Murray Chandler wins Queenstown Chess Classic

2/8/2006 – This is LOTR country – Lord of the Rings to the uninitiated. It is the adventure capital of the world. for people who like fast jetboats or bungy jumping, an activity invented in Queenstown! But it also paid host to a big chess tournament, with many interesting new faces. Big pictorial report.

Women's World Chess Championship 2006

2/8/2006 – FIDE has announced the list of players who will take part in the World Women's Championship, to be held from 10-27 March 2006, in Ekaterinburg, Russia. The reigning world champion is Antoaneta Stefanova of Bulgaria, who won the title in 2004. We bring you complete lists and lots of pictures.

Ajedrez 21 collapses – Playchess offer to members

2/7/2006 – The Spanish chess server Ajedrez 21 has closed its services, due to massive hacker attacks. But the paying members, almost all from Spain and Spanish speaking countries, can take heart: Playchess, the world's fastest growing chess server, is offering all registered members a six-month full service compensation subscription free of charge.

Rogers wins the Australian Championship

2/6/2006 – Ian Rogers has been Australia's top player for over 25 years and represented his country at 13 chess Olympiads. The 45-year-old grandmaster recently completed Xstrata Australian Chess Championships with a score of 9/11, and a performance rating of nearly 2700. This is Rogers' fourth Australian Championship, the first being back in 1980. A belated report.

Baburin on FIDE and the forthcoming elections

2/5/2006 – This is election year, and in May a number of candidates will be running for the post of FIDE president. The incumbent Kirsan Ilyumzhinov will seek reelection for a further period. He will be challenged by Dutch businessman Bessel Kok, French organiser Leo Battesti, and possibly by former world champion Anatoly Karpov. Alexander Baburin of Chess Today tries to make sense of it all.

Pillsbury: outplaying the world champion

2/5/2006 – The recent Boston Globe article on American great Harry Nelson Pillsbury leads to our Monday night Playchess lecture. Dennis Monokroussos shows us a brillient game in which Pillsbury outplayed world champion Emanuel Lasker in Cambridge Springs, 1904. Enjoy!

4th Parsvnath GM tournament in Delhi

2/5/2006 – This very interesting tournament with 315 players, 14 GMs and many further titled players, aroused international attention mainly due to the second GM norm scored by 12-year-old Parimarjan Negi. But the chess and general atmosphere was worth its own story, as S.K. Kamesh proves in his big illustrated report.

Chess in Afghanistan

2/4/2006 – Chess arose in this region a millinum and a half ago. In the turbulences of recent years the game was sadly neglected, but now is slowly returning to Afghanistan. The country has five chess clocks, two FMs and one 2200 player. At the Olympiad most of the team was recruited from ex patriot Afghanis during the rounds. Ali Nihat Yazici tells the tale.

Move to remember the chess great

2/4/2006 – He took the chess world by storm at 22, coming out of nowhere to win one of the top tournaments in the world. Chess specialists rank him as one of the top three Americans ever to play the game, alongside the great Bobby Fischer, and they still obsess over what he might have accomplished if not for his premature death, at 33, from syphilis. Boston Globe article.

Three cds from ChessBase

2/4/2006 – New Chessbase CDs and DVDs have been coming out at a fast and furious rate. You can read previews of three of them (Vienna Game, Dutch A80-A85, and 1000 Opening Traps) in the new Chessbase Workshop.

The Jackal vs Veselin Topalov

2/3/2006 – The setup is cute: a beautiful young lady, former MTV host, challenges world champion Veselin Topalov to a game. Although she hardly seems to be able to move the pieces, and even makes small talk, she is playing good solid chess against him. In fact the game ends in a draw. Here's the trick Dutch TV played on Topalov.

Peter Svidler on the chess world

2/2/2006 – Peter (or Pyotr) Svidler, 29 years old, from Leningrad, Russia, is currently the world's number four ranking player. He won four Russian championship titles, the first time at the age of 18. In 2001, he reached the semi-finals of the FIDE World Championship, in 2005 he shared second with Anand in the FIDE World Chess Championship. We bring you an indepth interview from the Chess Chronicle.

