Gibraltar Chess Festival: Hou Yifan leads with a 2900 performance

1/28/2012 – After four rounds of the tenth Tradewise Gibraltar Chess Festival and a lot of exciting chess there are eleven players in the lead with 3.5/4 points. They do not include the top two seeds, but instead a 17-year-old girl from China, who appears to be in top form. It is, you might have guessed, Women’s World Chess Champion Hou Yifan. You can follow the event in hours and hours of video reports.

Ari Ziegler: Modern Benoni for Advanced Players

1/27/2012 – The Modern Benoni is perhaps the most dynamic approach to meeting 1.d4 without sacrificing a pawn. International Master Ari Ziegler has produced a new Fritztrainer DVD that will help you build a fighting repertoire against all white systems in this opening. Ziegler provides many surprisingly simple solutions in many lines. The target audience is club players with a rating of 1500-2400. Get it now.

David Friedgood: More on Novotnys

1/27/2012 – We continue with our discussion of the Novotny theme in chess problems, where a white unit plays onto the intersection square of, typically, a black rook and bishop, causing a double interference. Dr Milan Vukcevich was an OTB IM and a GM of Chess Composition. He explored this theme with many superb creations and our selections in this article are all by him.

Way out?

1/27/2012 – Playing 53.e5-e6 (diagram) White has deprived the bishop d5 of its protection and more or less forced it to strike on g2.
This (53...Bxg2) leads to victory for ...
A) ... Black;
B) ... White;
C) ... neither nor (equality).

ChessBase Magazine, larger diagram and solution.

Wijk aan Zee Rd11: Carlsen plays like Tal to beat Topalov

1/27/2012 – Six wins in seven games in both groups A and B, but the highlight was Carlsen's game against Topalov in which he went for broke with a Tal-like attack, and turned a lead position into gold. Leader Aronian lost to Navara but so did Ivanchuk, after committing suicide against Gelfand. Radjabov beat Gashimov and joins Carlsen tied for second. Illustrated report with annotations by GM Alejandro Ramirez.

New FIDE Chess in Schools initiative

1/26/2012 – "Let us help you to build your federation and your chess in schools programme," says the press release. "Our objective is to be able to generate more income than you pay to FIDE – much more." This reversal of flow of funds is admittedly something new for FIDE. The income is expected to be generated by Premium Membership and the goal is one billion chess players on the planet.

CBM training: Endgames from Tata Steel

1/26/2012 – Another installment of instructive endings, picked out by our resident endgame expert GM Karsten Müller from the games that are being played in Wijk aan Zee: Ivanchuk-Giri, Nyzhnyk-Harikrishna and Ernst-Potkin. His popular ChessBase Magazin section will carry plenty more, but here for now are three current and topical examples. Learn and enjoy.

Tenth Gibraltar Chess Festival under way

1/25/2012 – It began as a small event ten years ago, but its popularity grew steadily, and today it has become an internationally popular chess festival which attracts hundreds of player, many with top rankings. This year there are over fifty GMs, eleven of them rated above 2700 Elo. At the opening there was some special news of philatelists. In round one the top seeds all won their games.

Football legend Maradona promotes chess in the UAE

1/25/2012 – Diego Armando Maradona is arguably the greatest football player of all time. He played in four World Cups, and captained the Argentine team that won the title in 1986. Maradona has always been interested in chess, and was glad to be part of a remarkable Chess & Society campaign that is being staged in the United Arab Emirates. Big pictorial report by Mehrdad Pahlevanzadeh.

Wijk aan Zee Rd10: Aronian plays masterpiece against Giri

1/25/2012 – Four wins for four Blacks, assuredly newsworthy, but the eye-catcher was Levon Aronian's win against Anish Giri, in which he played a superb exchange sacrifice for longterm pressure, and finished it off with a fantastic combination. Caruana bounced back with a win over Topalov, Kamsky beat Karjakin, and Ivanchuk is now sole second after beating Navara. Report with video analysis by Aronian.

Wijk aan Zee Rd8: Almost, almost, and gotcha!

1/24/2012 – Today's round was marked more by near misses than actual wins, of which there were only one. Although neither of the leaders was in a position to win, the same was not true of Caruana who missed a winning attack available on move 17 against Ivanchuk, nor Kamsky who was dead won against Gelfand. Gashimov won his first game, beating Giri in a very sharp Najdorf. Pictures, videos, and analysis.

Wijk aan Zee Rd9: Aronian beats Caruana; Karjakin beats Carlsen

1/24/2012 – Once again the balance of power's pendulum swung, and Aronian took a full one-point lead after beating Caruana in a strong game in which he always seemed a step ahead. For Carlsen, it was a double nightmare as a mistake put him in hot water against Karjakin from which he never recovered. Ivanchuk also beat Giri after a tense game. Report with video analysis by Sergey Karjakin.

