The Chess City the Kalmykian steppe

6/14/2007 – The Candidates Finals have ended, most of the players are alreay on their journey home. We are spending a last day in this chess capital of the world, where an entire chess city has been stamped out of the steppes of the lower Volga region. It is unusually quiet and there are no games scheduled for the afternoon. A good opportunity to present you part two of our narrative: a journey to Elista.

Closing the Candidates – a festive evening in Elista

6/14/2007 – After the final tiebreak game had ended in the tournament theatre the players and participants moved back into the City Chess Center, where all stayed and where the closing ceremony was to be held. It featured speeches, awards, music and costumes. A special guest was even given an entire house in Elista for his outstanding contribution to chess. Big pictorial report.

Elista Tiebreak: Grischuk beats Rublevsky to qualify

6/13/2007 – Alexander Grischuk beat Sergey Rublevsky in two games and drew one to qualify for the world championship in Mexico. The tiebreak was over four rapid chess games (25 minutes plus five seconds increment per move). Grischuk won the first and third, each time with the black pieces. We bring you a full report with pictures and instructive commentary by GM Mihail Marin.

Vladimir Kramnik on game five in Elista

6/13/2007 – On Wednesday, September 29 2006, game five of the reunification world championship match was scheduled to take place. However, Vladimir Kramnik did not appear at the board, and after an hour of waiting the point was awarded to his opponent Veselin Topalov. What exactly happened in Elista, what was the reason for this risky action? Kramnik tell it all in the final part of our interview.

Elista F5: Leko and Gelfand qualify

6/12/2007 – Peter Leko was the first to qualify, with a draw against an apparently dejected Evgeny Bareev. Boris Gelfand pulled off a black pieces win against Gata Kamsky to also qualify for the world championship in Mexico. Aronian and Shirov drew, so that the latter must win tomorrow to stay in the race, while Grischuk and Rublevsky are tied at 2.5:2.5. Full report with pictures and commentary.

Elista F6: Aronian qualifies, Grischuk and Rublevsky in tiebreak

6/12/2007 – Alexander Grischuk introduced a new move and went on the attack against Sergei Rublevsky, but when it came down to a daring sacrifice his nerves failed him and, after half an hour of thought, he went for a perpetual check and the safe draw. Alexei Shirov tried to trick Levon Aronian with a Spanish deviation, but the Armenian equalised and drew. Full pictorial report with GM analysis.

Elista Finals round four: GM Mihail Marin comments

6/11/2007 – Another day of dramatic, exciting chess in Elista. Sergei Rublevsky defeated Alexander Grischuk to equalise in this match, while the other three games were tough, hard-fought draws. Our GM commentator's commentary is less extensive, since he is himself preparing for a strong tournament. But you will get it in full in ChessBase Magazine. For now here are the highlights of round four.

Computer challenge: final game drawn, Junior wins

6/11/2007 – The sixth game of the President's Cup Ultimate Computer Challenge ended in a draw, with Fritz pushing for a win with the white pieces. This left the final score at 4:2 points in favour of the Israeli program Deep Junior, which was running on 16 processors and looking at 25 million positions per second. Fritz had eight processors at 2.66 MHz and 12 million positions. Final pictorial report.

Pure Pirc pleasure

6/11/2007 – The Pirc is a very flexible setup which offers black several plans to create counterplay against the white center. GM Nigel Davies has been a leading Pirc expert for many years. His new DVD with seven hours playing time has been praised a lot already. Buy it now or read Steve Giddins' review with sampler.

President's Computer Challenge: Junior leads Fritz 3:1

6/10/2007 – Round four saw a second win for the Israeli program Deep Junior, which is running on the latest 16-processor Intel server at twice the speed of its opponent Deep Fritz. The event is spectacular for a different reason: the moves on the official match board are executed by young Kalmyk players in national costumes, and the commentary is provided by a 14-year-old IM. Utterly charming.

Elista F4: Junior wins computer match

6/10/2007 – Deep Fritz, playing with the black pieces, went on the attack today, but in spite of all efforts the program was unable to wrest the full point from Deep Junior, running on 16 processors and looking at 25 million positions per second. Junior has won the match, with the score at 3.5:1.5. Junior's share of the prize fund is $60,000. The final game will be played tomorrow. Illustrated report.

Elista F4: Rublevsky beats Grischuk to equalise

6/10/2007 – Sergei Rublevsky took the full point from Alexander Grischuk to level their match. Peter Leko came close to beating Evgeny Bareev and closing their encounter, but the Russian GM survived and is still in the match. Gelfand drew with Kamsky who will try to equalise tomorrow with white. Shirov let Aronian escape with a draw. Express report with pictures.

