Chess News

"Maurice Ashley scores again as favorite teacher with this DVD," writes Steven Dowd. "Ashley teaches with a entertainingly fast pace, is quick to crack a good joke, and simply relates well to the audience. If there really were a ChessBase University, Ashley would be a candidate for teacher of the year, and would be my hands-down choice to win."

It was her first and only loss in this tournament, and cost her an entry as the best performance of all time in chess. But GM Zhao Xue of China easily won the third Women's Grand Prix 2011-2012, gaining 42 rating points in the process! Second was compatriou WGM Ju Wenjun, who defeated Zhao in the final round and will soon bear the IM and GM titles.

ChessBase Magazine excels with a world-class endgame section. Our resident expert GM Karsten Müller keeps a watchful eye for interesting examples from current tournament play. Here for your weekend study are three examples, all derived from games played this month. You can study Dr Müller's analysis or download the games for later review.

In round five of the 15th Unive Tournament both Anish Giri and Vladimir Kramnik scored full points – the former after a blunder just before the time control by his opponent Judit Polgar, the latter after Vachier Lagrave cracked under intense pressure. Kramnik produced a plus three and 2900+ performance, which puts him back into a very illustrious club. Final report with Let's Check analysis.

"Initially, my impression of this DVD was that many of the discussions were just too lengthy to hold the attention of viewers," writes Chess Cafe reviewer Steve Goldberg. "But then, around half a dozen segments into the DVD, I couldn't help but find myself attracted to Lilov's presentations. He continually finds especially interesting examples to demonstrate the themes."

Garry Kasparov is different. However, it's neither his physical appearance nor his way of walking into a wave of applause that is changed in the former world champion. Seven years later, he has returned less arrogant and less self-sufficient and, for the first time, demonstrates a subtle feeling of gratitude and humility, never seen before in his public career.

It was a fantastic beginning in the face of such a tough field, and the question was whether Alexander Morozevich could fulfill the unspoken promise of such a start. The answer was 8.5/11 and a 2917 performance, with a superb final win, taking him back to the Top Ten in the next list. Evgeny Tomashevsky came in second, with a 2800 performance, and Peter Leko in third.

In round two Vladimir Kramnik beat Judit Polgar – as usual, we are tempted to say. In twenty classical encounters Judit still has to win a single one. At the end of this game Fritz 13 surprised people on Playchess by announcing mate in 45 moves – on a super-fast spectator machine. In rounds three and four all games were drawn, but some of them quite interesting.

Brasov was the host of the Romanian League, one of the strongest editions so far. The event brought in a number of world-class players, such as Gata Kamsky, Jobava Baadur, Anna Muzychuk and Pia Cramling. Above all, it was a return to Home Sweet Home for our correspondent who lavishes her report on Brasov and Romania with love. Enjoy this illustrated report by Alina L'Ami.

American writer Martin Gardner anticipated current cheating woes in chess with his short story Nora Says 'Check'. In it a world champion called Sierpinsky alleviates his chess boredom by guiding a not very bright waitress named Nora to chess fame with the help of a confederate and some electrical trickery. You should not miss this visionary jewel of a tale, written in 1948!

"Too often, one may learn something of value but not have the opportunity to use that knowledge right away," writes Steven Dowd. "In such cases the knowledge fades quickly into the recesses of our brains." So what can we do about that? How about two new ChessBase training DVDs? Here's a Chess Cafe review of the first, which gets five out of six stars.

All interschool tournaments run from Term 4 2011 through to Term 3 2012 will run in three separate divisions, Primary, Intermediate and Secondary rather than the two Junior and Senior divisions that were run this year.

To most outsiders, Rio de Janeiro would never be linked to a deep tradition in chess, yet the very first club was co-founded by legendary author Machado de Assis, who also took part in the first tournament in 1880. The first State Team Championship was held in 1928 and this year the Tijuca Tênis Clube won its 17th title since its first in 1941, 70 years ago.

This is definitely her tournament: Chinese GM Zaho Xue conceded one draw, against the bottom seed in round seven, and went on to beat the top seed in round eight. This gave her a three-point lead over her nearest rival, compatriot Ju Wenjun, who could bury her hopes of catching the leader after a painful loss to tail-ender Batkhuyag Munguntuul.

Brasov was the host of the Romanian League, one of the strongest editions so far. The event brought in a number of world-class players, such as Gata Kamsky, Jobava Baadur, Anna Muzychuk and Pia Cramling. Above all, it was a return to Home Sweet Home for our correspondent who lavishes her report on Brasov and Romania with love.

Our endgame expert GM Karsten Müller keeps a watchful eye for interesting lessons that can be derived from recent games. Today he explains how in the fight bishop and wrong rook's pawn vs pawns there are two drawing zones for the defending king which must be interpreted with some care. For the weekend we bring you, instead of the usual two, this time three full training units.

Which is the most difficult form of chess writing? Of course, each kind presents its own problems and pitfalls, but the Editor of Chess Notes focuses here on a genre which hardly anyone ventures upon nowadays although it used to be highly popular: an attempt to capture the essence of a chess master’s appearance and demeanour with some well-crafted words, in a pen-portrait.

Someone should call Guinness – the Chinese GM Zaho Xue is on the rampage and has now won her sixth game in a row, maintaining a nominal 3300 performance. This time she profited from a prime blunder by former women's world champion Zhu Chen. Alexandra Kosteniuk ended her losing streak with a well-played game which, however, her opponent was able to defend.

The third stage of FIDE Women's Grand Prix cycle 2011-2012 is being staged in Nalchik, the capital of Kabardino-Balkaria. There are twelve titled players participating, including nine GMs, though neither Women's world champion Hou Yifan nor Koneru Humpy are playing as they prepare for their world title match in November. Zhao Xue and Ju Wenjun have taken the early lead.

The Turkish beach resort of Kemer say 67 chess players from 16 countries in an event that restricts partcipants to players who do not have a FIDE title nor have been rated over 2000 for at least two years. The tournament was won by Sumiya Bilguun from Mongolia, who is just fourteen years old. We bring you a big pictorial report with some very charming pictures by WGM Anastasiya Karlovich.

The signs were there, but nothing is written until it is over. The games were fairly sedate among the crosstable leaders with uneventful draws, though Anand came out swinging and avoided a last place finish by beating Vallejo. Top prize was decided by two blitz games, in which Carlsen concluded with a mating attack in the last game. Final report with pictures, video, and GM commentary.