Kasparov on the trail and in the news

6/29/2005 – After retiring from competitive chess in March this year Garry Kasparov, arguably the strongest player in the history of the game, has dedicated himself to political reform in his native Russia. This week he is spending in smaller towns and rural districts. MoscowNews did an interview and Dutch TV had a video report.

Adams vs Hydra: Man 0.5 – Machine 5.5

6/28/2005 – British GM Michael Adams lost the final game of his match against the super-computer Hydra. In six games the world's number seven managed just one draw, to take just US $10,000 of the $145,000 total prize sum. It was a humbling defeat for the human player. Full report with international reactions.

Workshop: Into the mailbag again

6/28/2005 – Maybe this guy thinks too much. In his latest ChessBase Workshop column, Steve Lopez reaches into the mailbag and somehow turns a simple technical question into a discussion of how chessplayers decide on their opening moves. Read all about it here...

Adams vs Hydra: the execution continues

6/27/2005 – Britain's top grandmaster and the world's number seven player Michael Adams is being devastated by Hydra. After playing for a draw and losing in game four, today Adams was slowly strangled by the 32-processor chess machine, located in Abu Dhabi. The score in the six-game match is now 4.5:0.5 for the computer.

Monokroussos on Lasker vs Schlechter

6/27/2005 – This ten-game world championship was short and scrappy, with challenger Carl Schlechter (picture) putting up an unexpected fight to give reigning champion Lasker the fright of his life. In his Monday night Playchess lecture Dennis Monokroussos looks at this masterpiece game seven draw.

Centennial chess on the 'strip'

6/27/2005 – The 2005 National Open Chess Championship, part of the Las Vegas International Chess Festival, started with a triplex simul by the Polgar sisters and ended with a victory for GM Dmitry Gurevich in a blitz playoff against De Firmian, Finegold and Sharavdorj. We bring you pictures and a selection of games.

European Championship: Karjakin in the lead

6/26/2005 – He became a grandmaster at 12 years and 7 months. Today, at a mature 15½ years, Sergey Karjakin of the Ukraine is marching from one success to the next. After seven rounds of the European Individual Chess Championship in Warsaw (June 17 to July 3, 2005), the lad is incredibly in the lead. Illustrated report.

Wolfgang Unzicker turns eighty

6/26/2005 – Born on June 26, 1925, young Wolfgang learned the game of chess at the age of ten and was captivated when he visited the Chess Olympiad at eleven. He studied law and became a judge, but played in top events with the likes of Euwe, Spassky, Petrosian and Fischer. Karpov called Unzicker the 'world champion of amateurs'.

Kateryna Lahno, 15, European Women's Champion

6/25/2005 – A total of 177 players were registered to play, amongst them the crème de la crème of European women's chess. After twelve gruelling rounds two players were tied for first, Kateryna Lahno and Nadezhda Kosintseva, with 9/12 each. Fifteen-year-old Kateryna took the title with two wins in the rapid chess tie-break. Congratulations, Katya! Giant photo report.

Tournaments from Poland to Paks

6/24/2005 – Summer just officially started but chess season is well underway. The European individual championships are both in progress and the strong Marx György tournament just finished in Paks, Hungary. You can check out all the standings and games here.

Michael Adams mauled by a machine

6/24/2005 – Currently the chess machine Hydra, consisting of 32 processors enhanced by special FPGA chess hardware and running at 200 million moves per second, is giving Britain's top GM Michael Adams a rough time. After half of their six-game match the score is 2.5:0.5 for the machine, which is located in Abu Dhabi. What has the future in store?

Kasim vs the Accoona Toolbar – draw in New York

6/23/2005 – On Tuesday FIDE world champion Rustam Kasimdzhanov played an exciting game against the Accoona Toolbar, driven by a Fritz 9 prototype, in the ABC Times Square studios. With three hundred spectators and a dozen television cameras Kasim played a daring attacking game. Full analysis will follow, here's a pictorial report.

