FIDE says Israelis can play in Libya

5/7/2004 – "After receiving notice that several Israeli websites are reporting Libya to have cancelled the invitation to certain participants of the upcoming World Chess Championship, FIDE requested a clarification by the Libyan Organizing Committee of the event," says the FIDE web site. It confirmed the invitation to "all WCC 2004 participants" is still valid.

'I would have payed $50,000 to play Kasparov...'

5/6/2004 – A few days ago American GM and chess political insider told us some of the reasons he believes were responsible for the mess in the chess world. In the second part of the interview Yasser describes in microscopic detail the role FIDE world champion Ponomariov played. And how he himself would have handled the situation. Read Yasser's 'Tragedy of Errors Part II'

More improvement tips

5/6/2004 – "Is there any single piece of chess software that will improve my game all by itself?" It's a provocative question and one that's frequently asked. In this week's ChessBase Workshop, Steve Lopez offers his answer to it -- an answer that you might find equally provocative...

Libya will not allow Israelis in for FIDE KO

5/6/2004 – First they were out, then they were in, maybe, and now they are most definitely out. Apparently everyone misinterpreted Libya's welcome to "all 128 players." Mohammad Khaddafi has just made it very clear that Israelis players are not welcome and never were. Here's the full story...

Karjakin and Sasikiran stars of the second round

5/6/2004 – Round three of the Canarias en Red Internet Chess Festival saw Indian GM Krishnan Sasikiran scoring 11/13 to take undivided first place. Behind him 14-year-old GM Sergey Karjakin, who actually followed a soccer game while scoring 10.5 points. Watch and compete in this extraordinary chess event.

Star Wars and the mystery guest

5/5/2004 – After failing in the first qualifier America's strongest junior, Hikaru Nakamura, scored a cool 11/13 under his server nickname "Star Wars" in the second qualifier. But another player, a chess legend from the past, was the center of attention. You can watch and compete yourself in the Canarias en Red Internet Chess Festival.

Tactics from the Russian Team Champ

5/4/2004 – World #7 GM Alexander Morozevich of Russia has been dazzling the world with his exciting brand of tactical play for years. Last week he took his show to the Grandmaster-saturated Russian team championships in Sochi. Playing first board for Tomsk400 Yukos he led his team to victory with a 6.5/8 score. We bring you a sample of Moro's tactics master class.

Was Capablanca a chess machine?

5/3/2004 – The legendary third World Champion certainly had the reputation, but as Dennis Monokroussos shows in his audio lecture on Playchess.com that the Cuban was a fantastic player with great technique, but he was indeed human; fallible as we are – if less so. Dennis looks at fundamental endings and the errors made by Capa and his opponents. More...

Chess Boxing: the Tokyo Fight

5/3/2004 – Last year Iepe the Joker won the World Chess Boxing Championship. Now Iepe (29, 1.80m, 74kg) has defended his title against a Japanese challenger, Soichiro the Cho-Yabai (22, 1.77m, 70kg) in a bout staged at the famous "Time & Style" venue in Tokyo. Pictorial report...

e-World Women’s Chess Championship

5/3/2004 – ChinaCom, the company that is sponsoring the current ACP Tournament on Playchess.com, has just announced that the winner of it's French-American Women's Chess Championship in September will face the reigning women's world champion Zhu Chen in a second spectacular to take place in New York in December 2004. Press release and interview...

GMs dominate the first Canarias en Red blitz

5/3/2004 – A total of 256 players took part in the first Canarias qualifier. In the end five GMs, three IMs and one untitled player qualified for the finals on Sunday. There is a qualifier each day until Friday, and you can take part in more than one if you like. This is your opportunity to play GMs and compete for a $5,600 prize fund. Full information...

Women's World Championship moved to Elista

5/2/2004 – After the turmoils of holding the championship in the crisis region of Ajaria, FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov has thrown in the towel and moved it to his own Republic of Kalmykia (where he has everything under control). Apparently Ajaria will foot the bill. Read the FIDE announcement and Russian newspaper reports...

