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...

Most of the key favorites made it through - Karjakin defeated So, Mamedyarov beat Fridman, Ponomariov beat Ni Hua (with difficulty), Grischuk beat Feller and Svidler beat Nguyen. That doesn't mean that all the favorites, or even all the 2700s, made it through. After Vallejo bounced back from his horrible loss in the first game to beat Bruzon with Black in the rematch, I think most commentators...

World Chess Champion Viswanathan Anand leads the Botvinnik Memorial in Moscow after he beat Levon Aronian in round two for the only decisive game of the day. Aronian had blundered with 15.Be1 but it still took a great effort to win the game. The event is unique in that play is stopped a short while in and the players asked their assessment of the position whilst the other player has their ears...

World Chess Champion Viswanathan Anand leads the Botvinnik Memorial in Moscow after he beat Levon Aronian in round two for the only decisive game of the day. Aronian had blundered with 15.Be1 but it still took a great effort to win the game. The event is unique in that play is stopped a short while in and the players asked their assessment of the position whilst the other player has their ears...

The Botvinnik Memorial in Moscow is a 5 day event commemorating the centenary of former World Chess Champion Mikhail Botvinnik's birth. Taking place 1st-5th September. At the heart on 2nd-3rd September is a two day rapid double rounder with the top 4 in the world, Magnus Carlsen, Viswanathan Anand, Levon Aronian and Vladimir Kramnik. A women's event is alongside. There are additional simuls and...

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Vishy Anand is leading the Botvinnik Memorial in Moscow, Russia after the first day of play. The World Champion scored the only win during the first three rounds. In this new type of rapid event, where Magnus Carlsen, Levon Aronian and Vladimir Kramnik also play, the players give explanation to the audience during and after [...]

This interview is very much worth reading. Non-Russians may not be terribly interested in the conversation about the persistent failures of the Russian teams in recent years to win events like the Olympiad and the World Team Championship, but there are some interesting new bits about the match with Topalov. Most interesting of all are his remarks about Anand, which are enough by themselves to...

The battle between the fearsome foursome of Viswanathan Anand, Magnus Carlsen, Vladimir Kramnik and Levon Aronian is half over, and so far it's the world champion, Anand, who is in the lead. The play was full of fight, but five of the six games were drawn. The only decisive game came in the second round when Anand defeated Aronian with the black pieces. Tomorrow, we'll have the second cycle: the...

IM Malcolm Pein looks at a key position of Michael Adams' round 2 opponent Peter Heine Nielsen's win against Evgeny Postny and the whole of Vugar Gashimov's fine win against Sergei Azarov.

IM Malcolm Pein looks at a key position of Michael Adams' round 2 opponent Peter Heine Nielsen's win against Evgeny Postny and the whole of Vugar Gashimov's fine win against Sergei Azarov.

The Smith-Morra Gambit (1.e4 c5 2.d4 cxd4 3.c3) may not be fully sound, but it can be dangerous, and not just against the unwary. Loek van Wely is a very strong GM who even made it to 2700 at one point, and he's also known for his deep preparation - not the sort of player one would expect to have problems with such an arguably half-correct line. Despite his credentials, he was crushed by a "mere"...

Today the tie-breaks of the World Cup’s second round were played, and Michael Adams, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave & Paco Vallejo are the strongest players who were eliminated. Games & results, more later. General info The 2011 FIDE World Cup is a 128-player knock-out taking place August 27-September 20 in Khanty-Mansiysk, Siberia. The tournament delivers three participants [...]

Last weekend the magic of chess seized the city of Barquisimeto, Venezuela. Expectations for the First International Chess Festival Tribute to IM Wiston Boada fell short as no less than 800 participants from all 24 states and 7 countries joined. With a prize fund of 240.000 bolívares (38,550 Euro) it was a truly unique event [...]

We have just received from our printers: The Four Knights Game. The Four Knights Game is one of the oldest chess openings and continues to be a popular choice among beginners, club players and grandmasters. Russian International Master Andrey Obodchuk has written a repertoire book for white players based on the Spanish Four Knights variation [...]