Thai Open: Short takes and loses the sole lead

4/15/2011 – After six rounds English GM Nigel Short was in the sole lead in the Thailand Open 2011, half a point ahead of five players. One of them, German GM Jan Gustafsson, played Short in round seven and downed him with the black pieces. That put Gustafsson in shared first place with top seed Paco Vallejo. The two will meet in a much-awaited penultimate round encounter on Saturday. Pictorial report.

Kavalek in Huffington: Chess history from Fischer to Nakamura

4/15/2011 – The 2011 US Chess Championship begins today in Saint Louis, Mo. In 1963/64 Bobby Fischer won all 11 games of Championship, finishing 3½ points ahead his nearest rival. He played in eight U.S. championships and won them all; and at 14 he was the youngest US champion in history. GM Lubomir Kavalek uses the occasion to acquaint us with remarkable results in historic tournaments.

Three lead in the 13th Dubai Open

4/15/2011 – After five rounds of play and before the free day three players share the lead in the Sheikh Rashid Bin Hamdan Al Maktoum Cup, each with 4.5/5 points: Indian GMs Krishnan Sasikiran and Parimarjan Negi, as well as Mikheil Mchedlishvili from Georgia. 17 players follow with 4.0/5. Friday is a free day, on Saturday there will be two rounds, starting at 10:00 a.m. local time. Results, games and videos.

Ask the Experts – tonight with Kasimdzhanov and Reeh

4/14/2011 – On Thursday at 21:00h CEST (3 p.m. New York) we will hosting our third "Ask the Experts" show on the Playchess server. The guests are former FIDE world champion Rustam Kasimdzhanov and IM Oliver Reeh. You can direct questions at the experts in the Playchess chat and watch them answer. The broadcast is in English. Here are excerpts from previous shows.

Aruna and Anand have a baby boy

4/14/2011 – It was a carefully kept secret, known to only a few close friends. On April 9th came the phone call: Aruna Anand has delivered a healthy boy, mother and son are doing great. His named Akhil and, in the south Indian tradition, will be called Anand Akhil. Parents, relatives and friends are overjoyed. We celebrate with a pictorial review of the couple. Congratulations Vishy and Aruna!

Master Moves #10

4/14/2011 – All the deepest plans or endgame technique are useless if you fall victim to a shot that leaves you in a lost position. Likewise, sometimes that superior play will only offer a single window of opportunity to deliver that final blow, so it is vital to be ready for it when it does. In this edition all the positions are from the 2011 Chinese Championship and the 1st Mangini Memorial. Burn some neurons.

13th Dubai Open Chess Championship

4/13/2011 – The Sheikh Rashid Bin Hamdan Al Maktoum Cup is taking place from April 9th to 19th, 2011 in the Dubai Chess and Culture Club. It is a nine round Swiss, with time controls of one hour and 30 minutes for the whole game, with an increment of 30 seconds per move. We bring you a big pictorial report with panorama 360° views of the chess club, video reports and plenty of new faces.

Nielsen protests ECU performance calculations

4/12/2011 – The 2011 Individual European Championship was also a qualification tournament, with the top 23 finishers getting a seat in the 2011 World Cup. Problem was that behind the first 15 players there were 29 with a tied score. So the performance was used to break the tie. However the system produced some bizarre results, as GM Peter Heine Nielsen explains.

Thailand Open 2011 Chess Championship under way

4/12/2011 – This event is taking place from 11th to 17th April 2011 in the five star Dusit Thani Resort and Spa in Pattaya, Thailand. More than 200 players from 40 countries are participating, making it the biggest and strongest ever held in Thailand. The first prize is 100,000 Baht (€2300 or US $3300). After the first three round two top seeds, Paco Vallejo and Nigel Short, lead with 3.0/3. Pictorial report.

2011 Chinese Championship: Ding Liren and Zhang Xiaowen win!

4/11/2011 – 19-year-old Ding Liren, showed his previous title in 2009 was no fluke, and despite the presence of top players such as Bu Xiangzhi and Wang Yue (2734), Ding cleaned up the field with a colossal 9.0/11 and a 2867 performance. Zhang Xiaowen won the women's section with 8.5/11. Still, a reader drew our attention to an absolutely amazing game that deserves to be on the shortlist for game of the year.

1st Jose Thiago Mangini: Sun, beaches, and chess

4/11/2011 – In a growing wave of events with norms in Brazil, the 1st José Thiago Mangini event, held in Rio de Janeiro was won with a perfect 100% score by IM José Cubas followed by IM Diego di Berardino. With the eyes of a visitor, and the familiarity of a native, here is a report on the event as well as a look into life in this tropical city, in a large intimate pictorial by Albert Silver.

Emine – the Turkish Chess Delight

4/11/2011 – In today's chess world it is not easy to find a coach who combines passion for the game with the ability to inspire children. A Chess Centre in Salihli, Turkey, is lucky enough to have a tutor who possesses the best qualities of a chess coach whilst being a strong player herself. The English magazine CHESS has a lovely story on Emine Yanik Süral, to which we added a lot of new pictures.