A Tragedy of Errors – Part I

5/2/2004 – The chess world is currently in a mess, nobody would deny that. There is no clear world champion, and none in sight. So what happened to the high-flying plans, proposed and agreed almost two years, to unify the different fractions? Yasser Seirawan, the spiritus rector of the Prague Agreement, tells us what went wrong. Here is the first part of a candid, insightful interview.

Alterman on the Danish Gambit

5/2/2004 – "Do not forget that it is the spirit of the player with the initiative that fulfills this promise, or does not," writes our Playchess trainer GM Boris Alterman. "Opening with an attacking gambit system and then playing cowardly moves is a sure recipe for disaster." More...

Cuba breaks Guinness chess record

5/1/2004 – Former world chess champion Anatoly Karpov was among the 13,000 people that Cuban officials claimed had succeeded in surpassing the current Guinness World Record of 11,320 players -- set in Havana in December 2002. Castro was not present this time around, but Elian Gonzales, the 10-year-old Miami refugee, was. CNN reports...

Magnificent Magnus, the world's youngest grandmaster

4/30/2004 – Two days ago a participant at the Dubai Open made his final GM norm with a performance of 2678. This news electrified the chess world because the player in question was just 13 years old. Magnus Carlsen of Norway is now the youngest GM in the world. He is also a bright and highly eloquent kid, as you can see in this remarkable in-depth interview.

First Canarias en Red Internet Chess Festival

4/30/2004 – The Spanish Canary Islands are not just a tropical paradise, holiday goal for hundreds of thousands of tourists each year. The archipelago also has a rich historical tradition in chess. Next week they are switching to modern communications technology to stage a giant Internet chess festival. You can participate for a prize fund of $5,600.

Mamedyarov wins Dubai, Carlsen his GM title

4/29/2004 – Shakriyar Mamedyarov took first place in the Sheikh Rashed Cup, with 7/9 points. 12 players shared second with 6.5/9, amongst them 13-year-old Magnus Carlsen, who completed his final GM norm with a round to spare! We will return to this subject. In the meantime here are the results, games and a spectacular pictorial report.

Okay ladies, come and get it...

4/29/2004 – On Sunday the ACP and Playchess.com is staging their first-ever Internet Blitz tournament for female players. The prize fund is US $2,500, with the winner getting $700. So come on, ladies, wherever you may be. You have a golden opportunity to start up something exciting in women's chess. Here are full tournament details and the official invitation.

The magical chess experiment

4/29/2004 – Derren Brown is a "mind control" illusionist, whose chess ineptitude he himself describes with a rude word. Yet he was able to take on nine strong players, including two grandmasters, in a simultaneous exhibition on Britain's Channel 4, and actually win the match. This is how he did it.

Invitation to a world championship

4/28/2004 – The Swiss tobacco manufacturers Dannemann has announced that he classical chess world championship between Vladimir Kramnik and Peter Leko will be held from Sept. 25 to Oct. 18, 2004 in Brissago, on the shores of the Lago Maggiore, Switzerland. Here's the press invitation...

World Championship in Libya – for all participants!

4/28/2004 – Originally the FIDE knockout world championship was scheduled to be staged in two parts, one in Libya and one in Malta. This was mainly to accommodate Israeli players, who may not enter many Arab countries. Now the main sponsor, Moammar Al Qaddafi, has guaranteed "entry visas to all the 128 qualified participants". Here's the press release...

Shredder wins computer tournament in Leiden

4/27/2004 – This program has been working its way up – at least in the CSVN computer tournaments in Paderborn. In 2002 Shredder finished third, in 2003 it was second, and this year... well you guessed right: with eight points in nine rounds the program written by Stefan Meyer-Kahlen (picture) triumphed over the FPGA program Hydra. Here's the final report.

Köln Porz and Baden-Oos tie for first

4/26/2004 – The spokesperson for the German team championships, one of the strongest in the world, is "Miss Bundesliga" Almira Skripchenko, who plays for Werder Bremen. After the final round of this season's contests the two leading teams had tied for first. They will have to play a tie-break for the title in the second week of May . Here's a last-round pictorial report.