Chess comes back to Afghanistan

2/14/2002 – For five years chess, like kite flying, was strictly forbidden by the puritanical Taliban regime in Afghanistan. Now 138 players gathered to take part in the first post-Taliban tournament, as Patrick Cockburn of The Independent reports. Cockburn describes how difficult it still is to find chess sets in the Afghani capital and how some player had to use the floor for their games. More

Junior7 wins prestigious CCT4 computer tournament

2/5/2002 – Last weekend the members of the ICD Computer Chess Club organized their fourth tournament, a 46 player event with 11 rounds. The clear winner was World Champion Deep Junior 7, written by Amir Ban and Shay Bushinsky from Israel, with 9/11 points. Most programs were operated by their authors which gives the tournament high prestige. More

Ponomariov faces one million dollar lawsuit

2/3/2002 – The second big event in this year, Linares 2002, has a remarkably strong field, with Kasparov, Anand, Adams, Ivanchuk, Shirov and Vallejo Pons. Originally the seventh player was Ruslan Ponomariov, but the newly crowned FIDE world champion seems to have changed his mind and cancelled his appearence. Now he faces an expensive lawsuit for breach of contract. More

ChessBase Player of the Year award

2/1/2002 – Originally we intended calling this the "Man of the Year Award", with the term "man" adhering to the common English usage of meaning man, woman or gender-challenged. In fact we also open our award nomination to include electronic chessplaying entities, whom we certainly do not wish to discriminate against. Well, cast your votes, you can win a special prize by electing the ChessBase player of the year here

I'm finished with the old chess, it's rotten to the core!

1/31/2002 – Bobby Fischer has given another interview, the first after the deeply disturbing remarks we heard from him on September 12 last year. This time he talks much more about chess, although the tirades of hate against Americans and Jewish people still comes through at full blast. But mainly we learn that he has turned his back on the "old chess" and will only play Fischer Random. You will find some excerpts and the full audio files in MP3 format here.

Einstein takes over Brain Games and Kramnik

1/25/2002 – It was announced today that the Einstein Group plc in England has taken over the rights previously held by the Brain Games Network for the Man v Machine event in Bahrain, the Dortmund qualifier and 2003 Chess Championship match against Vladimir Kramnik. The group was founded in 1999 and is a multimedia Group including a satellite channel on Sky Digital. More

Ach, who can tell them apart?

1/20/2002 – When Garry Kasparov took the title from Anatoly Karpov in 1985 the chess world was electrified. But the rest of the planet had a problem. The names started alike, both had the same letters, with just an "sa" thrown into the second for good measure. Until today people seem to have problems telling which is which. You will find typical mixups here

Nigel takes Reykjavik by, well, storm

1/14/2002 – After a harrowing battle with snow-storms Nigel Short did eventually arrive in Reykjavik, Iceland, for his match against local GM star Hannes Stefansson. After a somewhat shaky start – who's going to blame him after auch an adventurous journey – Nigel settled down to thoroughly beat Stefansson with a final score of 4½-1½. More

If you did not like the original you should try the director's cut

1/12/2002 – Let's face it. 2001 was not the greatest year for chess, but it was infinitely worse for the rest of the world. If you didn't like 2001 this was because you saw the original version. As a special service to our visitors we bring you a special director's cut, with additional, never-seen-before footage. More

Russian émigrés dominate US Championship

1/10/2002 – It’s ironic that, in the aftermath of Bobby Fischer’s historic victory over the legendary Soviet Chess machine, nowadays it’s the Russians who dominate the American game. You will find more details in John Henderson's report here...

Kasparov and Kramnik on top of FIDE ratings

1/7/2002 – Both had no games rated in the new list, only Vishy Anand's disaster in Dortmund is reflected fully in the new FIDE list. Anand decends to the field, with Adams, Morozevich and Topalov close at his heels. For the first time we see Ponomariov among the top 10, ahead of his world championship opponent Ivanchuk. You will find the top-100 list more

Nigel vs Hannes or Iceland in the Winter

1/5/2002 – For Nigel it is a trip from sunny Greece into the Arctic winter. Ah, but Iceland has beautiful scenery, great hot springs and really cool logos! And lotsa GMs. One of them, Hannes Stefansson will meet Nigel Short in a match of six games in Reykjavik City Hall on January 8 to 13. More information and coverage is available here... – Correction: From icy Greece to sunny Iceland!

