IM Malcolm Pein (Thu Feb 3 09:20:00 2011)

IM Malcolm Pein has released a statement on behalf of Chess Promotions Ltd of which he his CEO announcing that they could not arrive at an agreement with the International Chess Federation FIDE to host the World Chess Championships in London in 2012. After lengthy negotiations with FIDE they put a proposal to the organisation and a final deadline of Saturday 29th January 2011. Once that deadline passed without agreement they had to withdraw from the process as they felt there was too little time left to organise the event properly. A specific problem was that there was a deadline to sign an agreement to obtain their preferred venue that passed once agreement couldn't be found.

Read Malcolm Pein's statement in full.

Mark Crowther (Sun Dec 12 09:47:00 2010)

The German Schachbundesliga takes place 8th October 2010 - 10th April 2011. There is a new live portal in addition to the already excellent website. Next Bundesliga weekend 4th-6th February 2011.

IM John Watson (Sat Jan 22 08:18:00 2011)

John Watson covers more recent books of a variety of styles. (see also Review 97 and Review 98). This time he looks at: The Mammoth Book of Chess, 3rd Edition by Graham Burgess, Chess Gems: 1000 Combinations You Should Know by Igor Sukhin, Chess Child: The Story of Ray Robson by Gary Robson, Champions of the New Millennium by Lubomir Ftacnik, Danny Kopec & Walter Browne, Masters of Technique by Howard Goldowsky, Vienna 1922 by Larry Evans, New York 1927 by Alexander Alekhine and London 1922 by Geza Maroczy.

Mark Crowther (Sun Jan 30 16:51:00 2011)

Hikaru Nakamura won his first super-tournament with 9/13 half a point clear of World Chess Champion Viswanathan Anand. The final round saw all the games drawn. This looks likely to be just staging point on a career at the very top and Nakamura stated that his next target is passing the 2800 rating barrier currently surpassed by only Magnus Carlsen, Anand and Levon Aronian. Carlsen and Aronian had to settle for shared 3rd place and although neither seemed at their very best both will also gain rating points. 16 year old Anish Giri's 50% and a real quality to his play also is surely just at the start of his elite career. Photos and two annotated games by Michiel Abeln. Text and additional material by Mark Crowther.

John Saunders (Fri Feb 4 09:00:00 2011)

Vassily Ivanchuk won the Tradewise Gibraltar Masters with an outstanding 9/10. He conceded just two draws. He was half a point clear of Nigel Short who lost to Ivanchuk and drew just one further game for a performance that would normally have given him first place, Short was a point clear of the rest of the field. John Saunders reports on the final round.

Mark Crowther (Wed Jan 12 19:08:00 2011)

"Chess Magazine" produced a lengthy article about the London Chess Classic. You can now download a great Souvenir PDF file and a ChessBase file of the games.

Download the London Chess Classic "Chess Magazine Souvenir PDF file

Download the London Chess Classic "Chess Magazine Souvenir ChessBase CBV file

Mark Crowther (Wed Feb 2 12:59:00 2011)

World Chess Champion Viswanathan and former champion Anatoly Karpov took part in an event in Spain promoting the high-speed train service between Madrid and Valencia. They played two blitz games both of which were agreed drawn when both were very short of time. They also took part in events on the 90 minute journeys from Madrid to Valencia and back again. Both blitz games are available.

Mark Crowther (Thu Jan 6 15:16:00 2011)

Two quick draws in the final round involving the leaders settled the fate of the Reggio Emilia tournament. Both Vugar Gashimov and Francisco Vallejo Pons had the black pieces and equalised easily enough. They both scored 6/9 but the Sonneborn-Berger tie-break favoured Gashimov mostly by virtue of his victory over Vallejo. Movsesian, Navara and Ivanchuk scored 5/9. The returning Alexander Morozevich was defeated by Ivanchuk for a final score of 4/9. Nigel Short lost to Navara and finished on 3.5/9.