A Corus of Online Approval

In a unique partnership with the Corus Chess Tournament, one of the world’s greatest and most famous chess festivals, Internet Chess Club (ICC) will be hosting a special satellite qualifier for one of the last two vacant spots in the 2009 ‘C’ Group. Read more

Total chess training, the Russian way

We have Total Chess Training III in stock now.

The Total Chess Training software series is the
product of the effort of some of the best chess
instructors in Russia.

Part 3 consists of five seperate programs:
— Avanced Chess School
— Chess Tactics for Beginners
— Chess Combinations Encyclopedia
— Encyclopedia of the Middlegame 3
— Encyclopedia of the Middlegame 4

This package contains THOUSANDS of exercises,
and may, as they say, be the only instructive program
you’ll ever need.

Please, have a look here.

Carlsen, Ivanchuk, Karpov & Nakamura in semi-finals Cap d’Agde

Magnus Carlsen, Vassily Ivanchuk, Anatoli Karpov & Hikaru Nakamura have qualified for the semi-finals in the very strong rapid tournament that’s taking place in Cap d’Agde, France this week. Read more

Viswanathan Anand retains world title

Update: video added.
Viswanathan Anand has retained his world title by drawing Vladimir Kramnik in the 11th game of the World Championship match in Bonn, Germany. The final match score is 6½-4½ for Anand. Read more

Svidler wins playoffs Russian Superfinal

You’ll probably remember that on October 15, Peter Svidler defeated Evgeny Alekseev to tie for first at the Russian Championship Superfinal, together with Evgeny Jakovenko. Yesterday the three played the necessary playoffs and it was Svidler who won. Read more

Review: New in Chess Yearbook 88

A couple of weeks ago I wrote that the New in Chess Yearbook series was one of the few ’scientific’ chess books that we have in the chess scene. So I thought this would be a good occasion to do a review of the latest Yearbook to see if that statement was actually correct. Read more

We don’t like to show off, but…

This is what some of the critics had to say about The Flexible French by Viktor Moskalenko:

“This is simply a great opening book (..) I prefer to delve deep into the IDEAS of this beautiful opening, and I can’t think of a better guide than Viktor Moskalenko.” Arne Moll, ChessVibes

“This volume has opened my eyes to numerous new ideas and possibilities. It is the most interesting English-language opening book I have seen for years.” Steve Giddins, author of ‘50 Ways to Win at Chess’

“The book has all the right ingredients: lots of explanations of typical plans and problems, relevant and recent game citations, original analysis, some statistics, chapter summaries, lists of relevant ideas and other occasional bells and whistles (..) An excellent book.” Dennis Monokroussos, Chess Today

“The book simply sparkles with origial ideas and has convinced me to start playing the French again.” John Anderson, Correspondence Chess Magazine

“Be glad I didn’t publish this book or I would have charged you $40 for it!” Bob Long, Thinkers Press

Make a great move, have a look here.

World Championship: Kramnik scores first win

Update: video added.
He was surprised himself about how easy it went, but he did it. Vladimir Kramnik scored his first win today, with the White pieces, and in doing so he forced another game, number 11, next Wednesday. It’s 6-4 for Anand now. Read more

Sokolov wins last Essent Tournament

It came as no surprise after he won all his games in the first half: Ivan Sokolov has won the 12th and last edition of the Essent Tournament in Hoogeveen. He ended on 5 /6 in the Crown Group, whereas in the Open Group there was a three-way tie between Nijboer, Fier and Haslinger. Read more

World Championship: 9th game drawn

Update: video added.
He came very close to winning today, but in the end Vladimir Kramnik had to accept that his ending agains Viswanathan Anand was a draw. After the 9th game the Indian is now leading the World Championship match 6-3, and just needs a draw to retain his title. Read more

URAL & Monte Carlo win European Club Cup

Winning six of their seven matches, URAL Sverdlovskaya finished first in the open section of the European Club Cup. Like last year, Cercle d’Echecs de Monte-Carlo won the women’s section, this time with five wins and two ties. Both URAL’s Vladimir Malakhov and Bank King’s Artashes Minasian won all their games, scoring a 3000+ rating performance. Report with all final standings, many pictures and a video. Read more

Weekly Endgame Study (94)

Every Saturday an endgame study is published at ChessVibes, selected by IM Yochanan Afek: player, trainer, endgame study composer and writer. A week later the solution is published. Good luck with the instructional occupation of solving a study! Read more

World Championship: 8th game drawn

Update: video added.
If the World Championship match wasn’t decided yet, it is now. With the white pieces Kramnik did manage to get a certain advantage but Anand just refuses to make big mistakes in Bonn, and so a not too exciting 8th game ended in a draw at move 39. With a 5.5-2.5 score, the match could be over on Sunday night. Read more

This weekend: Bundesliga rounds 3 & 4

This weekend the 3rd and 4th round of the strong German team competition “Schachbundesliga” will take place. The 16 teams are located at four venues and play two matches each. One of the most exciting clashes will be played on Sunday in Munich between the champion OSG Baden-Baden and the strong team of Tegernsee. Read more

How to spot tactics & calculate ahead

GM Lev Alburt, one of the most successful chess teachers in the world, has just published an ingenious new book: Chess Training Pocket Book II.

The subtitle of this cheap (€14.95) and practical (fits easily in your pocket, yet has more than 200 pages) work is: ‘How to Spot Tactics and How Far to Calculate Ahead’.

The first chapter is a collection of very useful tips on thinking about a positon, such as: how to avoid tunnel vision, how to handle candidate moves, use ’support positions’, and switch perspective.

But the bulk of the book is a collection of very cleverly selected and presented training positions.

We recommend this book to your attention, but take care. The claim, on the cover, that this book is “for players of all levels” is not true: it is not for beginners or masters, but for ambitious club players.

World Championship: 7th game drawn

Update: video added.
The second half of the Anand-Kramnik World Championship match has started with a draw in 37 moves. Playing the white pieces again, Anand got a slight advantage in an ending but by sacrificing a pawn Kramnik forced a liquidation to a drawn pawn ending. It’s 5-2 for Anand now. Read more

Sokolov beats all, Fier leads by a point

Ivan Sokolov defeated all of his opponents in the first half of the Crown Group, and Alexandr Fier is leading by a point in the Open Group, where amongst others we find veteran GM Vlastimil Hort in second place. We’re talking about this year’s Essent Tournament in Hoogeveen. Read more

World Championship: third win for Anand

Update: video added.
After winning the 6th match game today, reigning world champion Viswanathan Anand increased his lead even further. Three points down, challenger Vladimir Kramnik finds himself in a hopeless situation half-way the match. Read more

Ivanchuk is the new pope of Italian chess

Right now he’s playing the European Club Cup, but last week Vassily Ivanchuk was the superstar at the 11th edition of the traditional rapid chess tournament in Rocca di Papa, a beautiful village some 20 kms south of Rome. A report on a great player visiting a small Italian town full of chess aficionados.
Read more

Back in print: My 60 Memorable Games

We are delighted to be able to announce the return of one of one of the most important chess books ever written.

After having been out of print for more than a decade Bobby Fischer’s My 60 Memorabe Games is back!

In 1969, Fischer thrilled and enchanted the entire chess world with this intensely personal book.

This is a work which belongs in every chess player’s library, not only because of its historical value, but also because of the lucidity of the comments and the beauty of the games.

For only € 19.95 you can own a copy of the reprint of this wonderful book. Please have a look here.

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