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.

Abhijit Kunte and Chess in Mumbai

1/30/2014 – A couple of weeks ago the Indian GM broke the national record in a sumultaneous exhibition. Especially noteworthy was that of the 155 opponents at least 30 were proper players with international ratings. Our reporter Sagar Shah described the event in the first part of his report, interviewed the grandmaster for the second. He reveals at least one secret of his preparation: Surya Namaskara.

Zurich 01: Carlsen, Aronian start strong

1/30/2014 – With impressive victories both Carlsen and Aronian have started showing strength and continuing their recent good form in Zurich 2014. Carlsen played a fantastic game against Gelfand who simply could not keep up with all the problems the Norwegian kept posing him. Aronian on pressured Anand until the Indian cracked and needlessly sacrificed a piece. Two games fully annotated!

Zurich: Blitz and Opening Ceremony

1/30/2014 – The players have already thrown around fireworks with an enthralling blitz tournament to open the festivities in Zurich. No one was safe as fighting chess prevailed with the unusual time control of 4 minutes with 2 seconds increment. Caruana and Gelfand beat Carlsen and Nakamura, but these two players recovered quickly and went on a rampage. Blitz analysis!

Gibraltar: Most GMs unscathed

1/29/2014 – The Masters section has been inaugurated in Gibraltar and in spectacular fashion. A lovely gala was held in the famous Saint Michael's cave. Round one went with almost no upsets, but things started to change in round two. A few of the grand masters were held to draws, though most won their games. Eljanov had a close call, however almost losing to Elizabeth Paehtz.

Zurich 2014 a few hours away

1/29/2014 – The strongest tournament in chess history - at a massive 2801 rating average - will begin in just a few hours. The festival will include a blitz, classical and rapid tournament. The first will be used to determine the colors and pairings, the two others to determine the winner of the event. Can this edition of Zurich top what some consider the best tournament ever held, the legendary Zurich 1953?

Denis Khismatullin wins Dvorkovich Memorial

1/28/2014 – On the seashore of Rostov Oblast in Russia, the industrial port-city of Taganrog located on the Sea of Azov held the “Vladimir Dvorkovich Memorial”, the first strong event of the year in Russia. This second edition included a rapid tournament alongside the nine-round swiss and attracted top GMs such as Morozevich and Korobov. Khismatullin won and is up 43 Elo. Illustrated report.

Remembering Vugar Gashimov

1/28/2014 – Azeri GM Vugar Gashimov was one of the leading chess players of his country, having played in four Chess Olympiads, winning gold for Azerbaijani European Team Chess Championship in 2009. On the night of January 10-11, at the age of just 27, he died of a recurrent, malignant brain tumor. His girlfriend, Elisabeth W, was with him to the end. She tells us what Vugar was like.

Deep Fritz 14 – Elo 3150 on your computer

1/28/2014 – Deep Fritz 14 has improved on its great predecessor by adding 100 Elo points to its playing strength. It also comes as a powerful multi-processor version. right from the word go. "It’s very easy to get up and running; it took ten minutes on my laptop and most of the features are easy to get to grips with," writes Sean Marsh in CHESS Magazine. Review.

Gibraltar Chess Congress 2014 starts!

1/28/2014 – The Association of Chess Professionals voted the 2013 Gibraltar Chess Congress as the best Open tournament of the year. The time has come for the 2014 edition to dazzle us! The festivities have begun with simultaneous exhibitions by Sachdev and Agdestein as well as the start of the Amateur section. However the Masters start tomorrow. Preview of a fantastic event.

Chess in TV commercials

1/27/2014 – Chess is commonly used in print advertising, most often linking its image of intelligence and class with the advertiser's product or service. However, it also has been used many times in TV commercials either directly or indirectly to promote anything from luxury cars, to cell phones, the military, soft drinks, or sports. Here is a list of TV commercials with chess.

Tata 11: Giri and Timman take silver

1/26/2014 – With the first place decided, the real question was who would take silver and bronze. It was a tense final round, and it showed. In the Masters group, Giri drew taking silver, while Karjakin survived a lost position against Dominguez for bronze. Aronian lost a won game against Van Wely in time trouble. In the Challengers, veteran Timman took silver ahead of Jobava. Final report.

Tata 10: Aronian and Saric win a round in advance

1/25/2014 – Demonstrating a fantastic return to form, Aronian gave Dominguez no chance as he beat him in an impressive game to win the Masters a round in advance. With 8.0/10, and a two point lead, he is untouchable, but he can still make history if he wins tomorrow. Second place is all but decided. Saric also won the Challengers a round in advance by beating Yu Yangyi. Report with GM commentary.

Contractgate? The Kasparov-Leong agreement

1/25/2014 – The story began last weekend, when a draft contract between Garry Kasparov, who is running for FIDE President, and his running mate Ignatius Leong were leaked. It was suggested that large sums of money were passing to Leong in return for votes in the presidential election. Now Kasparov has replied to the accusations in an unprecedented way: by publishing the full text of the final contract.

Carlsen mates Bill Gates in 79 – seconds!

1/25/2014 – Reuters reports that the world's best chess player took just nine moves to beat the world's second richest man. World Champion Magnus Carlsen got 30 seconds to Bill Gates's two minutes on the clock. Magnus baited the hook in a fashion one might expect at these time controls when taking the disparity in strength into account. Here is video and the moves of the game.

Tata 11 (Group B): Timman forgives!

1/24/2014 – Timman has been showing that his flame for chess is far from extinguished and he has been playing excellent chess in Tata Steel, Challenger's group. Today he had an opportunity to crown his performance by beating Jobava, but a blunder late in the game - move 74 - cost him a crucial half a point. Saric remains half a point ahead of the Georgian with only two rounds to spare.