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.

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

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

12/19/2002 – World Junior Championships has two more rounds to go. Armenian GM Levon Aronian is half a point in the lead in the male section, while in the girls' group the Indian supertalent Koneru Humpy and the Chinese WGM Zhao Xue share the lead. Both groups are still segregated, but the players are learning to live with it. Only the girls sometimes dare to sneak a peek. Read about it in our exclusive illustrated report.

12/17/2002 – At the World Junior Championships, which are being currently held in the spectacularly beautiful Vainguinim Beach, Panaji, Goa (India) the boys cannot watch the games the girls play, and vice versa! The organisers, we are told, think it is too distracting, mainly because of the light clothing of the girls in the hot weather. You will find an illustrated report with some lovely location pictures by Vishal Sareen and Vijay Kumar here.