How can you tell an interesting chess book from an uninteresting one? There are many ways, but I'd say the easiest way is to open the book at a random page and look for signs of enthusiasm and passion in the author's words. Four new publications b...
The great Dutch writer Harry Mulisch, who died last week at the age of 83, was known among chess players not only for his novels and essays, but also for his deep friendship with grandmaster J.H. Donner, which he described in great detail in his n...
Should chess journalists be committed to supporting chess bodies like FIDE, their national federations or the European Chess Union? Of course not! Should these bodies support chess players and journalists when they're in serious trouble? You b...
In the past few weeks, I've received truckloads of great new chess books, but I haven't been able to give them the attention they deserve because I was absolutely thrilled by Yasser Seirawan's new book Chess Duels. I don't like to exaggerate, but ...
Ah, they were good back then, weren't they? Reading Kasparov on Modern Chess: Kasparov vs. Karpov 1988-2009 during the final days of the FIDE Presidential campaign made me want to say to the two K's: cheer up guys, who cares about politics when yo...
After Ilyumzhinov's victory in the FIDE Presidential elections in Khanty-Mansiysk twelve days ago, it's become awfully silent on both fronts. Those seeking change in the World Chess Federation have been struck dumb at the prospect of another four ...
Chess politics is back - in just three days, after a long and memorable election race, we'll finally know if Anatoly Karpov will be the next FIDE President. In truth, politics has always played an important role in the chess world, especially in R...
Would GM Lubomir Ftacnik like to play an opposite-bishop ending with a pawn down against me straight from the opening? I was left with this question after enjoying his latest work on the Sicilian Defence, published in the Grandmaster Repertoire se...
I don't like games (except chess) and I hate puzzles. I'm one of those people who doesn't like to solve something others have solved before, let alone trying this in the presence of someone who already knows the answer.I'm always afraid I won't be...
In the increasingly fierce election race between Anatoly Karpov and Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, the 12th World Champion has now for the first time suggested a link between the current FIDE President and the murder of activist Larissa Yudina, in 1998.The a...
Almost as soon as I opened Nunn's Chess Endings Volume 1, I realized the book was probably an 'instant classic', ignoring J.M. Coetzee's definition of a classic as 'that which survives'. My intuition proved to be correct in that I think this reall...
One of the nice things about chess is that it's a game played between humans. Despite an understandable tendency to approach chess as a rational game, I think there are a lot of irrational - human - things going on behind the scenes. One of th...
In the increasingly tense FIDE Presidential election, Anatoly Karpov has now chosen to launch a full frontal attack on Kirsan Ilyumzhinov with two exceptionally sharp articles. Update: another critical article was added.In the two articles on the ...
Being a database programmer, perhaps I shouldn't have been surprised when I recently dreamt I had to develop a chess database. But it wasn't an ordinary chess database. Carceri XIV - Giovanni Battista PiranesiI was told by a faceless person to mak...
Today is an official rest day in Biel, but yesterday, the young stars looked determined to make it not one but two breaks in a row.After the fourth round, we expressed the hope that the youngsters would play more enterprising chess in the rounds t...
In the pentultimate round of the Dortmund Sparkassen Chess-Meeting, Arkadij Naiditsch upset Vladimir Kramnik while Peter Leko came tantilizingly close to beating Le Quang. Ruslan Ponomariov took no risk and secured his first place in the standings...
A few days ago, we published an open letter by GM Sutovsky about the current FIDE Candidates Matches problems. Yesterday, Veselin Topalov published an open letter in response to the news that part of the matches might be played in Kazan, Russia.Ac...
In round 7 of the Dortmund Sparkassen Chess-Meeting, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov took revenge for yesterday's sad loss while Anatoly Karpov visited the tournament he won seventeen years ago.Perhaps the most exciting event of the day was not one of the g...
The Israeli GM Emil Sutovsky was recently invited by President Ilyumzhinov to discuss the current problems in the FIDE Candidates Matches cycle. Here is his open letter to the participants, with some radical solutions.Dear colleagues!On July 20 I ...
After yesterday's rest day, Arkadij Naiditsch scored his first victory of the tournament while the other two games ended in relatively quiet draws.In today's round, Naiditsch did excellent business after a slightly bleak tournament so far, while P...
In the most exciting round of the Sparkassen Chess-Meeting in Dortmund so far, Vladimir Kramnik beat Arkadij Naiditsch while the other games also ended decisively.Report by Daan ZultIf people wondered whether Ruslan Ponomariov could recover from h...
Sometimes the big new titles from the big publishers get all the attention. It's true these are often great buys, but there's also the risk of overlooking little gems by smaller publishers. Or, as the great Italian philosopher Calimero used to say...
In round 4, Quang Le from Vietnam showed he did not come to Dortmund to serve as cannon fodder! After the 2700+ aggression he faced in round 3, Quang Le was able to gear up and confront Ponomariov with some tactics of his own. Report by Daan ZultU...
The 3th round showed some interesting, some aggressive and some tenacious chess. Shakriyar Mamedyarov beat Le Quang and is now in shared first place.Report by Daan ZultArkadij Naiditsch played an excellent game against tournament leader Ponomariov...