Gustafsson: Politician's Simul in Berlin + product review

4/10/2011 – Last Wednesday the Hamburg Representation to the German Government in Berlin invited politicians to take part in a sixteen-board simultaneous exhibition given by the German GM Jan Gustafsson. Prizes for the best players: Jan's recently recorded training DVDs that provide a complete black repertoire against 1.e4. Here's a five-star review by GM Hedinn Steingrimsson.

Garry Kasparov in Naples

4/9/2011 – It cost $1000 for a place in the simul, $5000 for a blitz game against the famous World Champion. The money went to an organisation called Revere America, and the event took place in the private Collier Automotive Museum, in Naples, Florida. Garry gave the visitors a pleasurable evening, the visitors took home photos and signed memorabilia. One of them, Keith Trainor, sent us his impressions.

Fire against f7 ...

4/8/2011 – ... White could have opened in this game from the current Chinese championship with 36.Nf3-g5 (diagram). 
How is the situation following 36...Bg7xd4 37.Ng5xf7 to be assessed?
A) good for White
B) good for Black
C) still balanced

The solution is here, but first ponder over it with a larger version of the diagram.

2011 Chinese Championship: Ding Liren leads with 7.0/9

4/8/2011 – The 2011 Chinese Championships are underway and bring together most of China's top players, including Wang Yue (2734), Bu Xiangzhi, and teen wunderkinds Hou Yifan (playing with the men), and Yu Yangyi. The men's section is being dominated by 2009 champion, Ding Liren, with 7.0/9, while the women's section is led by both Zhan Xiaowen and Zhao Xue with 7.0/9. Report and pictures.

Cerdas Barus wins Telin International

4/8/2011 – He started off with five straight wins, then lost to his colleague GM Eugenio Torre, but fought back to finish as sole winner in this Swiss tournament in Jakarta. What makes Cerdas Barus unique is that he is not only a GM but also deaf. He learnt chess at a late age, and at 50 he remains one of his country's strongest players. Final report.

Clash of the Titans: Kasimdzhanov-Anand rapid chess match

4/7/2011 – No, that is not one of the titans, but 11-year-old Timur Igonin, who managed to beat World Champion Vishy Anand in a simultaneous exhibition the next day – and become a darling of the international news media. In the match against Rustam Kasimdzhanov Anand showed no mercy, winning 3.5:0.5. Big illustrated report from Tashkent by Jamshid Begmatov with GM annotations.

From our CBM Blog – Tricky knight tactics

4/7/2011 – Botvinnik's guideline that knight endings are like pawn endings has good points, as zugzwang and outside passed pawns play a major role here as well. But there are also differences due to the tactical possibilities of the knight, as seen in Aleksandrov-Flear and Lobzhanidze-Fejzullahu, Aix-au-Bains 2011. Our resident endgame specialist GM Karsten Müller gives us a lesson in knight play.

Telin International: sensational performance by 13-year-old girl

4/6/2011 – A field of 110 players from seven countries, 37 with FIDE titles, including nine GMs, are participating in this Swiss tournament in Jakarta, Indonesia. All eyes are on WFM Medina Warda Aulia, who is 13 and rated 2035. After seven rounds she is tenth on the table, with a score of 5.0/7. WGM Anastasiya Karlovich and sports trainer Kristian Liem have sent us this giant pictorial report.

Cheating scandal: Opinions, concerns and revelations

4/6/2011 – In a series of interviews, Robert Fontaine from Europe Echecs, culled the opinions of the players, to get a clearer idea on how players both French and foreign viewed the cheating scandal. A lengthy interview with Jean-Claude Moingt, the president of the French federation, revealed not only the next steps to be taken, but also that confessions were not only made to the players. An eye-opener.

Kavalek in Huffington: Texas Tech Wins Final Four of Chess

4/6/2011 – You don't see spectacular hoops and dunks and scoring is not done in twos or threes. No chest-pounding, no cheerleaders. The four-corner offense or zone defenses are not parts of the game either. There are brilliant moves, but they are done quietly. And yet, the Final Four in college chess was a dramatic experience, as GM Lubomir Kavalek shows. He also has a beautiful study by Leonid Kubbel.

Master Moves #9

4/6/2011 – All the deepest plans or endgame technique are useless if you fall victim to a shot that leaves you in a lost position. Likewise, sometimes that superior play will only offer a single window of opportunity to deliver that final blow, so it is vital to be ready for it when it does. In this edition all the positions are from the 2011 European Championship. Try some of the brain candy.

Fischer-Spassky board fetches record sum

4/5/2011 – The third game of the 1972 "Match of the Century" was played in a backroom of the Laugardalshöll theatre in Reykjavik, after Fischer had complained about disturbances in the main hall and not turned up for the second game. The board used in game three was subsequently given to one of the organisers, who has now sold it in a New York auction. It fetched a record price of US $76,275.