London Classic Rd9: Kramnik wins! Nakamura is second, and Carlsen third

12/12/2011 – Although it was almost certain that Kramnik would win the title, needing only to draw with Aronian, which he did, pundits expected Carlsen to overcome Short and take second. Life had its own plans, as did Nakamura, since Carlsen could not break the Englishman, while the American shocked Adams with a King's Gambit, and won in a volatile position to take clear second. Report and postgame videos.

London R7: Chess is a Cruel Game

12/11/2011 – “For he that hath, to him shall be given: and he that hath not, from him shall be taken even that which he hath.” Chess is a cruel game. Once you’ve been identified as off-form or otherwise not up to par, you can expect no mercy as your opponents target you. The tally of decisive games soared to 15 out of 28 as the three tail-enders were put to the sword once more. John Saunders reports.

SportAccord World Mind Games – Wang Hao and Kosteniuk and more

12/11/2011 – The SportAccord World Mind Games is underway in Beijing, and is an agglomerate of popular intellectual games such as chess, go, bridge, draughts (10x10 checkers), and xiang-qi, that aims to popularize these activities, and of course teach them to all-comers, notably children. In the Rapid event, Wang Hao and Kosteniuk took the top honors. Illustrated report with video highlights.

London Classic Rd8: Kramnik beats McShane for sole lead

12/11/2011 – It was a dramatic round with two of the leaders, Kramnik and McShane, facing each other, while fellow leader Carlsen had to contend with Anand. Though he made a go for it, Carlsen was unable to do better than a draw, while McShane tried hard to force things in his favor, which turned out to be a mistake as Kramnik neutralized all attempts to confuse the issue. Report and videos.

London R6: Friday Early Closing

12/10/2011 – After a positive glut of decisive results during the first five rounds, there were four draws in round six, all in under 40 moves. One of them was fairly uneventful but there was some interesting play on offer in the other three, especially with bye player Magnus Carlsen providing insightful commentary. Hikaru Nakamura remains in the lead, but three players have the chance to leapfrog over him on Saturday.

London Classic Rd7: Carlsen, Kramnik, and McShane leap into the lead

12/10/2011 – Things settled back into their normal rhythm as once more three of the four games ended in wins, with Anand-Aronian being the only uneventful draw. Carlsen won after Adams made a mistake, while Short played a King's Gambit against McShane that backfired. Kramnik overpowered Howell and also won. Here is the postgame commentary, and Nakamura discusses his work with Kasparov.

Analyzing games with Let's Check

12/9/2011 – After demonstrating how Let's Check users contribute to the LiveBook for all the moves of a top game being broadcast, this brings to light another aspect of the Let's Check function: its use for game analysis. Let's Check can not only be used to provide comprehensive analysis of recent games, but you can even request others to analyze your games.

London Classic R6: All games drawn after hard fights

12/9/2011 – Normally, reporting all four games were drawn would be disappointing, but after so many decisive games it is more of a sanity check. After two losses, Adams drew against Aronian, while Short and Howell also drew quietly. Anand and Kramnik had a fascinating struggle, and McShane missed some chances against Nakamura. Postgame videos and Carlsen answers on the World Championship.

London R5: Nakamura shines as England goes down in flames

12/8/2011 – Hikaru Nakamura’s game plan seemed to be to aim for steady pressure, allowing David Howell’s habitual time trouble to take its toll. Nigel Short was doing reasonably well against Vishy Anand until he slipped into time trouble and played "a move of criminal stupidity," (Nigel after the game). Mickey Adams succumbed to his third straight defeat against Vlad Kramnik. Commentary by John Saunders.

Beijing wins Chinese Chess League A

12/8/2011 – It is easily the longest top-level chess league of the year, taking place over five cities, and 18 rounds, starting in April and ending in December. In a day and age where the trend is fewer and faster, it is refreshing to see this old-fashioned, protracted competition give such a tribute to the game. Fifth seed Beijing emerged victorious ahead of Shanghai and eight other teams. Illustrated report.

Breathtaking: astronomical workshop at the London Chess Classic

12/8/2011 – Free day at Olympia in Kensington, but packed full of activities, such as a talk on ChessBase and Fritz 13, and a screening of the new Bobby Fischer film. But the highlight was a lecture delivered by astronomer Dr Christian Sasse together with GMs Vishy Anand and John Nunn, who showed the enthralled spectators how they capture images of distant galaxies using remote telescopes.

London Classic R5: Nakamura takes sole lead

12/8/2011 – Will wonders never cease? We report on ultra-combative rounds, with three out of four games ending in wins, but we keep expecting the streak to end. It doesn't. Round five was a dark day for the Brits as they all lost, except McShane, who had a bye. Anand ended his drought after Short collapsed before the time control. Nakamura took sole lead after beating Howell. Postgame commentary.

