Interview with Vladimir Kramnik

5/8/2014 – You can always count on him to be informative, open, candid, honest. The 38-year-old former World Champion, now a family father with two children, looks at art, beauty, life and chess in this 13-minutes interview, conducted by Brazilian video filmer Clara Cavour in Paris, just after Vladimir Kramnik's return to his family after a month of tournaments. We have a full transcription.

Quest for a first GM norm – part one

5/7/2014 – He discovered chess at the relatively late age of ten, and was immediately fascinated by its intricacies and subtleties. Akshat Chandra soon became a regular on the US chess circuit, gained an IM title and is now on a quest to make full GM. The first norm came at an Invitational in New York, which he has described in a wonderfully insightful article. Akshat is all of fourteen years old.

Globetrotting in Barbados

5/7/2014 – After two intense weeks working in the press room of the Women Grand Prix in Khanty-Mansiysk, our favorite globetrotter IM Alina L'Ami took off to Barbados but this time to play in a round-robin. With little rest and no preparation, was this a mistake? Her colossal 9.5/10 victory says not, and she still managed to get up during the games to take pictures for this gorgeous pictorial.

No bids for World Championship 2014

5/6/2014 – It is quite amazing: World Champion Magnus Carlsen, a real sports superstar, is to be challenged in a title match by former World Champion Viswanathan Anand, an Indian with 1.3 billion fans, in November this year. But the deadline for the bidding process to stage this match ran out on April 30, at 13:00h, without a single bid being received by FIDE. What are the reasons?

Checkmating Alzheimer’s with mind sports

5/5/2014 – Every year 17.5 billion hours of unpaid care are provided to people suffering from Alzheimer's. The total cost is currently $200 billion per year, and could rise to $1.2 trillion by 2050. Medical science is still wrestling with cause and cure, but, as Michael Ciamarra explains, one treatment seems to work: chess. He gives us thoughtful instructions on how to administer this therapy.

Chess Cash Kings 2013 – guess who leads

5/5/2014 – The idea of creating a live rating list of the prize money winnings of top GMs was suggested some years ago by Peter Zhdanov, a student of math and sociology. Making these financial details publicly available, he suggested, was a crucial step towards transforming chess into a mainstream sport and making it more popular. The first list was published in 2012, the second has just been compiled.

1233 players at French Youth Championships

5/4/2014 – It has to be seen to be believed: well over a thousand players, divided into 14 groups, 4000 in total with parents, friends and trainers – this is competition for chess Olympiads! The Youth Championships of France took place in Montbéliard, the eastern part of France, in a giant sport and concert stadium. It was dedicated to the late and great organiser Jean-Paul Touzé. Giant pictorial.

"Battle for Migingo" Part Three

5/3/2014 – Migingo is one of the smallest, most densely populated pieces of real estate in the world. This small island has been a source of sabre rattling by both Kenya and Uganda, and the Nairobi Chess Club has chosen to name its matches against Uganda after this volatile battleground. The third edition was once again won by Uganda. Pictorial report by Kim Bhari.

Ambassador Melanie visits Tromsø

5/2/2014 – Melanie Ohme, 24, is a German WGM and member of the national Olympic team. She is also an activist against racism and as such was invited to Tromsø, Norway, where the 41st Chess Olympiad begins in three months. Melaine participated in two days of filming and visited a special school where chess is being used to integrate children from 22 different nations. Inspiring photo report.

Handicraft: Piece by Peace Chess

5/2/2014 – It's a two-man company: master artisan Mary Sutphen sculpts chess pieces in wax, her son Robert uses rubber molds to cast them in different materials. In addition Rob hand carves chess sets from alabaster and soapstone. Each piece is the result of many hours of work, and full sets may take months to complete. Still the prices are extremly reasonable. Take a look.

May 2014 ratings – Grischuk in third place

5/2/2014 – Alexander Grischuk gained 15 points in the past month and is now ranked number three in the world, behind Carlsen and Aronian, and ahead of Anand, Caruana, Kramnik and Nakamura. Interesting that Cuban GM Leinier Dominguez Perez has climbed into the top ten. French GM Romain Edouard 22 points, while Dutch GM Loek van Wely somehow managed to lose 29 points in a single month.

New in Chess goes digital

5/1/2014 – When the English language Dutch magazine New in Chess first appeared in September 1984, with tournament reports, analyses by top players, portraits and general interest articles, it rapidly earned the reputation of being one of the world's best chess magazines. Now, 30 years later, it has grown to A4 in size and over 100 pages long. And since 2014 it is available in digital form.

