Viswanathan Anand dominated the Botvinnik Memorial with a score of 4.5/6. World number one Magnus Carlsen lost all his games on the second day and finished last with 1.5/6. Kramnik and Aroniain tied for 2nd on 3/6. I don't know if the players were asked to be more enterprising but the quality of play was, for me, quite low on day 2 with only Aronian's win against Kramnik in the final round...

For those new to this blog and my tongue-in-cheek insufferability on the topic, I'm referring of course to the University of Notre Dame football team. (I'm referring to the non-spherical football.) It's a home game starting in half an hour, at 3:30 p.m. ET, and the massacre will be televised on NBC. Watch one, watch all, as the Fighting Irish start their unstoppable campaign towards a 12th...

Vishy Anand and Viktorija Cmilyte are the winners of the Botvinnik Memorial rapid tournament in Moscow, Russia. World Champion Anand finished on 4.5/6, half a point ahead of Vladimir Kramnik and Levon Aronian. Magnus Carlsen, who lost all three games on the second day, finished last. Games & results, more later. General info The Botvinnik [...]

While Judit Polgar and Emil Sutovsky are both generally rated in the neighborhood of 2700, their victories today over Sergey Karjakin and Vassily Ivanchuk were still very much upsets. Garry Kasparov famously suffered his one and only loss to Polgar when he chose the Berlin against her, and although many - Kasparov included - were inclined to say the fault was with Kasparov playing an opening...

Judit Polgar defeated top seed Sergei Karjakin on the first of the World Cup’s third round. Vassily Ivanchuk lost his first game, with White against Emil Sutovsky. The other decisive results were Grischuk-Morozevich 1-0, Kamsky-Nepomniachtchi 1-0, Jakovenko-Jobava 1-0 and Dominguez-Lysyj 1-0. Games & results, more later. General info The 2011 FIDE World Cup is a [...]

Hello everyone. I’m off to Rome shortly, via Windsor to stay with the very hospitable Manuel + Brigitta before Manuel drives me to Heathrow for a very early flight. It should be an interesting tournament; with the new September rating list I’m actually top seed (alphabetically as Khenkin is also 2624) but with ten of [...]

Malcolm Pein looks at Alexander Morozevich against Alexandr Fier which took him through to round 3. He talks about Michael Adams Round 3 draw again Peter Heine Nielsen. Also a position from Yuniesky Quesada - Lazaro Bruzon and a missed chance for women's World Chess Champion Hou Yifan in her match against Sergei Movsesian.

Malcolm Pein looks at Alexander Morozevich against Alexandr Fier which took him through to round 3. He talks about Michael Adams Round 3 draw again Peter Heine Nielsen. Also a position from Yuniesky Quesada - Lazaro Bruzon and a missed chance for women's World Chess Champion Hou Yifan in her match against Sergei Movsesian.

I rather forgot this was starting so soon, my bad. Six rounds of double round-robin rapid in Moscow to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Mikhail Botvinnik. Anand, Carlsen, Kramnik, Aronian! The first day hardly lived up to the quality of that list of names, it must be said. Blunders abounded, with Carlsen missing wins against Anand (probably) and Aronian (surely). Nice to see Kramnik...

Του Παναγιώτη Κονιδάρη  Άκουσα για τον Κυριάκο Φραγκούλη για πρώτη φορά μέσα από τη στήλη του Σιαπέρα, με τον οποίο είχε διαρκή επικοινωνία. Το καλλιτεχνικό σκάκι για μένα ήταν τότε ό,τι είναι το μυθικό σκάκι σήμερα...

One of the rare news items to catch my attention lately was that of Vladimir Kramnik’s intention to retire at 40. And from the point of view of ‘chess as sport’ then his reasons seem logical: ”Chess is getting younger. Generations are changing rapidly. Many 17-year-olds become top players now. I want to try something different [...]

And then you're eliminated. I'm writing this as I fire up an appropriately atrocious and bombastic cinematic accompaniment, The Expendables. (What's up with Jet Li slumming with this crowd?) Every third day in Khanty-Mansiysk, with metronomic reliability, the field is chopped in half. The only real interest in these KOs before the quarterfinals start pairing top players and deciding world...

A resurgent Alexander Morozevich plays Alexander Grischuk in the headline pairing of round 3. The fall in Morozevich's rating, one that he has started to reverse causes this early meeting. Sergey Karjakin too is the victim of a stars fall in rating and rise again too late when he meets Judit Polgar who really seems to be getting back to her best. Gata Kamsky against Ian Nepomniachtchi, Vassily...

A resurgent Alexander Morozevich plays Alexander Grischuk in the headline pairing of round 3. The fall in Morozevich's rating, one that he has started to reverse causes this early meeting. Sergey Karjakin too is the victim of a stars fall in rating and rise again too late when he meets Judit Polgar who really seems to be getting back to her best. Gata Kamsky against Ian Nepomniachtchi, Vassily...

All of the top seeds in the competition made it through in the Round 5 playoffs. Sergey Karjakin outprepared Wesley So in a Caro Kann, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov edged past Daniel Fridman, Ruslan Ponomariov outlast Ni Hua, and Peter Svidler eventually asserted himself against Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son. Grischuk eliminated Sebastien Feller 2-0. The main casualties in the seeds were Michael Adams and...