Statistics of chess players and events

2/10/2014 – How many FIDE rated players are there in the different countries? How many open and round robin tournaments are held in each? What is the total number of FIDE rated games played per year in the world, and which country leads the statistics (guess: Russia, India, Germany, France or Spain)? And who are the greatest exporters and importers of players? Numbers and graphs by Martin Huba.

Chess, Sex and a Good Car Chase

2/9/2014 – Imagine a book on chess, set in the 16th Century in Constantinople, populated with characters like Queen Elizabeth I, Michelangelo, Ignatius Loyola, Suleiman the Magnificent, a 15-year-old Ivan the Terrible and Henry VIII? Written by a novelist who normally specializes in outrageous action scenes. Matthew Reilly's book The Tournament was wildly successful in Australia last year. Now it hits our shores.

New: ChessBase Magazine 158 – with free sample

2/7/2014 – The new ChessBase Magazine provides star analysis by some of the world's best players. There is also a wealth of openings analysis and surveys, like Alexey Kuzmin's explanation of the "Romanishin Principle" (1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.Bb5+ Bd7 4.c4). You can download this sample article for free – or check out state-of-the-art GM analysis your favourite line in the eleven opening surveys.

Cheparinov surprise winner in Gibraltar

2/7/2014 – After Ivanchuk was holding on to his leader position for so many rounds, and with a pack of 2700s usually only half a point behind, it was a mystery that Ivan Cheparinov was able to become the 2014 Gibraltar Tradewise Chess Festival's champion! With a string of victories in the last three rounds and with luck on his side in the playoffs the Bulgarian emerged victorious.

An ‘Israeli-incognito’ in the UAE

2/7/2014 – The World Youth Championship 2013 in Al Ain boasted 1800 participants from 120 countries, including a US squad of 94 players and nearly 250 people in total. One of them, the coach and many-times head of delegation of the US juniors, is a dual national, born in Israel. Aviv Friedman was a bit apprehensive about going, for the first time, to an Arab country. He tells us what it was like.

Huffington: Chess Triumphs and Blunders

2/6/2014 – Magnus Carlsen finished the Zurich Chess Challenge undefeated, a full point ahead of his nearest rival. Carlsen's victory seemed easy, but, in fact there was a swing game against American Hikaru Nakamura, who should have won but lost instead. In his Huffington Post column GM Lubomir Kavalek shows us how even the world's best players can be vulnerable to one-move blunders.

Zurich: Simul Exhibition

2/6/2014 – As part of the festivities of Zurich 2014 the World Women's Chess Champion Hou Yifan was invited to play a simultaneous exhibition against the strongest Swiss junior players. This proved to not be an easy task as the Chinese player's opponent's average rating was well over 2150 and the clocks were running on every board. One player was even very close to winning...

Gibraltar 08: Hurricane Ivanchuk is back

2/6/2014 – With a very important victory over Ganguly, Ivanchuk has regained the sole lead in Gibraltar. He is followed closely by Kamsky and Rapport, the only players to have won their round eight game going into it with 5.5/8. The leader will face US Champ Kamsky in a decisive battle in round nine, while Rapport will face the Frenchman MVL in depth round eight analysis.

Joys of Chess – My favourite

2/5/2014 – Every chess player probably has his favourite game: Byrne-Fischer from the Rosenwald Tournament 1956, Kasparov-Topalov, in Wijk aan Zee 1999, or for chess romantics the Immortal Game Anderssen-Kieseritzky from 1851. In his book The Joys of Chess Professor Christian Hesse has selected a lesser know game, but one dominated by a series of incredible sacrifices. Let him show us this game.

Gibraltar 07: Ganguly, Ivanchuk at the top

2/4/2014 – With a fascinating win against Spanish grandmaster Vallejo Pons, the Indian player Surya Shekhar Ganguly was the only vanquisher that had 5.0/6 going into the 7th round. Ivanchuk drew his games against English #1 Adams who leads the pack of hunters with 5.5/7. The festivities continue and chess is becoming sharper and sharper in another edition of Gibraltar.

Caruana wins Rapid, Carlsen tops Zurich

2/4/2014 – The World Champion saw his lead be seriously diminished as he was only able to score 2.0/5 in the rapid section of Zurich 2014. Caruana had an amazing performance, playing convincing chess and not once being in serious problems. His 4.0/5 was half more than Nakamura and one more than Aronian. The Armenian and the Italian shared second in the final tournament standings.

Christmas Puzzles 2013 – solutions (2)

2/4/2014 – The winners of our 2013 Christmas puzzle contest will be announced after the Zürich Chess Challenge (where their prizes will be signed). The puzzles were selected by problem expert GM John Nunn, who gave us the solutions to the first four, and now provides his wonderfully lucid explanations for the remaining problems. In addition we give you the solutions to our brain teasers.

