CBM training: Bodycheck, seventh heaven rooks and racing pawns

2/19/2012 – If you are an ice hockey fan you know exactly what we are talking about. In chess the bodycheck is an important endgame technique which can easily make the difference between a win and a loss. Our ChessBase Magazin columnist Dr Karsten Müller explains this and other very useful strategic concepts in his latest installment of endgames from the Aeroflot Open.

Romanian Championship covered in snow

2/18/2012 – It is not something we have seen before: chess players travelling to the round of their national championship on a horse-pulled sleigh. But an Arctic winter with deep sub-zero temperatures, and a field of hardened, undaunted players, make it possible. "Why go to the North Pole if it will come here to us," writes WGM Alina L'Ami, who has sent us this big pictorial report.

Kavalek in Huffington: Chess in Clouds of Smoke

2/17/2012 – During a game in Wijk aan Zee, played in a cloud of cigarette smoke in 1969, Dutch GM Jan Hein Donner made a major discovery in the Najdorf Sicilian. It lay dormant for over forty years, but then emerged in a slightly altered form in the games of the young Chinese woman grandmaster, Ju Wenjun, 21. GM Lubos Kavalek reports, and provides us with interesting links to chess novelties.

ICGA/Rybka controversy: Feedback

2/17/2012 – The recent interview with David Levy, President of the International Computer Games Association, has generated a lot of feedback from our readers – and continues to do so. We will publish a selection of this feedback next week. For now we bring you three messages from directly involved parties, including Levy himself, who has initiated an investigation against a second program.

Chess champs Bobby Fischer and Magnus Carlsen on 60 Minutes

2/17/2012 – This Sunday the very influential CBS TV news magazine 60 Minutes will be turning its eyes – or rather: lenses – on chess, with a segment concentrating on the exploits and personality of Magnus Carlsen. To get people in the mood they are streaming a "60 Minutes Rewind" of a report produced in 1972 on the upcoming match between Boris Spassky and challenger Bobby Fischer. Don't miss it!

Long Moscow Variation

2/17/2012 – White is threatening a little something on h7. Now the sequence 23...Ne2++ 24.Kh2 Bg1+ 25.Kh1 Ng3+ ultimately yields Black ...
A)... a material advantage;
B)... a material disadvantage;
C)... neither nor (equality).
Extra question: Why does 23...Nf5+ 24.Kh2 Kg7 or 23...Nf3+ 24.Kh1 Kg7 fail?

ChessBase Magazine, larger diagram and solution.

Bojkov: Try the Sicilian Kalashnikov

2/17/2012 – Openings DVDs come in a wide variety of types and range from those that try to give only the broadest ideas with a minimum of theory, while others seem like the recitation of a section of an openings encyclopedia. Albert Silver explains why he feels that GM Dejan Bojkov has managed to strike just the right balance between the two, without sacrificing quality. A personal review by Albert Silver.

Aeroflot Open – Mateusz Bartel comes out on top

2/16/2012 – It was a remarkably tight finish with Polish GM Mateusz Bartel, Anton Korobov, and Pavel Eljanov all tied with 6.5/9. The Polish GM took first on tiebreak, and earned an entry into Dortmund. Turkish GM Emre Can won B with a full point lead, but the story was a young 12-year-old Chinese boy, FM Wei Yi, who nearly scored a GM norm with a 2551 performance. Final report.

Xtreme Chess Championships – Reality TV show

2/16/2012 – Reality TV is more alive than ever, with competitions ranging from the best designer to toughest trucker. One would think that our beloved game might be a tough sell, since it is not necessarily the most visually compelling, right? Not if you ask Jennifer Shahade, Greg Shahade, and Daniel Meirmon who strive to break the austere nerdy image with their brainchild Xtreme Chess Championships.

2011/12 4NCL or Four Nations Chess League

2/15/2012 – The 4NCL is the foremost team competition in the United Kingdom, and is open to all teams from England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland. From modest beginnings in 1993 with the participation of only six teams, the league now boasts three divisions with no fewer than 75 teams plus a recently inaugurated junior 4NCL league which already consists of eighteen teams. A bit of history and report.

CBM training: Endgames from Aeroflot Moscow

2/15/2012 – The Aeroflot Open is in its final stages, with over one hundred full-blown GMs participating, half a dozen rated over 2700. It is clear that the tournament would produce exciting games, and especially rich pickings for our endgame expert GM Karsten Müller, whom you know from ChessBase Magazin. Karsten has picked three instructive endings for you to study. Learn and enjoy.

CBM 146 – 'a wonderful product'

2/15/2012 – "As usual, ChessBase Magazine offers a huge amount of material on diverse aspects of chess," writes Shaun Marsh in his chess blog. He picks out moments from the games of the London Chess Classic and the Tal Memorial, praising the style and humour of commentators like Carlsen and Kramnik – "a refreshing change from the 'I was winning all the way through' type". Review.

