Or at least he will be once the Live Top List takes today's games into account. With his very convincing win over Boris Gelfand (it looked like the kind of game I would lose to a super-GM), Levon Aronian has pushed into clear first in the Tal Memorial with 2.5/3. Also winning today were Vladimir Kramnik and Shakhriyar Mamedyarov. Kramnik was worse against Pavel Eljanov, but Eljanov missed some...

- Pearl Springs Masters Nanjing 2010Round 9 (October 29, 2010)Bacrot, Etienne - Wang Yue ½-½ C42 Petroff's DefenceGashimov, Vugar - Anand, Viswanathan ½-½ C67 Ruy Lopez BerlinTopalov, Veselin - Carlsen, Magnus 0-1 E00 CatalanRound 10 (October 30, 2010)Carlsen, Magnus - Gashimov, Vugar ½-½ C49 Four Knights MetgerAnand, Viswanathan - Bacrot, Etienne 1-0 E59 Nimzo IndianWang Yue ...

Today's games weren't bad, but there wasn't as much blood as in round 1. Wang Hao - Aronian was an Open Catalan with 8.a4. They played a line that has been reasonably popular lately, where White plays Bg5 and takes on f6, followed by Black's Bc6 taking White's knight on f3. Black winds up with pawns on c6 and e6 (and no d-pawn), so it might be labeled the Fort Knox Catalan. That's certainly how...

KAPPA-47 TOURNAMENT                         Round 7 on 2010/11/08 at 18:00                           Bo. SNo. Name Pts Res. Pts Name SNo. 1 3 Kesoglou Konstantinos 4   5½ Sienczewski Zbigniew 1 2 2 Kostouros Alexandros [...]

KAPPA-47 TOURNAMENT                         Round 6 on 2010/11/05 at 18:00                           Bo. SNo. Name Pts Res. Pts Name SNo. 1 1 Sienczewski Zbigniew 4½ 1  -  0 3 Giannoulis Dionisios 7 2 8 [...]

Ο Μιχαήλ Νεχέμιεβιτς Ταλ γεννήθηκε στη Ρίγα της Λετονίας (9 Νοεμβρίου 1936-1992) και ήταν ο όγδοος Παγκόσμιος Πρωταθλητής στο Σκάκι. Γνωστός και ως "ο μάγος από τη Ρίγα", ο Ταλ ήταν μια από τις μεγαλύτερες μεγαλοφυΐες στην...

ΠΡΟΚΗΡΥΞΗ               10ο ΤΟΥΡΝΟΥΑ BLITZ ΑΜΠΕΛΟΚΗΠΩΝ                  Κυριακή 14 Νοεμβρίου 2010              ...

Right here. As always, it's free (free registration required) and will be available on demand for the next month or so.

Some months ago I mentioned some of the live chats between strong GMs and amateur members on the Crestbook site. Most were in Russian and not yet translated into English, but more have been translated since then. In particular, it looks like the chat with Alexei Shirov was recently translated, and although the original event occurred about a year ago, the material is still worth reading. HT...

I won't be setting any records, but I will be giving a simul in Kendallville, IN this coming Monday at the Kendallville Public Library. The festivities start at 5 p.m. and the charge is $10 per person. If you're in the Michiana area, I'll hope to see you there!

Until I find a better solution to let my readers search through the blog's tags and categories, there's a tag cloud at the bottom of the right sidebar to help you out. Happy browsing!

[Okay, I'm awake. You can stop hijacking the Tal Memorial thread now. Thanks.] Magnus Carlsen, who will likely be back as world #1 on the January rating list after a two-month hiatus, just released a letter saying he was withdrawing from the current FIDE world championship cycle. Because of Carlsen's prominence and the high expectations that have followed him since he was a tot, this is a big...

They're off to a rip-roaring start at the Tal Memorial, and that's appropriate considering who is being memorialized. In the marquee matchup of the round, Aronian and Kramnik played a very interesting game that was more or less balanced until near the very end (though I think Kramnik might have missed a win in the early middlegame). While equal, Kramnik had enjoyed the initiative much of the way...

In a stunning move, Magnus Carlsen has dropped out of the current world championship cycle, and at a surprisingly late stage. (The Candidates matches are scheduled for March through May of next year, with the winner due for a match against Anand in 2012.) He seems to have two basic objections: first, the cycle takes too long (up to five years); second, the world champion's privileges are too...

Του Μέτοικου στη ΝίσυροΜε τις αναμετρήσεις Mamedyarov - Nakamura, Karjakin - Gelfand, Shirov - Wang Hao, Aronian - Kramnik και Grischuk - Eljanov, ξεκίνησε, στις 2 το μεσημέρι, το 5ο Τal Memorial. Αν και το τουρνουά δεν είναι το ίδιο ισχυρό με το περυσινό, στο οποίο είχαν...