Maurice and Steven – milestone men

1/12/2003 – Two players, one a grandmaster, the other a 2300 FM, taking part in the US Chess Championship. The landmark is that they are both African American. For 155 years the tournament drew only white men, but last year the format was radically changed, opening it to dozens more players – including, for the first time, women. More.

Fine performance by Karpov in Wijk

1/12/2003 – The first round of the 65th Corus Chess Tournament in Wijk aan Zee didn't lack fighting spirit. But with most players rated so closely together, victories are not easy to achieve. Only two managed to score a win. Last year's winner Evgeny Bareev defeated FIDE world champion Ruslan Ponomariov, and Anatoly Karpov won the public prize by beating Michal Krasenkow in a lovely tactical battle. Games and results are available here.

Kramnik loses to Ponomariov in Wijk

1/12/2003 – The second round of the Wijk aan Zee tournament saw some shock results. FIDE champion Ruslan Ponomariov had apparently digested yesterday's defeat and took the full point off classical chess world champion Vladimir Kramnik, who blundered on move 36. Evgeny Bareev won for the second time in succession, beating youngster Teimour Radjabov, while Anand beat a too-daring Topalov with the black pieces. More

Happy Birthday Walter! – Walter? Walter?

1/11/2003 – They had organised a present of a bottle of vintage wine and placed it by his board. They were prepared to give this living-legend a Happy Birthday a rousing rendition of 'Happy Birthday' for his 54th before the start of play. But typically Walter Browne arrived five minutes late and missed everything! John Henderson reports from the US Chess Championship in Seattle in an article entitled Good ol' Walter Browne!

Will FIDE champion Ponomariov be defaulted?

1/11/2003 – FIDE has set an ultimatum until January 10, 2003, for Ruslan Ponomariov to sign a contract to play the world's top-rank player Garry Kasparov as as part of the reunification plan agreed in Prague. If the FIDE champion did not sign the agreement by that date then he would be replaced by runner-up Vassily Ivanchuk. This would mean that Kasparov would play Ivanchuk, and the winner would face the winner of Kramnik vs Leko in a unification title match. More.

Wijk aan Zee – who will win?

1/10/2003 – Corus Wijk aan Zee, the Dutch super-tournament, starts on January 10. For the second year in succession it is without the world's number one player, Garry Kasparov. But it does have nos. 2, 3, 4, 6, 8, 9 and 10, the average rating is 2701 and the category 19. You will find some information on the participants and can take part in our special Wijk aan Zee quiz.

Searching for the next champion

1/9/2003 – What is a nine-year-old doing ceremoniously executing the first move at the 2003 US Championship? Well, he was sent to do it by the Mayor of Seattle, who had to cancel his own appearance due to an urgent City board meeting. Rather than send another official to deputize for him Mayor Greg Nickels prefered to nominate a child from one of the scholastic programs for chess. More

Kasparov vs FIBI in the broadsheets

1/8/2003 – Remember when it was Kasparov vs FIDE? Now in a déjà vu twist it is Kasparov vs FIBI (First International Bank of Israel). We reported on the cancelled Jerusalem leg of the Man vs Machine event and Kasparov's reaction. Today the broadsheets are full of it. Even the Islamic Republic News Agency of Iran (IRNA) give it a full page. More.

Kasparov vs FIBI in the broadsheets

1/8/2003 – Remember when it was Kasparov vs FIDE? Now in a somewhat déjà vu twist it is Kasparov vs FIBI. We reported on the cancelled Jerusalem leg of the Man vs Machine event and Kasparov's reaction. Today the broadsheets are full of it. Even the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) devotes a full page to the subject. More

Scandal in Lampertsheim – cheating in the loo

1/7/2003 – At the Open Tournament in Lampertsheim a player was caught cheating. He was consulting the program Pocket Fritz during the game in the toilet. While we in ChessBase condemn every form of electronic performance enhancement we would like to express our thanks to the player for choosing Pocket Fritz for his devious behaviour. We recommend that the next time he use the new Pocket Fritz 2 and carefully follow the instructions.

Peter Heine Nielsen wins Hastings

1/6/2003 – The Danish GM, who was recently spotted working together with Vishy Anand, has won the 78th International Chess Congress in Hastings. Nielsen clinched it in the penultimate round when he defeated co-leader Penteala Harikrishna, who is 16 years old and hails from India. Top seed K. Sasikiran (2670) came in a disappointing 7th. 12-year-old Sergey Karjakin came 5th with a 2590 performance. More

$250,000 in Seattle

1/6/2003 – For the third year running, hip Seattle plays host to the cerebral challenge of the prestigious US Chess Championships, as 58 of the country's top chess masters battle it out over nine rounds (from January 9-18) for the biggest prize in chess history for a national title. We are talking a cool quarter of a million dollars. Fischer got exactly one hundred times less when he took the title in 1966. More