Kramnik vs Deep Fritz schedule

1/5/2002 – The match between BGN world champion Vladimir Kramnik and the computer program Deep Fritz will be held on a still to be announced date between March 15 and June 30 this year. It was originally scheduled for October 2001 but posponed due to the September 11 attacks in New York. more

The Tiger climbs to the top of the list

12/27/2001 – In the latest computer rating list we have a new leader: Chess Tiger, written by Christophe Théron and running in the ChessBase interface now standsfour Elo points above Fritz, which has topped the last seven lists in a row. The old Fritz, mind you – testing on the versionthat will play Vladimir Kramnik is still in progress. You will find the December list more

Welcome to the Euro!

12/26/2001 – Good news: just a few more days and the baffling "deutschmark", liras and draculas will disappear. The whole of Europe is uniformly introducing the dollar as the common currency – but in order to preserve our self-dignity we call it the "Euro". This means that the Americans can at last buy our products without mathematical jugglings. You find out all about it here...

Judy on Internet and computer chess

12/23/2001 – The world's number 16 player was the attraction of the Online World Chess Event 2002. Unfortunately the event was cancalled after it had been dutifully announced in the world press. In an insightful discussion Judit Polgar talks about cheating in Internet tournaments. "It’s actually the mediocre grandmaster that has the biggest chance to get away with some cheating since it would not look that funny if he qualifies for the live event." more

Sorry, guys, but he's busy preparing for Fritz

12/19/2001 – Originally Vladimir Kramnik had signed up to play in the traditional Wijk aan Zee tournament in January. But now he has cancelled, specifying his need to prepare for his match against Fritz in Bahrain, scheduled for early February. His place is taken by his second Evgeny Bareev. The other big disappointment for Wijk: Vassily Ivanchuk and Ruslan Ponomariov have cancelled too, due to another match scheduled in Moscow. You will find a list of participants who have not cancelled more

The man behind the notes

12/19/2001 – Steve Lopez, writer, Blues singer, self-confessed chess freak, is one of our longest-standing contributors. He is a leading expert on ChessBase software, having run the USA hotline for our company for many years. If you do not regularly click his "T-Notes" link on the left of this page you will discover that you have been missing some extremely useful tutorial material. Read more about Steve here...

Hey, I can see your house, mate!

12/16/2001 – Well not exactly. But when you install our new high-resolution map data files a visit to the Fritz 7 Playchess server becomes a breath-taking experience. With rivers, lakes and populated areas you get a much better idea of where you opponent is. We have some typical pictures and information on how you can get the world map upgrade here

Who does what at ChessBase?

12/10/2001 – Well just read the labels! Everyone on the ChessBase staff must wear a uniform with his or her job clearly noted on the back. This makes it easier to allocate tasks and call for assistance. For instance someone might yell "Hardware!" or "Chess Engineer!" and the appropriate person will come running. More details can be found here...

who's the strongest one of all?

12/9/2001 – When Fritz7 was released everyone was impressed – including our most competent beta tester, Vladimir Kramnik (as reported on October 17 below). But some thought maybe Fritz7 was not so good at blitz. Well, a young Canadian lady named Sarah Bird, who is a dedicated computer chess fan, decided to find out. She played literally thousands of games with top-class programs. You will find her results more

Can you play this endgame?

12/7/2001 – Can you win with a queen vs a rook? Don't be so sure – even the best players on the planet can run into problems when confronted with this endgame. Especially in rapid chess playoff games, during a world championship, with tens of thousands of dollars at stake. We hope he will forgive us for using this painful experience to demonstrate the cold perfection computers in such endgames. At least he did manage to win the playoff in the end. Take a look at the game here...

Chess, cats and free-flowing beer

12/6/2001 – Kilkenny may be Ireland's smallest city, but it has a lot going for it apart from the free-flowing craic – not to mention the equally free-flowing Guinness! Last weekend over 200 players made the pilgrimage to the latest edition of the tournament, which was held in the magnificent surroundings of Kilkenny Castle. John Henderson was there to watch Rogers and McShane win it. You can read his illustrated report for the Scotsman more

We're going to have to watch this kid

12/3/2001 – He has just turned 18, hails from the Ukraine and became a grandmaster at the age of 14 years, 0 months, 17 days. Today Ruslan Ponomariov is equipped with 2684 Elo points and has won all of his last five games in the FIDE world championship. No glamour gallery, though. In the other games Ivanchuk and Bareev won, all other men drew. In the women's section Peng Zhaoqin beat Maia Chiburdanidze. There will be no games tomorrow. You can replay or download all today's games here...