2012 Moscow Open won by Igor Lysyj and Marina Romanko

2/13/2012 – The classic Moscow Open was given renewed life and prestige as it was brought under the auspices of the Russian State Social University which expanded it to nine events, with the main Open, the Women's Open, student and amateur events, as well as the Fifth World Cup of Problem Solving, a Shogi tournament, and a qualifier for the World Blitz Chess Championship. Large illustrated report.

Lilov: Gambit Opening Repertoire

2/13/2012 – Are you getting to old for feverish pace of gambit openings? Although as he aged Steven Dowd started looking for a more sedate opening repertoire he simply could not quite give up his youthful affinity for openings where you "sacrifice a pawn, then some pieces, and mate!" Steven gives the latest Fritztrainer DVD by Valeri Lilov, Gambit Opening Repertoire, an evaluation of "great": five out of six stars.

Aeroflot 2012 – Korobov leads, Caruana recovers

2/13/2012 – Anton Korobov is in the lead, with 5.0/6 points. The Ukrainian GM stopped Fabiano Caruana in round four, but the young US/Italian star has since fought his way back into equal second place and will now be eying the top spot. Fabiano's performance is 2831 and in the current rating period he has already gained 33 points to reach seventh place in the world. Report after round six.

Carlsen: Candidates format great, schedule 'surprising'

2/13/2012 – In 2010 Magnus Carlsen, the world's top ranked player, dropped out of the World Championship cycle, criticizing its format. Now that FIDE has announced an eight-player double round robin the Norwegian will participate. But why, Magnus asks, do they have to stage the Candidates in the middle of the high season for chess tournaments? Interview and video of an exciting TV blitz game.

CBM training: Endgames from the Moscow Open

2/12/2012 – The Moscow Open ended last weekend (ChessBase report to follow shortly), with at least 60 GMs participating. Naturally there was a lot of exciting play, and our resident endgame expert GM Karsten Müller, whom you know from his popular ChessBase Magazin section, has picked three instructive endings that will help you to improve your practical play.

'Population growth' – some interesting facts about chess

2/12/2012 – Before you read this article try to guess: which countries in the world have the largest number of international chess players, i.e. people with a FIDE rating? Which countries are growing fastest? Which have the most GMs, which the strongest? How many GMs, IMs, FMs are there world-wide? Here are some very illuminating statistics collected by Boris Schipkov for Chess Siberia.

Edward Winter's Chess Explorations (78)

2/11/2012 – In 1987 Olga Capablanca Clark mentioned to the Editor of Chess Notes an unknown game played by Capablanca and Tartakower in Paris in the late 1930s. She offered it for sale, but the reserve price was not reached. The game remained unpublished until this month, when its owner, David DeLucia, made it available for publication in Chess Notes. A wonderful episode.

2012 Aeroflot Open – Caruana leads with eight

2/10/2012 – The Aeroflot Open in Moscow, Russia, is the toughest open of the year, with three tournaments, including the A group with 86 players, 47 of whom are rated over 2600. Liem Le Quang used the event to catapult to the elite, with two straight wins, but after three rounds, Italian Fabiano Caruana leads with 2.5/3 and is currently 2768 and world seventh in the live ratings. Report and games.

ICGA/Rybka controversy: An interview with David Levy (2)

2/10/2012 – On Monday we published part one of a lengthy interview we had conducted, via sequential email exchanges, with the President of the International Computer Games Association David Levy. The ICGA had found star programmer Vasik Rajlich guilty of "plagiarism" in his early program versions and banned him for life. Here now is part two of the interview.

Edge queens

2/10/2012 – With his last move 55.Re1-d1 (diagram) White had initiated a deflection manoeuvre to promote his passed h-pawn.
The capture 55...Rxd1 now leads to ...

A)... victory for Black
B)... perpetual check

ChessBase Magazine, larger diagram and solution.

Breaking news: Candidates 2012 to be held in London

2/10/2012 – It had been buzzing around vigorously in the Twitter world, but FIDE would not confirm anything. Now Sport Express has published a first announcement: the next Candidates Tournament will be held from October 23 to November 13 in London, England. Part of the arrangement is apparently to transfer the rights to the world championship cycle to a new sponsor. Interesting development.

Neiman/Afek: Invisible Chess Moves

2/9/2012 – Every chess player knows that some moves are harder to see than others. Why is it that, frequently, uncomplicated wins simply do not enter your mind? A new book investigates the blind spots from which even strong grandmasters suffer and which obscure some of their best ideas during a game. The examples in this review, all taken from the Tata Steel tournament, are for you to solve.