Zhao Xue leads, Humpy and Hou Yifan in hot pursuit

8/6/2010 – The youngest player, GM Hou Yifan, 16, won two games in succession, while the highest ranked participant, Indian GM Humpy Koneru, scored 1.5/2. Both are now half a point behind the leader Zhao Xue, with a serene plus four and a 2743 performance. The draw rate is a remarkably low 39%. We bring you games, results and pictorial impressions in our rounds 5+6 report.

A difficult decision

8/6/2010 – The fact that even simple looking rook endings can be very tricky is exemplified in this example from the Bundesliga. For the moment the black king is shut off from the kingside, where the pair of white passed pawns is heading for promotion. But Black too can still throw his passed pawn into the balance, which greatly complicates matters. Which continuation do you think still offers Black drawing chances here: 53...Rc4, to support the advance of the passed pawn, or 53...Ra8, to harass the white king with checks?
Analysis by GM Karsten Müller on ChessBase Magazine Online.

FIDE Election: Karpov claims UAE, Ilyumzhinov Cyprus

8/5/2010 – FIDE Presidency candidate Anatoly Karpov has received the backing of the well-known businessman and sports patron Sulaiman Al Fahim, and the UAE Chess Federation. The two announced a $320,000 chess development package for the region. Incumbent Kirsan Ilyumzhinov has secured the support of the Chess Federation of Cyprus. Election news.

Kavalek at Huffington: French Aristocrat's Folly

8/5/2010 – The rules of chess can be mastered by young children. But it is notoriously difficult to get them precisely right on paper. Take pawn promotion: "any pawn reaching the eighth (or last) rank can be changed to any piece a player chooses" sounds right. But it is far from watertight and can be easily misinterpreted. This is illustrated in GM Lubomir Kavalek's latest column.

7th China-Russia match: Russian women save the day

8/5/2010 – In its seventh edition, the high-level team match between China and Russia got underway with both sides sporting very strong teams. For both the men's and women's teams, each player will play every player of the other team. In round one, the Chinese men outperformed the Russians, but the Russian women struck back harder and saved the day for their side. Games and pictorial report.

World School Championship – prizes and closing ceremony

8/4/2010 – The Sixth World School Championship in Kayseri, Turkey, ended with a lot of happy faces and a lot of interesting prizes – trophies, notebooks, MP3/4 players, chess sets, books. The rewards were well earned by a bevy of remarkable young talents, whom we would do well to remember for future events. Final pictorial report by WGM Anastasiya Karlovich.

Czech Open: Korobov remains king.

8/3/2010 – The Czech Open is a huge event with literally dozens of tournaments, and brought 1314 players from 44 countries. It included events ranging from Blitz pairs to Fischer Random and bughouse. The grandmaster event was won a second straight time by Anton Korobov, with a huge 8.0/9 score, ahead of 38 GMs, and 54 IMs. We bring you a couple of his pearls in the illustrated report.

Elections: Nigel Freeman on FIDE finances

8/3/2010 – His main achievements in four years as FIDE treasurer are, Nigel Freeman from Bermuda says, "that FIDE now can pay the much higher budgeted amounts to Commissions; that the debts are down with Federations now paying their arrears more speedily; and that we ensure that no one in the FIDE Commissions has to pay out of their own pockets for work done on FIDE’s behalf." Interview.

Danailov: If we have to, then we’ll play

8/3/2010 – When FIDE decided to move the Candidates matches from Baku, Azerbaijan there was a sharp protest by Veselin Topalov, who threatened to withdraw from the cycle if he had to face a Russian opponent in Russia. FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov fired back, implying Topalov could be replaced. In a remarkable Sports Express interview Yuri Vasiliev brings some clarity into the matter.

Zhao Xue leads in Women's Grand Prix

8/3/2010 – Her main rivals Humpy Koneru and Hou Yifan played each other in round four in Ulaanbaatar. With a theoretically drawn ending on the board the gritty Indian tested the wits of the 16-year-old Hou for fifty moves before conceding the draw. Meanwhile Zhao Xue had defeated the legendary Maia Chiburdanidze to take the sole lead with 3.5/4 and a 2788 performance. Round four report.

Zhao Xue and Humpy lead in Women's Grand Prix

8/2/2010 – With two wins and a draw top seed Humpy Koneru is performing 75 points over her 2600 FIDE rating. With the same result Chinese GM Zhao Xue is playing 246 points better than her 2462. Batkhuyag Munguntuul has yet to score a draw: the local WGM has won one and lost two. Three players are at the bottom of the table, with a single draw each. Rounds 2+3 report.

Final Chess Masters 2010 in Shanghai and Bilbao

8/2/2010 – The Chess Masters will be staged in two parts this year. The first, with Kramnik, Aronian, Shirov and Wang Hao, will be in China. The two winners will then be joined by Magnus Carlsen and Viswanathan Anand for the four-player final in Bilbao. The announcement was made this weekend, with World Champion Anand present. Press release.