PAL / CSS report from the dark horse's mouth

6/22/2005 – Actually there were two of them, but "horses' mouths" is hard to say. Who were they? Where the heck is New Hampshire? A pair of amateurs from New England triumphed over the world's strongest computers and many Grandmasters using computer assistance. Impossible? Learn all about the players and their methods in their own words.

How to analyse your games

6/22/2005 – When you ask a grandmaster how to improve your play, there is probably a 50-50 chance that he will answer: Analyse your games. GM-elect Jacob Aagaard will try to give some advice, assisted by Ian Marks in the Wednesday night Glasgow Studios Playchess show.

Major changes for Fritz 9

6/22/2005 – The new version of Fritz 9 won't be out until the Fall, but we got a preview when the prototype engine battled FIDE champ Rustam Kasimdzhanov to a draw in New York. In his latest ChessCafe column, Mig Greengard interviews ChessBase honcho Frederic Friedel about a new direction for Fritz.

From New York: it's Kasim vs the Accoona Toolbar

6/21/2005 – Today's the big day. Reigning FIDE world champion Rustam Kasimdzhanov will play a match against the "AI Accoona ToolBar" in the Times Square ABC Studios with live web coverage. This weekend "Kasim" arrived in New York City and got to know his computer opponent, which is driven by the latest version of Fritz.

GM Arno Nickel: Adams can beat Hydra

6/20/2005 – On Tuesday a chess spectacular is scheduled to begin in London: top UK grandmaster Michael Adams will face the awesome power of the Hydra chess machine, which has the processing power of more than 200 standard PCs and can calculate 200 million positions per second. Adams can achieve about two. Still, an expert in the field says the human can win.

Kortchnoi leads at Super-GM in Paks

6/20/2005 – He is fifty years older than the average of the other participants, and older that than almost any three opponents you pick from the field. But Viktor Kortchnoi is the driving force at the Super-GM tournament in Paks, Hungary. With 5½/7 points he is poised to chalk up another great victory.

Dark horse ZackS wins Freestyle Chess Tournament

6/19/2005 – The computer-assisted PAL/CSS Freestyle Chess Tournament, staged on Playchess.com, ended with a shock win by two amateurs: Steven Cramton, 1685 USCF and Zackary Stephen, 1398 USCF, using three computers for analysis, defeated teams of strong grandmasters all the way to victory in the finals. We bring you a first flash report with games and results.

Albin Planinc, the third wild man

6/19/2005 – In the 1970s, Yugoslavian chess featured three wild men: Ljubojevic, Velimirovic and Albin Planinc.The first two were internationally famous, while the third is almost completely unknown nowadays. In his Monday night lecture Dennis Monokroussos seeks to change that.

Bruzon fights back to take classical section

6/19/2005 – In the two-part match between Dutch GM Jan Timman and Cuban talent Lazaro Bruzon, the former took a 3½:½ lead in the rapid section. Then came the classical section, with very exciting games, intensely enjoyed by the spectators on the Internet and on the Caribbean island of Curaçao.

Six players lead in Moldova Women's Championship

6/18/2005 – Chisinau, Moldova, is staging the European Individual Women's Championship 2005. After seven rounds ther are six players with 5½ points each. One of them, Tatiana Grabuzova, started at 54th seed. Meanwhile some of the top players are languishing in the middle of the field. Standings and games.

The workings of the chess player's brain

6/18/2005 – How does the mind of a chess player work? How do memory, experience, analysis and inspiration work together to produce chess moves? The question has defied science – so far. Now a very imaginative young researcher has worked it all out and provides us with a vivid explanation, presented in an unusual form: a one-act play by Alex Shternshain.

The Sakkzseni from Szeged

6/17/2005 – Don't be afraid – sakkzseni means "Chess Genius", and the southern Hungarian city of Szeged is pronounced "segg-gedd". The person in question is the 25-year-old world championship challenger Peter Leko, who like Géza Maróczy and Franz Liszt is a great hero of the townfolk. Here's a big illustrated report of Peter's Szeged.