12/6/2002 – He first played there in 1962, coming in fifth, behind Petrosian, Geller, Keres and Fischer. Now, 40 years later, Viktor Kortchnoi returned to the Caribbean island of Curaçao and won the tournament outright. He and the other players enjoyed the tournament and the stay on a tropical paradise. John Fernandez has sent us a richly illustrated closing report.

12/6/2002 – On December 4 the computer chess world lost a distinguished personality. 78-year-old Johannes (Jan) Louwman passed away after a long illness in his home town of Rotterdam. Jan was considered the father of Dutch computer chess and for two decades was regarded internationally as one of the leading experts in this area. Eric van Reem and Dr Christian Donninger remember this abrasive, lovable man. Read about Jan Louwmann here.

12/2/2002 – The Benidorm tournament ended in a tie for first place, with Judit Polgar and Ruslan Ponomariov both leading the field with 8 points in 11 rounds. The winner had to be decided by two blitz tie-break games (3min + 2sec). The first was a draw, the second won by Judit in brilliant style. Congratulations to the strongest female player in the history of the game! You will find all results and games here.

12/2/2002 – It is hardly astonishing that the game of chess lends itself to military symbolism. In recent weeks the media has been full of war and conflict metaphors taken from the our sedate little game. "It is turning out that Saddam is a better chess player than President George W. Bush," says one report. Another says "The inspectors landed. Now the chess game begins." Here are a few stories that illustrate the point.

12/1/2002 – See what happens when you work hard and become really good at chess. A Swiss watch manufacturer comes along and sponsors your chess career, gives you some really cool watches and nominates you Ambassadrice to promote their products around the world. Well, it happened to Alexandra Kosteniuk, who has has just signed a sponsoring contract with the Swiss watch manufacturers Balmain. More

11/30/2002 – You have a tournament with the current world champion and a legendary ex world champion. And other world-class players like Shirov, Polgar and Psachis. And who, pray, would be leading after eight rounds? A 12-year-old boy, that's who. Some day Sergey Karjakin intends to become world champion himself. In four years from now, when he his sixteen. You will find an interview with young Sergey plus results and games from the Benidorm tournament here.

11/29/2002 – Remember our report on the Austrian lady who missed a chance to become a millionaire by not knowing the name of the program that played against Vladimir Kramnik in Bahrain? Well, a couple of weeks later the story repeated itself on German television, with a candidate once again facing the same incredibly difficult (and strangly sleasy) question. This is how she fared...

11/29/2002 – You may not have heard, but there is an interesting new tournament taking place in Benidorm, Spain. It is based on the principle of the New York Open. The idea is to get amateurs and top stars playing together, in the same venue, with very high prizes. More

11/28/2002 – Ten days ago we published thhe details of a new world championship format, as has been decided by FIDE for the current and next two cycles. Now Alexei Shirov has criticized the proposal in an open letter to his GM colleagues. "I think the last time when so many players got direct seeds from one cycle to another was in 1985 which is nearly the same as medieval ages." You will find Shirov's letter here.

11/24/2002 – It is hard to contain our delight. Germany's Elisabeth Pähtz, who had shown great form at at the Chess Olympiad in Bled and then played a exhibition match against Garry Kasparov at the Munich Electronica trade fair, has just won the girls' under 18 section of the World Youth Chess Championships in Heraklio, Crete. you will find a lot of pictures of our 17-year-old star here.

11/23/2002 – The small Caribbean island of Curaçao hosted the 1962 Candidates, a quadruple round robin with eight of the world's best players. Four have sadly passed on, three have retired from competitive play. But one, Viktor Kortschnoj, is still one of the world's top players, and certainly one of the most active! He is playing in this year's commemorative event in Curaçao. Here is an illustrated report by John Fernandez.

11/18/2002 – The Prague unity agreement has been signed and approved by all parties. Now comes the tough part – working out the details. American GM Yasser Seirawan, who has become the shuttle diplomat of chess, has worked out the new format for a united World Championship, including the next two cycles. Garry Kasparov helped us to understand it. Here are all the details of the new world championship format.