Test your IQ(P) III

12/8/2011 – Following 16.Bg5xe7 the second player can try to exchange as many pieces as possible at one go with 16...Nd5xc3, however, doing so she must reckon with a certain white intermediate move. This ultimately leads to what?
A) clear disadvantage for Black;
B) minimal initiative for White;
C) complete equality.

ChessBase Magazine, larger diagram and solution.

Nigel Davies: Tricks & Traps, Vol. 1

12/7/2011 – "Who doesn't want to get a quick advantage, right out of the gate? In this entertaining DVD, Nigel Davies explores various types of subterfuge from openings beginning with 1.e4." In his Chess Cafe review Steve Goldberg summarises: "Nigel Davies has put together a compelling array of traps, particularly suited to the club or scholastic player looking for a couple surprises to carry around in his back pocket.

London Classic: Black is more than okay

12/7/2011 – There was one decisive game in round one, two in round two and three in round three. Logically, there should have been four in round four, but in fact there were ‘only’ three again, making nine out of sixteen games so far. This is an amazing percentage for an elite event and we have to congratulate all the players for going at it hammer and tongs yet again. Report and annotations by John Saunders.

Kasparov: 'Putin's just like Al Capone'

12/6/2011 – After a poor showing by Russia's ruling party in Sunday's parliamentary elections, thousands of citizens are gathering in opposition to Prime Minister Vladimir Putin – reminding us of the Arab Spring uprisings and the Occupy Wall Street movement. One of the opposition leaders, former World Chess Champion Garry Kasparov, has to take care when sipping his tea, as the Telegraph reports.

London Classic Rd4: Nakamura beats Anand in rollercoaster game

12/6/2011 – It was another action-packed round in which three of four games ended in Black wins. The nailbiter was Anand's game against Nakamura, in which he seemed headed for a clean victory; however a mistake changed the course and the American never looked back. McShane overcame Howell in a hard game, Short beat Adams, while Carlsen and Kramnik drew. Report with video commentary by the players.

London Classic: Carlsen – probably the best chess player in the world

12/5/2011 – If Magnus Carlsen kept a diary... “Got up. Had breakfast. Looked at some chess games. Had lunch. Played chess with Hikaru. Beat him (again). Went to a football match. Fulham won 1-0. Nice day.” John Saunders admits he's putting words in the young man's mouth, but that pretty much summarises his day in the manner that he often presents to the world. Round three annotations.

London Classic – Fewer interesting games, please, I can’t cope

12/5/2011 – "I'm submitting a formal complaint to the players," says tournament commentator John Saunders, "the games are far too interesting. They should be rationed to only one exciting game per round, as it is not fair to chess journalists." John annotated two games from the second round, Short-Kramnik and Nakamura-Aronian. He also explains how the scoring and tiebreak systems work.

London Classic R3: Carlsen beats Nakamura; McShane is second

12/5/2011 – It was a very exciting round, with three decisive games, almost four had Vishy Anand not pulled a miracle escape against David Howell. The biggest clash was Magnus Carlsen against Hikaru Nakamura, in which the Norwegian cracked open the American's kingside. Nigel Short lost to Levon Aronian, and Luke McShane beat Michael Adams. Report with video commentary by the players.

Curing your engine doldrums

12/5/2011 – Many users and pros have complained about a common problem with top engines: they can take forever to start, and slow their computer to the point where even the mouse cursor stutters around the screen. Some have resigned themselves to accept this as the cost of modern computing, or a sign of a bug the programmers failed to fix. However there are easy cures for both these problems.

World Senior Championship won by IM Vladimir Okhotnik

12/4/2011 – The World Senior Championship is more than simply a title, it is an event that draws chess aficionados from all around the globe for a chance to meet others, play chess, and even enjoy a bit of R and R. Players and spouses came from Brazil, Singapore and Australia, among other places, sometimes enduring trips of up to 23 hours. Enjoy this extensive illustrated report by Adolivio Capece.

London Classic: Punditry in round one

12/4/2011 – Half the fun of chess is predicting the outcome. Quite a few armchair pundits had predicted that Kramnik-Nakamura, Aronian-McShane, Adams-Anand would be draws, but that the top seed Magnus Carlsen would beat the bottom seed David Howell. If you had placed your money that way... you would have won. We bring you analysis by John Saunders of the two most interesting games.

London Classic R2: Nakamura beats Aronian, Carlsen escapes McShane

12/4/2011 – In round two, Hikaru Nakamura and Levon Aronian resumed their theoretical battle (the third in a row) and once again the American got the better of it. Nigel Short had such an off-day that even Vladimir Kramnik, who won, was deeply sympathetic. Magnus Carlsen escaped by a whisker (he is old enough) from Luke McShane in a losing endgame after a long struggle. Illustrated report.