GM Moskalenko responds to ChessVibes review of Revolutionize Your Chess

On January 28th we published a review of Viktor Moskalenko’s latest book Revolutionize Your Chess, and it wasn’t a positive one. Now we have received a reaction by Mr Moskalenko, which we’re happy to publish as an open letter here at ChessVibes. Read more

Winners and controversy at World Youth

This year the competition staged the meeting of 1324 participants from 90 countries all over the world and with the accompanying personnel, parents, coaches and staff this number reached 2380 people. We’re talking about the World Youth Championship (U8, U10, U12, U14, U16 and U18) in Anatalya, Turkey which ended yesterday, and which led to some controversy because no national anthems were played at the closing ceremony. Read more

Kutin vs. Yazici: not justice, but chaos prevails

We received a letter from Ali Nihat Yazici, the President of the Turkish Chess Federation, concerning a recent arbitration in the court of Lausanne about an organizing dispute between the European Chess Union and the Turkish Chess Federation. Yazici’s letter speaks of justice, but to us, it seems only chaos prevails. A down-to-earth perspective is badly needed. Read more

Barcza Memorial cancelled after first round; organizer never paid anything

This week the very strong 2nd edition of the Gedeon Barcza Memorial, with GMs Zoltan Almasi (2685), Ivan Sokolov (2669) and GM Evgeny Postny (2648) as its favorites, was cancelled after the first round, when it became clear that the organizer didn’t have the money to pay the venue nor the players. As one of the participants, IM Robert Ris gives us a personal account of a small nightmare. Read more

Mamedyarov’s new letter (which we didn’t publish)

A few days ago, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov sent us a new letter in which he strengthened his accusations to Russian GM Igor Kurnosov, who according to the Azerbaijani was cheating during the Aeroflot tournament in Moscow. We decided not to publish the letter immediately, but first ask Mamedyarov some questions. So far he hasn’t replied yet, while his letter can be found on several sites already. Read more

Aronian is losing his motivation too

After Magnus Carlsen decided to withdraw from the Grand Prix Series, another top player has expressed his disappointment: in an open letter to Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, Levon Aronian requests the FIDE President to “critically view and question the GA’s latest decisions and the processes to which they came.” Read more

Kamsky-Topalov: contracts signed

Today the teams of Topalov and Kamsky have signed the contracts for their match, and so Sofia as the venue, and 16th to 28th February, 2009 as the dates, are now official. We have the full press conferences with Danailov (manager of Topalov) and Sutovsky (manager of Kamsky) on video. Read more

New open letters, but no news

The Kamsky-Topalov match / FIDE saga continues with two more open letters: one by the Bulgarian Chess Federation and one by Kamsky’s manager Chernenko, but there’s not much new under the sun. Read more

Kamsky asks USCF board to unite

In an attempt to support Gata Kamsky in the FIDE/Topalov match saga, the board of the United States Chess Federation once again revealed its internal disunity. We received several “open emails” by different board members quibbling. The sanest person seems to be Kamsky himself, who requested “all USCF Board members to unite and find ways to make sure that justice and fairness will prevail.”
Read more

Bulgarian Chess Federation: “Mr Ilymzhinov, please inform us” (UPDATE)

On June 1st, FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov personally guaranteed the prize fund for the match Topalov-Kamsky scheduled, for November this year. Since then it has been quiet around this match – a bit too quiet, says Stefan Sergiev, President of the Bulgarian Chess Federation, in an open letter – its translation has been corrected now. Read more

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