Black Monday for the Ruy Lopez
August 12, 2010 by Arne Moll · 20 Comments
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.
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The Total Chess Library
July 29, 2010 by Arne Moll · 19 Comments
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. Read more
A great game by IM Ole Jakobsen (1942-2010)
July 8, 2010 by Peter Doggers · 6 Comments
When I received an email some days ago about the passing away of Danish IM Ole Jacobsen, it didn’t ring a bell immediately. But a few days later I realized I had met this tall and friendly Dane at a tournament in Salou in 2007. Read more
Smeets & Peng winners peculiar Dutch Championship
June 20, 2010 by Peter Doggers · 29 Comments
By drawing his last round game in four moves (or rather three and a half) Jan Smeets won the 2010 Dutch Championship. Zhaoqin Peng secured her 12th (!) Dutch title already one round before the end. This year’s event will mainly be remembered for its many peculiarities. Read more
Bulgarian organizers take Chessbase to court
June 2, 2010 by Peter Doggers · 85 Comments
The Bulgarian organizers of the Anand-Topalov World Championship match take Chessbase to court for “violating copyright rules”. Chessbase transmitted the moves of the match live on their Playchess server, against the will of the Bulgarians. Read more
Mr Inarkiev: Jakovenko’s 12.Ncb5 was in CVO #73
June 1, 2010 by Peter Doggers · 7 Comments
Last week Dmitry Jakovenko defeated Ernesto Inarkiev at the ACP World Rapid Cup, using the devastating 12.Ncb5!! – a theoretical novelty that won on the spot. Inarkiev could have prevented this disaster as the move was mentioned the day before the game in ChessVibes Openings #73! Read more
What Ilyumzhinov should have asked
May 6, 2010 by Arne Moll · 54 Comments
We received a few complaints at ChessVibes headquarters for reporting in a biased way about the upcoming FIDE presidential elections. We were accused of favouring Anatoly Karpov and ridiculing Kirsan Ilyumzhinov. A news item that appeared yesterday on the BCC website shows we should have taken our current president more seriously indeed. Read more
Where does the knight go?
April 8, 2010 by Peter Doggers · 30 Comments
Australia has a surface of 7,617,930 km², (2,941,299 square miles), making it the 6th biggest country in the world. However, currently there are only three Australian grandmasters on the FIDE rating list (the 4th retired not long ago). How is this possible? Read more
Kasparov, Donner and the infinite regress of knowing
April 5, 2010 by Arne Moll · 29 Comments
Last week, in an important team match, my opponent played an innocent sideline against my pet-opening. I had prepared quite well for this encounter, but had not looked at this particular variation since it is so rarely played. Over the board, I knew I had once looked at this line in detail, and had also found a nice way of dealing with it – but to my chagrin I couldn’t remember it now. Read more
To protest, or not to protest…
March 30, 2010 by GM Dimitri Reinderman · 56 Comments
Have you ever had the situation where your opponent broke the rules, you considered calling an arbiter, but you thought it might not be worth it because of the bother and distraction it causes? At the European Championship in Rijeka I had two such cases, which I like to share with you. Read more
