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. Here are some positions from recent master and grandmaster practice.

The ChessBase Christmas Puzzle week is here, with new problems presented by Dr John Nunn for every day from Dec. 25 to Jan. 1st. And there are valuable prizes to be won right now!

Black's cornered king was already stalemated in this game from the recent Remco Heite Tournament, meaning that he had only to give both his rooks to achieve the desired half point. The sequence 39...Rf1+ 40.Kxf1 Rf2+ leads to
A) victory for White;
B) draw;
C) victory for Black (just kidding).

Dragoljub Velimirovic used to be one of the most feared attackers in the world, always looking for the impossible. His imaginative play was compared to the colorful world champion Mikhail Tal's razzle-dazzle. His playing style was unique, daring and often falling off the edge. He made risky moves and so many of them that you wondered how much punishment his chess pieces could take.

In this endgame it is Black to move. He is fighting for a draw with bishop and king against the pair of white passed pawns (g4,h4). In the game, the pawns outran him. Now it is your turn to try and find the narrow path to safety. Endgame expert GM Dr Karsten Müller has analysed the ending and shows the narrow path to a draw. Can you find it?

It is known as "the tournament with the horse": there is a giant one of the Trojan variety to be seen at the location in the Dutch city of Wolvega, and the first prize includes a live horse – theoretically. Actually the winner gets, in addition to his prize money, a check that allows a local charity to buy a horse for its equestrian therapy. This year's tournament was won by English GM Luke McShane.

No fewer than two rooks the first player had invested in this recent game from the Austrian Bundesliga to get to grips with the black king. How would you assess the situation after the last move 26...Nc1-d3? White's attack...
A) ...results in perpetual check.
B) ...leads to mate by force.
C) ...is finished, Black's material advantage prevails.

Snow has come to Mariánské Lázne, tons of it, and the Snowdrops are apparently thriving. They lead the Oldhands by 14:10. The event is extraordinary: in the last three rounds, the subject of this report, there was one single draw. Best player with 4.5/6 is GM Humpy Koneru, the only undefeated player Vlastimil Hort.

Last week Nigel Short, the former World Championship challenger, visited the Ottawa RA Chess Club in Canada to give a lecture and play a simul. The jury is out on which was the more entertaining. John Upper summarizes the hightlights of the former and provides us with a number of interesting positions from the latter.

Larry Evans, who died at the age of 78 this Monday, scored an impressive nine points in ten games in his first Olympiad for the U.S. In 26 years, from 1950 to 1976, he chalked up 64.5/100 points in eight Olympiads. GM Lubomir Kavalek, who played next to him at the 1976 Olympiad in Haifa, shows us one of the most thrilling games of Evans' career in this Huffington Post column.

With two rounds to go Lev Aronian had a point-and-a-half lead over his nearest rival, Teimour Radjabov, with last year's winner Magnus Carlsen half a point behind. Aronian lost both the final games, Radjabov lost one too and Carlsen drew both of his. So the Armenian-in-Superform finished alone in first place, with the Azeri and Norwegian in the places.

The 16th Asian Games are underway, not to be confuse with the Asian Championship. This is a full-fledged Olympic sport event, with two full chess competitions in it. The first is an individual rapid event, men's and women's sections, followed by a tournament control team event. Rustam Kazimdzhanov and Hou Yifan brought gold to their countries. Here are the individual competitions.

The 60th Russian Women's Championship Super Final has started in Moscow. Before it did there was an opening ceremony at the Chess House, with prominent players from the Tal and Blitz Championships in attendence – as well as a simul playing mechanical robot, which earlier had fearlessly mated the chief economic advisor of Russian President Dmitri Medvedev.