A personal encounter with Magnus Carlsen

1/24/2012 – A new web site, 1000 Passions, which offers people personal experiences and behind-the-scenes access to different worlds, will provide you with a two-hour game against the world's number one ranked player, with commentary and analysis, followed by a private dinner in casual atmosphere. And the shop and club Chess NYC is offering a whole week's camp with Magnus. Check it out.

2012 Queenstown Chess Classic ends with three winners

1/23/2012 – The Third Queenstown Chess Classic finished today with three players tied for first at 7.5/9 points: Darryl Johansen, Li Chao and Zhao Jun. The venue is one of New Zealand’s most popular tourist destinations – Lord of the Rings country with lakes and giant sequoia trees. WGM Kruttika Nadig, who played in the event, sent us impressions impressions from the city where 'everyone is welcome'.

CBM training: Endgames from Tata Steel

1/23/2012 – Once again GM Karsten Müller, turns his eye on the Wijk aan Zee tournament. Our endgame expert, famous for his very popular section in ChessBase Magazin, provides us with three instructive endings, all from the A-Group: van Wely-Giri, Radjabov-Karjakin and Aronian-Kamsky. Find out what happened in these high-calibre games, while you at the same time improve your endgame skills.

Kavalek in Huffington: Chipmunk Chess

1/23/2012 – Six moves into his game at the Tata Steel tournament Hikaru Nakamura created a gap that was big enough for a chipmunk. You see such holes in the lawn and you never know how many chipmunks are digging until the house collapses. Czech GM David Navara chose the wait-and-see approach and a highly instructive battle began. GM Lubos Kavalek annotates it in his latest Huffington Post column.

Following the footsteps of greats

1/22/2012 – Visiting Brazil for the World Youth Chess Championships was a dream come true for many young players. Here is a report from Nima Javanbakht, a 15-year-old Iranian, whose main interest was not simply to visit another country, but to follow in the footsteps of two famous Iranian explorers and anthropologists, who traveled around the world and were the first Asians to reach the South Pole.

Giddins: Is your spoon long enough?

1/22/2012 – It might come as a surprise, but chess can be genuinely funny. In a video FM Steve Giddins presents a highly amusing little game from the Bad Wiessee Open in 2011. White tries to surprise his opponent with 1.b4, but runs into an even more outlandish response and ends up getting demolished inside 20 moves! For the rest day at Wijk aan Zee here's some light relief.

Ship runs aground – in Wijk aan Zee

1/21/2012 – That's right, not the Mediterranean, where the luxury liner Costa Concordia hit rocks last Friday, causing many fatalities and the potential pollution of a beautiful sea coast. No, this was a Philippine cargo ship, and it ran aground a stone's throw from the chess tournament in Wijk aan Zee. Our colleagues Axel Eger and Joachim Schulze sent us pictures of the incident and Wijk in general.

CBM training: Magnus mighty minor pieces + rook endings

1/21/2012 – Once again our endgame expert, GM Karsten Müller of ChessBase Magazine fame, presents interesting endgames from the running Tata Steel tournament in Wijk aan Zee. Two instructive examples caught his eye, and he has added two similar endgame motifs that occurred earlier this year. Quite a lot to learn and grasp, but hey, it will help you with your tournament results. Learn and enjoy.

Wijk aan Zee Rd7: Carlsen and Aronian lead with 5.0/7

1/21/2012 – It wasn't his cleanest win, as Boris Gelfand self-destructed some time during time trouble, but a win is a win, and with it Magnus Carlsen rejoins Aronian for the lead. Karjakin, who has yet to draw a single game, beat Topalov, while Kamsky also bounced back and beat Navara. Van Wely will no doubt wonder where he missed Giri, as he dominated their game throughout. Illustrated report with video.

Wijk aan Zee

1/20/2012 – Black urgently needs to do something for the development of his queenside.

Which move of the bishop c8 does not lose material?
A) 14...Bb7
B) 14...Bd7

ChessBase Magazine, larger diagram and solution.

Wijk aan Zee Rd6: Aronian takes sole lead once more

1/20/2012 – Levon Aronian is clearly on a streak, despite his third round loss to Carlsen, and once again took sole lead after beating Vugar Gashimov. Radjabov joined Carlsen in second after beating Karjakin, while Nakamura won a second straight after Gelfand blundered. Giri ground down Kamsky in 80 moves, while in B, Harikrishna beat Timman in the game of the day. Report, pictures and videos.

Wijk aan Zee Rd5: Gelfand, Ivanchuk, and Nakamura win

1/19/2012 – It is only fair that they be credited, especially as it also marks their first wins in the tournament. Gelfand beat Karjakin with a beautiful Najdorf remniscent of his Candidates success, while Ivanchuk and Nakamura rolled over their opponents in impressive fashion. The game of the round was nevertheless the incredibly exciting draw between Carlsen and Giri that went all the way. Round five report.