ChessBase Magazine Online

Gausdal Classics: Carlsen ahead of Portisch
22.04.2007 – The youngest and oldest players of the tournament are fighting for the lead. Currently 16-year-old Magnus Carlsen, the top seed, is in the lead with 4.0/5, followed by 70-year-old chess legend Lajos Portisch, half a point behind. IM Irina Krush of the US is in joint third, having "krushed" a Super-GM, Alexei Dreev, with black in round two. Report from Gausdal.
 

Strong juniors in the 7th Bangkok Chess Club Open
21.04.2007 – Why, oh why, did we not receive these photos twenty days ago?! We could have made such a lovely first of April report with them. Still, better late than never. Here's a report on the Bangkok Chess Club's strongest open tournament to date, with a total of 109 players from 30 different countries. It was won by an up-and-coming Australian talent, but the show was stolen by a Thai junior.
 

Listen to the grandmaster sing
21.04.2007 – Last week Emil Sutovsky, Israeli grandmaster, just missed winning the European Championship by a hair. Weighing in at 2648 Elo points, Emil is also an accomplished bass-baritone singer. During the recent Poikovsky tournament he gave a small recital, which was filmed by a chess fan. We bring you Emil Sutovsky singing an aria from Mozart's Don Giovanni and a famous Russian folk song.
 

An easy guide into the trendy Slav (4...a6)
21.04.2007 – Kasparov, Shirov, Morozevich, Bologan and others played it with success: The trendy Slav with a very aerly ...a7-a6 offers Black solidity, dynamism and variety couched in an easy-to-understand setting. On his new DVD Andrew Martin shows lots of ideas for Black which can be used by amateur and professional alike. Buy it now or read more.
 

Lajos Portisch vs Boris Spassky: 3-3
20.04.2007 – The two great legends of chess, who each recently celebrated their 70th birthday, met in a rapid chess match in the beautiful spa town of Hévíz, Hungary. The eleventh world champion drew blood in the first game, but the great Hungarian player equalised in game four, when Spassky overlooked a piece. We bring you an illustrated report and the games.
 

In Memoriam – Georgy Agzamov
19.04.2007 – He was the first ever Uzbek, and thus arguably the first ever Asian grandmaster. Born in 1954 Georgy Agzamov was not just a strong player – the nightmare of top GMs – he was also a great ambassador for chess. At the age of 32 Georgy died in a mountaineering accident. In March a memorial tournament was held for him in Taskent. Spectacular photo report by Jamshid Begmatov.
 

Sigeman 2007 starts without draws
19.04.2007 – The annual Sigeman & Co Chess tournament is taking place from April 18 to 26 in central Malmö, Sweden. The participants include veteran Jan Timman and newcomers like 20-year-old Bulgarian Ivan Cheparinov and the world’s youngest grandmaster, 14-year-old Parimarjan Negi of India. The first round saw all games decided, without a single draw. Report, games and pictures.
 

With 14.f4 right into the jaws of the Tiger
19.04.2007 – Swedish grandmaster Tiger Hillarp Persson is renowned for his creativity and imagination, his willingness and the ability to go where few others could. In his Thursday night lecture our Playchess trainer Dennis Monokroussos shows us how he reacts when GM Ivan Sokolov grabs space with pawn pushes. It promises to be one of the most amazing and entertaining games you’ll see for a long time.
 

EURO 2007: Tiebreaks and reverbrations in Dresden
18.04.2007 – The Eighth European Championship, with 550 participants and 184 GMs, ended in a seven-way tie for first and, below them, 37 players with 7.5/11 contending for places in the FIDE World Cup. The final day saw all the tense tiebreaks played out in the Congress Center. The organizers provided us with statistics, some player with protests and our Playchess Sysop with tiebreak games for our final report.
 

Andrew Martin: Too much information
16.04.2007 – In this week's Playchess radio show, which starts at 21:00h European time, IM Andrew Martin starts off with four product reviews, but then proceeds to the chess at the European Championship in Dresden and in Kazakhstan: a novelty by Nisipeanu, a crunch by Tkachiev, and then, to round things off, a cool win by Sadvakasov. Come and enjoy.
 

ChessBase and Correspondence chess -- part 6
16.04.2007 – Our ongoing series on ChessBase and correspondence chess continues with an overview of the important points covered in the series' first several installments; think of it as a checklist you should use when starting a new correspondence chess game. Read the details in the latest ChessBase Workshop.
 

EURO 2007: Tkachiev and Kosintseva win European Championship
15.04.2007 – Seven players tied for first, and in the playoff it was Vladislav Tkachiev, born in Moscow, raised in Kazakhstan, living in France, who took the Championship title. In the women's section Tatiana Kosintseva had already secured victory after ten rounds. She won the title two full points ahead of the field. Sergey Karjakin, a top players on Playchess.com, won the EURO Blitz. Final results and games.