Irine Sukandar Asian Women's Champion

5/1/2014 – The 13th Asian Continental Open in Sharjah included a Women's section. Gold went to Irine Sukandar, a 22-year-old WGM from Indonesia — not the first time she has won an Asian Continental. And already at the 2004 Olympiad in Calviá, at the age of twelve (!), she scored 10/12. This remarkable young lady has sent us pictures and annotated a game from Sharjah.

Gashimov Memorial B: Eljanov and Motylev shine

4/30/2014 – While the main focus of the chess fans and media was on the top event with Carlsen and Co., it would be remiss to ignore the no less exciting B tournament, which brought together five strong foreign players against five Azeri grandmasters. After a rocket start by Bacrot, Eljanov took over in a key win in round seven, while Motylev also finished strong. Large illustrated report.

Gashimov R10: From Fool to King

4/30/2014 – After starting the tournament with 50% - 2.5/5 - two of them being losses in a row, it was a question in everyone's mind whether Carlsen would recover successfully. He did, and in what way. With a brilliant second half scoring 4.0/5 Carlsen takes Shamkir and crowns himself with a full point lead over Caruana, who kept his second place despite today's loss. Does Magnus do it on purpose?

Asian Continental: Adhiban analyses

4/30/2014 – In yesterday's report on the Asian Continental Open in Sharjah, UAE, we provided a quick glimpse of a game played in the penultimate round by the silver medalist B. Adhiban. Shortly after the report went online the talented young India GM, who hails from Anand's city of Chennai, sent us wonderfully instructive analysis of this key game, which we now share with you.

Gashimov R9: All rests on one game

4/29/2014 – Only one round remains in Shamkir and nothing has been written. Carlsen and Caruana lead with 5.5 and their closest competitors are one point away. The matchup tomorrow is Carlsen-Caruana, which will determine the winner of the tournament. Today the Italian took out Mamedyarov while Carlsen tried for over 100 moves to beat Radjabov, but in the end he was unsuccessful.

Yu and Sukandar win Asian Continental 2014

4/29/2014 – Yu Yangyi is the 19-year-old veni-vidi-vici grandmaster from China, who has added this title to the many he came, saw and conquered in the past years. China trumped their chief rivals, taking three places to India's one for the World Cup in Baku next year. Indonesian WGM Irene Sukandar Kharisma won the women's section (report to follow). Games, results and analysis.

Arnold Classic Brasil: Mens sana in corpore sano

4/29/2014 – During the weekend of April 25-27, the largest multi-sport event in the world, the Arnold Classic, held its second Brazilian edition in Rio de Janeiro. This massive sports festival, created 25 years ago by Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jim Lorimer in Ohio, USA, is dedicated to sports, health, and fitness, and at the personal insistence of Schwarzenegger himself, one of the sports was chess.

Anna Muzychuk World Blitz Champion

4/28/2014 – Finally the marathon in Khanty-Mansiysk has come to an end for the players of the Rapid and Blitz Championships. Muzychuk dominated the blitz event from start to finish and ended 2.5 points ahead over her silver medal Dzagnidze... despite blundering a mate in one against Stefanova! One mistake could not erase her excellent play and she deservedly becomes the new blitz queen.

Gashimov R8: Race tightens

4/28/2014 – With victories by Caruana and Nakamura the race for first place is very close. Carlsen still leads, but he is only half a point ahead of Caruana, but he is also only half a point ahead of those tied from third to fifth! With Mamedyarov being the only one relegated, the tournament is still truly open to anyone - especially as Carlsen has already shown weakness. Who will take the title?

Diana Mihajlova: Chess is Art!!

4/28/2014 – Parallels between life and chess are frequently drawn, evoking thoughts, emotions and notions like Love, Depth, Universe, Infinity, Passion, Perseverance, Patience, Blunder, Victory, Beauty, Silence, Simplicity, Indecision, Dark and Light. A chess player and artist, Diana Mihjalova, has translated them into a pictorial language, using acrylic on canvas, and put the concepts into historical perspective.

Gashimov R7: Déjà vu

4/27/2014 – Nakamura-Carlsen. 4. f3 Nimzo-Indian. White outplays Black, wins in the positional battle. Something goes wrong, the tables are turned, Black now has the initiative... and he ends up converting it. No, we are not talking about the Zuerich Challenge game, but the highlight of today's round in Shamkir. Carlsen somehow tricks the American again and, also again, leads solo.

Gashimov R6: Back on Track

4/26/2014 – The World Champion has recovered quickly from his two consecutive losses by demolishing Mamedyarov. A combination of questionable opening play from the Azeri and very powerful chess from Carlsen resulted in a quick 25-move victory for the Norwegian. The other two games were hard fought draws in endgames; in both,the chances for either side winning were slim. But we did get a Stalemate!