Fasten your seat belts, the Aeroflot open has begun

2/12/2003 – A total of 481 players from 38 nations has descended on Moscow to play in the yearly Aeroflot Open. Everything is being conducted in the style of a commercial airline flight, with "pilots", "navigators" and "flight personnel" running the show. The organisers have also though up a unique method of publishing the games: they provide scans of the original gamescores. More

Kasparov vs Deep Junior ends in 3-3 draw

2/8/2003 – The final game of the epic Man vs Machine match between Garry Kasparov and Deep Junior ended today in a 3-3 tie. With millions of TV viewers watching Kasparov came out fighting, but with the black pieces he was unable to gain enough to secure a clear win. Here is a short report and the game.

Aeroflot Open in Moscow

2/8/2003 – At last it's here, the tournament we have all been waiting for. The grand Aeroflot Open took to the air with a press conference in the Chess House in Moscow. At it we got to see the main protagonists in the largest open tournament in the world. Also the main sponsors, the press chief and two world champions. Here's an illustrated pretrournament report by Eugeny Atarov.

Kasparov-Deep Junior draw after stunning sacrifice

2/6/2003 – Garry Kasparov was determined to win his last white game against the computer. But on move ten Deep Junior produced a stunning piece sacrifice that left its opponent reeling. It's unclear if the combination was sound, but Kasparov was not going to risk testing it over the board. He quickly forced a draw by repetition to keep the score level at 2½:2½. Read our illustrated report.

Sergey Karjakin (13) beats women's vice champion

2/6/2003 – The Dannemann match between world women's vice champion Alexandra Kosteniuk (18) and GM Sergey Karjakin (13) ended in a 4:2 victory for the Unkrainian chess prodigy. The games, played in the spectacular surrioundings of the Swiss Alps, was covered live with the help of our ChessBase Flash program. We bring you all six games annotated by experts. You will find these and some new pictures here.

It's up to you, New York, New York

2/4/2003 – We've been here for a little over a week now, taking part in a gigantic event that is drawing world-wide attention. But just as overwhelming as the battle between man and machine that is being currently staged in New York is the town itself. Thank heavens there are moments of peace, islands of calm, and a lot of pleasant people to ease the tension. See it all unfold in Frederic Friedel's latest New York picture gallery.

Kasparov, Deep Junior draw game four

2/3/2003 – After two rest days and a devastating loss Garry Kasparov withstood considerable pressure to salvage a draw. In front of a packed audience commentators Ashley, Seirawan, Benjamin, Jennifer and Greg Shahade (picture) and Susan Polgar confessed that they had no idea what was going on. More in our illustrated round four report.

Minimum age requirement for Kosteniuk vs Karjakin

2/2/2003 – The Dannemann match between Alexandra Kosteniuk (18) and Sergey Karjakin (13) is taking place against the spectacular backdrop of Lake Ascona. There is live coverage at the sponsor's site, but beware: you have to be at least 21 to enter. Because of the tobacco, of course – what did you think? Some annotators are suggesting there should be an age minimum for what the two are playing. Curious?

Man vs machine – but not Kasparov

1/30/2003 – While Garry Kasparov battles it out in New York against Deep Junior, back in Holland the world's number eight player, Evgeny Bareev, is playing a four-game match against the English program Hiarcs. The first two games ended in a draw, the next will bring the decision. You can watch them live on the Playchess.com server. You will find an illustrated report on this parallel man vs machine event here.

Man vs. machine - part 3

1/30/2003 – And yet another night full of exciting chess on our server at Playchess.com: At 20.00 CET, GM Dorian Rogozenko presents today's game of the match between Hiarcs and Bareev. And from 21.30: Live coverage of Kasparov vs Deep Junior, act III, with chat and grandmaster comments.

Deep Junior strikes back

1/30/2003 – Actually it was Garry Kasparov, who was dominating during most of the game. Then he let his advange slip, and just when he had resigned himself to accepting a draw he overlooked a sharp continuation which handed the game to his opponent. With this surprise victory Deep Junior has equalised and filled the entire match with new tension. How did it all happen? Here's a full illustrated report on game three.

Kasparov's 'fingerfehler' lets the computer off the hook

1/29/2003 – The world's strongest player Garry Kasparov dominated in the game, and he had Deep Junior on the ropes. But suddenly a tiny inaccuracy left him with a draw instead of a win. Shaking his head in sheer disbelief Kasparov watched the computer sacrifice its queen and force the champion to accept a repetition of moves. A full report will appear later, here for the moment is the game and pictures.

