22/2004 – In Sunday's Playchess lecture GM Boris Alterman continues on the subject of the Maroczy Bind in the Accelerated Dragon. After the moves 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 g6 he advocates that White should "send out the infantry (the pawns) – the expendable cannon fodder –- to gain ground. Only then bring in the important warriors." Find out how...

All about the Hydra chess project

8/22/2004 – Games 5+6 of the Hydra-Shredder match in the Abu Dhabi both ended in draws, but very exciting ones indeed. Meanwhile your intrepid ChessBase news team has made its way to the Gulf state to see firsthand how things are going. We spoke to the Hydra project manager about this remarkable development.

Database window

8/20/2004 – The Database window of ChessBase 8 is your "desktop view" of your available databases. Find out how to customize this work area (including a few "hidden" tweaks) in this installment of ChessBase Workshop.

It's Almira vs Irina in New York

8/19/2004 – On September 16 the web search company Accoona will be staging a spectacular rapid chess match between the best female players in America and France. Former US champion Irina Krush faces former European champion Almira Skripchenko. The latter has annotated a key game for us, and also took us on a spectacular tour around her home town of Paris

Computer chess at 43 degrees Celsius

8/18/2004 – That's about 110° Fahrenheit, i.e. hotter than most chess programmers knew it could get. "We try to go swimming at 6 am, when it is bearable," says Shredder author Stefan Meyer-Kahlen. After taking a 2:0 dubbing in the first two games Shredder has scored two draws, even pressing for a win with black in game three. Here's an illustrated report.

Maria does the broadsheets

8/18/2004 – On August 2nd we published an interview and some moderately daring pictures of Russian WGM Maria Manakova. Two weeks later letters and calls are still coming in, from newspapers and magazines all over the world. If you are not disturbed by partial nudity take a look at these followup stories in the Telegraph and Spiegel

Malaysia – Truly Asia

8/18/2004 – The 1st Dato’ Arthur Tan Malaysian Open Chess Championship 2004 will be held from the 21st to the 26th of August Kuala Lumpur ("Kay-eL"), Malaysia. This FIDE-rated, 11-round tournament will be played at a time control of 90 min + 30 sec. The prize fund is US $12,000. Edwin Lam Choong Wai tells us all about the host country.

'Bobby Fischer and I have decided to marry'

8/17/2004 – Bobby Fischer, the former world chess champion, plans to marry the president of the Japan Chess Association (and four-time Japanese women's champion) Miyoko Watai. This was reported in newspapers and wire services last night. Now Watai-san has sent us a statement explaining the background of her personal relationship with Fischer.

Kasparov vs Deep Blue on BBC Four

8/17/2004 – The Hollywood documentary "Game Over: Kasparov and the Machine", is being aired tonight on free-to-view BBC Four TV. It's a "gripping Storyvill film about world chess champion Gary Kasparov's controversial battles against IBM's Deep Blue computer". The broadcast is at 9pm British time, with a repeat at 11:50pm. Don't miss it...

Hydra shocks Shredder with 2-0 lead

8/16/2004 – When is the last time you saw the multiple world champion Shredder lose a game? In Abu Dhabi it lost twice in succession to the 16-processor hardware program Hydra, which is turning out to be quite the many-headed monster its name implies. We bring you the games and some beautiful pictures from the start of the computer challenge.