Chess News

In 1981 the National Film Board of Canada agreed to finance a feature-length documentary on the game of chess – one of the most ambitious projects of its kind ever undertaken. For the "Great Chess Movie" the producers decided to approach the reclusive world champion Bobby Fischer. Camille Coudari describes the harrowing encounter in this remarkable historical document.

It was an exciting finish: Swedish GM Pia Cramling was in the lead before the final round, in which she drew her game. Nana Dzagnidze won her final game to force a tiebreak. Both blitz games were drawn, and in the Armageddon the Georgian GM was able to win and take the title – together with the cool US $10,000 first prize. We bring you the big final report by WGM Anastasiya Karlovich.

It is one of the building blocks of the chess problem: Black (the defending side) is forced to block flight squares in the king's field and thus enable mate. Our problem expert David Friedgood demonstrates this with a remarkable problem with a record of eight self-blocks – arguably the most perfect two-mover ever composed. There are also two self-block problems for you to solve.

When has chess last received this kind of world-wide exposure? CBS's famous 60 Minutes program last night aired some extraordinary HD footage, shot during the London Chess Festival, on the world's strongest grandmaster. Magnus comes across as likeable, focused and disarmingly honest. Watch the full 13-minute segment and some interesting bonus material CBS has placed at our disposal.

After the prestigious open, there was a first rate blitz tournament, a nine-round swiss with eighteen games of three minutes plus two seconds increment. The tournament attracted a number of top players such as Sergey Karjakin, Alexander Grischuk, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, Peter Svidler and Alexander Morozevich with its 25 thousand Euro prize fund. Game videos by Sergey Solokhin.

It is a typically fighting event, with only one of the first twelve games ending in a (hard-fought, 103-move) draw. This very strong rapid, which lasts from February 17th to 21st February, 2012, has a prize fund of US $40,000 and is organised by the Association of Chess Professionals and the Georgian Chess Federation. After two rounds four players lead with perfect scores.

White is threatening a little something on h7. Now the sequence 23...Ne2++ 24.Kh2 Bg1+ 25.Kh1 Ng3+ ultimately yields Black ...
A)... a material advantage;
B)... a material disadvantage;
C)... neither nor (equality).
Extra question: Why does 23...Nf5+ 24.Kh2 Kg7 or 23...Nf3+ 24.Kh1 Kg7 fail?

This Sunday the very influential CBS TV news magazine 60 Minutes will be turning its eyes – or rather: lenses – on chess, with a segment concentrating on the exploits and personality of Magnus Carlsen. To get people in the mood they are streaming a "60 Minutes Rewind" of a report produced in 1972 on the upcoming match between Boris Spassky and challenger Bobby Fischer. Don't miss it!

The classic Moscow Open was given renewed life and prestige as it was brought under the auspices of the Russian State Social University which expanded it to nine events, with the main Open, the Women's Open, student and amateur events, as well as the Fifth World Cup of Problem Solving, a Shogi tournament, and a qualifier for the World Blitz Chess Championship.

Anton Korobov is in the lead, with 5.0/6 points. The Ukrainian GM stopped Fabiano Caruana in round four, but the young US/Italian star has since fought his way back into equal second place and will now be eying the top spot. Fabiano's performance is 2831 and in the current rating period he has already gained 33 points to reach seventh place in the world.

Before you read this article try to guess: which countries in the world have the largest number of international chess players, i.e. people with a FIDE rating? Which countries are growing fastest? Which have the most GMs, which the strongest? How many GMs, IMs, FMs are there world-wide? Here are some very illuminating statistics collected by Boris Schipkov for Chess Siberia.

The Moscow Open ended last weekend (ChessBase report to follow shortly), with at least 60 GMs participating. Naturally there was a lot of exciting play, and our resident endgame expert GM Karsten Müller has picked three instructive endings that will help you to improve your practical play.

In 1987 Olga Capablanca Clark mentioned to the Editor of Chess Notes an unknown game played by Capablanca and Tartakower in Paris in the late 1930s. She offered it for sale, but the reserve price was not reached. The game remained unpublished until this month, when its owner, David DeLucia, made it available for publication in Chess Notes. A wonderful episode.

It had been buzzing around vigorously in the Twitter world, but FIDE would not confirm anything. Now Sport Express has published a first announcement: the next Candidates Tournament will be held from October 23 to November 13 in London, England. Part of the arrangement is apparently to transfer the rights to the world championship cycle to a new sponsor.

With his last move 55.Re1-d1 (diagram) White had initiated a deflection manoeuvre to promote his passed h-pawn.
The capture 55...Rxd1 now leads to ...

A)... victory for Black
B)... perpetual check

It will be the first match in history in which both players are rated over 2800. From April 21 to 28, 2012, the world's number two, Levon Aronian, will play the world's number three, Vladimir Kramnik, in the time-honored Hotel Savoy Baur en Ville in Zurich, Switzerland – the venue of many a famous chess event in the past. The match is sponsored by the diamond industry.

Australian GM Darryl Johansen followed up a fine victory in the Australian Championship with a win on tiebreak at the Queenstown Chess Classic - and the Oceania Open Championship to boot! FM Mike Steadman overtook early leaders to snatch the New Zealand Championship and the famous Silver Rook.

Levon Aronian is clearly on a streak, and despite his third round loss to Carlsen, he once again took sole lead after beating Vugar Gashimov. Radjabov joined Carlsen in second after beating Karjakin, while Nakamura benefited from a blunder from Gelfand to win a second straight. Giri ground down Kamsky in 80 moves, while in B, Harikrishna beat Timman in the game of the day.

Black urgently needs to do something for the development of his queenside.

Which move of the bishop c8 does not lose material?
A) 14...Bb7
B) 14...Bd7

'Twas the week after Christmas, when all through our news page people were solving chess and logic puzzles. On January 15 at midnight (Central Samoan Time) we closed entries for our prize contest, and were gratified to see how many readers had participated. Today we bring you the solutions to the first five installments, the rest will follow shortly.

It is only fair that they be credited, especially as it also marks their first wins in the tournament. Gelfand beat Karjakin with a beautiful Najdorf remniscent of his Candidates success, while Ivanchuk and Nakamura rolled over their opponents in impressive fashion. The game of the round was nevertheless the incredibly exciting draw between Carlsen and Giri that went all the way.