Flame warriors – a full taxonomy

11/10/2002 – Have you ever visited a chess forum or the Usenet, only to recoil in horror after being viciously criticised or insulted by other visitors? The perpetrators of such attacks are known as "Flamers" and are the daily reality of news groups, even in such a sedate area as chess. Mike Reed has put together a remarkably witty, insightful and beautifully illustrated taxonomy of 'Flame Warriors'.

The masked men ride again

11/9/2002 – The eastern German chip manufacturer "Zentrum Mikroelektronik Dresden" (ZMD) are showing their products at the Electronica in Munich. CEO Thilo von Selchow is a great friend of Garry Kasparov, who is going to be at the ZMD stand on November 13. It is not the first time the chip manufacturer and the chess champion have got together. More

Sing along in Slovenia

11/8/2002 – While Garry Kasparov is chalking up a 3000 Elo performance on board one for the leading Russian team a Slovenian group is singing the praises of the game. Sample: "Chess! Black and White, checkered board's what we play on, your queen and my king can't meet, that's for sure. Closer and closer, your knight took my pawn..." The song and results are here.

Bled Olympiad Round 13 – draws all around

11/8/2002 – The top boards treated us to the most boring day of the 35 Olympiad in Bled. Russia vs Israel: all games drawn, Hungary (in hot pursuit) vs Armenia: all draws. The longest game was 17 moves, the shortest 12. Germany vs England also produced four draws, but at least Adams-Lutz lasted 35 moves. We bring you (yawn) games, results and many interesting links here.

Beautiful people in a beautiful place

11/6/2002 – Seldom before has a chess Olympiad been held in a more beautiful place. The Slovenian town of Bled has a lake surrounded by mountains and palaces. Our roving reporter Anna Dergatscheva in on location and has sent us a large number of very fine pictures from the Olympiade, including a special section on female players, like Almira Skripchenko on the left. You will find Anna's illustrated report here.

Joel Lautier's Shogi simul

11/6/2002 – He is by his own admittance a "patzer-level" Shogi player. But chess grandmaster Joel Lautier, whose mother is Japanese, recently took on three of the best Shogi players in Japan in a clock simul. In chess naturally. It was not, however, a trivial task. Japan's top Shogi player, Yoshiharu Habu, is of IM strength. More

Anand beats Karpov in Corsica

11/5/2002 – It was a tense affair, with three-time rapid chess winner Vishy Anand losing the first of two games against Anatoly Karpov at the Corsica Open. But the Indian superstar came back strongly with a fine win in game two. After that the first two tie-break games were drawn, but then Anand showed his strength in the blitz, winning both games to take the title. This should take him to the top of the Rapid Rating List. You will find the results and games here.

Deep Fritz? Never heard of it...

11/5/2002 – It was a great shame. Last Friday one of the candidates of the Austrian version of "Who wants to be a millionaire?" blew a lot of money by not knowing which program had played against Vladimir Kramnik in Bahrain. High Paul, Wide Andy, Near Peter or Deep Fritz? Mon dieu, she didn't know! The correct answer would have got her $5000 and a ticket into the next round. More...

Another rapid chess final with Anatoly Karpov

11/4/2002 – Does the picture look familiar? For the third time in recent months we see Anatoly Karpov in the final of a world-class rapid chess event. After the Eurotel Trophy and the recent Cap d'Agde event the 12th world champion is now facing Vishy Anand in the final of the Corsica International Open. The games will be played on Monday, November 4th. More

Vlad Tkatchiev rules in Corsica

11/3/2002 – 50 GMs from 32 different countries and a total of 350 players. Of these 16 qualified for the prestigious Masters, including Vladislav Tkatchiev, who displayed a stratospheric performance of 2807. The flamboyant Vlad joins Anand, Shirov, Karpov, Dreev, Jussupov and other top players in the quarterfinals today. You can watch live coverage at the on Europe-Echecs website, who have provided us with this report from Corsica.

Is Garry Kasparov all washed up?

11/3/2002 – Well, judge for yourself. After a dismal showing in Russia vs The World Garry Kasparov had been written off as a has-been by a number of chess journalists. Now the world's strongest player is punishing them with a 3000+ Elo performance at the Bled Olympiad. Playing on board one for Russia Kasparov has so far scored 4.5 out of five. His colleagues Peter Svidler and Alexander Khalifman are not doing too bad either. You will find statistics and results here.

