2/16/2002 – It has won more computer chess world championships than anyone can remember. Now for the first time Shredder 6 has topped the computer rating lists, which are based on a very large number of games played under controlled conditions on many computers. Of the top 20 programs 17 (including the top five) are produced or distributed by ChessBase. Check it out in our online shop. Fritz7 will be tested in the next list. More

2/15/2002 – We have learned that the well-known American GM Edmar Mednis died on February 13, 2002, at the age of 64. Mednis was born in Riga, Latvia in 1937 but lived in the United States since 1950, where he worked as a professional chess player and author. His most famous deed: to beat Bobby Fischer with the black pieces in the 1962-63 US Championship. More

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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...