Jerusalem leg of Kasparov vs Deep Junior cancelled

1/6/2003 – On New Year's Day we published the schedule of the FIDE Man vs Computer event. According to this Garry Kasparov was supposed to play a first of two practice games against the Israeli program Deep Junior in Jerusalem this week. That leg of the match has now been cancelled. But we have reliable information that the main event will go ahead in New York, starting on January 26. An official announcement is expected in the next two days. More

They wanted perpetual use of his name and likeness

1/6/2003 – The proceedings brought against Garry Kasparov on Christmas Eve by an Israeli bank were rebuffed by a US judge. “At the end of the day, this is about a financial institution trying to squeeze individuals to pay a corporate obligation,” said Kasparov’s attorney. “The bank was attempting to seize permanent control of the world-class asset of Garry Kasparov’s name and likeness.” Full details are to be found in the following press release by Kasparov's lawyer.

Kasparov vs Deep Junior – match details

1/6/2003 – After considerable turbulence over the Christmas holidays (see reports below) the final details of the spectacular Man vs Machine event pitting the world's strongest human player against the reigning world computer chess champion is set to commence in New York on January 26. Full details on the venue, sponsors, schedule and prize money have just been released.

Three-dimensional chess in the White House

1/5/2003 – Remember we told you about chess metaphors creeping into media reports on military situations? They are getting better at it, and the New York Times has even introduced a new dimension. "Right now the world must seem like a potentially deadly game of three-dimensional chess to the the Bush administration," they write. What will we see next in the headlines, the Benoni against Baghdad or the Petroff against Pyongyang? More

GMs and muggles decide: what are the best time controls?

1/4/2003 – While defining a new format for future world chess championships Yasser Seirawan polled the world's top 200 players on the proper time controls for blitz, rapid and professional chess games. Unfortunately he was not able to get as many GM's to vote as he would have liked. We bring you the results Yasser has received so far, as well as some of the messages we received from simple mortals. More

The man behind the Fischer-Spassky show

1/3/2003 – In 1972 WNET/PBS aired the greatest TV show ever seen in chess, with millions of viewers glued for five hours to their sets. In a New York Time article Fred Waitzkin told the story of how a dour Latvian-American chess master and a Harvard-educated sociology teacher made the show a success (see report from 29.12.02 below). Now Wired Magazine Rudy Chelminski sets the record straight on some points and gives credit where it's due.

Garry Kasparov wishes us all a Happy New Year

1/1/2003 – He does it in his own inimitable style, by climbing even higher on the rating lists. Do you have any idea how hard that is, when one is cruising around in the rarefied atmosphere above 2800? Still based on his amazing result in the Bled Olympiad Kasparov gained another 9.3 points in the 1st January 2003 list. We, too, wish everybody a Happy New Year, with exciting games and more rating points for everybody. We bring you the rating list and details of the Kasparov vs Deep Junior match

The Pariah Chess Club

12/27/2002 – "Chess is a beautiful game, and though amateurs playing fast can occasionally make it sing, we know there are riffs -- magical symphonic combinations -- that we either entirely miss or muck up halfway through." World famous Washington Post columnist Charles Krauthammer, it turns out, is an enthusiastic amateur chess player who every Monday night goes to the Pariah Chess Club, which admits no one in short pants. More.

A very Happy Christmas to all our friends

12/25/2002 – This will hopefully be a joyous and peaceful holiday season. If you want to spend some time with chess, visit our special Christmas Puzzle section. During the coming week you will find a new set of puzzles, one per day. In the end you can win a copy of Fritz, signed by one of the world's top players. In the meantime the ChessBase staff would like to wish all the visitors to our site a very Happy Christmas, in any language you happen to speak.

Anatoly Karpov wins X3D Rapid Match

12/21/2002 – The four-game rapid chess match between the two ex world champions in New York ended with a surprise victory for 51-year-old Anatoly Karpov over the world's top-ranked player Garry Kasparov. On the second day Karpov won the first game and drew the the second to take the match. Here's John Fernandez' richly illustrated report from New York.

Pure magic in New York City

12/20/2002 – Chess in glorious 3D, Karpov vs Kasparov like in the good ol' days, and magician David Blaine pulling tricks off the chessboard. It was an exciting night with incredibly tense games. John Fernandez and Roland Schmaltz describe the action in the ABC Studios in New York's famous Times Square in this illustrated report.

And the winners are...

12/20/2002 – 'Lucky' Levon Aronian, the Armenian GM who turned 20 on October 6th and won the men's section outright, and Zhao Xue, an 18-year-old Chinese girl, who won it on tiebreak. Our final illustrated report on the World Junior Championships in Goa also tells of the blitz tournament where the segregation of the sexes was finally lifted. By V. Sarenn and V. Kumar