Twelve-year-old Negi gets his second GM norm

2/1/2006 – Three weeks ago we reported on the GM norm that was completed at the Hastings tournament by the Indian chess prodigy Parimarjan Negi. Now the lad has made a second norm, at the Parsvnath International Open in his hometown of Delhi. We bring you a report by Parimarjan's coach Vishal Sareen and two short interviews by N.S.K. Kamesh. It's all about a GM in the making.

Fritz and Chesster is the one to buy

1/30/2006 – The prestigious Computer Times has selected Learn to Play Chess with Fritz & Chesster and Learn to Play Chess with Fritz & Chesster 2 as an Editor's Choice Software in the January 2006 issue of the magazine. The program is also number 47 amongst all software sold by Amazon.com. Check it out!

Corus R13: Anand and Topalov win Wijk

1/30/2006 – A fine victory by Vishy Anand over Boris Gelfand in the last round left the Indian chess star sharing first with Veselin Topalov, who drew his game against Peter Leko. Anand, like Topalov, has now crossed the 2800 mark. In Group B Motylev and Carlsen shared first. Both have been invited to play in next year's A Group. Big report.

No more freebies!

1/30/2006 – For this Wednesday night's Playchess lecture Andrew Martin presents the problem for his Radio Show Competition in advance. He will discuss the solution during the broadcast, and also touch on the world of "normal" chess, looking at the King's Indian and the Alekhine. Don't miss it!

Eco & distributed computing - reader responses

1/30/2006 – A prior ChessBase Workshop column on distributed computing was written merely to illustrate a point: that the number of chess positions is vast and the idea of somehow "solving" the game is consequently rather remote. But, as usual, our columnist has inadvertantly taken up a stick to stir up another hornet's nest. Read some reader responses in the latest ChessBase Workshop.

Corus R12: Lead unchanged, Kamsky wins again

1/29/2006 – The summit meeting between Veselin Topalov and Vishy Anand, which had drawn a packed hall of spectators in Wijk aan Zee, fizzled out to a 23-move draw, after Anand offered a piece on move 13 of an Archangelsk, one which Topalov did not dare to take. Kamsky beat Mamedyarov to relinquish last place. Full illustrated report

Shaun Alexander tackles chess

1/28/2006 – The MVP of the NFL is headed to the Super Bowl next week. But before the Seattle Seahawks running back goes to Detroit and the most-watched television spectacle in the world, Alexander stopped off to play some chess. Even the New York Times is covering his moves. This fleet fan of the 64 squares recently hosted this special event.

Corus R11: Karjakin, Leko, Kamsky win, Carlsen loses

1/27/2006 – After maneuvering through dangerous waters Vassily Ivanchuk scared tournament leader Veselin Topalov with a near win. After Anand's draw against Tiviakov the leaders remain in place. Karjakin moved into shared third with a win over Sokolov, while in Group B Carlsen suffered his first defeat to slip to second place behind winner Motylev. Full report

Karpov: 'Chess could disappear from the face of the earth'

1/26/2006 – During the Wijk aan Zee tournament Anatoly Karpov turned up on a brief visit. In an interview with the Russian chess magazine "64" the former world champion revealed that in view of the grave dangers that chess is currently facing he was considering running for FIDE president – or to join forces with or support the other candidate Bessel Kok. Interview...

Corus R10: Topalov back in the lead

1/26/2006 – FIDE world champion Veselin Topalov went back into the sole lead with 7.5/10 points with an amazing win over Levon Aronian in round ten of the Wijk aan Zee tournament. Anand is half a point behind. In Group B Magnus Carlsen leads, ahead of Alexander Motylev. The two face off after Thursday's rest day. Big illustrated report.

A Mega GM in Jamaica

1/26/2006 – The country is just 150 miles long, home to 2.7 million colorful, convivial islanders. It has brought forth music icons like Bob Marley, world class sprinters like Merlene Ottey and even a Carribbean bobsled team. But no chess grandmasters. So it was with great enthusiasm that the island received the reigning Commonwealth Champion Nigel Short. Big illustrated report.

Fritz 9 3D boards – part 3

1/25/2006 – Meet The Turk: von Kempelen's famous chessplaying automaton of the 1800's. A 3D virtual version of the first chessplaying "machine" is included with Fritz9 and now you can play against the legendary machine in your own home. Learn about the various tweaks and settings for this new Fritz9 character in the latest ChessBase Workshop.