ChessBase Magazine Online

Mainz 2009 – Schmitt: 'I suffer vicariously with Anand'
20.07.2009 – The organiser of the Chess Classic, which begins on July 27 in Mainz, Germany, is a self-professed "dinosaur". Hans-Walter Schmitt has been staging the massive event since 1994. In that year he met a young chess star from India, Vishy Anand, from which grew a deep and warm friendship. The following interview with "HWS" contains some rare insights and startling revelations. Must read.
 

Nakamura vs Ponomariov – the tiebreak games reconstructed
20.07.2009 – In an earlier report we told of the 2-0 victory of US GM Hikaru Nakamura in the tiebreak blitz after he and Ruslan Ponomariov had tied for first in the Dondstia San Sebastian Category 18 tournament. Unfortunately owing to a malfunction in the sensor board all the moves of the second game were not recorded. Not to worry: David Llada filmed it all and provides us with a video document of both games.
 

Edward Winter's Chess Explorations (24)
20.07.2009 – The Editor of Chess Notes looks back at the remarkable legacy of a writer of erudition, wit and urbanity who combined rigorous research with sparkling quips. In some quarters today, however, that writer’s name may barely be recognized, so we have pleasure in introducing, or re-introducing, readers to one of the great neglected figures of chess lore.
 

Canadian Open: Nine players lead after penultimate round
19.07.2009 – Just a round ago it was four players, now a total of nine share the lead with 6.5/8 points. Shirov and Adams drew their round eight games, while Ganguly beat Zhe Quan and Perlshteyn beat Kovalyov to join them. IM Irina Krush, US, won her last three games to take a place in the top berth. Congratulations! Pictorial report with round seven commentary by GM Alexander Shabalov.
 

2009 Canadian Open: four players with 6.0/7 points
18.07.2009 – Two top seeds and internationally well-known players, Alexei Shirov and Michael Adams, are accompanied by two players below 2600 on the rating scale: GM Mark Bluvshtein and IM Edward Porper at the top of the table after seven rounds of this event. We bring you extensive annotations of the last three rounds by GM Alexander Shabalov, together with pictorial and video impressions by MonRoi.
 

Attention, bishops of opposite colours!
18.07.2009 – Endgames with bishops of opposite colours are very drawish? Yes. Yet, despite that you have to be very, very careful, because there are also a heap of dirty tricks. Our resident endgame expert and ChessBase Magazine author GM Karsten Müller shows you an example from the Greek Team Championship. But hang on! You should analyse it for yourself first. It is Black's move.

Analysis of the endgame Psomiadis-Skembris
Endgame DVDs by Karsten Müller
 

Mainz 2009: We are not looking for short term commitments
17.07.2009 – Just ten days, three hours and 54 minutes (at the time of writing) until the Chess Classic Mainz 2009 begins. This year will see World Champion Vishy Anand defend his series of titles in the Rapid World Championship against Levon Aronian, Arkadij Naiditsch and Ian Nepomniachtchi. There are many other events, including the world's biggest Rapid Chess Open. Interview with the sponsor.
 

Ponomariov catches Nakamura, loses tiebreak
17.07.2009 – The American GM Hikaru Nakamura had led the tournament from the start, and looked like a slam-dunk winner. But in the last round he drew his game, while former FIDE world champion Ruslan Ponomariov won his, and both finished at 6.5/9 points. Nakamura went on to win the blitz tiebreak games 2-0 and was thus the winner. We bring you games and final standings in our final illustrated report.
 

SO Kavala still the best in Greece
16.07.2009 – In the past weeks three important tournaments took place in Kalithea, Greece. First, the youth individual championships, for all ages up to sixteen; secondly, the final four matches of the Greek Cup; and finally, there was the Greek National Team Championship. All were hotly contested, with no love lost, but with serenades on a guitar soon following. GM Dejan Bojkov reports.
 

Watch the man behind the new Philidor Defence
16.07.2009 – Just a couple of years ago the shocking pawn sacrifice 5.g4 entered the theory of the dignified Philidor Defence. If you check with the ChessBase online database, you will find 208 games and an amazing score of 64% for White. The creator of this ultra-sharp new line, Alexei Shirov, recently recorded a Fritz Trainer DVD on both the new and the classical Philidor. Buy it now or read more.
 

Adrian Mikhalchishin: Grandmaster, author and chess trainer
16.07.2009 – Born in 1954, GM Adrian Bogdanovich Mikhalchishin (or Mihalcisin or Mihalčišin) established himself as a strong grandmaster who was the second to World Champion Anatoly Karpov. He went on to become an internationally renowned trainer and a prolific author of chess books. Adrian discusses his life and the strategy of chess training in this interview with Özgür Akman.
 

2009 Canadian Open: five players lead with 4.0/4 points
15.07.2009 – They are GMs Victor Mikhalevski, Hua Ni, Mark Bluvshtein, Surya Ganguly and FM Raja Panjwani – the latter is the top player on his team at the University of Western Ontario. Top seed Alexei Shirov conceded a draw against Chinese GM Zhao Xue and dropped to second berth, which he shares with 12 other players. Big illustrated report with annotations by GM Alexander Shabalov.