Chess News

All the deepest plans or endgame technique are useless if you fall victim to a shot that leaves you in a lost position. Likewise, sometimes that superior play will only offer a single window of opportunity to deliver that final blow, so it is vital to be ready for it when it does. All the shots here were played by Botvinnik from the 1948 World Championship and beyond.

The new ratings list is out, and the word 'resurgence' has never seemed a more appropriate description. From the very top, we see Kramnik once more the top Russian, Kamsky at the highest rating in his career, and Judit Polgar's return to the 2700 club to name but a few, but the biggest story is Morozevich's rocket gain of 43 Elo after three straight 2800+ performances. The September 2011 list.

In the second round of the FIDE WC knock-out event, the current European Champion Vladimir Potkin was happy enough to perform an ideal attack against the well-known and fierce attacker Alexei Shirov, a top player who is famous for setting the board on fire. But the time always comes for those who live by the sword to die by it. Here is some very instructive analysis by GM Efstratios Grivas.

Alexei Shirov spoilt a comfortable position against Vladimir Potkin and lost in 28 moves. Francisco Vallejo applied pressure for 60 moves, then imploded and lost five moves later. Sergey Azarov tried the Jaenish Gambit against Vugar Gashimov and went down in 23 moves. Other top players (Ivanchuk, Radjabov, Morozevich) took home full points. Report and pictures.

We are reporting enthusiastically on the FIDE World Cup in Khanty-Mansiysk, concentrating, as any news site would do, on the stars and the winners. But what about the players who on Tuesday all met at the airport for an early flight to Moscow? They had been knocked out in round one. Chess trainer Efstratios Grivas tells us the story of one of them, with two instructively annotated games.

The “Kiev Cup - Independence of Ukraine Cup” was recently held in Kiev dedicated to the 20th Anniversary of Ukraine’s independence, celebrated on August 24. This year saw the participation of 15-year-old Ilya Nyzhnyk (2589 Elo), who saw the top spot snatched by Crimean colleague GM Yury Ajrapetjan. Here is a report replete with pictures by Tanya Kostiuk.

For the fourth time Russia’s Ugra region in Siberia is hosting this event, which is a 128-player knockout with 128 participants from all over the world, playing two-game matches from August 27th until September 20th. The opening ceremony was spectacular, and all captured on HT video, which you can watch and enjoy before the games begin on Sunday at 11:00h CEST.

In the first round of the FIDE World Cup brought many players with large rating differences – 250-350 Elo points – together on the first ten boards. Almost all ended in the favorites beating the underdogs, but we saw losses by Super GMs Wang Yue and Peter Leko to lesser opponents. The HD video coverage from Khanty-Mansiysk is very impressive and vividly shows the drama of the game.

Hungarian former vice champion of the world Peter Leko and Super-GM Wang Yue were both eliminated after the second game of round one of the World Cup in Khanty-Mansiysk. The Chinese generally had a bad day, with all but three players eliminated. Kamsky and Vallejo were forced into the tiebreaks (on Tuesday) by much lower-ranked players. Full report with pictures and video.

Gata Kamsky won one of the first two rapid games, Morozevich both of them. Etienne Bacrot struggled a bit against youngster Ray Robson – each won a game, then Bacrot won both the fast rapid games. One match, Drozdovskij vs Motylev, went all the way to the sudden death (Drozdovskij won). Our full report will follow tonight, for now we bring you the games and results in our express report.

The Alimini Open took place in the beautiful scenery at the south-eastern extreme of Italy. Though fighting chess was displayed to the end, the titled players generously helped weaker players analyze their games. Everyone was treated to a wave of daily activities ranging from football, volleyball (the girls won!) and even poker with a professional dealer.

In view of possible pin motifs, capturing the e-pawn in the diagram position had to be well considered. What do you think? After 19...Nxe5, Black ...

A)... simply wins a second pawn;
B)... can give up his queen for good compensation;
C)... loses a full piece

The International Chess Festival celebrating the 100th anniversary of Mikhail Botvinnik saw 166 players taking part in a very strong Open, with seven tying for first at 7.0/9 points. The women did not play in a separate section but did get a separate ranking table. We wrap up this event with a splendid pictorial provided by Irina Sudakova and Elena Mikheeva with lots of new faces.

The town is a fine vacation spot, a place where the Aegean Sea meets the Mediterranean, where Turks and Greeks can swim out to meet each other. It is also the place where this year's Turkish Rapid Championship took place – in the Open and U16 categories. It was fun for all, especially the youngest players, whom WGM Anastasiya Karlovich has caught in her wonderful pictorial report.

When two rook fight against a queen it is often extremely important whether the rooks can coordinate or not. That is the first lesson of our endgame expert Dr. Karsten Müller, who goes on to show us how normally drawish opposite colored bishop endings can be transformed if there are rooks present. Today's lessons include a very instructive blitz game

Here are the answers to our August weekend puzzle: of the 43 presidents of the United States, over the last 222 years, 24 , i.e. more than half, have played and enjoyed chess. It started with the first president, George Washington, and ends with Barack Obama, who has occasional games with Michelle. Here is the full list and some interesting bits of information.

In this endgame from the Russian Superfinal White here took on e6 with the rook and thus refrained from 37.a3 (diagram) which would have given Black the option of playing 37...Rxc5 38.bxc5 d3. With what result, in your opinion?
A) victory for Black;
B) perpetual check after mutual promotion;
C) victory for White.

Mikhail Moiseyevich Botvinnik was born on August 17, 1911, and died in 1995, at the age of 84. He was the first world-class player to develop within the Soviet Union, winning the World Championship three times, while working as an electrical engineer, and in fact earning a PhD. The latter part of his life was devoted to his chess school for young talents – and to chess programming.

Kramnik's win of Dortmund came as no surprise, and he took no chances and drew against Giri, securing a two point lead over the field after Le drew against Ponomariov. His 7.0/9 score and 2933 performance are one of the greatest tournament victories of all time, but he still has a tenth round to try and extend it if he wishes. Nakamura ended his drought with a win over Meier.

This wonderfully exciting tournament is over, and to wrap things up we bring you a final report with interesting statistics (did you count: there were more black wins than white). Also the remarkable postgame sessions on Playchess with the players, who explained to a world-wide audience what transpired in the games they had just finished. Great event, pity it's over.

Chess sometimes becomes a beautiful game even in the eyes of those who don't play it. Find a charming town, bring back its glorious past, turn people into chess pieces, invite kids and a jester and you can evoke magical moments. GM Lubomir Kavalek tells us about "living chess" in medieval costumes, and a blindfold game between him and Hungarian GM Lajos Portisch.