Top grandmasters dissatisfied with FIDE tournament policy

1/28/2003 – Following the Corus tournament in Wijk aan Zee, the six top grandmasters have appealed to FIDE president Kirsan Illyumshinov in an open letter. Points of criticism are the abandonment of the FIDE world cup after two of five scheduled tournaments, as well as the uncertainty about date and form of the once planned world championship. More...

'Deep Junior is clearly better than Deep Blue'

1/27/2003 – There were enough journalists to cripple any complementary buffet in the world. In under a month, the Kasparov name and the X3D promotion team brought over 150 media representatives to the New York Athletic Club for Kasparov's first public game against a computer in almost six years. Read our report on the press conference in New York, the place to go when you want to do something grand. More.

Vishy wins Wijk

1/27/2003 – After not having played a single game of classical chess for almost a year Indian superstar Vishy Anand came back with a bang at the Corus Wijk aan Zee tournament. Without losing a single game and winning four he took first place with a 2809 performance. Second was Judit Polgar, who also remained undefeated. A full report on the final round will follow, in the meantime you will find games and results here...

Pictures from the Big Apple

1/27/2003 – The spectacular Man vs Machine event is under way, Garry Kasparov is facing the Israeli program Deep Junior – just a few blocks away from his traumatic 1997 encounter with IBM's Deep Blue. The first days of preparation in New York were predictably hectic, with everything falling into place at the very last minute. Apparently that's how things work in the Big Apple. We bring you a first pictorial report.

The Rodney Dangerfield of Chess

1/26/2003 – Since winning the 2001 FIDE KO World Championship in Moscow Ruslan Ponomariov has discovered that one big paycheck and a nice medal do not automatically earn you respect in the chess world. After a horrible start in Wijk aan Zee Super Mariov has won three straight games to claw back to an even score with one round to play. Read all about it in Mig's round 12 report.

Loek on the rise

1/25/2003 – During his last three visits to Wijk aan Zee Vladimir Kramnik lost a total of one game. Today he lost his third of Corus 2003. Showing a toughness previously absent from his game, Loek van Wely bounced back from tough losses to beat the classical chess champion in excellent style. This is a long way from his seven losses a year ago! Anand and Polgar drew their games to set up the clash of leaders tomorrow in round 12. More...

They must have put something in the water

1/24/2003 – The pussy-cat took a snooze on Tuesday – and woke up a ferocious animal. All but a single game were decided, with Black winning three: Anand defeated Shirov, Polgar defeate Grischuk and Radjabov grinding down an over-reaching Krasenkow. Even Vassily Ivanchuk, caught up by the mood, was able to manage his first win against tail-ender Jan Timman. Read Mig Greengard's entertaining and informative report on round 10

Man vs Computer: the rules of the game

1/22/2003 – It took a long time, but now, just five day before the start of the Man vs Machine match in New York, there is good news. "I am delighted to advise that as of this evening the principals have agreed the definitive rules for the match," writes David Levy, who spent last autumn working on them. So here they are, the rules of the game.

A technology company's invitation: meet the champs

1/22/2003 – Like to meet Garry Kasparov and the Deep Junior team. Then make your way to the New York Athletic Club on Central Park South to meet them, as well as FIDE president Kirsan Ilyumzhinov and the people of X3D Technologies, the computer company that is hosting the event (and already staged the Kasparov-Karpov match last December. >>>>

Man vs Machine part III: Evgeny vs Hiarcs

1/22/2003 – In October Kramnik played Deep Fritz, on January 26 it's Kasparov vs Deep Junior. From January 28 to 31 the Maastricht Foundation are staging a match over four games between GM Evgeny Bareev, the world's number 8, and the program Hiarcs 8, written by Mark Uniacke of England. It will take place in the Centre Céramique from 28-31 January 2003. Eric van Reem gives us all the details on this match.

Kasparov going with the Times

1/21/2003 – Paul Hoffman is a regular writer for the New York Times. He is also a chess enthusiast who manages to get stories on computers and grandmasters it the pages of the broadsheet. Once again Paul has struck and produced a long and very readable article on the upcoming Kasparov vs Deep Junior match in the science section. You will need to register (free) to read it. For those who can't here is a short synopsis.

Snooze aan Zee

1/21/2003 – What is better than a rest day coming up in a really tough tournament? Two rest days. If you can afford to take the quick draw, or your name doesn't begin with Topalov, this is no big problem. The only decisive game came when Grischuk collapsed against Bareev's Caro-Kann. Take a look at what Evgeny did with his queen in Mig's round nine report.