Chess News

It was the most amazing move of the 2011 Chess World Cup in Khanty Mansiysk, Russia, a wonderful coup de grâce you don't see every day. And it could have been enough to play it, go home and enjoy it for years to come.In his Huffington Post chess column GM Lubomir Kavalek peculates that his astonishing move didn't belong to 21st century, where such a brilliant move is not usually allowed.

In rook endings a pawn up, the draw is often secured by counterplay. But how to initiate it? Our resident GM Karsten Müller gives us instruction, using a recent game Bacrot-Robson from the World Cup in Khanty-Mansiysk. And Dr Müller uses another game from two weeks ago to instruct us on the theme of counterplay. Take time to study his examples and improve your tournament results.

IM Aleksander Hnydiuk won the 47th Rubinstein Memorial held in Polanica-Zdroj, Poland, scoring his first GM norm with a 2608 performance. The Memorial is likely to regain its level from the past when it used to be a significant event for both top grandmasters and aspiring masters. This would be a good news given the beauty of Polanica and its surroundings.

It was a wake up call and reminder that Kasparov is not so far gone into retirement that he is no longer competitive at the top. By soundly beating Vachier-Lagrave in two highly publicized blitz games, a top talent rated over 2700, Kasparov showed he wasn't just there for the cameras, he was out for blood. IM Andrew Martin dissected the games and gave insightful commentary in his video analysis.

"Serious chess players will relish spending countless hours studying the information in ChessBase Magazine issues," writes Steve Goldberg. "Some players may find just the opening analysis they've been looking for, others will appreciate the impressive depth and breadth of the annotated games, too many to count, annotated by world class players." Goldberg gives it five stars in his Chess Cafe review.

This event, organised and sponsored by MonRoi, a St. Laurent-based company which sells an electronic score keeping device to record, store, view and webcast chess games. Twenty-one young chess players participated during the Global Conference on World’s Religions in Montréal, Canada. On this occasion the players had the pleasure to meet His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama.

In his continued promotion for chess instruction in schools, and the Kasparov Chess Foundation, this weekend Garry Kasparov gave an exhibition blitz match in Clichy against the 2011 French champion, GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave. The match, covered by the French mass media, was won by Kasparov with a flourish. Here is the report with videos and annotations by GM Karsten Müller.

"The rook's pawn is the worst enemy of the knight," says our resident GM Karsten Müller. He goes on to show us how with queens on the board one side can often conduct a direct attack that culminates in mate. Dr. Müller's analyses, taken from recent games, are an excellent way to increase your understanding of the game and hone your endgame skills.

The organisers of the FIDE World Cup in Khanty-Mansiysk did an extraordinary job, providing the world with live video feed in HD quality, running commentary in Russian and English, live broadcast of the games on the official site and on Playchess, professional pictures in the highest quality we have received from any chess event. Here are some of the people who made it possible.

This eight round double Scheveningen event with top GMs took place from September 8 to 16. Iran won it by ten points, the final score being 21:11. One of the lesser games contained an interesting ending which international trainer Efstratios Grivas, who is also the Turkish coach, has analysed for our readers – another opportunity for you to hone your endgame skills.

She drew her final game comfortably with the black pieces and finished with 8.0/11 points on the scoresheet. Seventeen-year-old women's world champion Hou Yifan did not lose a single game in this event and performed at a 2644 level. Second was Anna Muzychuk of Slovenia – the only non-Chinese among the first six players.

Peter Svidler drew his final game against Alexander Grischuk, securing it with a nice knight sacrifice. This gave him a 2.5-1.5 win over Alexander Grischuk and the title of World Cup winner. In the match for third place Vassily Ivanchuk drew for a similar final score against Ruslan Ponomariov. Svidler, Grischuk and Ivanchuk have qualified for the next stage of the World Championship.

Peter Svidler played fourteen moves of theory against his good friend Alexander Grischuk, then they played two more moves and agreed to a pragmatic draw. In the game for place three Vassily Ivanchuk came with a clear advantage out of the opening, and just when his opponent Ruslan Ponomariov appeared to be holding, he cracked under the pressure and gave Ivanchuk an important point.

With one round to go the young women's world champion from China has 7.5/9 points, with IM Anna Muzychuk of Slovenia at 6.5. In rounds nine and ten 50% of the games were decisive, and the total draw rate is a respectable 55% (21.7% white and 23.3% black wins). The organisers are providing excellent coverage – Internet broadcast, reports and high-class pictures.

Alexander Grischuk played his final white game against Peter Svidler aggressively, and came close to losing it in time trouble. But after 29 moves a draw was agreed. In the match for third place Vassily Ivanchuk, playing white, had serious losing chances against Ruslan Ponomariov, but saved the minor piece ending. In the last game Ponomariov and Grischuk are under tremendous pressure.

The 17-year-old Chinese world women's championship has a plus four score and a 2650 performance, and leads by half a point ahead of GM Zhao Xue. Anna Muzychuk and Ruan Lufei share the third/fourth places another half-point further down. Friday is a free day, where the players will visit local schools. Our report after round eight includes

Former FIDE world champion Ruslan Ponomariov played a rare line of the Grunfeld, which allowed Peter Svidler to play very sharply and get a queenside pawn avalanche. The St Petersburg grandmaster refused a draw offer and forced a win in 43 moves. With this Svidler moves into the final. On the other board Ivanchuk and Grischuk drew an equally sharp game.

GM Adrian Mikhalchishin shares his extensive experience working with players who faced World Champions, and the difficulties this unique challenge presents. He also breaks down the upcoming Women's World Championship and gives his opinion. He explains how he prepares players to face a champion, and how both the trainer and the student can

The picturesque Italian town of Jesi saw fierce competition amongst the world’s top problem solvers. The team event was won by the Polish solvers, whose average age was less than half that of the second-placed UK team. In the individual championship the 19-year-old Pole Kacper Piorun was victorious, ahead of the previous champion John Nunn, who sent us this

The first rapid tiebreak ended in a nice win by Alexander Grischuk, in the second Vassily Ivanchuk bounced back with a convincing win of his own. Then came the accelerated rapids – ten-minute time controls. In the first tragedy struck when Ivanchuk, in a potentially winning position, blundered horribly and lost. The finals start on Friday, with Peter Svidler playing Alexander Grischuk.

The World Chess Hall of Fame, a cultural non-profit institution relocated from Miami and chose St. Louis as its new home due to the city’s growing reputation as a center of chess. To celebrate its new space, a live chess event was organized to launch the first-ever Chess Merit Badge for the Boy Scouts of America. GM Nakamura participated and stood in as the black king.