A Hitchhiker's Guide to Chess

10/3/2003 – The nine-round Swiss tournament on the Isle of Man, with dozens of GMs and IMs, was marred by a "Bobby Fischer style withdrawal" by top seed Nigel Short after round one. We were curious to find out what happened and had to take lessons in the FIDE rules to appreciate it. Here's the inside story.

In the endgame – it's your move

10/2/2003 – Today the lecture by our GM trainer Dorian Rogozenko deals with technical and practical endgames. He will present instructive positions, and you have to find the plan. In the end there is a download with analysis and explanations. Here are all the details...

Like to play in the European Championship?

10/2/2003 – The First European Internet Championship will be held from October 20 to November 09, 2003. The organizers are the European Chess Union and ChessBase. Any player who has the right to start for a national federation in Europe can take part. The prize fund for the finals is €6,000.00. All games are played on the playchess.com server. More...

The great chess opera

10/1/2003 – Did you like this morning's story about Brussels 1987? Soon after we had published it we got a letter telling us that the tournament had produced something even better than Plaskett's puzzle: an operatic aria composed around a game between Ljubojevic and Kasparov. This you have to hear to believe!

The cream starts to rise in Rethymnon

9/30/2003 – In the first few rounds of the European Club Cup the pretenders meet the contenders with predictably devastating results. There were few GM vs GM games in the first round as the favorites demolished teams that had trouble fielding six rated players. NAO is the favorite with three top tenners and Kasparov was in action for Ladya Kazan. Early highlights and games here.

A liver-pickling Oriental odyssey

9/30/2003 – ...and those mad, but magnificent Russians. The British chess columnists Nigel Short and David Norwood have been having a field day. Nigel tells about his trip to China, while David describes his first encounter with Peter Svidler ("young, tall, brilliant, brash and utterly charming – I was ready to hate him on sight"). We bring you excerpts and links.

The Beijing Chess Challenge

9/28/2003 – On September 22 and 23, 2003, the Beijing Chess Challenge Match was held in the China Resources Hotel. It consisted of two Chinese teams and an International team with Nigel Short, Evgeny Bareev and Yasser Seirawan. We bring you an extensive wrap-up report with games, portraits of the players and a few spectacular impressions from China.

Miss New York City goes X3D

9/28/2003 – Mere prime ministers and CEOs pale in comparison to beauty queens and sports stars and we'll have both for the November match between Garry Kasparov and X3D Fritz. Miss New York City 2003, Katie Horn, will make the first move of game three on Sunday, November 16. She stopped by the X3D offices in her tiara and of course we've got lots of photos.

Become a tournament organizer with Fritz

9/26/2003 – Tired of all the event cancellations? Mig Greengard's latest ChessBase Cafe column at the ChessCafe website shows you how to to make your ChessBase engines produce opening training material for you using the tournament function. He also answers readers questions about ChessBase and Fritz & Friends. Link and index of all ChessBase Cafe columns here.

The eternal problem

9/25/2003 – Today's lecture by our GM trainer Dorian Rogozenko deals with "the eternal problem": which rook to place on which open file. If you have faced this dilemma in your tournament game you will want to follow this lesson on the Playchess.com server. Details...

Who was that lady?

9/25/2003 – A few weeks ago we asked you to identify some baby pictures of the strongest American-born female chess player in history. It is remarkable how many readers were able to work out the puzzle and send us the correct answer. It was Alisa Maric, who was born in New York but now lives in Belgrade. Here's a picture portrait of this remarkable young lady.

Luke McShane wins Young Masters

9/24/2003 – The fourth Lausanne Young Masters, a knockout event which was held from September 17 to 22 in Lausanne, Switzerland, was won by Luke McShane. The young British GM beat French Champion Etienne Bacrot in the final. We bring you all the results and games.

National Chess Week for Barnardo's

9/24/2003 – From Ocktober 20 to 26 the National Chess Week is being organised in Britain. Half a million players are expected to take part, generating a fund of £500,000 for children's charity. The money goes to Barnado's, an organisation that helps handicapped children and young people. Details...

The way Kasparov likes...

9/24/2003 – Throughout the millennia the Greek island of Crete has fallen to Romans, Arabs and Ottomans. Today its town of Geropotamos (tourism slogan: "The way you like...") was conquered by Garry Kasparov. The world number one demolished European champion Zurab Azmaiparashvili in a brief exhibition match of rapid and blitz games. Report and games

Bareev up and Leko down in FIDE October ratings

9/22/2003 – The big winners are Evgeny Bareev, who gained 18 points and jumped to place four, and Indian GM Krishnan Sasikiran, who gained 25 points rose from 40 to 24. Peter Leko dropped from rank 4 to 10. On the very top Kasparov, Kramnik and Anand reign supreme. Here is the list of the top 100.

Peter Ács – we stand corrected

9/22/2003 – In a recent news story we mentioned the young Hungarian GM and gave the pronunciation of his name as "oks". Not correct, we learnt from Nigel Short. The name rhymes with "larch" as spoken by an Englishman. Andrew Pressburger confirmed this and sent us the following very useful Hungarian pronunciation primer.

Kings win Three Arrows Cup

9/21/2003 – The men vs women event ended in the eastern Chinese city of Ji Nan, with a convincing victory by the four "Kings". On their free day the players went on a tour of a beautiful Mountain Park, enjoyed local food and gave simultaneous exhibitions for young Chinese players. All of this is captured in our pictorial report.

Transtec-Shredder beats GM Peter Acs

9/20/2003 – On Thursday the young Hungarian GM Peter Acs played two rapid chess games against the record computer chess world champion Shredder. The rate of play was 25 minutes plus two seconds increment per move. Shredder, running on a Dual 3 Ghz XEON transtec computer took the match 2-0. More...

Young Masters playing in Lausanne

9/20/2003 – They are between 13 and 19, all remarkable talents, hailing from different parts of Europe and Russia. From Sept. 19 to 22, 2003, they are playing in the Young Masters tournament in Lausanne, Switzerland. Watch the games live or download them from our illustrated report page.

Notation options in ChessBase 8

9/18/2003 – ChessBase 8 allows the user to configure the Notation display in myriad ways. This week's ChessBase Workshop explains the various options for the Notation display. More...

Anatoly Karpov speaks out

9/18/2003 – "If this continues FIDE will cease to exist. Perhaps that wouldn’t be such a bad thing. It is better to create new healthy organization than to nurse the old and sick one." Harsh words from the record FIDE world champion Anatoly Karpov, who spoke to journalists and spectators at the 2003 Russian Championship. Here is an English translation...

Chess in China

9/18/2003 – This week, if you are looking for chess, you should definitely turn eastwards. China has been staging a plethora of tournaments and matches, with national and international stars. We bring you an extensive report of four events, provided by our China correspondent Fang Zhang, with games, links and pictures.

Software of the year, five stars for Fritz

9/18/2003 – Game Industry News has reviewed our program Fritz 8. Their conclusion: "Fritz earns 5 GiN Gems for being one of the most entertaining, informative and easy to use chess games on the market today." And Parenting Magazine has chosen Fritz & Chesster as a winner of the magazine’s prestigious “Software of the Year” awards. More...

Moviestar, moviestar – Kosteniuk film premieres

9/17/2003 – We all know that Alexandra Kosteniuk is women's vice champion of the world, a photo model and internationally famous chess babe. Add movie star to that list. Sasha played in a main role in a Russian film, directed by the famous Stanislav Govorukhin. We bring you new pictures and a video preview...