Chess News

In this position the second player got down to work with 32...Nxd3 to conquer the point e4. How would you assess the situation following 33.Qxd3 Rxf2?
Black ...
A)... wins;
B)... finally achieves a better endgame with a plus pawn;
C)... conquers the enemy queen, but White gets too much wood.

Earlier this week Germany, starting as tenth seed, created a sensation by winning the title, with Azerbaijan and Hungary getting Silver and Bronze. But who were the strongest individual players in the open and women's sections? And who the most photogenic? We return to the ETCC in Porto Carras one more time with statistics and a beautiful pictorial by WGM Anastasiya Karlovich.

Normally we are scheduled to cover the European Team Championship after every second round. But round four was so interesting that we are slipping it in. The sensations: Russia was soundly defeated by Bulgaria 3-1, and even more sensationally: Germany beat Ukraine 3½-½ to take the overall lead in the event. We bring you the most interesting games in our round four extra report.

The 2nd to last MC Cup qualifier tournament and a new qualifier steps forward! View our full tournament report for details.

After shocking England in the second round of the open section the Greece hosts succumb to higher rated Azerbaijan in the third round. Tournament favourites Russia were held to a draw by lower rated Netherlands, so plenty of fight remains in the open section with uncompromising play all around. The Russian women’s team continued its rampage. Round three report.

The top has a new occupant: Azeri GM Teimour Radjabov took a 29-point leap from 13th to place five, while Alexander Morozevich gained 25 points to move from place seventeen to nine. Amongst the women's the sensation is of course GM Zhao Xue, who has gained 61 points from 22 games in the last two months. Carlsen, Anand, Aronian and Kramnik remain at the top. November 2011 ratings.

Ibiza (or Eivissa) is a Spanish island in the Mediterranean Sea, 79 km off the coast of the city of Valencia in Spain. It is known as the Party Capital of the world, but also for its beautiful Mediterranean scenery and climate. The Eivissa Chess Festival, which was held there, was comfortably won by Dutch GM Erwin l'Ami (7.5/8 points). His wife, WGM Alina l'Ami, sent us this lovely pictorial report.

The qualifier for a fully funded trip to the SportAccord World Mind Games in Bejing (December 8-16), which was held on the Playchess server, was won by a player called Sourisblanche – white mouse in French. Turns out this is Marie Sebag, former wonder girl and at 25 a full grandmaster, who outplayed her very strong but tiring rivals from Asia and Russia.

Black has driven the white c3-knight to e2 with 18...b4. The strike 19...Nxe4 20.Qxe4 Bxg5 (with the idea ...Bc6) now ultimately leads to what?

A) piece win for White;
B) plus exchange for Black;
C) a roughly balanced ending.

This nine-round Swiss, which will run from November 4-12, has a total of 38 countries in the open and 28 in the women's section. In round one on Thursday the top seed Russia squeaked out a win over Moldova, ranking 20th, while the Russian women – actually the Kosintseva sisters – demolished the Israelis 3-1. We bring you a richly illustrated round one report.

The Editor of Chess Notes turns his attention to one of chess history’s most famous games, a 15-move miniature from the nineteenth century which features ‘Boden’s Mate’. The books contain a large amount of contradictory information about when the game was played, and a particular mystery is the exact identity of Boden’s opponent.

You have ordered Fritz 13, on DVD or as a download in the ChessBase Shop. And you have heard a lot about the new Let's Check function. How do you get started? In our tutorial series we begin with some very basic instructions on how to activate the program and then take a few initial steps into the world of cloud computing. Too daunting? Take a look – it's easier than you think.

The fourteen top players from the Corsican Open were joined by two seeded world-class grandmaster for the Masters Knockout. The latter showed why they sit on the top of international rating lists by going through to the final. There World Champion Vishy Anand outplayed Azeri Super-GM Shakhriyar Mamedyarov with a clean 2-0 result.

Some knew, some thought they knew, and speculation was rampant during the Grand Slam Final in São Paulo and Bilbao. Yes, Garry Kasparov, who famously trained Magnus Carlsen, is now working with Hikaru Nakamura. The real story is in the details, straight from the protagonists themselves, and you can find them in the latest issue of New in Chess Magazine.

A new book is creating quite a discussion in Germany. It is about two politicians, one a former chancellor of the country (1974 to 1982), the other quite plausibly a future chancellor (2013–), one 93 years old and razor sharp in his mind, the other, 64, a preeminent critic of global predatory capitalism. Both are chess players and the book uses a game motif on its cover.

Yasser Seirawan is something of a legend: World Junior Champion in 1979, four times US Champion, he has played played all the chess greats. In 2007 the Syrian born US grandmaster stopped playing competitive chess, but has now returned to the game, last week coming joint first in the Barcelona GM. After this success he gave IM Anna Matnadze an extensive, must-read interview.

The annual M. Chigorin International Chess Festival was held in the Hotel Azimut from October 12-22 in St. Petersburg, with a rapid tournament and, of greater interest to us, a nine-round Swiss with classical time controls. It was won with a clear half-point lead by GM Dmitry Bocharov. We use the opportunity to give you your weekly point-winning endgame lesson by GM Karsten Müller.

A number of recent articles published on our news page have raised serious questions. Should players who boycott colleagues from certain countries be punished with disqualification? Are Yasser Seirawan's thoughts on the current state of chess endorsable? What was behind the photo-shoot error of two high-ranking German politicians. Entertaining, thought provoking feedback from our readers.

This is the second tournament named after the Indian Steel company. But it has been played in the wind-swept Dutch sea resort since 1938. Group A is this year the strongest ever, with a rating average of 2752 (Category: 21). There are eight female players in the three groups, also a record. The event takes place from January 13 to 29. Pre-tournament information with history and statistics.

This edition of GM Karsten Müller's endgame instructions is devoted exclusively to the ladies. Three former women's world champions feature in the games he has selected for our attention, two from the recently concluded Grand Prix in Nalchik. Studying examples like these in the regular deliveries of ChessBase Magazine will do your practical playing strength a world of good.

A total of 38 countries are sending four-player teams to this nine-round Swiss, which will be staged from November 4-12 in the five-star Porto Carras Grand Resort on the Halkidiki peninsula of northern Greece. We see illustrious names like Aronian, Karjakin, Grischuk, Ivanchuk, Svidler, Topalov, as well as Kosintseva, Lahno, Muzychuk and Danielian in the women's section.