Q&A with Bessel Kok

2/17/2006 – Dutch businessman and long-time chess supporter Bessel Kok has thrown his hat into the ring to run for the presidency of FIDE, the international chess federation. We submitted a list of questions, including several from readers, and received detailed responses on issues such as sponsorship, time controls, and of course, the world championship.

Morelia: spectacular opening of the chess festival

2/17/2006 – The big opening ceremony of the Linares-Morelia chess tournament took part in the city theatre, and included the drawing of lots. The games start tomorrow, Saturday, at 15:30h local time (=22:30h CEST, 4:30 p.m. NY). We bring you the full pairings and a report on the festivities that preceded the event. With new pictures.

Moving to Morelia

2/15/2006 – As often in recent years your faithful ChessBase news team is undertaking a perilous trip to an exotic chess location. This time it is to Morelia, the capital of the state of Michoacán in Mexico. There a major chess event is taking place – with the likes of Topalov, Svidler, Leko and Ivanchuk. It is the first leg of the yearly Linares tournament. Curious?

The Great Chess Market

2/14/2006 – The Aeroflot Open is an event where players from all over the world gather for top-level chess. It is also a place where managers flock, looking for new stars to enhance their league teams. For professional players an ideal opportunity to offer their services. Misha Savinov worked the crowd and sent us this report from Moscow.

John Nunn 50th birthday endgame study tourney

2/14/2006 – In April last year grandmaster John Nunn turned 50. To celebrate the occasion he staged a blitz tournament and a study composing tourney. The latter attracted an amazing 85 entries from all over the world. Today John shows us three top compositions and challenges you to find their solutions.

Two the easy way

2/14/2006 – Chess Trainer Andrew Martin is featured on two recent ChessBase opening training DVDs: The Scandinavian The Easy Way and The Trompowsky The Easy Way. Our ChessBase Workshop columnist previews both of these disks as well as the Chess Media System (for those who've not yet experienced it) in the latest edition. Workshop...

Third Mediterranean Championship in Antalya

2/12/2006 – A 5-star hotel in Kemer, a designer holiday resort on the "Turkish Riviera". Full gratuitious hospitality and transfers for all the participants. Such conditions are a great rarity in international tournaments nowadays. But that is exactly what the players of this year's Mediterranean Men's and Women's Championship got. Geoffrey Borg reports.

Alexander Alekhine: the later years

2/12/2006 – The fourth world champion is one of the greatest and most appreciated players of all time. But chess fans and authors tend to neglect his later years, when he was past his prime, but still in a position to play beautiful chess – as Dennis Monokroussos will show in our Monday night Playchess lecture. Enjoy!

Ponomariov and Vallejo victorious in Cuernavaca

2/12/2006 – That, we agree, is quite a mouthful. Ex-World Champion Ruslan Ponomariov and Francisco Vallejo Pons won the Young Masters, a tournament for the world's strongest under 24-year-old players that was held in Cuernavaca, Mexico. We bring you games and annotations in our final report.

Nigel's Cookbook

2/12/2006 – Andrew Martin's Wednesday night's lecture has been moved to Sunday (today) at 16:00h, due to impending family holidays. Our Playchess trainer looks at a new recipe against the Sveshnikov, the Bird and gives us a puzzle to ponder. Remember: this time it's Sunday evening!

Aeroflot Open – where opposites meet

2/11/2006 – At this big yearly open, played in three groups, it is all about strong vs weak, old vs young, and players from the four corners of the globe. You can see them analyse for hours, even though they speak different languages. We bring you a picture report from Moscow.

James Plaskett almost became a millionaire

2/10/2006 – A couple of weeks ago we reported on the first part of British grandmaster James Plaskett's efforts to win real money on the popular TV show "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?" He won a guaranteed £8,000 on the first leg and went for the million a week later. Here's Jim's harrowing story.

A million Elo points at the Aeroflot Open

2/9/2006 – It is one of the world's most prestigious Opens, with top players from all over the world congregating to Moscow, in spite of freezing temperatures, to play for the US $175,000 prize fund. In spite of initial glitches with the Internet connection we bring you impressions from Aeroflot 2006.

Complete Chess match Tea Lanchava vs Peng Zhaoqin

2/9/2006 – The Dutch city of Maastricht is becoming the center of experimental chess. Every year they stage a event involving unusual conditions. This year it was a computer assisted match between two top women players. They played two games of regular chess and two with shuffled positions. Eric van Reem reports.

In the Grand Manner

2/8/2006 – For this Wednesday night's Playchess lecture our popular chess trainer Andrew Martin experiments with an improved Philidor move order, looks at the King's Biship's Gambit, shows us a masterly Queen's Indian by Vishy Anand, and a Grand Study by Liburkin. Now with last week's problem solution!

Clash of the Young Titans in Cuernavaca

2/8/2006 – A tournament with ten of the world's strongest under 24-year-old players is taking place in Mexico. In the lead after four rounds is the US Champion Hikaru Nakamara, a.k.a. “Star Wars” on the Playchess server, ahead of former FIDE world champion Ruslan Ponomariov and Ukraine's wonderboy Sergey Karjakin. Big illustrated report.

Seirawan on the situation in FIDE

2/8/2006 – Recently the editor of the (daily!) electronic magazine Chess Today wrote an editorial on the election situation in FIDE. A few days later the same magazine published a letter by Yasser Seirawan, who has been an insider in chess politics for many years. The American grandmaster, who is always quite outspoken, has very harsh words for FIDE.

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.