Gibraltar 06: Ivanchuk leads solo

2/4/2014 – Vassily Ivanchuk continues his rampage in Gibraltar and is now the only player to have 5.5/6 in the Masters section of the tournament. However he is pursued by a huge pack of people with five points including many 2700 players. The blitz pairs, one of the most chaotic events of the festival was played yesterday. Report and standings prior to an instrumental round seven.

Zurich 05: Caruana strikes

2/3/2014 – The Classical portion of Zurich 2014 has come to an end. Carlsen comes out on top after having an effortless draw against Anand. Nakamura had no chances against Gelfand and they agreed to a draw which forced a rapid game won by the Israeli. Caruana won a very nice game against Aronian in a grueling endgame in which the Armenian was not his usual solid defender. Rapids tomorrow!

Images of stars by the stars

2/3/2014 – Some go for a walk near the lake, others may watch a movie. Former World Champion Viswanathan Anand took a quick break to photograph some astronomical objects in the southern hemisphere – with a remotely controlled 20-inch telescope. He was helped by Dr Christian Sasse, who himself caught a supernova two days ago in a nearby galaxy – the second in a week. Astronomy by chess players.

Gibraltar 05: Battle of the Sexes

2/2/2014 – The festivities continue in the Gibraltar Chess Congress and two of the more popular events have come to a closing. The first team blitz was won by the teams 50/50 and China Dragon. Also the Battle of the Sexes occurred and despite the significant rating advantage of the men, the women were the clear winners! Lastly, a beautiful romantic game by French Hero MVL.

Zurich 04: Musical Inspiration!

2/2/2014 – The Zurich Chess Challenge had the visit of Charles Aznavour, one of the most famous and enduring singers of the world. His music inspired the players as it was a beautiful bloodbath on the board. Aronian played like a machine against Nakamura, Carlsen's creative sacrifice vanquished Caruana and Anand won a complex game against Gelfand. Annotations of inspired games!

A new, challenging chess variant

2/2/2014 – Ever since desktop computers can play at its highest levels and beat practically all humans, the interest of the Artificial Intelligence community in this game has been sagging. That concerns Dr Azlan Iqbal, a senior lecturer with a PhD in AI, who has created a variant of the game that is designed to rekindle the interest of computer scientists – and be enjoyable to humans as well: Switch-Side Chain-Chess.

Gibraltar 04: Anna's tournament

2/1/2014 – With tough fights in the top boards Gibraltar is,looking to be a complete slugfest to the end. Li Chao, Rodshtein and Mareco are the surprise leaders with 4.0/4, none of them above 2700. However the horde of players with 3.5 is very scary and will try to catch them soon. We bring you a special report of a player who has had her first win in Gibraltar on her 12th time there!

Zurich 03: "Freak Occurrence"

2/1/2014 – In a performance that would bewilder Harry Houdini, Magnus Carlsen has not only escaped from the grasp of defeat at the hands of Hikaru Nakamura, but he was able to turn the game around and somehow win. The American played better than the Norwegian, but an inexplicable and costly blunder turned the tides and it was he who was faced with a loss Report of a miracle.

Hungarian GM Gyula Sax dies at 62

2/1/2014 – He was a wonderfully brilliant tactical player, a member of the Hungarian team that in 1978, for the first time since the Second World War, broke the Soviet monopoly on the Gold medal at chess Olympiads. Gyula Sax represented his country at the games a total of ten times, and always performed above his rating. In the past decades he lived in quiet solitude and on January 25 died of a heart attack.

Zurich 02: Nakamura with the leaders

1/31/2014 – With a draw in the game between Carlsen and Aronian, Nakamura saw an opportunity to catch the leaders. He played enterprising and interesting chess against Anand, first sacrificing a piece for practical compensation and then playing accurate and precise moves taking advantage of every one of the Indian's mistakes. Analysis of the round and report of a special friendly match.

Gibraltar 03: Top matches ready!

1/31/2014 – With most of the top players in the tournament already facing above average grandmasters the event has weeded out most players with draws and only a select few remain with a perfect 3.0/3. The top board in round four will feature Movsesian vs. Vachier-Lagrave, but first round three where GM Fier was very close to winning (and to losing!) against top seed Michael Adams.

Contractgate 2 – Ilyumzhinov-Paulson memorandum

1/31/2014 – About ten days ago a draft contract between Garry Kasparov and Ignatius Leong was leaked. It suggested that large sums of money were passing to Leong in return for votes in the FIDE presidential election. Kasparov replied to the accusations by publishing the full text of the final contract. Now a contract between FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov has surfaced and is causing similar furor.