Russia in the lead, Kasparov in superb form

11/1/2002 – In round six of the 35th Chess Olympiad in Bled Russia beat the leading Bosnia Herzegovina resounding with 3.5:0.5 and went into the lead. with 18.5. Full results, games and tables are still slow to come by at the official coverage page, so we bring you some statistics and tables. Garry Kasparov's score so far, 3½ out of 4, translates to an Elo performance of 2964. More

The sea, the sun and chess

10/30/2002 – Cap d'Agde, a beautiful French costal town, has been host to a rapid chess tournament with 633 participants, amateurs next to top GMs. The final was held today, with Israeli GM Boris Gelfand beating ex world champion Anatoly Karpov in the beautiful Salle Molière. More

Kramnik questions the Prague Agreement

10/29/2002 – In May FIDE and leading Grandmasters signed a Unity Agreement in Prague. But until now vital principles of the agreement have not been honoured, says classical chess world champion Vladimir Kramnik. "Neither the steps necessary for setting up a professional management organisation, nor the proposed and agreed business plan have been implemented." He pleads for clear and speedy measures at the Bled Olympiad in this open letter.

Kasparov starts to play at the Olympiad

10/28/2002 – Garry Kasparov removed his wristwatch and placed it on his left side. However, it is not like Wijk Aan Zee or Linares, where he can play chess in silence and solemnity. At the 35th Bled Chess Olympiad he is there for the masses – fans who have traveled as far as Africa, South America and Asia to see the world's greatest living player in action. The results of round two are available here.

The Great Russian Chess Joke

10/28/2002 – Okay, it may not be vintage Seinfeld material, but it is one of the best-known jokes in the world. Certainly in chess circles. And it has the habit of creeping up on you and pouncing when you least expect it. The latest assault: on the Chess Olympiad home page, under the title "Jokes". We were first introduced to it by Garry Kasparov in 1986, but by far the best rendition was by the Russian chess magazine editor Alexander Roshal. More

Did Kramnik really play against the world's strongest program?

10/28/2002 – Indeed he did. The Swedish Svenska schackdatorföreningen (SSDF, Chess Computer Association) which tests the strongest chess programs in the world, has completed testing the latest Deep Fritz 7.0, the program that played against Vladimir Kramnik in Bahrain. The result: on equal hardware Deep Fritz reached 2763 Elo points, 21 points more than the previous leader, Fritz 7.0. You will find the full SSDF computer rating list here.

Controversy over FIDE doping check

10/27/2002 – For the first time there will be rigorous doping controls at the Olympiad. This is been done in a futile attempt to make chess an Olympic discipline. The result is that a number of players have protested, vigorously. Some have even cancelled their participation, like top German players Artur Jussupov and Robert Hübner. They fear the $100,000 fines that may be suddenly imposed on first-time "offenders". More

'Chess-playing duo who made the wrong moves'

10/27/2002 – John Allen Muhammed, the prime suspect in the deadly US sniper attacks, spent his evenings quietly playing chess with the boy with whom he was later arrested. This is reported by a number of sources that are looking into the background of the Muhammed and his 17-year-old accomplice John Malvo. Was the henious attack a game of chess for the Beltway Snipers? More

The 35th Olympiad has started in Bled

10/26/2002 – The town of Bled is famous for its castle, lake and the island in the middle of the lake. Bled is part of the Republic of Slovenia which lies at the heart of Europe, between Italy, Austria, Hungary and Croatia. Bled is hosting the 35th Chess Olympiad – the biggest ever sport event in Slovenia. More

Fritz's strongest opponents

10/23/2002 – Not Vladimir Kramnik, or even Garry Kasparov or Vishy Anand. Last week Fritz faced 490 pounds of brawn – world champion boxers Vitali and Vladimir Klitschkos. Both hat PhDs in Sports and Philosophy and are great chess fans. The Klitschkos wanted to soften the machine which was giving their friend Vlady Kramnik a bit of trouble in Bahrain. Fritz offered a draw in a winning position. Talk about machine intelligence! Read about it in our illustrated report.

The winners of Hyderabad

10/23/2002 – The defending champions Vishy Anand and Xu Yuhua ended up on top of the men's and women's sections of the FIDE World Cup in Hyderabad, Indian. Anand, the favourite, fumbled at the start, finished with a flurish. You will find the games and a full illustrated report, including pictures of the new female stars, here.

The Sonas Rating Formula – Better than Elo?

10/22/2002 – Every three months, FIDE publishes a list of chess ratings calculated by a formula that Professor Arpad Elo developed decades ago. This formula has served the chess world quite well for a long time. However, statistician Jeff Sonas believes that the time has come to make some significant changes to that formula. He presents his proposal in this milestone article.

FIDE president Ilyumzhinov under attack

10/21/2002 – "Election season is a jolly old time for the Russian press," writes Alexei Pankin in the Moscow Times. Kalmykian president Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, who is standing for a third term and failed to reach the 50% needed to win the first round of elections, is now under heavy fire by the Moscow-based press. Since Ilyumzhinov is also the president of the world chess federation, the European FIDE delegates are watching the elections with some concern. More