Karpov on the attack: 'Can you believe Kirsan?'

8/2/2010 – "The match for FIDE President heats up," we titled a report in May. That was just a warm breeze. Anatoly Karpov, candidate for the presidency of the World Chess Federation has published an ultra-sharp article on Kirsan Ilyumzhinov's record as FIDE President. Karpov lists broken promises and deals, and also points to problems with the Chess Olympiad in September. Election news.

Automatic recapturing...

8/2/2010 – ... is a reflex which often is hard to resist. Here White following 24...bxc3 surprisingly played 25.Rh7 in order to target the point f7 after 25...cxb2 with 25.Qh5 How would you judge this continuation?
A) White gets a decisive attack;
B) nice idea, but only enough for a draw;
C) Black can successfully parry the threats with a return sacrifice and get a new queen afterwards.
The solution is here, but first ponder over it with a larger version of the diagram.

FIDE Women Grand Prix in Ulaanbaatar

7/31/2010 – That's ᠤᠯᠠᠭᠠᠨᠪᠠᠭᠠᠲᠤ in the local script. Founded in 1639, initially as a nomadic Buddhist monastic centre, Ulan Bator changed its location 28 times and finally became the capital and main city of Mongolia, with a population of one million. The Grand Prix has twelve players, amongst them four former women's world champions. The prize fund is € 40,000. Intro and round one report.

43rd Biel Chess Festival: Master Open

7/31/2010 – Although the grandmaster tournament is understandably the highlight of the Biel Chess Festival, it is hardly the only one. Parallel to it was a very strong 11-round open, that brought together no less than 17 GMs and 14 IMs. GM Alexander Raziantsev took the laurels on tiebreak, but in second was IM Nadezhda Kosintseva who came one step closer to her grandmaster title. Report and games.

How to solve the FIDE voting and membership dilemma

7/31/2010 – Niels Lauritsen, a Danish chess player and promoter working in Malawi, thinks that some chess federations should not have automatic voting rights at the FIDE general assembly. Instead he outlines a more transparent and democratic membership system: establish a set of basic membership criteria to ensure that only bona fide chess federations are valid and voting members of FIDE. Opinion.

Edward Winter's Chess Explorations (45)

7/31/2010 – Chess problems are sometimes regarded as a daunting ghetto, of no real interest, let alone value, to active players. The Editor of Chess Notes has invited one of the world’s leading problem experts to select some compositions to illustrate the delights which many players deny themselves. A total of 12 positions are given, and even anti-problem die-hards may be enticed and charmed.

Fabiano Caruana wins Biel 2010

7/30/2010 – The Young Grandmasters section finished with a three-way tie for first place, making tiebreak games necessary. In the semifinals Fabiano Caruana, who turns 18 on Friday, defeated France's Maxime Vachier-Lagrave in the Armageddon stage. He then went on to beat the Vietnamese prodigy Nguyen Ngoc Truong 1.5:0.5 to take the title. Final report.

Kavalek at Huffington: Fooling the gullible chess world

7/30/2010 – At the 1965 Student Olympiad Lubomir Kavalek faced a furious attack from a Romanian opponent, but found a funky defense which, for the next 25 years became a sleeper: nobody nobody played it, nobody wrote about it. It resurfaced in 1990 in Kasparov vs Spanish TV viewers, and two weeks ago was successfully used in the Dortmund Super-GM. In his latest column Kavalek reclaims its authorship.

Chinese Chess League Division A: midway report

7/30/2010 – The Chinese Chess League Division A is a huge double-round team event with a total of 18 rounds, spanning from April until December, and has all of the very best Chinese players, as well as a few imports. It just reached the midway point. The rounds are played throughout China including the Shanghai World Expo. Gu Xiaobing reports on the event bringing pictures and games.

Biel: Three players share first, tiebreaks on Thursday

7/29/2010 – Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and Fabiano Caruana all scored seven draws and two wins in the Young Grandmasters section at the Biel Chess Festival. The Vietnamese GM has the best Sonneborn-Berger, so Vachier and Caruana play two two blitz games, and the winner takes on Son in the final of two rapid games. Illustrated rounds 7-9 reports.

World School Championship – getting to know you...

7/29/2010 – Our reporter, WGM Anastasiya Karlovich, has been sending us extraordinary pictures from this children's event in Turkey. Now she has started to interview the players and their minders, to identify these young participants from all over the world – the stars of tomorrow. The result is a wonderful pictorial report filed after round seven of the School Championship. You will melt.

Honorary Doctorate for chess grandmaster

7/28/2010 – Sir Harry Kroto was there – the emeritus professor who in 1996 received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for the discovery of the C60 (buckminsterfullerene) molecule. He attended the same school as actor Sir Ian McKellan (Gandalf in Lord of the Rings) – and a chess grandmaster, who last week was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from the University. Can you guess who that was?