Elista Finals round three: GM Mihail Marin comments

6/9/2007 – It was an exciting day, with hard-fought games, with Leko and Gelfand taking full points, and Aronian coming very close to doing the same. So plenty of material for our GM commentator to analyse. Mihail Marin does it in his usual intructive style, giving chess amateurs and tournament players alike an insight into grandmaster thought and plans. Another analytical essay you will not want to miss.

Elista Finals round two: All games drawn

6/8/2007 – In the morning, at 10:00 a.m. local time, the computer programs Fritz and Junior, both in their "deep" versions, played a complicated and tactical draw. At 3:00 p.m. the eight human Candidates took the stage and also played more or less interesting draws. Full analysis will follow later, for now we bring you an express report, having arrived in Mockba, on our journey to Elista.

Elista Finals round two: GM Mihail Marin comments

6/8/2007 – Four draws may seem like a boring day at the Candidates Final in Elista. But there was plenty of excitement and two very insteresting and instructive games. GM Mihail Marin shows us how Boris Gelfand piled on the pressure, while Gata Kamsky coolly defended; and how Alexei Shirov set the board on fire against Levon Aronian. There is a lot to be learnt from these games and the GM commentary.

Elista F3: Leko and Gelfand win, Junior beats Fritz

6/8/2007 – At halftime in the Candidates Finals in Elista Peter Leko scored another win against Evgeny Bareev, while Boris Gelfand did the same, but with the black pieces, against Gata Kamsky. Levon Aronian came very close to victory over Alexei Shirov but threw it away with a blunder in the end. Junior beat Fritz in a theoretically very interesting game in the computer match. Big pictorial report.

Infinite analysis

6/8/2007 – In the new ChessBase Workshop, our columnist revisits an old Fritz feature, Infinite analysis, and offers a new spin on it suggested by our readers. We also examine the related (and often misunderstood) "Lock engine" command. Learn more in the latest Workshop.

Kramnik on cheating and what to do about it

6/7/2007 – "Did you cheat in Elista?" That is the first question we put to Vladimir Kramnik on this touchy subject. "No, I never cheated in my life," he replied, "not in winning or losing, buying or selling games, and of course no cheating during a game." In part three of our interview the world champion speaks about accusations raised against him in Elista. Warning: this segment contains harsh language.

Elista Finals round one: GM Mihail Marin comments

6/7/2007 – Great news: the Candidates Finals in Elista will be annotated by Romanian grandmaster Mihail Marin, whose simple and instructive commentary turns the games into a wonderful training session for the ambitious player. Marin will provide express commentary on the day after each round, while the next ChessBase Magazine will carry comprehensive analysis. Look, enjoy and learn.

Dragging the hippopotamus from the Marshall

6/6/2007 – Frank Marshall was one of the world’s best players for a good chunk of that time. The American grandmaster was also a great opening innovator. Our Playchess trainer Dennis Monokroussos thinks that, to be frank, marshalling multiple games seems a fitting tribute to such a player. Visit Dennis' pun-filled lecture on Thursday at 9 pm ET!

Andrew Martin: Home advantage

6/6/2007 – Last week our Playchess trainer was in Hamburg, where he met a couple of good ol' friends, grandmasters all of them. what better way to start the radio show this week than with two games from the Hamburg Open. Andrew Martin shows us games by GMs Ftacnik and Berg. See you on the server.

Elista F01: Junior-Fritz drawn, Grischuk, Aronian, Leko win

6/6/2007 – President Ilyumzhinov's "Ultimate Computer Challenge" began with a grandmasterly draw between Deep Junior and Deep Fritz. In the afternoon the humans were fighting it out in the Candidates Finals, with Grischuk, Aronian and Leko winning their games, against Rublevsky, Shirov and Bareev respectively. Report with games, notes and pictures.

President's Cup computer vs computer match

6/5/2007 – It starts tomorrow, together with the finals of the Candidates Matches in Elista. The "Ultimate Computer Challenge", sponsored by FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, pits the reigning computer world champion Deep Junior against Deep Fritz, which beat world champion Vladimir Kramnik in 2006. To get in the mood for the machine match here is an article in the Washington Post.

A Turkish report on chess in Greece

6/5/2007 – "Greece is one of the most beautiful countries in the world," says Ali Nihat Yazici, President of the Turkish Chess Federation. "It has a strong chess tradition for 25 years". Ali should know – he is one of the most dynamic organisers in the world today. He writes about the Third World School Championships 2007 and the First International Chess Marketing Seminar in Kallithea. Pictorial report.