Malcolm Pein reports on Viswanathan Anand's convincing win in the Botvinnik Memorial in Moscow. He looks at the draw between Magnus Carlsen and Vladimir Kramnik.

And then there were eight. The bloodbath continued today, with only three draws in the 20 games played, for a total of eight draws in 36 games for the round overall. (Soon the little-known GMs Vonahzdmisak and Vopihs will propose some radical measures to lower the excessive quantity of decisive games. Since a properly-played chess game should almost certainly be drawn, the high level of wins...

A question I’m often asked is how to avoid blunders. Frankly I wish I knew, I tried things like the Blumenfeld Rule (a variety of now illegal protocols, including writing your move down before playing it) but they only succeeded in destroying the mid game flow of my thoughts. But what I have found is [...]

On a day where Svidler won a brilliancy (although even that was not a very clean win) it was mostly about "Winning Ugly" as Brad Gilbert would put it. Judit Polgar avoided this being one of the most embarrassing days of her career when she eventually beat Leinier Dominguez. She got a winning position with black but then all sorts of things happened before she converted. Narava, Radjabov and...

"You could say I got lucky in both games but I always tend to think I got lucky if I win. " was Peter Svidler's considered opinion of his day's work which allowed him to beat Gata Kamsky 2-0. After missing 18.Bb1 in his calculations he was slightly lucky not to be lost straight away. Kamsky's main winning chances went with 20.exd6 instead of 20.Qe4, not that either player knew that at the time...

I've had to do a little snipping lately on the comments, so let me take a moment to request that readers please avoid profanity or sexually suggestive remarks in their comments. I'm not writing specifically for kids, but I want kids to be able to read the site without any problems with them or their parents. Also, while it can be appropriate to criticize players in certain contexts, please do so...

The answer to my previous trivia question was 300 I left you after round two when I had had rather a slow start. I’m afraid the chess I played in round three wasn’t of the highest quality – after trying out the Big Clamp (1.e4 c5 2.d3) again I managed a pleasant edge but messed [...]

Have you seen the incredible global coverage of the World Cup in the mainstream media? With all the hard-fought games and decisive results, not to mention the excellent live coverage, it was bound to happen! Hang on a second...what's that? There hasn't been any global coverage? But how can this be, when we're informed that draws, short draws in particular, are the big problem with chess; and here...

I don't know if this will go into the pantheon with 47...Bh3!! and moves of that ilk, but the coup de grace administered by Peter Svidler against Gata Kamsky is at least a contender, especially considering that he did it against a great player in an important event. Here's the situation: White to move has just played 26.Nc6xb8: Perhaps Kamsky expected 26...Qxh6, when after 27.Nc6 Kg7! Black has...

Malcolm Pein looks at the second game between Emil Sutovsky and Vassily Ivanchuk. Sutovsky chose one of the wildest lines against Ivanchuk's Pirc when he only needed a draw. Ivanchuk emerged the winner and then went through in the playoff.

Τα πιο εντυπωσιακά παιχνίδια για το παγκόσμιο κύπελλο παίχτηκαν σήμερα, αν μπορεί κανείς να κάνει μια τέτοιου είδους δήλωση σε μια διοργάνωση που αγωνίζονται οι κορυφαίοι αθλητές και αθλήτριες του κόσμου. Η μάλλον οι...

Ξεκινά στις 16/09/2011 το 3ο ΦΥΛΗκό Ατομικό Τουρνουά. Διοργανωτής η Σκακιστική Πολιτιστική Κίνηση Φυλής. Το τουρνουά είναι Open με διεθνή αξιολόγηση, ελβετικό 7 γύρων και θα διεξάγεται από τις 16/09/2011 έως και 28/10/2011, κάθε...

At one time I played the Pirc and Modern Defences almost exclusively before gradually dropping them from the early 1990s, and I think that if I was playing much now they wouldn’t be coming back. Our tastes change as we develop as players and this period coincided with me becoming much more classical. The following [...]

Με 32 συμμετοχές νεαρών σκακιστών και σκακιστριών ηλικία έως 16 ετών πραγματοποιείται αυτές τις ημέρες στο εντευκτήριο της ΝΕΠ φθινοπωρινό νεανικό τουρνουά 7 γύρων.Μετά την 4η αγωνιστική στην πρωτοπορία βρίσκεται μόνος...

Many years ago, Garry Kasparov wrote The Test of Time, which was a pretty good summary of his career as a teen and young adult through his triumph in the candidates final over Vasily Smyslov. It didn't really touch on his development as a youngster, though, and wasn't so much autobiographical as an account of his matches and tournaments from 1978 through 1984. Igor Stohl and Tibor Karolyi have...